[LAU] Record from M-Audio 2496 S/PDIF input

[Len Ovens]

On Mon, 4 Aug 2014, Ivan K wrote:

>   make the user that you are trying to run Jack under
>   a member of the "audio" group. (I am running Fedora 20
>   if that matters, maybe other distributions do not have
>   an "audio" group.

Ubuntu does not add users to audio by default as some other distros do, so 
it has to be done manually  :P  Hopefully this will change.

> HOWEVER ... I have lost some of my M-Audio cards
> functionality.  
>
> qjackctl's [Connect] window under the Audio tab
> USE TO DISPLAY THIS:
>
> On Sat, 2 Aug 2014, Ivan K wrote:
>>  
>> == ==   Readable Clients/Output Ports
>> == ==   - system
>> == ==     capture_1
>> == ==     capture_2
>>  
>> on the right, and then on the left, I see:
>>
>> == ==   Writable Clients/Input Ports
>> == ==   - system
>> == ==     playback_1
>> == ==     playback_2
>> == ==     playback_3
>> == ==     playback_4
>> == ==     playback_5
>> == ==     playback_6
>> == ==     playback_7
>> == ==     playback_8
>
> BUT NOW, since my problem with starting JACK up,
> the "Writable Clients/Input Ports" box is blank.
> I lost my eight "writeable ports" and I am presently
> working to get them back.  Any tips would be
> appreciated.

Have you tried to see if your s/pdif in works now? That looks like it 
"may" be hw:0,1 jack has been started with.

In qjackctl, setup screen, there is an "Interface:" box in the top(ish) 
right corner, beside that there is a ">". If you click on that, there 
should be a list of devices. Maybe give us a list of those. (full text)

> Incidentally, what do these eight playback connections
> represent.  The "M-Audio Audiophile 2496" only has
> three outputs, left and right analog and S/PDIF.
> And so do these playbacks 1 through 8 refer to some
> sort of mixing channels in the firmware of the
> Audiophile 2497?

The ice1712 has 8 analog outputs and 8 analog inputs as well as s/pdif in 
and out (and some other stuff) It does not monitor the outputs to see if a 
DAC is connected to them and so they all show up. The card manufacture 
chooses how much of this they will use. It seems there is enough 
communication from the ADCs that the chip can tell what is connected or 
not... or maybe the kernel module is more picky with the 2496 than with 
the d66. M-Audio may have added some glue logic that keeps this card from 
working just like the other delta series cards. It may be interesting to 
see if forcing the kernel module to see this as a delta1010 will give you 
full access. (including things that are not there.)

Normally with the ice1712 there should be 12 inputs (8 analog, s/pdif pair 
9 and 10 plus the multi-mixer outputs 11 and 12) and 10 outputs (8 analog 
and one s/pdif pair) In the case of the 2496, inputs 1,2,9,10 and outputs 
1,2,9,10 should be valid. However, it looks like the kernel driver is not 
set up that way. Channels 11 and 12 (inputs) should also be available as 
the output of the internal mixer and all outputs (10 of them) can be used 
as inputs to this intenal monitor mixer. (this sounds nice, but the 
reality is I have never used it  :)  as I have an external mixer already)

try adding a line to /etc/modprob.d/alsa-base.conf (this assumes a debian 
based distro... Ubuntu for example)

options snd_ice1712 delta1010
(or delta1010lt)
(from: 
https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/sound/alsa/ALSA-Configuration.txt 
)

See if jack then shows 12/10 i/o and your s/pdif audio shows up on input 9 
or 10.

>
> Oh my card is definitely the "M-Audio Audiophile 2496".  It says
> so on the box. And the commands aplay and arecord list the device as:
>
>   card 0: M2496 [M Audio Audiophile 24/96], device 0: ICE1712 multi [ICE1712 multi]
>   Subdevices: 1/1
>   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
>

Then the below should not work:

>> [...]
>> zita-a2j -d hw:0,1 -r 48000 -p 256 -n2 -c 2
>> alsa_in -j spdif -d hw:0,1 -r 48000 -p 256 -n 2 -c 2


--
Len Ovens
www.ovenwerks.net