[linux-audio-user] alsamixer and the audiophile 2496

[Juhan Leemet]

Eric Rz. wrote:
> If i'm not mistaken the 2496 is an ice1712 based card. You should use
> envy24control instead of alsamixer. Things will make much more sense. Be
> sure to check out the command line options available to limit the number
> of channels it displays.

Yes, I have one of those cards, too. Nice. Good quality audio. It is ice1712 
based and envy24control works fine. 

Hmm, I had a look for the command line options for envy24control in the man 
page. Couldn't find anything to adjust number of input channels displayed. 
That's with the alsa-tools-0.9.0rc6-53 that comes with SuSE 8.2. Maybe a 
later one adds them? My envy24control shows all 10 PCM input channels of the 
internal ice1712, even though the Audiophile-2496 only has 2 analog and SPDIF 
digital (2 channels) inputs from the outside world. I haven't explored all 
permutations and combinations of the panels.

Elsewhere, I've grumbled about the "lack of integration" between apps like 
audacity and xmms volume slider and the envy24control. The volume sliders on 
the apps are "dead". You MUST control the volume on the envy24control. Dunno 
if that's a permanent condition? ...likely to get fixed? how?

(...unless someone else has some more info and/or pointers for us?)

BTW, I think I also had a "lock up" problem when trying to change clock source 
between internal and SPDIF (back to internal?), using envy24control. I had to 
"kick it around" before the change would "take". I'm not sure if SPDIF stuff 
works, or is supported. I had other problems to fix, so I didn't pursue that 
any farther. Sorry. I have a Johnson J-Station (guitar amp modeler) which 
could provide SPDIF outputs, but I'm currently running its analog outputs 
through a Peavey RQ-200 6 channel mixer into the Audiophile-2496 analog PCM 1 
& 2 inputs. That works well enough, and I'm not desperate for more channels. 
Converting A/D/A/D doesn't seem that bad, but I haven't listened that 
closely. Good enough for the likes of me. I can put off wrestling with SPDIF 
for a (long?) while. The engineer in me likes to see everything work.

> envy24control comes in the alsa-tools package.

-- 
Juhan Leemet
Logicognosis, Inc.