Topic: Linux: ALSA exclusive mode

[elan]

Based on documentation, by default the Linux version opens the device in exclusive mode. I personally like this, but with a caveat—it would be great if BASS "let go" when paused for a while. We already detect this, and tried calling BASS_Pause, but apparently that isn't enough to close the ALSA device.

I assume you need BASS_Stop & BASS_Free for that, but I'm wondering if there's any reason BASS_Pause or BASS_Stop without the freeing doing do it (If we have to tear down the whole audio stack after being paused for a while it's a lot harder to get things started again vs pausing or stopping.)

Thanks!

[Ian @ un4seen]

Exclusive access is the standard ALSA mode of operation, with the "dmix" plugin and PulseAudio/PipeWire adding the ability to share a device. BASS doesn't currently totally release its ALSA resources until BASS_Free is called, so you would indeed probably need to call that. Doing that would also free any streams/etc that are using the device, but one way you could avoid that happening is by first moving them to the "No Sound" device via BASS_ChannelSetDevice. And then move them back again when you reinitialize the device.

[elan]

OK, cool, we'll make it work with BASS_Free, thanks very much for the quick reply!