22 Aug
2004
22 Aug
'04
3:07 a.m.
My main interest at present is in making archival recordings of
material that I originally recorded on audio cassette. My system
currently contains a C-Media CM8738 controller as part of the Asus
system board, which is recognized by Alsa. I assume that for quality
results I will need better sound hardware. I asked this question of a
local user's group last year and was informed that the M-Audio Delta
66 is of high quality and has good Alsa support. It was further suggested
that one of the USB A/D converters could be useful as it would also
work on a laptop.
Taking into account price, performance and driver support, what
options do you think I should consider?
To connect to a cassette tape recorder is it sufficient to run a cable
from its audio output to the input of the sound card, or is an audio
isolation transformer also necessary (not sure where one would acquire
this but I have heard that they are sometimes needed)?
There are informative reviews at http://www.linuxhardware.org/ but
they focus mainly on playback functionality rather than recording.
Any suggestions for a newcomer to the field would be most welcome.
Jason.
22 Aug
22 Aug
5:11 a.m.
if you only need to record a stereo source, the audiophile should work just fine. the
audiophile and the entire delta series (44, 66, 1010) all share the same chipset; the
difference is the number of channels they can record at once. I have an audiophile and am
very pleased with it (quality of sound and support). i think a lot of your choice will
boil down to how much you want to spend. As to the isolators... that's out of my
league, i'll let someone else answer that one. =)
--Andrew
On Sun, 22 Aug 2004 16:51:22 +1000
Jason White <jasonjgw(a)pacific.net.au> wrote:
My main interest at present is in making archival
recordings of
material that I originally recorded on audio cassette. My system
currently contains a C-Media CM8738 controller as part of the Asus
system board, which is recognized by Alsa. I assume that for quality
results I will need better sound hardware. I asked this question of a
local user's group last year and was informed that the M-Audio Delta
66 is of high quality and has good Alsa support. It was further suggested
that one of the USB A/D converters could be useful as it would also
work on a laptop.
Taking into account price, performance and driver support, what
options do you think I should consider?
To connect to a cassette tape recorder is it sufficient to run a cable
from its audio output to the input of the sound card, or is an audio
isolation transformer also necessary (not sure where one would acquire
this but I have heard that they are sometimes needed)?
There are informative reviews at http://www.linuxhardware.org/ but
they focus mainly on playback functionality rather than recording.
Any suggestions for a newcomer to the field would be most welcome.
Jason.
6:35 a.m.
Hallo,
Jason White hat gesagt: // Jason White wrote:
My main interest at present is in making archival
recordings of
material that I originally recorded on audio cassette. My system
currently contains a C-Media CM8738 controller as part of the Asus
system board, which is recognized by Alsa. I assume that for quality
results I will need better sound hardware.
Not necessarily. Cassette tape is not exactly high end material. I
don't think, your recordings will suffer much by recording them with
the onboard card. But I don't know that special board and chip
combination, so I would recommend you just try it out.
If you're not afraid of a command line application, I highly recommend
ecasound for recordings. With the cute "ecasignalview" you can check
the recording levels, tune them with alsamixer, then just use:
$ ecasound -i alsa,hw:0 -o recording.wav
to record from the first card.
I asked this question of a local user's group last
year and was
informed that the M-Audio Delta 66 is of high quality and has good
Alsa support.
The 66 probably indeed is overkill for your task. I'd second the
suggestion of a cheaper stereo card based on the ICE1712 chipset, as
the Audiophile or some Terratec or Hoontech cards. There are a lot of
them.
It was further suggested that one of the USB A/D
converters could be
useful as it would also work on a laptop.
I'd only recommend USB for a Laptop. PCI is much easier to set up and
works more reliable. You also get "more bang for the buck" with PCI
cards, as USB cards tend to be a little bit overpriced. But if you're
on a budget and need one card for both laptop and stationary machine
(or if you hate screwdrivers), then USB is fine as well. It provides
enough bandwidth for high quality stereo recordings.
To connect to a cassette tape recorder is it
sufficient to run a cable
from its audio output to the input of the sound card, or is an audio
isolation transformer also necessary (not sure where one would acquire
this but I have heard that they are sometimes needed)?
Isolation is only necessary if you run into a ground loop: a buzzing
sound when both tape and PC are connected to the power line. You
should be able to directly connect the tape to your soundcard,
provided is has line-level inputs (most cards do). Personally I just
connected my computer to the monitoring Tape2 input/output of my hifi
amplifier, so I can also record from a vinyl record player if I want
to. (You cannot directly connect a record player to most soundcards
because of RIAA distortion, you need a real phono input.)
