25 Jul
2003
25 Jul
'03
12:56 p.m.
Hi,
Hi. I asked this question on Alsa-Dev yesterday, but 17 hours later got
no answers. Excuse me to those that subscribe to both lists.
This info is to help me do more debug work on a new HDSP 9652 driver
version that I am helping to test.
Should the volume levels I hear when using the command
aplay -Dplughw:0 -r 44100 data/wave/seque~10.wav
be controlled by alsamixer?
The volumes for alsaplayer are being controlled by alsamixer, but this aplay
command is not, at least right now on a new driver I'm using.
Also, on a multichannel card, how do I direct the above aplay command to
a specific channel? I am finding that with this new driver the audio is
appearing on ALL channels on the card, even for a mono wave file. I think
this is a bug, but I'm not sure.
If there's an explanation fit for a simpleton like me about the
difference between plughw and hw and when to use one vs. the other, please
point me there so I can learn. I have read a bit on the Alsa site about
plughw talking directly to the kernel, but beyond that I have not discovered
any documentation yet.
Thanks in advance.
Cheers,
Mark
25 Jul
25 Jul
7:24 p.m.
No responses here also?????
-----Original Message-----
From: linux-audio-user-admin(a)music.columbia.edu
[mailto:linux-audio-user-admin@music.columbia.edu]On Behalf Of Mark
Knecht
Sent: Friday, July 25, 2003 7:42 AM
To: Linux-Audio-User
Subject: [linux-audio-user] aplay, plughw, alsamixer question
Hi,
Hi. I asked this question on Alsa-Dev yesterday, but 17 hours later got
no answers. Excuse me to those that subscribe to both lists.
This info is to help me do more debug work on a new HDSP 9652 driver
version that I am helping to test.
Should the volume levels I hear when using the command
aplay -Dplughw:0 -r 44100 data/wave/seque~10.wav
be controlled by alsamixer?
The volumes for alsaplayer are being controlled by alsamixer, but
this aplay
command is not, at least right now on a new driver I'm using.
Also, on a multichannel card, how do I direct the above aplay
command to
a specific channel? I am finding that with this new driver the audio is
appearing on ALL channels on the card, even for a mono wave file. I think
this is a bug, but I'm not sure.
If there's an explanation fit for a simpleton like me about the
difference between plughw and hw and when to use one vs. the other, please
point me there so I can learn. I have read a bit on the Alsa site about
plughw talking directly to the kernel, but beyond that I have not
discovered
any documentation yet.
Thanks in advance.
Cheers,
Mark
26 Jul
26 Jul
1:36 a.m.
Mark Knecht wrote:
No responses here also?????
>-----Original Message-----
>From: linux-audio-user-admin(a)music.columbia.edu
>[mailto:linux-audio-user-admin@music.columbia.edu]On Behalf Of Mark
>Knecht
>Sent: Friday, July 25, 2003 7:42 AM
>To: Linux-Audio-User
>Subject: [linux-audio-user] aplay, plughw, alsamixer question
>
>
>Hi,
> Hi. I asked this question on Alsa-Dev yesterday, but 17 hours later got
>no answers. Excuse me to those that subscribe to both lists.
>
> This info is to help me do more debug work on a new HDSP 9652 driver
>version that I am helping to test.
>
> Should the volume levels I hear when using the command
>
>aplay -Dplughw:0 -r 44100 data/wave/seque~10.wav
>
>be controlled by alsamixer?
>
>The volumes for alsaplayer are being controlled by alsamixer, but
>this aplay
>command is not, at least right now on a new driver I'm using.
>
> Also, on a multichannel card, how do I direct the above aplay
>command to
>a specific channel? I am finding that with this new driver the audio is
>appearing on ALL channels on the card, even for a mono wave file. I think
>this is a bug, but I'm not sure.
>
> If there's an explanation fit for a simpleton like me about the
>difference between plughw and hw and when to use one vs. the other, please
>point me there so I can learn. I have read a bit on the Alsa site about
>plughw talking directly to the kernel, but beyond that I have not
>discovered
>any documentation yet.
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
>Cheers,
>Mark
>
Mark,
I don't have any experiences with your hardware and didn't think my
reply would be of much use to you, but running the exact command you
post on my cs4236 system produces sound that is under control of
alsamixer, as does -Dhw:0, so that suggests to me that aplay is directly
affected by the settings in the mixer.
Now, some cards do not have a mixer so they should not behave this way,
as I assume would be the case if there were something wrong with the
driver for a card that does have a mixer. In either event I would not
expect to see controls in amixer or the gamix graphical interface. If
you see them and they have no effect that sounds like a malfunction.
Couldn't find any answer to your channel question. My system does not
seem to provide a relevant option to explore this further. I fooled
around with -c and -I options but could draw no useful conclusions.
Frank
3:23 a.m.
hello!
I'm finishing up installing Alsa drivers on my Red Hat 9 partition.
RH 9 recognized my VIA82C sound card. But I decided to switch to Alsa
drivers. I downloaded last release (9.5).
