URGENT: ALSAfirewire Drivers Introduce 90ms delay - Linux is Unusable for Pro Audio
Dear maintainers,
Linux is being ridiculed in the professional audio community — not because it can't do low-latency audio, but because the ALSA FireWire stack actively breaks it. Professional gear costing thousands of dollars like Motu RME Focusrite etc. etc.
Since kernel 5.16+, FireWire audio devices are correctly detected and functional — but they are burdened with an artificial +90ms latency offset due to missing timing metadata (e.g., cycle-match delay, transmission latency) in the driver's interface to userspace.
PipeWire and WirePlumber rely on accurate latency reporting. When it's missing, they fall back to worst-case assumptions — adding ~90ms of delay. This is NOT a PipeWire bug. It is a FAILURE of the ALSA FireWire drivers to expose timing data that the hardware and firmware already provide.
This bug: - Renders high-end interfaces (RME, Focusrite, Tascam, Motu, Terratec) unusable for real-time monitoring - Forces users to hack WirePlumber with hardcoded quantum rules - Damages Linux's credibility in music production - Makes Linux a JOKE in studios worldwide
There is NO excuse for this in 2025.
We have workarounds (see: https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=274978), but they are fragile, device-specific, and do not scale.
We demand: 1. Immediate exposure of accurate device latency via ALSA control or hwdep interface 2. Proper reporting of transmission/cycle delay to userspace 3. A timeline for fixing this in mainline
This is not a "nice-to-have". It is a **critical defect** in a core multimedia subsystem now using pipewire as standard.
Linux can and must do better. Many are waiting to move to Linux, finally leaving windows.
— Martin Armsby (Martin A - maa) Professional Audio Producer / Linux Advocate
Please see: Imagine if Linux Audio just worked - Firewire https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=302305 and https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/pipewire/pipewire/-/issues/4785 Thank you for reading. -- Martin Armsby -- Martin Armsby
On 29 August 2025 11:33:33 CEST, "M. Armsby" m.armsby@gmx.de wrote:
Dear maintainers,
Linux is being ridiculed in the professional audio community — not because it can't do low-latency audio, but because the ALSA FireWire stack actively breaks it. Professional gear costing thousands of dollars like Motu RME Focusrite etc. etc.
Since kernel 5.16+, FireWire audio devices are correctly detected and functional — but they are burdened with an artificial +90ms latency offset due to missing timing metadata (e.g., cycle-match delay, transmission latency) in the driver's interface to userspace.
PipeWire and WirePlumber rely on accurate latency reporting. When it's missing, they fall back to worst-case assumptions — adding ~90ms of delay. This is NOT a PipeWire bug. It is a FAILURE of the ALSA FireWire drivers to expose timing data that the hardware and firmware already provide.
This bug:
- Renders high-end interfaces (RME, Focusrite, Tascam, Motu, Terratec) unusable for real-time monitoring
- Forces users to hack WirePlumber with hardcoded quantum rules
- Damages Linux's credibility in music production
- Makes Linux a JOKE in studios worldwide
There is NO excuse for this in 2025.
We have workarounds (see: https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=274978), but they are fragile, device-specific, and do not scale.
We demand:
- Immediate exposure of accurate device latency via ALSA control or hwdep interface
- Proper reporting of transmission/cycle delay to userspace
- A timeline for fixing this in mainline
This is not a "nice-to-have". It is a **critical defect** in a core multimedia subsystem now using pipewire as standard.
Linux can and must do better. Many are waiting to move to Linux, finally leaving windows.
— Martin Armsby (Martin A - maa) Professional Audio Producer / Linux Advocate
Please see: Imagine if Linux Audio just worked - Firewire https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=302305 and https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/pipewire/pipewire/-/issues/4785 Thank you for reading. -- Martin Armsby -- Martin Armsby
Sorry, a link error:
https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=274978
should be:
https://forum.cockos.com/showpost.php?p=2883715&postcount=50
Thanks -- Martin Armsby
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M. Armsby