i don't know about you but broken Linux audio has BEEN old news ever since i started using pipewire

I also really like how "Linux Studio Plugins" are standalone apps that you can run. I don't produce music or anything but I still use stuff like equalizers and spectrum analyzers. It is insane how flexible the "each app has inputs and outputs you can hook together" architecture is.

It's weird that parts of this approach have been around for a long time, but barely anyone can make them all work together out of the box.

Mac has AU Lab that can host AU apps, i.e. Apple's analog of VST, and feed system audio through them. Plugging any app into another is a bit more involved, though: there was the open-source Sunflower made like fifteen years ago, but bit rot gotten it, and another open-source clone doesn't work for some reason either — so paid apps are the best recourse, just like on Windows iirc.

Mac also has a feature where one can combine multiple audio inputs into one virtual input. A funny application of this is, if you put the mic into a virtual input and call it ‘Rocksmith Something Something Controller’, you can play guitar with Rocksmith without their special usb device.

Next stop: iOS has an audio bus for connecting apps together just like VST/AU on the desktop (actually I think it's very same Audio Unit stuff). Android has jackshit, and if you feel that audio latency could be lower, it'll spit in your face.

Pfff why not the sudo reboot now. That's much better /s

All i can say is, you have been a very lucky individual.

Then you didn't use your computer for much involving audio.

I 'member having to use a script to do software mixing of multiple audio streams in alsa, so I could listen to a music CD while playing WOW. Otherwise whichever thing started first would grab the audio device and the other thing couldn't use it. This would've been back in like 2006-7.

Never buy anything HP

My first experience with switching to Linux a few years ago was on an outdated, at the time, ~$400 HP laptop. Switching from Windows 10 to EndeavourOS, and everything just worked, including audio.

In fact, it still works great whenever I turn it on like a few times a year.

hp victus16 is working fine with wireplumber. never buy hp because the anti customer practices, terrible build quality and supporting israel with hardware.

the bluetooth pipewire pulseaudio mix could be a bit better.

It's gotten to the point that my bluetooth headphones will not connect to my laptop because I don't currently have any media playing.

Load up a youtube video, the audio device springs into life, offers it up as pulseaudio source, who signals to bluez that there is a valid audio profile and suddenly everything connects.

From an efficiency standpoint, yes I get it. From a UX standpoint... please just let my earphones connect when I enable bluetooth from the get go

Try to use a normal computer instead of trying to kick linux into a ATM.

I have been using Arch daily for 13+ years and I still don't have a proper grasp on audio and Bluetooth..

Used raw ALSA, JACK, PulseAudio, and now Pipewire. I had major issues with all of them except ALSA.

I managed to disable devices like my webcam mic and PS5 mic, and even added a noise reduction filter to my real mic that shows up as it's own device, but..

Only because the Arch wiki told me specifically how to do those things. Audio just luckily seems to work fine for the most part, currently. I used qpwgraph to play with wireplumber and it's obviously very powerful, but I have no idea how it works :D

Bluetooth is a different story, it seems to work differently on every single device I've worked on..

Yours too?

Try changing the audio codec in the hardware profile.

The dark days of fucking with xorg.conf files and ndiswrapper to get WiFi working are things I'm glad no longer exist.

It's mostly an old notion that just won't die. Especially in the years after its initial release (2004) it was just a disastrous experience sometimes with cracking noises, misconfigured sinks (or outright missing), crashes and - if I still remember one of my first Linux experiences with Ubuntu 8.04 right - the sudden decision to repeat the current audio buffer at maximum volume.

Ever since I came back to Linux on Desktop around 2017 I didn't had any bigger issues with Pulse either. Ever since Pipewire became the default stuff just works, no issues whatsoever.

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