Linux-audio-user February 2010

linux-audio-user@lists.linuxaudio.org

169 participants
129 discussions

by Brent Busby

I'm getting ready to buy a Sony VAIO VGN-NW330F/S laptop with an Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics chipset. I know many people have reported that the closed nVidia driver has at times been hell on realtime kernels. Is the Xorg driver for this recent Intel graphics chipset known to be a problem in any similar way to what has been seen with the nVidia driver? I have heard that Intel's recent integrated graphics chipsets are starting to have better graphics performance than before back when they were just for a functional display and not much more, but also I'd like it to behave with audio too. Or any thoughs on recent Sony laptops for Linux in general? -- + Brent A. Busby + "We've all heard that a million monkeys + UNIX Systems Admin + banging on a million typewriters will + University of Chicago + eventually reproduce the entire works of + Physical Sciences Div. + Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet, + James Franck Institute + we know this is not true." -Robert Wilensky

15 years, 4 months

more than 4 channels for listening? Really?

by Bearcat M. Sandor

Folks, I'm an audio lover that prefers smaller speakers in smaller spaces and i don't need/want 5-8 speakers in my listening space. I have found that i prefer the effect of vocals/sound effects that are mixed in center in stereo speakers, over a center channel. It sounds more natural and rounded to me. I would think that the same thing could be done in the rear speakers of course and also front to back by adjusting the front-back balance of sounds. Couldn't one create the sound of a fly moving through out a room simply by adjusting the balance of 4 speakers? If so why do we need more than 4 speakers? I have an audio system for which i'd like to set up 4 channels. I have 2 Anthony Gallo Acoustic Reference 3.1s and would like to swap them out for 4 Stradas and 4 subs (with some extra money of course). If i do that and play back a 5.1 or 7.1 movie soundtrack or music disc what am i going to not have vs a full 5 or 7 channel set up? Will things down-mix properly (using pulse audio for reference)? Bearcat M. Sandor

15 years, 4 months

Re: [LAU] 5.1 to ambisonices (was: more than 4 channels for listening? Really?)

by Martin Leese

Arnold Krille <arnold(a)arnoldarts.de> wrote: ... > My rational is that most (all?) 5.1 mixes are: music and action stuff on L+R > (front), dialogues on C, ambient and action effects on L+R(rear). > So my idea is to split the rear channels into six or more channels distributed > around the rear side of the circle (or even sphere) to have a more surrounding > feeling and overcome the hole in the panning. Multiple surround speakers fed with the same signal is what you hear in a cinema. Recreating that would therefore seem to be a useful path to go down. Regards, Martin -- Martin J Leese E-mail: martin.leese stanfordalumni.org Web: http://members.tripod.com/martin_leese/

15 years, 4 months

Replacing a M-Audio speaker part

by lanas

All, One of the M-Audio 4x4 tweeters unfortunately got a bump in it. It now makes a terrible sound on some frequencies. Anyone has ever replaced one of these ? Is it possible to get a replacement from M-Audio ? Thanks for any suggestions/ideas (apart from buying a new pair of speakers !)

15 years, 4 months

Re: [LAU] Quipping at people's equipment choices (was more than 4 channels for listening? Really?)

by Martin Leese

Gwenhwyfaer <gwenhwyfaer(a)gmail.com> > On 26/02/2010, david <gnome(a)hawaii.rr.com> wrote: >> Don't know about speakers, but I'm using a couple lengths of regular >> electric power cord to connect my amp and speakers. ;-) > > Didn't someone once do some tests and conclude that the absolute > zenith of amp/speaker cabling performance could be found in automobile > jump leads? More seriously, the general advice is to use 12 AWG power cord. Anything thinner and the resistance starts to increase. Anything thicker and the self inductance starts to increase. This assumes you do not wish to use speaker cables as a very expensive tone control. Regards, Martin -- Martin J Leese E-mail: martin.leese stanfordalumni.org Web: http://members.tripod.com/martin_leese/

