Jcsound is a command line tool that enables Csound to function as a client for both JACK and ALSA sequencers.
I recently tried out jcsound, a command line software tool that serves as a wrapper for csound. One of the standout features of this tool is that it makes csound a jack and alsa-sequencer client, which can be incredibly useful for musicians and audio engineers.
One thing to note is that currently, jcsound is somewhat jack-transport aware. If the slave mode is set to 1, it will only play if the jack transport is rolling, otherwise it will play silence. Additionally, it will not reposition and will still quit at the end of the score. However, there is a workaround available. If you set the slave mode to 2, jcsound will reload the orc/sco if it has changed on the disk when you start the transport again. This can be incredibly helpful for minimizing errors.
Another option available is to set it to both modes by setting the slave mode to 3 (1+2). If you're interested in exploring these options, you can find more information by simply typing jcsound --help.
It's important to note that csound4 does not deal with event extending opcodes if you specify the "-t" flag. So, jcsound won't either. If you use midi input (-M), do not use the -t flag!
The -p option within jcsound may require a bit of explanation. Currently, csound does most of its memory assignment in the first audio buffer of its performance. This is the time it loads its function tables etc. To prevent potentially massive xruns, jcsound normally performs this first buffer in silence and discards the audio. This is perfectly acceptable for its intended use as a live (midi) instrument. However, if you have a score that you want to record into Ardour or another audio recording software, you can override this behavior by specifying the -p or --inprocess flag at the command line.
Finally, in terms of updates, the latest release has removed a wrong default flag when calling csoundlib, fixed an uninitialized variable, and fixed dirty output buffer. Overall, I found jcsound to be a powerful and user-friendly tool that can be incredibly useful for audio engineers and musicians.
One thing to note is that currently, jcsound is somewhat jack-transport aware. If the slave mode is set to 1, it will only play if the jack transport is rolling, otherwise it will play silence. Additionally, it will not reposition and will still quit at the end of the score. However, there is a workaround available. If you set the slave mode to 2, jcsound will reload the orc/sco if it has changed on the disk when you start the transport again. This can be incredibly helpful for minimizing errors.
Another option available is to set it to both modes by setting the slave mode to 3 (1+2). If you're interested in exploring these options, you can find more information by simply typing jcsound --help.
It's important to note that csound4 does not deal with event extending opcodes if you specify the "-t" flag. So, jcsound won't either. If you use midi input (-M), do not use the -t flag!
The -p option within jcsound may require a bit of explanation. Currently, csound does most of its memory assignment in the first audio buffer of its performance. This is the time it loads its function tables etc. To prevent potentially massive xruns, jcsound normally performs this first buffer in silence and discards the audio. This is perfectly acceptable for its intended use as a live (midi) instrument. However, if you have a score that you want to record into Ardour or another audio recording software, you can override this behavior by specifying the -p or --inprocess flag at the command line.
Finally, in terms of updates, the latest release has removed a wrong default flag when calling csoundlib, fixed an uninitialized variable, and fixed dirty output buffer. Overall, I found jcsound to be a powerful and user-friendly tool that can be incredibly useful for audio engineers and musicians.
What's New
Version 0.3: N/A