So here’s something to prove that we are not dead

From now onwards, we will be posting any updates regarding audio packages that happen in the Arch Linux (semi-)official repositories.

Recent additions include:

* extra/slv2
* extra/libffado
* community/jack2
* community/jack2-dbus (split from jack2)
* community/ardourvst
* community/linuxsampler
* community/jsampler
* community/gigedit

That’s right, extra/ardour now has LV2 support and extra/jack is now built against libffado, needing it (optionally) to provide FireWire support. Without it, jackd will complain about the nonexistent library, but otherwise that’s not a problem for those without a FireWire device.

An interesting point to note is that jack2 is actually a build of both jackdbus and jackd, i.e it uses the “–classic” and “–dbus” flags together. This is due to the fact that a D-Bus-aware JACK can be useful for general-purpose multimedia (and of course for some niche audio tools that work with D-Bus), in particular PulseAudio. At the same time, the default binary is jackd, so the standard “professional” workflow is unaffected.

Unfortunately, D-Bus JACK control/monitor applications cannot be used with this combination, and so a dedicated D-Bus build is provided as jack2-dbus. Do note that a D-Bus-only JACK does not provide a jackd binary, but a jackdbus one instead. The standard workflow most users have become accustomed to will be broken in this case.

More information about this D-Bus business is on the JACK Wiki.

Another thing you might’ve noticed is that qsampler did not get a promotion like jsampler. This is simply because it fails to build.

Moving on, some not-so-recent additions that were previously housed here and you happen to be looking in the wrong place:

* community/patchage
* community/qtractor
* community/dssi-vst

Not really an addition, but extra/ecasound is now an improved package thanks to fellow Arch Linux pro-audio user Philipp “hollunder” Überbacher, informing us of more optional dependencies and subsequently the power of the program itself. Philipp has even begun writing a front-end in Lua (please do not ask; it’s unreleased).

We would also like to take this opportunity to let you know that our site is getting an overhaul soon (OK I know we are not that trustworthy when it comes to schedules but do expect it). Aside from that, our repositories will start to concentrate more on development/nightly/daily builds. We realise now that there is no need to worry about popular audio packages not being available for Arch Linux – anyone can nudge a Trusted User to take on a package from AUR. The situation is even better now as there’s been a number of new additions to the Arch Linux team in general.

Our internal repository management is going to be improved as well. Tools have been added and are being extended to make it easier for anyone to contribute. We are still lacking manpower, and we hope these tools will encourage potential contributors who are keen but afraid of a laborious workflow.

Til next time