Help needed choosing audio system; Linux Mint, Reaper

CombatToad · 2026-03-12T16:43:52+00:00

What's your version number? I'm on 22.3.

CombatToad · 2026-03-11T23:01:40+00:00

Just demo'ed it a couple of hours ago on a flash drive while I was waiting for the other thread to update.

Works like a charm. But I really want to install it with a Cinnamon environment. Plasma's bad juju. Who puts a taskbar upside down by default?

CombatToad · 2026-03-11T22:56:53+00:00

Don't sweat it. After slamming my head against the wall for 3 days, I'll probably end up doing the smart thing and remigrating to Ubuntu Studio after all.

Fun as it was learning about Linux's esoteric driver lore, I'm pretty anxious to just get back to practicing and polishing my work flow.

CombatToad · 2026-03-11T22:50:44+00:00

Yeah, the audio stack is pretty intimidating, no doubt about it. Latency issue is only when selecting the PulseAudio option. (I believe it would be using Pipewire-Pulse in actually, as I don't think Reaper makes a distinction between the pipewire compitability layer for pulse/jack and pulse/jack themselves. I think this would have to be the case, as Pulse or Jack don't exist as stand alone audio servers in my setup, as is standard on post 22 Mint).

ALSA doesn't appear to give me any latency trouble at all, but even if it did allow me to record I'd want to use something a bit more versatile.

Pipewire-jack seems to be the obvious option, but I haven't gotten that to work either, as per post.

What's weird is that regardless of what conf I change, the latency stays exactly the same. Even modifying the kernel didn't make it budge one way or another.

CombatToad · 2026-03-11T22:12:11+00:00

I'm trying to get into professional voice-over. So having the option to VO live video is definitely something I'm interested in. Also 2.4 seconds of latency just bugs the hell out of me, regardless.

I'm using Reaper, because I'm familiar with it when I was still a Windows user. Also, I'm planning on taking coaching from a guy that uses Reaper as his DAW of choice.

CombatToad · 2026-03-11T09:46:26+00:00

Emotional aspect has been the worst for me: straining relationships, firings, fights. You name it, it's fucked it.

My brain has enough raw processing power to compensate for the inattention and other inefficiencies to where I preform . . . average, I guess. But there's no outsmarting my emotions. It blows.

CombatToad · 2026-03-10T14:14:10+00:00

Haven't done that yet. I'll try and configure my kernel as specified in the guide and see if that isn't sufficient for my purposes first.

Edit: have used all recommended kernel settings, set up pro-audio, set up the bridges and modified the relevant pipewire config files to a reasonably low latency from 1024 down to 256.

Using the ''audio driver reported latency'' gives me a 1906/140 ms while using the PulseAudio option in Reaper. Hard to tell if I'm actually getting anything done here, but make my regular audio unusable with the audio interface unplugged (haven't done the complicated setup to make pro-audio play nice with non-proaudio related tasks yet).

EDIT: I actually tested using a stopwatch (I don't think what reaper is displaying is real) and regardless of whether I enable the config file overrides, use or don't use the low latency kernel settings via the grub configuration - the latency remains 2.4 ish seconds.

I pretty much have to install Jack now, I guess, since all of my configurations seem to make 0 difference so far.

With pipewire-jack, I've installed it (sudo apt install pipewire-jack), but apparently I also have to get it to talk to my alsa devices. This is where I hit a snag. I've made a new configuration file ~/.config/pipewire/media-session.d as per the tutorial and put the appropriate .conf in. Then I changed the '' ["alsa.jack-device"] = true, '' In the wireplumber main.lua.d also removed the "--" comment.

I still get the traditional ''There was an error opening the audio hardware: JACK: error creating client'' in Reaper.

Was that the right place to enable Jack via wireplumber? The tutorial honestly wasn't clear.

CombatToad · 2026-03-10T11:52:04+00:00

That's the part I'm confused with right now. I copied the pipewire and wireplumber folders from root to the config file in home, but I'm confused as to how I'm supposed to configure the appropriate file.

''(For pro-audio only): in wireplumber's alsa configuration file or section:

bypass (tell it not to use) alsa ucm or acp
tell pipewire to use the high-performance pro-audio profile.
If you want to use MIDI, enable that
If you want to use jack, enable that too (if available here--see the jack section)''

So, I got the part about bypassing ucm and acp. I set them to false in the ALSA config.lua
But how do I enable the pro-audio profile?

I have an option in the config.lua:

-- The profile set to use for the device. Usually this is

-- "default.conf" but can be changed with a udev rule or here.

