Add ARM64 Support - Please

[jabney]

I've been running the NVIDIA Jetson Nano with Ubuntu and Ardour was available. And so far it works. It even allows X-Touch One to control things. Not saying it's perfect - for example Jack looks like it's working, but not really. Ubuntu is not my favorite distribution, but that's what the NVIDIA AI programs use, so until I get my mind around AI, I'll have to stay with Ubuntu. The Jetson Nano currently has one edition called 'developer kit' but there is a more expensive Jetson Nano coming later in June. And the 'developer kit' refers to the hosting board and there are at least two other hosting boards from another company. So please consider adding ARM64. Ardour has a working (unofficial) ARM64 edition and that's working pretty well. At least for simple sessions.

best, john

[mrskytown11]

Ya I definitely want Mixbus to have a ARM version but they told me that it’s not their main focus In other words.

My main concern is DSP usage, if they did I believe it would be best to have a updated 6-8 core ARM board so that we would have a better user experience with the Mixbus Engine. I still hope they do, if they don’t it’s fine because Ardour Version 6.0 is working pretty well on Arm boards and I will definitely create a system for it based on ARM CPUs,
Harrison if you are reading this please consider the possibility of that, I would like to see tests done too see how the DSP adds up.

I think a good testing maschine would be the raspberry pi 4


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[PBuryk]

I've been interested in an ARM based Mixbus release for some time as well.
The problem that I see is that current choices of SBCs (Single Board Computers) are still not "beefy" enough in, terms of CPU/RAM/Storage,
to handle "typical" demands of a DAW. However, SBC advancements are taking place at an impressing rate so I would imagine that would be viable architecture maybe later this/next year.
What can be done in the meantime...
I'm sure there are certain benchmark tests that Ardour/Harrison perform to gauge the performance of Mixbus as they advance its features.
What might be helpful is for them to make those tests available in stand-alone fashion so that those of use who have the time and curiosity can run them on whatever SBCs we would like to try out
and report our findings back to Ardour/Harrison. That should help them to decide what might be a worthwhile hardware choice to evaluate among all the available offerings and, in the meantime,
allow them to continue to focus on making Ardour/Mixbus better products.

[Ben@Harrison]

Personally, I am very interested in ARM/SBC/RPi etc.

However, many of our customers have purchased third-party plugins for mac/win and they expect to use them in their workflow.

Furthermore, most SBC's are not built for low-latency. (even if the cpu's seem to have plenty of power). The performance varies dramatically, and changes with every rev of the board. If we wanted to pursue a small, dedicated device then we would likely need to test a specific device and sell it as a package. Most SBC's are cheap enough that they'd hardly increase the cost over a pure software system.

I'm interested to know, though: how many of you can live without -any- commercial plugins, and use only the plugins provided inside Mixbus?

Best,
-Ben

[PBuryk]

Ben -
I'm only using the Mixbus-provided plugins now for, for both MB & MB32C.
I don't see that changing any time in the near future unless someone offers a plugin that XT, AVA or other MB provided plugins can't match and is dirt cheap.

Cheers!
Patrick

[mrskytown11]

I use Linux with Mixbus 32c I don’t use any windows vst plugins, ARM has some support for some commercial Linux plugins, Linux enough plus reaper has other features I like too if I only had arm such as reatune which is good for a vocal tuning and elastic audio feature, also traction daw is good for arm CPU’s as well. I’m tired of my installing commercial plugins, every time I needed to refresh my computer I had to spend like a whole day just installing plugins and dealing with keys and ilok, and authorization stuff it’s supper anoying, I even thought about using those plugins as inserts on my future ARM computer I’ll be making, wheither or not Mixbus is on board I’ll be using Ardour 6.0

My reasons for ARM
I wanted a low powered audio computer I can use in my home studio, I’m not saying it will replace my other computers but it’s a good start for me, in already using stuff plugins and programs that can work on it expect Mixbus,

Ardour 6 will have ARM
I think it had arm already but if you compile it yourself.

