This is the mew generation proaudio overlay. It is based on the old proaudio overlay on tuxfamily.org:
svn://svn.tuxfamily.org/svnroot/proaudio/proaudio/trunk/overlays/proaudio
You can find that new repository at https://github.com/domichel/proaudio-gentoo
We have several repositories we can use. The first one is the main tree (::gentoo).
The second one is audio-overlay at https://github.com/gentoo-audio/audio-overlay but it is outdated now (doesn't work well with the main tree) and looking for maintainers.
The third one is the overlay of decibel Linux at https://github.com/Gentoo-Music-and-Audio-Technology/gentoostudio but it also is outdated.
Another one is os-gentoo-overlay which provide LADI related stuffs for use on gentoo: https://github.com/LADI/os-gentoo-overlay
Last but not least is this one at https://github.com/domichel/proaudio-gentoo
That proaudio-gentoo overlay is the only one that provide a solution
to media-sound/ladish blocking media-sound/lash. Lash is
in the main tree and all the other audio related overlays
do have blockings in the form of variations of
lash? ( !media-sound/lash )
That imply they will block all the lash related software from
the main tree.
For pro audio on Linux, kernels patched with the rt-patch were heavily used in the past. This patch is provided by sys-kernel/rtsources, but for recent kernels and most pro-audio use cases, there is no need to use it anymore.The core PREEMPT_RT functionality has been merged into the mainline kernel and is available in all vanilla-based Gentoo kernels.
For a standard pro-audio workstation, the following configuration is sufficient:
General setup
---> Preemption Model ---> [*] Preemptible Kernel (Low-Latency Desktop)
And that will work fine for a pro-audio Gentoo workstation.
When even lower latency is required, you can enable full real-time preemption:
General setup
---> Preemption Model ---> [*] Preemptible Kernel (Low-Latency Desktop)
[*] Fully Preemptible kernel (Real-Time)
This will provide the lowest possible latency.
Note that PREEMPT_RT and RT_CGROUP_SCHED are mutually exclusive. This fix was introduced in 2012 in Linux 3.4.4-rt13. Work has been ongoing since then, and developers are working on a replacement for RT_CGROUP_SCHED with a more robust mechanism (look for the HCBS patchset and the OSPM submissions in 2025 and 2026 for more on this issue).
audio-overlay and proaudio-gentoo can be installed via eselect:
# eselect repository list
# eselect repository enable proaudio-gentoo
Proaudio-gentoo provide a fake media-sound/lash ebuild that install nothing but only depend on media-sound/ladish, That terrible hack solve these blockings. It also contain other ladish related ebuilds that doesn't conflict with the main tree lash ebuild. In order to take profit of that, a simple way is just to give proaudio-gentoo a higher piority than the main tree and the overlays with ladish blocking lash, as example in
# /etc/portage/repos.conf/eselect-repo.conf
[audio-overlay]
location = /var/db/repos/audio-overlay
sync-type = git
sync-uri = https://github.com/gentoo-mirror/audio-overlay.git
priority = 800
[GenCool]
location = /var/db/repos/GenCool
sync-type = git
sync-uri = https://github.com/domichel/GenCool.git
priority = 950
[proaudio-gentoo]
location = /var/db/repos/proaudio-gentoo
sync-type = git
sync-uri = https://github.com/domichel/proaudio-gentoo.git
priority = 900
Another solution is to give the overlays the priorities you want
based on any criteria You may choose, and to block ladish when
a blocking conflict exist with lash.
Use emerge -av ... to see which overlay provokes the conflict and,
as example, in /etc/portage/package.mask:
media-sound/ladish::ladi51
Amoung other goodies, proaudio-gentoo contain many ebuilds related to sound engineering.
As example the jkmeter and the new ebumeter which are the best tools of today to do the mastering. They was build from the ideas of Bob Katz, the best mastering expert in exercise. Visit his blog or read his book "Mastering Audio - the art and the science third edition". End of the pub, but trust me, to really master the process of digital recording and mastering, more technical knowledge is needed than with the analog technology, and Bob Katz master and explain every bit of it.
It is also an attic with working ebuilds (at the time of their import) from the original pro-audio overlay. I just don't have the time or the feeling to maintain them, or they are historical stuffs: https://github.com/domichel/proaudio-attic
Enjoy!
P.S.: It is a personnal overlay, GenCool, where I maintain a special version of the guitarix ebuild that install dk-builder, a tool that will be best used with some knowledge into electronics. Its main purpose is the development of guitarix and LV2 plugins. See https://github.com/domichel/GenCool.git