A bash-script-based streaming audio system client controller for gstreamer

[hopkins]

Thanks - when can we try this ?

[hopkins]

Your project is quite interesting, and I do not see too many people inquiring about it, but I hope you will not be discouraged (it does not seem so)!

[CharlieLaub]

Thanks for your interest. I am currently re-organizing and writing the code. Then there must be a period of testing and listening as well as some commenting and code cleanup. It will probably be another month or more, but it's coming along.

[jplesset]

I am certainly watching. No current need, but possible future needs....

[CharlieLaub]

Originally Posted by CharlieLaub

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The good news is that I seem to have most everything working as I had envisioned. I tested out the input mixing, multiple channel streaming (well, at least more than 2 channels!), the LADSPA DSP plugins, etc. on multiple hardware platforms including the TinkerBoard and a Pi3 running Rapbian Stretch. These generally are running Gstramer version 1.10.4 or later. I will continue to do more testing and listening but so far it's looking very positive.

With that in the rear mirror I can move ahead with some ideas that would improve the flexibility of the program. Currently mixing is only done on the server side, and the LADSPA DSP crossover filtering is only done on the client side. It would be beneficial if all capabilities were available on both the server and client. Maybe you want to apply the DSP filtering on the server and then just stream the audio right to the client's DAC? Or perhaps you want to implement a DSP crossover on the "server" (where the audio source is located) without any streaming. I will figure out how to implement this during the next few days.

Check back here for additional updates and progress reports.

Quick update - have been making progress on merging channel mixing into the client side. After taking a hard look at the code and trying to figure out how to implement all the various ideas I came up with I decided to simplify things a little. To do this I have nixed processing of the audio on the server - instead audio inputs are streamed directly to clients "as-is". On the client side audio channels can be processed and routed using mixers, tees, and LADSPA-DSP.

I have the concept figured out and snippets of code written. I now will begin the process of integrating this code into the existing larger application followed by debugging and testing.

[DonVK]

Charlie, when you started this is was "bash script". Is it still the case, or is there lower level code or kernel mods?

[CharlieLaub]

Originally Posted by DonVK

Charlie, when you started this is was "bash script". Is it still the case, or is there lower level code or kernel mods?

I never mod the kernel. It's still run via a 1300+ line bash script. It's a real, bonafide application.

The previous version is still available for download here:
GSASysCon - A bash-script-based streaming audio system controller

[CharlieLaub]

UPDATE - I see light at the end of the programming tunnel!

After a lot of planning, and coding, and debugging over the past week I am happy to say the code is finally coming together. The hurdle of getting the script to function and to produce the correct gstreamer pipeline now seems to be overcome. There is still some ground to cover while the code is further tested, audio output listened to, things are cleaned up, and so on. This will probably take another couple of weeks on account of some travel plans, but so far this is very encouraging.

This new upgraded version of GSASysCon will replace my go-to audio filtering/crossover/processing tool, Ecasound. It can also serve as a software-based replacement for hardware IIR DSPs like the miniDSP, but with additional features like streaming, multiple clients, and centralization of code and crossover commands on the server-side. Hopefully this will gain some interest from the DIY loudspeaker community. Spread the word!

[cacao ambiance]

Congratulations on your progress!

[DonVK]

... and just when I started using ecasound, you've obsoleted it.

What's providing the LADSPA host for the plugins? and can other plugins be used?

P.S. thanks Charlie for the many previous trouble shooting posts on getting ecasound running. Too many to reference.