Two instances of SunVox: audio outputs to different destinations?

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signality
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Joined: Tue Jul 12, 2016 5:12 pm

Two instances of SunVox: audio outputs to different destinations?

Post by signality »

For a live performance, I would like to have one audio output with all the sounds and processing to be sent to the mixing desk and a much simpler, individual instrument sound playing the same melody or rhythm that can be fed to a local foldback speaker on stage.

AFAIK, although there may be Output modules in MetaModules in SunVox, it is only possible to have a single live (not Exported) stereo pair audio output from the single top level Output module from SunVox. In other words it is not possible to have an audio output from the top level Output module and another from another Output module somewhere else in the same instance of SunvVox.

So to try to achieve this I am running two instances of SunVox on the same Linux PC. Both are controlled by the same MIDI keyboard and I would like the output of one to be routed out through a Behringer UMC404HD and the output of the other to be routed out either through the headphone socket or a second USB sound card (I have a UMC22 available).

Trying with the ALSA driver or a more complicated JACK setup described here:

https://www.warmplace.ru/forum/viewtopi ... ae0b58ded8

I can get either or both outputs routed to the UMC404HD or to the UMC22 or to the headphone socket but I have not managed to send each output to separate destinations.

I haven't found any topics relevant to this in the forum so...
  • Can anybody suggest a way to send each output to a separate destination?
Whilst considering an alternative solution of having two PCs running SunVox controlled by the same MIDI keyboard, a second question - applicable to both a single or a dual PC solution - arises:
  • Can anybody suggest how any patterns that may be being run on both instances of SunVox can be synchronised?
TIA.
signality
Posts: 38
Joined: Tue Jul 12, 2016 5:12 pm

Re: Two instances of SunVox: audio outputs to different destinations?

Post by signality »

Before posting the original request above I had found this thread which I had already tried:

https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=285772

and seemed to work with the pc headphone output and a Behringer UMC22. However I could not make it work with the UMC404HD and in fact found it hard to reliably set up again with the UMC22.

I have since made it work with the UMC404HD but there seem to be a specific set of steps required to do so. The most important one appears to be to not touch the Linux Mint Sound Preferences at any point when setting up pavucontrol.

When I formalised the steps, I'll post them back here to save anyone else the grief that this has caused me so far.

There's a second problem though that because of my requirement to use all 4 inputs if the UMC404HD (described in an earlier post), I will probably have to use JACK rather than ALSA so I'll probably have another trial to go through to make the outputs and the 4 inputs work...
eufex
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Re: Two instances of SunVox: audio outputs to different destinations?

Post by eufex »

Sunvox could do with having a raft of multi input output possibilities being added for a whole host of reasons. I’m sure it’s in the works. For now you have to run multiple Sunvox instances and depending on what you’re using them for (if you’re sequencing) you need to sync them via midi clock. Routing multiple Sunvox is easy on iOS: use Aum or Apematrix. On Linux use Jack. OnnWindiws you can use Jack or vac combined with midiloopback.
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Keres
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Re: Two instances of SunVox: audio outputs to different destinations?

Post by Keres »

famous last words "For a live performance..."

why don't you try saving them all as a metamodule, syncing their BPM's and open them up in a single session of Sunvox? Then you could just emulate your DJ mixer with a few MIDI control knobs.

my advice is when you have 6 copies of sunvox open and you didn't realize one of them can take 75% CPU and you start stuttering and crashing live in front of everyone is to pretend like it is part of the music.
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Keres
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Re: Two instances of SunVox: audio outputs to different destinations?

Post by Keres »

My experience with multiple sunvoxes is that your tracks need to be 100% finished. If you have to do any editing, all the MIDI and Jack connections go away. not only that, they all share config files and can cause huge temporal distortions of time and space when editing metamodules. I haven't tried this in 2.0, in fact i haven't even been using Jack in the past 2 years.

what i have done is just have a copy of sunvox open for some fade-between noises, and a copy open with like 3 metamodules of finished tracks that i can manually mix with the mouse. I have learned not to rely on MIDI, but just use it as an extra-on-the-fly thing. you need to have all your controllers set up in the metamodules. after you fade in and cue up a track you can close the second copy of sunvox. then you got like 20 minutes of stuff in one session. Then you have your other noise then you just go back and forth, but like i said i always close the other copy so that there are no CPU or config accidents. when you are playing live, keep it simple. just dropping mods with no fade is cool. it's a style of mixing in a way and just as much respected. when you add a ton of mixers and MIDI control and effects racks and extra synths and shit you just complicate things and fuck it all up. If you have some of those things, cool, but don't do anything live that you don't do every day, or you will just seem amateurish. Those things can be set up and like if you get bored in the middle of your regular set, you can mess around with them and have a good time.

I would try the Live distro of Ubuntu Studio. that thing is rock solid for setting up Audio. Also Jackal Pup is a puppy variant with jack pre-installed. I would test those soundcards with those. and you don't have to pave your current install.
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