[Request] Option to choose audio backend

[Barbaross93]

I was wondering if it would be possible to add an option to choose the audio backend? Currently it seems pulseaudio is hardcoded. It would be nice to choose between pulse or alsa.

[phisch]

@Barbarossa93 I think considering different audio backends is out of scope for giph. It's meant to be an easy to use abstraction over ffmpeg that is good enough for quick and short recordings. The more options are added, the closer it gets to mirror ffmpeg directly. And I want to avoid that.

Aside from that, do people really use systems with only alsa available? This seems really odd to me. I would really expect and sort of abstraction over alsa to make it usable.

If your recording requirements are more complex, then you might want to look into using ffmpeg directly, or even software like OBS.

[Barbaross93]

Thanks for considering @phisch.

Believe it or not, pulseaudio or some other abstraction over alsa is definitely not a requirement to get audio working or otherwise usable. In fact, alsa works out of the box for simple audio needs (e.g. it will load plugins such as dmix if the hardware is incapable of internally mixing). Many people assume that pulseaudio is a requirement when the reality of it is that it is not. Once alsa is properly configured it works just as great. Here's my asoundrc as an example. There's also asoundconf in the arch repos to get up and running easily with alsa if for whatever reason things don't work OOTB.

If giph is meant to be for quick and short recordings, why have an option for audio at all?

[phisch]

Oh no, I understand that alsa can do everything. Pulse is "just" an abstraction, so it can't do anything alsa can't by itself. But it is a lot more understandable and usable for a regular person.

If giph is meant to be for quick and short recordings, why have an option for audio at all?

I consider pulse to be on almost every system, it's relatively easy to enable using ffmpeg, and it can be useful for rudimentary quick recordings. If I recall correctly, it's a lot more involved when trying to get this done with alsa. But it's quite a while ago that I implemented it.

Having both will certainly complicate it too much for comfort.