Ciao
--
Frank Barknecht _ ______footils.org__
2:49 p.m.
On Sunday 22 August 2004 06:18 am, Frank Barknecht wrote:
Hallo,
Jason White hat gesagt: // Jason White wrote:
That'll only happen on 2 different circuits with different ground potential.
Buy a ground tester for a couple bucks at the hardware store and tap all
your power off the same outlet. Much cheaper than an isolation transformer.
You really don't even need the ground tester unless you're worried about
getting electrocuted (like a playing situation).
Although, if you have a lot of equipment, an IT might be worth the investment
as the mother of all surge suppressors.
My main interest at present is in making archival
recordings of
material that I originally recorded on audio cassette. My system
currently contains a C-Media CM8738 controller as part of the Asus
system board, which is recognized by Alsa. I assume that for quality
results I will need better sound hardware.
Not necessarily. Cassette tape is not exactly high end material. I
don't think, your recordings will suffer much by recording them with
the onboard card. But I don't know that special board and chip
combination, so I would recommend you just try it out.
If you're not afraid of a command line application, I highly recommend
ecasound for recordings. With the cute "ecasignalview" you can check
the recording levels, tune them with alsamixer, then just use:
$ ecasound -i alsa,hw:0 -o recording.wav
to record from the first card.
I asked this question of a local user's group
last year and was
informed that the M-Audio Delta 66 is of high quality and has good
Alsa support.
The 66 probably indeed is overkill for your task. I'd second the
suggestion of a cheaper stereo card based on the ICE1712 chipset, as
the Audiophile or some Terratec or Hoontech cards. There are a lot of
them.
It was further suggested that one of the USB A/D
converters could be
useful as it would also work on a laptop.
I'd only recommend USB for a Laptop. PCI is much easier to set up and
works more reliable. You also get "more bang for the buck" with PCI
cards, as USB cards tend to be a little bit overpriced. But if you're
on a budget and need one card for both laptop and stationary machine
(or if you hate screwdrivers), then USB is fine as well. It provides
enough bandwidth for high quality stereo recordings.
To connect to a cassette tape recorder is it
sufficient to run a cable
from its audio output to the input of the sound card, or is an audio
isolation transformer also necessary (not sure where one would acquire
this but I have heard that they are sometimes needed)?
Isolation is only necessary if you run into a ground loop: a buzzing
sound when both tape and PC are connected to the power line. You should be able to directly connect the tape to your
soundcard,
provided is has line-level inputs (most cards do). Personally I just
connected my computer to the monitoring Tape2 input/output of my hifi
amplifier, so I can also record from a vinyl record player if I want
to. (You cannot directly connect a record player to most soundcards
because of RIAA distortion, you need a real phono input.)
Actually, to use a phono level signal into regular line inputs you can use a
matching transformer or a preamp
Ciao
3:33 p.m.
Hallo,
John Check hat gesagt: // John Check wrote:
The problem with records is not levels, but the RIAA distortion. You
need a device which can adapt to this. There are special preamps for
this, some cards like the Terratec Phase26 USB has them built in,
normaly hifi amps have them (the input labeled "PHONO" most of the
time), but most soundcards do not have them.
Ciao
--
Frank Barknecht _ ______footils.org__
On Sunday 22 August 2004 06:18 am, Frank Barknecht
wrote:
should be able
to directly connect the tape to your soundcard,
provided is has line-level inputs (most cards do). Personally I just
connected my computer to the monitoring Tape2 input/output of my hifi
amplifier, so I can also record from a vinyl record player if I want
to. (You cannot directly connect a record player to most soundcards
because of RIAA distortion, you need a real phono input.)
Actually, to use a phono level signal into regular line inputs you can use a
matching transformer or a preamp
23 Aug
23 Aug
2:12 a.m.
On Sunday 22 August 2004 03:17 pm, Frank Barknecht wrote:
Hallo,
John Check hat gesagt: // John Check wrote:
Good to know. I was thinking back to trying to put a magnetic cartridge
Gerard into an 80's receiver. Didn't realize the response curve was diddled.
On Sunday 22 August 2004 06:18 am, Frank
Barknecht wrote:
The problem with records is not levels, but the RIAA distortion. You should be able to directly connect the tape to
your soundcard,
provided is has line-level inputs (most cards do). Personally I just
connected my computer to the monitoring Tape2 input/output of my hifi
amplifier, so I can also record from a vinyl record player if I want
to. (You cannot directly connect a record player to most soundcards
because of RIAA distortion, you need a real phono input.)
