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IDProjectCategoryView StatusLast Update
0009779ardourbugspublic2024-08-21 16:32
Reportermrmrrs Assigned To 
PrioritynormalSeverityminorReproducibilityalways
Status newResolutionopen 
PlatformGNUOSLinuxOS Version(any)
Product Version8.6 
Summary0009779: Metering Peak hold causes GUI to stutter
DescriptionIf any peak hold time other than "off" is set, GUI performance drastically drops (subjectively viewed, I dare to say single-digit FPS) during any kind of meter movements (editor mixer, track header meters, dedicated mixer (meterbridge was not tested)).
Steps To ReproduceStart a project or open any existing project. Set a peak hold time to either short, medium or long. Have any audio event occur (playing a virtual instrument, feeding in live input, samples/loops etc. on audio track...).
Additional InformationApparently, turning GPU acceleration on/off has no effect on performance, only the peak hold time setting. Ardour runs inside an Archlinux Distrobox (Docker image) on openSUSE Aeon (x86_64-v3). CPU is an AMD Ryzen 9 5900X and GPU a Sapphire AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT. According to GNOME settings, Aeon uses Wayland and somewhere else I read xwayland. Please, double-check and fix. Thanks in advance.
Tags8.6, Accessibility, broken, bug, display, Editor, Editor Mixer, freeze, GUI

Activities

x42

2024-08-20 16:17

administrator   ~0028938

If I had to guess it's likely do your abstractions (docker) and possibly xwayland.
The former also voids any realtime capabilities and is unsuitable for any pro-audio work. You will likely also experience dropouts and unaligned audio when recording overdubs.

I expect the official binary natively on openSuSe does not have this issue.

mrmrrs

2024-08-20 18:33

reporter   ~0028939

@x42 Thanks for your quick response. Now that you mention abstraction: I was able to reproduce the reported behavior with the Ardour Flatpak. But if the downside of containers is lack of peak hold, I shall accept it. Subjectively, so far, with Ardour in Distrobox the latency and dsp performance are the same as or better than on my previous Debian 12 installation with Ardour installed directly onto the base system (using the same hardware as I use now). To be fair, back then I was using jack2 alone instead of pipewire and other magic. MIDI recording works like a charm and audio is responsive as well, with only few xruns (if I use lots of tracks and dozens of plugins on each of them) and all of this while energy-saving mode in GNOME is active. I don't know, how exactly you made Ardour so efficient, but I love it. Thank you for that btw. :)

x42

2024-08-20 22:09

administrator   ~0028940

We do not support Ardour Flatpak. That is provided by a 3rd party. Please contact them about it.

x42

2024-08-20 22:14

administrator   ~0028941

Do I understand correctly that did not have this issue on the same hardware when you used debian? meters moved smoothly there with Ardour 8.6?

mrmrrs

2024-08-21 16:32

reporter   ~0028942

I'll let them know. As for the Archlinux build, I'll report to its maintainer as well. I can not recall, whether I used this option on Debian. But Ardour Debian package was at version 6.9 (nice) and I do remember experiencing occasional FPS-drops (when scrolling in editor or mixer window), to which I got used to, believing it was due to project size or GPU. It still happened, when I switched to openSUSE MicroOS (using Ardour 8.x (something earlier than 8.6) in an Archlinux Distrobox here, too), until I replaced the graphics card (an AMD Radeon R7 240 or 250, I believe). After installing the RX 7600 XT, overall GUI responsiveness improved a lot (in any program), continuing to be even better in openSUSE Aeon, after I upgraded from MicroOS.

Issue History

Date Modified Username Field Change
2024-08-20 16:05 mrmrrs New Issue
2024-08-20 16:05 mrmrrs Tag Attached: 8.6
2024-08-20 16:05 mrmrrs Tag Attached: Accessibility
2024-08-20 16:05 mrmrrs Tag Attached: broken
2024-08-20 16:05 mrmrrs Tag Attached: bug
2024-08-20 16:05 mrmrrs Tag Attached: display
2024-08-20 16:05 mrmrrs Tag Attached: Editor
2024-08-20 16:05 mrmrrs Tag Attached: Editor Mixer
2024-08-20 16:05 mrmrrs Tag Attached: freeze
2024-08-20 16:05 mrmrrs Tag Attached: GUI
2024-08-20 16:17 x42 Note Added: 0028938
2024-08-20 18:33 mrmrrs Note Added: 0028939
2024-08-20 22:09 x42 Note Added: 0028940
2024-08-20 22:14 x42 Note Added: 0028941
2024-08-21 16:32 mrmrrs Note Added: 0028942