At Tue, 10 Jul 2012 16:02:37 -0400, Paul Davis wrote: Well, that's how qjackctl sets it up. Perhaps that's a bug or enhancement request for qjackctl: to optimize the command line if -C and -P are the same. But I don't believe this is relevant to the problem at hand, which is preventing me from using my USB box. James -- James Harkins /// dewdrop world jamshark70(a)dewdrop-world.net http://www.dewdrop-world.net "Come said the Muse, Sing me a song no poet has yet chanted, Sing me the universal." -- Whitman blog: http://www.dewdrop-world.net/words audio clips: http://www.dewdrop-world.net/audio more audio: http://soundcloud.com/dewdrop_world/tracks

At Tue, 10 Jul 2012 16:17:47 -0400, Paul Davis wrote: OK, understand, but I also need to specify a merged ALSA device for playback in order to get 4 channels of output on the USB device. Not trying to be difficult, but ultimately I will need -Chw:1 -Pft4, where ft4 is defined in my .asoundrc. Not sure how to do it properly, if -C and -P are not the right way. Maybe merge the input channels into the ft4 device? I hesitate because it was rather painful sifting through .asoundrc examples online, and I don't recall seeing one that brought input and output together into one device -- usually they're output only. I've attached my .asoundrc for reference. Thanks! hjh -- James Harkins /// dewdrop world jamshark70(a)dewdrop-world.net http://www.dewdrop-world.net "Come said the Muse, Sing me a song no poet has yet chanted, Sing me the universal." -- Whitman blog: http://www.dewdrop-world.net/words audio clips: http://www.dewdrop-world.net/audio more audio: http://soundcloud.com/dewdrop_world/tracks

At Tue, 10 Jul 2012 16:25:42 -0400, Paul Davis wrote: I did read it, but I find it confusing. The example under "Linux" says that it's for two devices, both 2-in, 2-out. But the pcm.merge device lists only four bindings, which are either the four input channels, or the four output channels, or magically one binding represents one channel of both input and output. This device has 2-in, 4-out. So, if it's the last case (one binding represents duplex), then it isn't clear from the example how to have a non-duplex pair. But if the example shows output channels only, then it doesn't illustrate how to include the inputs. Again, I'm quite sorry if I'm being dense. I've just upgraded to Ubuntu 12.04 and I've had to spend rather more time than I wanted in the last two days, reinstalling and reconfiguring software. I'm now at a saturation point where I'm really exhausted with looking at this or that document and trying to suss out what examples really mean. I would be really, really grateful if somebody could modify the multiple_devices example to work for my card. I like DIY but at this point, I'm just tired. I sat down to work on some music. Two hours later, I'm still fighting with the soundcard (which, btw, was just fine yesterday). pcm.merge { type multi; slaves.a.pcm hw:0 slaves.a.channels 2; slaves.b.pcm hw:1 slaves.b.channels 2; bindings.0.slave a; bindings.0.channel 0; bindings.1.slave b; bindings.1.channel 0; bindings.2.slave a; bindings.2.channel 1; bindings.3.slave b; bindings.3.channel 1; } Thanks. James -- James Harkins /// dewdrop world jamshark70(a)dewdrop-world.net http://www.dewdrop-world.net "Come said the Muse, Sing me a song no poet has yet chanted, Sing me the universal." -- Whitman blog: http://www.dewdrop-world.net/words audio clips: http://www.dewdrop-world.net/audio more audio: http://soundcloud.com/dewdrop_world/tracks

At Tue, 10 Jul 2012 17:23:44 -0400, Paul Davis wrote: I upgraded my system on the recommendation of this mailing list, because of a kernel bug that prevents four channel output on my device in 10.04. I need four channels for a concert in a few months. So it's either upgrade or cancel the concert. Fair enough. Ubuntu Studio next time? In the meantime, maybe someone else could help me? I can understand if Paul is busy (who isn't?) but I'm either too worn out or not smart enough to figure out alsa all by myself. Now I have this: pcm.merge { type multi; slaves.a.pcm "hw:Pro,0"; slaves.a.channels 2; slaves.b.pcm "hw:Pro,1"; slaves.b.channels 2; bindings.0.slave a; bindings.0.channel 0; bindings.1.slave a; bindings.1.channel 1; bindings.2.slave b; bindings.2.channel 0; bindings.3.slave b; bindings.3.channel 1; } ctl.merge { type hw card 1 } And I get: Tue Jul 10 17:34:50 2012: JACK server starting in realtime mode with priority 70 Tue Jul 10 17:34:50 2012: ERROR: control open "merge" (No such file or directory) Tue Jul 10 17:34:50 2012: ERROR: control open "merge" (No such file or directory) Tue Jul 10 17:34:50 2012: ERROR: Failed to acquire device name : Audio-1 error : Cannot allocate memory Tue Jul 10 17:34:50 2012: ERROR: Audio device merge cannot be acquired... Tue Jul 10 17:34:50 2012: ERROR: Cannot initialize driver Tue Jul 10 17:34:50 2012: ERROR: JackServer::Open() failed with -1 Tue Jul 10 17:34:50 2012: ERROR: Failed to open server James -- James Harkins /// dewdrop world jamshark70(a)dewdrop-world.net http://www.dewdrop-world.net "Come said the Muse, Sing me a song no poet has yet chanted, Sing me the universal." -- Whitman blog: http://www.dewdrop-world.net/words audio clips: http://www.dewdrop-world.net/audio more audio: http://soundcloud.com/dewdrop_world/tracks

At Tue, 10 Jul 2012 17:54:34 -0400, James Harkins wrote: So, after a reboot, Jack can finally start again using the built-in hardware. Another user kindly suggested, off list, that I might need to kill jackdbus when changing the device. Maybe I'll just add that as a post-stop script. Of course that isn't ideal, but it seems pretty clear that something in the system is persisting the device selection in memory and refusing to look at later configuration changes. Let me start another thread for the .asoundrc configuration. I have an... interesting... set of requirements. I'm not sure those requirements can be met by creating a one-size-fits-all ALSA device and leaving the Jack configuration alone all the time. Another topic... James -- James Harkins /// dewdrop world jamshark70(a)dewdrop-world.net http://www.dewdrop-world.net "Come said the Muse, Sing me a song no poet has yet chanted, Sing me the universal." -- Whitman blog: http://www.dewdrop-world.net/words audio clips: http://www.dewdrop-world.net/audio more audio: http://soundcloud.com/dewdrop_world/tracks