Actually, to use a phono level signal into regular line inputs you can
use a matching transformer or a preamp need a device which can adapt to this. There are
special preamps for
this, some cards like the Terratec Phase26 USB has them built in,
normaly hifi amps have them (the input labeled "PHONO" most of the
time), but most soundcards do not have them.
Ciao
4:08 a.m.
On Sun, Aug 22, 2004 at 09:17:23PM +0200, Frank Barknecht wrote:
The problem with records is not levels, but the RIAA distortion. You
need a device which can adapt to this. There are special preamps for
this, some cards like the Terratec Phase26 USB has them built in,
normaly hifi amps have them (the input labeled "PHONO" most of the
time), but most soundcards do not have them.
Jan Depner has made a JAMin config file that undoes the RIAA curve, its
shipped with the latest tarball IIRC.
- Steve
should be able to directly connect the tape to your
soundcard,
provided is has line-level inputs (most cards do). Personally I just
connected my computer to the monitoring Tape2 input/output of my hifi
amplifier, so I can also record from a vinyl record player if I want
to. (You cannot directly connect a record player to most soundcards
because of RIAA distortion, you need a real phono input.)
Actually, to use a phono level signal into regular line inputs you can use a
matching transformer or a preamp
4:18 a.m.
New subject: [linux-audio-user] RIAA curve [was: Hardware recommendations ...]
Hallo,
Steve Harris hat gesagt: // Steve Harris wrote:
On Sun, Aug 22, 2004 at 09:17:23PM +0200, Frank
Barknecht wrote:
Interesting. What would you think this is quality-wise? Would it
suffice to do "hi-fi" recordings of LPs through the standard line
inputs, or would a hardware solution still be better?
Ciao
--
Frank Barknecht _ ______footils.org__
The problem with records is not levels, but the
RIAA distortion. You
need a device which can adapt to this. There are special preamps for
this, some cards like the Terratec Phase26 USB has them built in,
normaly hifi amps have them (the input labeled "PHONO" most of the
time), but most soundcards do not have them.
Jan Depner has made a JAMin config file that undoes the RIAA curve, its
shipped with the latest tarball IIRC.
5:21 a.m.
New subject: [linux-audio-user] RIAA curve [was: Hardware recommendations ...]
On Mon, Aug 23, 2004 at 10:02:03 +0200, Frank Barknecht wrote:
Hallo,
Steve Harris hat gesagt: // Steve Harris wrote:
It should be OK, I plan to test it against a hardware preamp when I get
round to digitising my vinyl.
As long as your soundcard/AD converters are good enough to pick up all the
bits it needs the quality should be good and there should be less noise.
- Steve
On Sun, Aug 22, 2004 at 09:17:23PM +0200, Frank
Barknecht wrote:
Interesting. What would you think this is quality-wise? Would it
suffice to do "hi-fi" recordings of LPs through the standard line
inputs, or would a hardware solution still be better? The problem with records is not levels, but the
RIAA distortion. You
need a device which can adapt to this. There are special preamps for
this, some cards like the Terratec Phase26 USB has them built in,
normaly hifi amps have them (the input labeled "PHONO" most of the
time), but most soundcards do not have them.
Jan Depner has made a JAMin config file that undoes the RIAA curve, its
shipped with the latest tarball IIRC. 
4:30 p.m.
New subject: [linux-audio-user] RIAA curve [was: Hardware recommendations ...]
On Mon, 2004-08-23 at 03:02, Frank Barknecht wrote:
Hallo,
Steve Harris hat gesagt: // Steve Harris wrote:
It would depend on whether your non-RIAA preamp was "flat". The RIAA
preamps have very few inflection points in the curve. I used the
standard points and then let the spline do the intervening points. It
works very well for me. Now, if I'd just been a bit more careful with
my big black CDs, when I was a kid... ;-)
Jan
On Sun, Aug 22, 2004 at 09:17:23PM +0200, Frank
Barknecht wrote:
Interesting. What would you think this is quality-wise? Would it
suffice to do "hi-fi" recordings of LPs through the standard line
inputs, or would a hardware solution still be better?
The problem with records is not levels, but the
RIAA distortion. You
need a device which can adapt to this. There are special preamps for
this, some cards like the Terratec Phase26 USB has them built in,
normaly hifi amps have them (the input labeled "PHONO" most of the
time), but most soundcards do not have them.