15 years, 4 months

Fwd: Jack included in Main for Ubuntu Lucid Lynx

by Fritz Meissner

Received this reply direct to me - forwarding to list for general info. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Orcan Ogetbil <oget.fedora(a)gmail.com> Date: 28 February 2010 21:44 Subject: Re: [LAU] Jack included in Main for Ubuntu Lucid Lynx To: Fritz Meissner <meissner.fritz(a)gmail.com> On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 2:06 PM, Fritz Meissner wrote: > On 28 February 2010 20:56, rosea grammostola > wrote: >> On 2/28/10, Fritz Meissner wrote: >>> On 28 February 2010 20:29, rosea grammostola >>> wrote: >>>> >>>> On 2/28/10, Fritz Meissner <meissner.fritz(a)gmail.com> wrote: >>>> > I'm not sure if this is old news to others, but I just noticed that >>>> > jack has been approved for inclusion in main for Ubuntu Lucid Lynx; >>>> > this means that now PortAudio can be built with support for jack and >>>> > we hopefully will be able to have a distro that "just works" for >>>> >>>> PortAudio or Pulseaudio? >>>> >>> Sorry, I meant Pulseaudio, but Portaudio is also assisted by this; >>> there are a number of other benefits to, including making Firewire >>> devices accessible to audio packages without needing to recomplile >>> them. The Main Inclusion Report for jack at >>> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MainInclusionReportJACK summarises the >>> benefits nicely. >>> >>> Fritz >> >> Will it really be possible in lucid to let pulseaudio work with jack1 and jack2? >> Or are there still difficulties? >> > I'd be fascinated to know the answer to that one. It should be much > the same result as for someone who is at present running Pulseaudio > hand compiled with jack support, if anyone can report on their > results. My impression is that most people with problems have rather > removed PA than try to make it work with jack, so data may be scarce. > At Fedora, we have pulseaudio that is supposedly compiled with jack support for a while now. Since the pulseaudio is a Fedora driven software, I would assume that we should have the best pulseaudio support. However, still it doesn't work properly. I still tell our users it is best to get rid of pulseaudio if they want to do audio production. So, please don't raise your expectations. Pulseaudio is the same cra... uh, the same annoyance. Orcan

15 years, 4 months

Re: [LAU] ambiophonics vs. ambisonics?

by Martin Leese

"Bearcat M. Sandor" <hometheater(a)feline-soul.com> wrote: > On Fri, 2010-02-26 at 08:42 -0700, Martin Leese wrote: >> On Thu, 2010-02-25 at 22:42 -0700, Bearcat M. Sandor wrote: >> ... >> > Am i correct in my >> > understanding, that nothing can be utilized by ambisonic processing >> > during playback if the source material is only stereo? >> >> Nope. Domestic Ambisonic decoders have a >> Super Stereo mode for "decoding" stereo >> sources. They also include a stereo width >> control which allows the stereo image to be >> compressed to mono-like or expanded into a >> horseshoe around the listener. > > Wow. That looks really cool. I've only heard an ambiophonic system and > was impressed. > > If Super Stereo can recreate the sound that the mics originally heard, > what does ambiophonics do that ambisonics can't? If your mic was a stereo mic then nothing can recreate the original sound. There is not enough information. > Does ambisonics cancel cross talk as well (like ambiophonics does)? Ambisonics and Ambiophonics couldn't be more different. As Fons suggested, a toaster versus a lawn mower; which is better depends on whether you want to toast bread or to cut grass. > I'm assuming also that Super Stereo is not anything like the crappy DSP > modes that one found in cheap AC3 converters about 10 years back, > particularly on Sony equipment (Hall, Arena, Church) where bad reverb > was just added artificially, right? Super Stereo adds nothing to the stereo source. I must suggest that it is about time you started reading the numerous references people have given you. Nobody can do this for you. Regards, Martin -- Martin J Leese E-mail: martin.leese stanfordalumni.org Web: http://members.tripod.com/martin_leese/

15 years, 4 months

Terratec PHASE X24 Firewire

by Igor Brkic

Is anyone here using the sound card in the title? How it's working and are there any problems with it? I saw it is marked as fully supported on ffado site, but wanted to hear first hand experiences. Are all input and output ports available through Jack or there are some limitations? Regards! Igor

15 years, 4 months

XG Sound Generator Alternatives

by David Baron

I would love to upgrade my old PIII clunker. Apparently, all the better motherboards lack ISA slots nowadays. The older speakerphone modem I have in a slot can be cheaply replaced with a PCI version of the same ilk. My problem is my old Yamaha sw60xg sound card. This is a rusty, trusty MIDI sound generator with audio DSP (no audio interface to the computer). It can be made to work on anything using mpu401, no IRQ, no DMA, no problems. Can be controlled using the old XGedit run with WINE. Decent sounds and I have many mixes based on this. Yamaha's stuff is too proprietary, closed, for alsa support. Their sw100xg is still a fantastic PCI audio/MIDI card but no alsa support. The sw60xg did not need it. So what alternatives might I have. (A quad-core screamer might run virtual- instruments OK.) The same sounds are available on old serial port versions from Yamaha but there must be something better around in 2010!

15 years, 4 months

ambiophonics vs. ambisonics?

by Bearcat M. Sandor

Folks, In reading up on ambiophonics and ambisonics i've become a bit confused. What are are the main differences between the two? Is one generally preferred these days? It seems like you can use them both together, but what do they do differently and with what source material is each designed to be used? Bearcat

15 years, 4 months

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Linux-audio-user February 2010