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Embedded Multichannel Linux Audiosystem for Musical Applications

Published: 23 August 2017 Publication History

Abstract

Due to the quickly growing performance and decreasing cost, embedded systems have become suitable for new application areas in recent years. Especially digital signal processing in the audio domain requires high computing performance to complete complex calculations in a fixed amount of time (i.e. real-time processing).
In this paper, a novel multichannel, low-latency Linux-based audio system is introduced. The driver architecture is described and an evaluation of the system is presented.
The development of the driver architecture includes ALSA device drivers, that use the ASoC layer, sound server settings, device tree overlays and capes, register maps, and real-time patches to the kernel.
The overall system has been evaluated, regarding technical sound quality and latency, to gauge its usefulness as a powerful new platform for audio development projects, such as embedded digital effect processors for musicians.

References

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R. H. Jack A. McPherson and G. Moro. 2016. Action-Sound Latency: Are Our Tools Fast Enough? NIME (2016). http://www.eecs.qmul.ac.uk/~andrewm/mcpherson_nime2016.pdf
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Broadcom Corporation. 2012. BCM2835 ARM Peripherals. (June 2012), 119 pages. https://github.com/raspberrypi/documentation
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Analog Devices. 2016. AD1938 Datasheet. (August 2016), 24 pages. http://www.analog.com/media/en/technical-documentation/data-sheets/AD1938.pdf
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Texas Instruments. 2011. AM335x and AMIC110 Sitara Processors Technical Reference Manual. (January 2011), 4647 pages. http://www.ti.com/lit/ug/spruh73o/spruh73o.pdf
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Takashi Iwai. 2002. Writing an ALSA Driver. http://www.ibr.cs.tu-bs.de/theses/kurtisi/NMP-EmbeddedClient/Abgabe/Quellen/writing-an-alsa-driver.pdf
[6]
A. McPherson JW. Topliss, V. Zappi. 2014. Latency Performance for Real-Time Audio on BeagleBone Black. Linux Audio Conference (2014). http://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/7205
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Walt Kester and inc Analog Devices. 2004. Analog-digital conversion. Analog Devices, Place of publication not identified. http://www.analog.com/en/education/education-library/data-conversion-handbook.html OCLC: 69252274.
[8]
A. McPherson and V. Zappi. 2015. An environment for submillisecondlatency audio and sensor processing on BeagleBone Black. AES 138th Convention (2015). http://www.eecs.qmul.ac.uk/~andrewm/mcpherson_aes2015.pdf
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A. McPherson R. H. Jack and T. Stockman. 2016. Effect of latency on performer interaction and subjective quality assessment of a digital musical instrument. Audio Mostly (2016). http://www.eecs.qmul.ac.uk/~andrewm/jack_am2016.pdf
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Philips Semiconductors. 1996. I2S bus specification. (June 1996). https://www.sparkfun.com/datasheets/BreakoutBoards/I2SBUS.pdf
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D. Wessel and M. Wright. 2002. Problems and Prospects for Intimate Musical Control of Computers. Computer Music Journal 26(3) (2002). https://muse.jhu.edu/article/7939

Cited By

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  • (2024)High-performance wide-band open-source system for acoustic stimulationHardwareX10.1016/j.ohx.2024.e0055519(e00555)Online publication date: Sep-2024
  • (2019)Smart Musical Instruments: Vision, Design Principles, and Future DirectionsIEEE Access10.1109/ACCESS.2018.28768917(8944-8963)Online publication date: 2019

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Published In

cover image ACM Other conferences
AM '17: Proceedings of the 12th International Audio Mostly Conference on Augmented and Participatory Sound and Music Experiences
August 2017
337 pages
ISBN:9781450353731
DOI:10.1145/3123514
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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  • Queen Mary, University of London

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 23 August 2017

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Author Tags

  1. ALSA
  2. BeagleBone Black
  3. Embedded Audio
  4. GNU/Linux
  5. Latency
  6. Multichannel Audio

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  • Refereed limited

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AM '17
AM '17: Audio Mostly 2017
August 23 - 26, 2017
London, United Kingdom

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AM '17 Paper Acceptance Rate 54 of 77 submissions, 70%;
Overall Acceptance Rate 177 of 275 submissions, 64%

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Cited By

View all
  • (2024)High-performance wide-band open-source system for acoustic stimulationHardwareX10.1016/j.ohx.2024.e0055519(e00555)Online publication date: Sep-2024
  • (2019)Smart Musical Instruments: Vision, Design Principles, and Future DirectionsIEEE Access10.1109/ACCESS.2018.28768917(8944-8963)Online publication date: 2019

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