Jan Depner has made a JAMin config file that undoes the RIAA curve, its
shipped with the latest tarball IIRC.
7:49 p.m.
On Monday 23 August 2004 03:52 am, Steve Harris wrote:
On Sun, Aug 22, 2004 at 09:17:23PM +0200, Frank
Barknecht wrote:
The problem with records is not levels, but the RIAA distortion. You
need a device which can adapt to this. There are special preamps for
this, some cards like the Terratec Phase26 USB has them built in,
normaly hifi amps have them (the input labeled "PHONO" most of the
time), but most soundcards do not have them.
Jan Depner has made a JAMin config file that undoes the RIAA curve, its
shipped with the latest tarball IIRC.
Nice. A DBX decoder would be useful too.
should be able to directly connect the tape to your
soundcard,
provided is has line-level inputs (most cards do). Personally I just
connected my computer to the monitoring Tape2 input/output of my hifi
amplifier, so I can also record from a vinyl record player if I want
to. (You cannot directly connect a record player to most soundcards
because of RIAA distortion, you need a real phono input.)
Actually, to use a phono level signal into regular line inputs you can
use a matching transformer or a preamp - Steve
22 Aug
22 Aug
8:54 p.m.
Thanks to everyone who replied to my query. The information you
provided is most helpful.
I shall definitely try ecasound; I work entirely in text mode for
accessibility reasons and thus a good command line recording
application would be ideal.
23 Aug
23 Aug
3:22 a.m.
Frank Barknecht writes:
Not necessarily. Cassette tape is not exactly high end material. I
don't think, your recordings will suffer much by recording them with
the onboard card. But I don't know that special board and chip
combination, so I would recommend you just try it out.
I'm not familiar with the capabilities of the chip either. Neither is
it obvious how to interpret the following:
arecord -l
**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
card 0: CMI8738MC6 [C-Media PCI CMI8738-MC6], device 0: CMI8738-MC6 [C-Media PCI DAC/ADC]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: CMI8738MC6 [C-Media PCI CMI8738-MC6], device 2: CMI8738-MC6 [C-Media PCI IEC958]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
If I run amixer I get the following. Without knowing the capabilities
of the chip it isn't clear what all the settings do. Is there a good HOWTO
guide or tutorial available? Some are obvious, e.g., master volume,
but others are not. I checked amixer(1) but it doesn't describe the
options or define the terminology used.
Simple mixer control 'Master',0
Capabilities: pvolume
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 31
Front Left: Playback 28 [90%]
Front Right: Playback 28 [90%]
Simple mixer control '3D Control - Switch',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'PCM',0
Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined cswitch
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 31
Front Left: Playback 24 [77%] [on] Capture [off]
Front Right: Playback 24 [77%] [on] Capture [off]
Simple mixer control 'Synth',0
Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined cswitch
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 31
Front Left: Playback 24 [77%] [on] Capture [off]
Front Right: Playback 24 [77%] [on] Capture [off]
Simple mixer control 'Line',0
Capabilities: pvolume pswitch cswitch
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 31
Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [off] Capture [off]
Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [off] Capture [off]
Simple mixer control 'Line-In As Bass',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'Line-In As Rear',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'CD',0
Capabilities: pvolume pswitch cswitch
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 31
Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [off] Capture [off]
Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [off] Capture [off]
Simple mixer control 'Mic',0
Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined cvolume pswitch pswitch-joined cswitch
cswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Capture channels: Mono
Limits: Playback 0 - 31 Capture 0 - 7
Mono: Playback 0 [0%] [off] Capture 0 [0%] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Mic As Center/LFE',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'Mic Boost',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 5V',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 Copyright',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 In Monitor',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 In Phase Inverse',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 In Select',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 In Valid',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 Loop',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 Output',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'PC Speaker',0
Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Limits: Playback 0 - 3
Mono: Playback 2 [67%]
Simple mixer control 'Aux',0
Capabilities: pvolume pswitch cswitch
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 15
Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [off] Capture [off]
Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [off] Capture [off]
Simple mixer control 'Four Channel Mode',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [on]
3:41 a.m.
New subject: [linux-audio-user] Hardware recommendations for recording under kernel 2.6/Alsa
You can find this chipset in quite a few cheap sound ( not audio cards )
I use one for music playback in a shop, I wouldn't use it for anything
more than that. Its on par with a soundblaster / onboard motherboard
sound solution
On Mon, 2004-08-23 at 15:06, Jason White wrote:
Frank Barknecht writes:
--
Alexander MacLennan
PhD Student
Curtin University of Technology
+61 8 9266 2129
Not necessarily. Cassette tape is not exactly high end material. I
don't think, your recordings will suffer much by recording them with
the onboard card. But I don't know that special board and chip
combination, so I would recommend you just try it out.