https://discourse.ardour.org/c/blog



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I've been interested in an ARM based Mixbus release for some time as well.
The problem that I see is that current choices of SBCs (Single Board Computers) are still not "beefy" enough in, terms of CPU/RAM/Storage,
to handle "typical" demands of a DAW. However, SBC advancements are taking place at an impressing rate so I would imagine that would be viable architecture maybe later this/next year.
What can be done in the meantime...
I'm sure there are certain benchmark tests that Ardour/Harrison perform to gauge the performance of Mixbus as they advance its features.
What might be helpful is for them to make those tests available in stand-alone fashion so that those of use who have the time and curiosity can run them on whatever SBCs we would like to try out
and report our findings back to Ardour/Harrison. That should help them to decide what might be a worthwhile hardware choice to evaluate among all the available offerings and, in the meantime,
allow them to continue to focus on making Ardour/Mixbus better products.

Have you seen all the boards, I think there’s boards that are good enough, some even have m.2 solid state drives, some have decent 6 core and even 8 cores, and I’ve seen decent ram such as 4GB which is good enough.


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[Jostein]

Personally, I am very interested in ARM/SBC/RPi etc.
.
.
I'm interested to know, though: how many of you can live without -any- commercial plugins, and use only the plugins provided inside Mixbus?

That will be hard, even when my goto plugins for mixing are the Harrison ones most of the time.

I also use U-he's Uhbik-A for reverb on almost every mix because I love the sound of it and I'm not willing to throw away U-he's Presswerk away either, using it only in every 5-10 mixes or so mostly for vocals.

And then we have the softsynths and sample players.

Maybe a poll or something will be better for you regarding this question?

[mrskytown11]

Personally, I am very interested in ARM/SBC/RPi etc.
.
.
I'm interested to know, though: how many of you can live without -any- commercial plugins, and use only the plugins provided inside Mixbus?

That will be hard, even when my goto plugins for mixing are the Harrison ones most of the time.

I also use U-he's Uhbik-A for reverb on almost every mix because I love the sound of it and I'm not willing to throw away U-he's Presswerk away either, using it only in every 5-10 mixes or so mostly for vocals.

And then we have the softsynths and sample players.

Maybe a poll or something will be better for you regarding this question?

I do believe it’s possible for those plugins to work on ARM but the developers have to make a choice, otherwise you would have to use them as inserts, however for me i still have my main setup with all the fancy proprietary plugins such as waves, slate digital, etc but I’ve been finding many alternatives in the Linux world, but I still need a few plugins for Linux such as vocal tuning and elastic audio, other then that I’m solid for now


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And one more thing I only plan to use ARM for mixing not production, my goal is to have a low powered mixing setup that doesn’t use too much energy and doesn’t overheat like my desktop does and also a machine with little to 0 fan noise.

I definitely find all those above really attractive in my eyes.


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[PBuryk]

mrskytown11 -

Yup! I've seen SBCs with M.2 support and 6 cores. As I commented, above, they're getting better practically every day.
However, I take a very hard-line position on RAM though and won't waste time on anything that has less than 8 GB. (My current computer has 32 GB.)

My use of SBC/ARM would be strictly for portable playback and "modest" mixing of smaller projects while "out of the studio". I have no plan to use it as a mobile recorder at this time.
For mobile recording I just bring out my current computer: Dell Precision m4600 w/ (4) i7 and 32GB RAM, running AVLinux. It's a solid setup and other than
a current issue that prevents me from using Harrison (and some other) plugins in GUI mode I have no complaints about it and little motivation to seek out "something better".
BTW... A current project I'm working with it: (10) songs, with 6-7 of them having up to (50) tracks to mix. No lagginess or other screen issues as reported in some current threads in this forum.

Cheers!
Patrick

[mrskytown11]

Wow 32gb, I could use that for video production lol. For mixing I’m fine with 4-8 GB ram. But I do appreciate your input. When you say up to 50 tracks, are you using Mixbus? If so regular or 32c also are you on Windows


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