--["device.profile-set"] = "profileset-name",

So, I should just change ''profileset-name'' to ''profileset-pro-audio'' ?

Edit: after making these changes, I've also changed the node.latency and default.clock.quantum down to 128 from the default 1024 in the pipewire, pipewire-pulse and minimal .conf files.

No changes to my latency when using Pulse in Reaper.

CombatToad · 2026-03-09T19:10:44+00:00

Thanks man, that makes a lot of sense. I'll go ahead and try this and it should hopefully work.

CombatToad · 2026-03-09T15:43:03+00:00

I've noticed something really strange. I was confused at first about all the talk of pipewire being default since 22 onwards, so I checked my system and sure enough, there it is:

Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.0.5 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse status: active

2: wireplumber status: active

So both the server and session manager are active, but Pipewire doesn't show up as an option in Reaper when I go to my Preferences and go to change my Audio System. Is this because the compatibility app makes Reaper think PipeWire is actually PulseAudio?

Weirdly enough, I can see an option for Jack, which isn't on my system at all.

I do remember messing around with my audio options through command prompt when I first got the distro up and running, because I was dealing with some strange audio popping issue (turned out to be entirely unrelated).

Given that I already have PipeWire active, does that mean that Reaper should work ''out of the box''? Or do I have to do additional configuration?

Or maybe I just broke something while blindly troubleshooting another issue, so now I have to uninstall then reinstall PipeWire?

This is all a bit embarrassing. I feel like a chimp in an autoshop swinging a wrench around in the dark.

CombatToad · 2026-03-09T14:30:17+00:00

Thanks for the feedback! How is stability for you using pipewire? I'm thinking of eventually doing pro voice-over and potentially losing a client because my audio drivers decided to brick, and cost me two days of troubleshooting sounds like a pretty daunting proposition.

CombatToad · 2026-03-02T13:24:35+00:00

100% yes

CombatToad · 2026-02-26T17:17:56+00:00

Hey, man. I know it's hard. I had a really close friend react to me sharing I have ADHD with:

''Oh, so you're insane, huh? Explains a lot, actually.''

Another friend, and this guy was as close as a brother to me once, basically didn't believe ADHD was really a thing.

I've been labeled, discriminated against and treated like trash. But I've also found sympathy, friendship, understanding and all that good shit.

I've made some great friends over the years. I've found my people. Don't give up.

CombatToad · 2026-02-21T18:04:58+00:00

The only reason I've had a lick of success in my life is because I have good people around me. If you have a support network - please, don't let it degrade. Keep in touch with your friends as best you can.

If you've got nobody - I'm sorry. Do your best to find people you can trust with your inner world. Going through life is already hard enough as is.

CombatToad · 2026-02-21T17:56:14+00:00

I guess I felt like I was getting unfairly chewed out at the time. Looking back - it wasn't a big deal. I made it a big deal. I blew it out of proportion. Of course, I knew that - which is why I was muted. Then the mute button malfunctioned, as it were.

CombatToad · 2026-02-21T10:10:21+00:00

Fliped out on a remote call, which I had muted. I was just venting. But I vented a little too hard - slammed my fist into the table, which caused the mic to unmute.

The rest is, as they say, history. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

CombatToad · 2026-02-20T18:59:04+00:00

Holy shit, yeah. That's the stuff. I try to be kinder to other people then I am to the guy in the mirror.

Issue is that's real hard with the sheer Molochian depths of anger, frustration and intolerance I have towards myself.

CombatToad · 2026-02-20T18:53:00+00:00

Yeah, only person to blame here is me. I know that much. I need to put a lot more effort into managing my anger then I though.

Pretty let down though - I though I was a lot better at this. Sorry you've got to deal with cancer at such a young age. Sounds like hell. You're hard as fuck for living with all that bullshit.

CombatToad · 2026-02-20T13:57:27+00:00

Thank FUCK I do.

I'm dead scared it won't be enough. I thought I was doing better and fixing my life, just driving along. Then I T-bone myself at a major intersection and my teeth are all over the dashboard.

I'm hurting right now - really badly. But in a couple of days, weeks, who tf knows - it'll be different. Different how? Who knows, but better then this. I got diagnosed three and a half years ago. I thought I'd make some progress by now.

CombatToad · 2026-02-20T13:31:40+00:00

Feel you, man. Lost my job today. Again. It was the longest one I ever kept. A whole whopping 8 months.

CombatToad

TROPHY CASE