I'm not familiar with the capabilities of the chip either. Neither is
it obvious how to interpret the following:
arecord -l
**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
card 0: CMI8738MC6 [C-Media PCI CMI8738-MC6], device 0: CMI8738-MC6 [C-Media PCI
DAC/ADC]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: CMI8738MC6 [C-Media PCI CMI8738-MC6], device 2: CMI8738-MC6 [C-Media PCI IEC958]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
If I run amixer I get the following. Without knowing the capabilities
of the chip it isn't clear what all the settings do. Is there a good HOWTO
guide or tutorial available? Some are obvious, e.g., master volume,
but others are not. I checked amixer(1) but it doesn't describe the
options or define the terminology used.
Simple mixer control 'Master',0
Capabilities: pvolume
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 31
Front Left: Playback 28 [90%]
Front Right: Playback 28 [90%]
Simple mixer control '3D Control - Switch',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'PCM',0
Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined cswitch
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 31
Front Left: Playback 24 [77%] [on] Capture [off]
Front Right: Playback 24 [77%] [on] Capture [off]
Simple mixer control 'Synth',0
Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined cswitch
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 31
Front Left: Playback 24 [77%] [on] Capture [off]
Front Right: Playback 24 [77%] [on] Capture [off]
Simple mixer control 'Line',0
Capabilities: pvolume pswitch cswitch
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 31
Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [off] Capture [off]
Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [off] Capture [off]
Simple mixer control 'Line-In As Bass',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'Line-In As Rear',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'CD',0
Capabilities: pvolume pswitch cswitch
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 31
Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [off] Capture [off]
Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [off] Capture [off]
Simple mixer control 'Mic',0
Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined cvolume pswitch pswitch-joined cswitch
cswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Capture channels: Mono
Limits: Playback 0 - 31 Capture 0 - 7
Mono: Playback 0 [0%] [off] Capture 0 [0%] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Mic As Center/LFE',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'Mic Boost',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 5V',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 Copyright',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 In Monitor',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 In Phase Inverse',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 In Select',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 In Valid',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 Loop',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 Output',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'PC Speaker',0
Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Limits: Playback 0 - 3
Mono: Playback 2 [67%]
Simple mixer control 'Aux',0
Capabilities: pvolume pswitch cswitch
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 15
Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [off] Capture [off]
Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [off] Capture [off]
Simple mixer control 'Four Channel Mode',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [on]
!DSPAM:412998239056804268171! 
5:53 a.m.
On Mon, Aug 23, 2004 at 03:25:04PM +0800, Alexander MacLennan wrote:
You can find this chipset in quite a few cheap sound (
not audio cards )
I use one for music playback in a shop, I wouldn't use it for anything
more than that. Its on par with a soundblaster / onboard motherboard
sound solution
the Cmi8738 is a very good quality cost effective way of doing
non-resampling 16/24bit digital i/o.
that is not true of Creative cards.
even the analogue output on some of the better implementations
(eg Maudio) is not substantially worse than something like an RME Pad
which in many ways provides the same functionality for about 3 times
the price.
--
Tim Orford
5:58 a.m.
New subject: [linux-audio-user] Hardware recommendations for recording under kernel 2.6/Alsa
Ah, I was assuming that the I/O was analogue
But for $10US for a card based on these, would the clock be very tight?
On Mon, 2004-08-23 at 17:32, Tim Orford wrote:
On Mon, Aug 23, 2004 at 03:25:04PM +0800, Alexander
MacLennan wrote:
--
Alexander MacLennan
PhD Student
Curtin University of Technology
+61 8 9266 2129
You can find this chipset in quite a few cheap
sound ( not audio cards )
I use one for music playback in a shop, I wouldn't use it for anything
more than that. Its on par with a soundblaster / onboard motherboard
sound solution
the Cmi8738 is a very good quality cost effective way of doing
non-resampling 16/24bit digital i/o.
that is not true of Creative cards.
even the analogue output on some of the better implementations
(eg Maudio) is not substantially worse than something like an RME Pad
which in many ways provides the same functionality for about 3 times
the price. 
7:04 a.m.
New subject: [linux-audio-user] Hardware recommendations for recording under kernel 2.6/Alsa
You might have a look at our PDAudio Compact Flash S/PDIF input-only card.
There's an ALSA driver available for it and it will accurately record at
word widths & rates to 24/192.
Len Moskowitz
Core Sound
www.core-sound.com
7:23 a.m.
On Mon, Aug 23, 2004 at 05:42:27PM +0800, Alexander MacLennan wrote:
Ah, I was assuming that the I/O was analogue
yes its true that the CMI8738 is not great at analogue. But even
there it has the advantage that it doesnt have the horrendous
resampler that the Creative cards have.
But for $10US for a card based on these, would the clock be very tight?
doubtful :-)
but i dont imagine they could be bad enough to prevent an spdif lock,
and as long as your D/A has a decent pll to smooth out the jitter,
you should be ok.
according to the block diagram there is a pll in the 8738 to dejitter
the 14MHz clock, which theoretically may give it some immunity to
bad clock implementations, although i have no idea if that makes
any difference in practice.
but i'm no expert, just a happy user :-)
regards
--
Tim Orford
7:33 a.m.
On Mon, Aug 23, 2004 at 01:03:20 +0200, Tim Orford wrote:
On Mon, Aug 23, 2004 at 05:42:27PM +0800, Alexander
MacLennan wrote:
In pracice decent AD converts should be good at locking onto clocks, a
couple of years ago I sent a tarball of the linux kernel saved as a
redbook audio file over SPDIF (played on a cheap CD player) on a very
long, out of spec coax cable to my hammerfall (as a test to make sure the
cabling was OK) and it came through bit perfect.
- Steve
Ah, I was assuming that the I/O was analogue
yes its true that the CMI8738 is not great at analogue. But even
there it has the advantage that it doesnt have the horrendous
resampler that the Creative cards have.
But for $10US for a card based on these, would the clock be very tight?
doubtful :-)
but i dont imagine they could be bad enough to prevent an spdif lock,
and as long as your D/A has a decent pll to smooth out the jitter,
you should be ok.
22 Aug
22 Aug
10:44 a.m.
On Sun, Aug 22, 2004 at 04:51:22PM +1000, Jason White wrote:
My main interest at present is in making archival
recordings of
material that I originally recorded on audio cassette. My system
currently contains a C-Media CM8738 controller as part of the Asus
system board, which is recognized by Alsa. I assume that for quality
results I will need better sound hardware. I asked this question of a
local user's group last year and was informed that the M-Audio Delta
66 is of high quality and has good Alsa support. It was further suggested
that one of the USB A/D converters could be useful as it would also
work on a laptop.
Taking into account price, performance and driver support, what
options do you think I should consider?
just to offer a slightly different approach to the good advice you
have already been given....
how important is the quality? Whilst usually not, cassettes are
capable of extremely good quality (except for noise). And in many
ways digital signal degredation is orthoganal to analogue tape
degradations. Personally i have many unique high quality recordings
on cassette.
if quality is important, one thing you could do would be to borrow
an external A/D convertor and feed that in to the perfectly good digital
in on the CMI8738 (i dont actually know if your board supports that).
cheers
--
Tim Orford
2:53 p.m.
On Sunday 22 August 2004 02:51 am, Jason White wrote:
My main interest at present is in making archival
recordings of
material that I originally recorded on audio cassette. My system
currently contains a C-Media CM8738 controller as part of the Asus
system board, which is recognized by Alsa. I assume that for quality
results I will need better sound hardware. I asked this question of a
local user's group last year and was informed that the M-Audio Delta
66 is of high quality and has good Alsa support. It was further suggested
that one of the USB A/D converters could be useful as it would also
work on a laptop.
Taking into account price, performance and driver support, what
options do you think I should consider?
To connect to a cassette tape recorder is it sufficient to run a cable
from its audio output to the input of the sound card, or is an audio
isolation transformer also necessary (not sure where one would acquire
this but I have heard that they are sometimes needed)?
There are informative reviews at http://www.linuxhardware.org/ but
they focus mainly on playback functionality rather than recording.
Any suggestions for a newcomer to the field would be most welcome.
Jason.
Was the program originally recorded on a deck with noise reduction?
I was just ripping some tracks from old old 4 track cassette masters
that were DBX'ed. 2:1 expansion works for the "decoding".
Dolby is a different story, it's more complex.
7192
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linux-audio-user@lists.linuxaudio.org
20 comments
9 participants
participants (9)
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Alexander MacLennan -
Andrew Dahlin -
Frank Barknecht -
Jan Depner -
Jason White -
John Check -
Len Moskowitz -
Steve Harris -
Tim Orford