After installing alsa drivers there was a noise after a sound was
played. On the sound server setup I selected:
Use custom sampling rate: 48000
and:
Other custom options:
-a oss
After compiling the drivers, be sure to run snddevices. If you miss it,
then amixer and alsamixer will not run.
Then, I compiled and installed the alsa-libs and then alsa-utils.
I run alsamixer several times to change PCM and Master controls to
different levels to test aplay /usr/share/sound/startup3.wav. Aplay
played sounds at volumn levels controlled by alsamixer.
So, I think you missed to run snddevices under the alsa-drivers directory.
I hope this will help you.
The same Alsa drivers are running very well on my RHat 8.0 partition.
GZS
fpirrone wrote:
Mark Knecht wrote:
--
This Message is sent from my Red Hat 9.0 Linux server
Machine Registration number 205692 at http://counter.li.org/
.-. Gustavo Zamorano S.
.-. | Registered Linux user number 320898
.-. | | at http://counter.li.org/
No responses here also?????
> -----Original Message-----
> From: linux-audio-user-admin(a)music.columbia.edu
> [mailto:linux-audio-user-admin@music.columbia.edu]On Behalf Of Mark
> Knecht
> Sent: Friday, July 25, 2003 7:42 AM
> To: Linux-Audio-User
> Subject: [linux-audio-user] aplay, plughw, alsamixer question
>
>
> Hi,
> Hi. I asked this question on Alsa-Dev yesterday, but 17 hours later
> got
> no answers. Excuse me to those that subscribe to both lists.
>
> This info is to help me do more debug work on a new HDSP 9652 driver
> version that I am helping to test.
>
> Should the volume levels I hear when using the command
>
> aplay -Dplughw:0 -r 44100 data/wave/seque~10.wav
>
> be controlled by alsamixer?
>
> The volumes for alsaplayer are being controlled by alsamixer, but
> this aplay
> command is not, at least right now on a new driver I'm using.
>
> Also, on a multichannel card, how do I direct the above aplay
> command to
> a specific channel? I am finding that with this new driver the audio is
> appearing on ALL channels on the card, even for a mono wave file. I
> think
> this is a bug, but I'm not sure.
>
> If there's an explanation fit for a simpleton like me about the
> difference between plughw and hw and when to use one vs. the other,
> please
> point me there so I can learn. I have read a bit on the Alsa site about
> plughw talking directly to the kernel, but beyond that I have not
> discovered
> any documentation yet.
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> Cheers,
> Mark
>
Mark,
I don't have any experiences with your hardware and didn't think my
reply would be of much use to you, but running the exact command you
post on my cs4236 system produces sound that is under control of
alsamixer, as does -Dhw:0, so that suggests to me that aplay is directly
affected by the settings in the mixer.
Now, some cards do not have a mixer so they should not behave this way,
as I assume would be the case if there were something wrong with the
driver for a card that does have a mixer. In either event I would not
expect to see controls in amixer or the gamix graphical interface. If
you see them and they have no effect that sounds like a malfunction.
Couldn't find any answer to your channel question. My system does not
seem to provide a relevant option to explore this further. I fooled
around with -c and -I options but could draw no useful conclusions.
Frank
3:33 a.m.
On Fri, 2003-07-25 at 20:28, fpirrone wrote:
Mark,
I don't have any experiences with your hardware and didn't think my
reply would be of much use to you, but running the exact command you
post on my cs4236 system produces sound that is under control of
alsamixer, as does -Dhw:0, so that suggests to me that aplay is directly
affected by the settings in the mixer.
Frank,
Actually, your results are extremely helpful. Now I know this is a
bug which is a step forward. Thanks.
My hardware (HDSP 9652) is currently unsupported, but we are trying
to get it to work. I just needed verification that the command worked
the way you say. I suspected it did.
Now, some cards do not have a mixer so they should not behave this way,
as I assume would be the case if there were something wrong with the
driver for a card that does have a mixer. In either event I would not
expect to see controls in amixer or the gamix graphical interface. If
you see them and they have no effect that sounds like a malfunction.
Couldn't find any answer to your channel question. My system does not
seem to provide a relevant option to explore this further. I fooled
around with -c and -I options but could draw no useful conclusions.
May I ask what hardware you are using, and if you attempted to use (or
could you try out?) both mono and stereo wave files? I am curious
whether for you a mono wave file would be played on all channels, as my
driver is currently doing, or just channel 1, and whether a stereo file
is played as mono or in stereo.
Anyway, your response was exactly what I was hoping for. Thanks much
for verifying this.
Cheers,
Mark
3:42 p.m.
Mark Knecht wrote:
On Fri, 2003-07-25 at 20:28, fpirrone wrote:
Mark,
I absolutely cannot force a play out one channel. Again, using -c 1
which the manpage suggests is channel #, or to quote: "number of
channels." I played both a mono .wav and an .au file and they came out
of both channels. Stereo plays out both channels with the
psychoacoustic image of spatiality.
Hardware here is an onboard cs4236 chip (also MidiMan 2x2 outboard USB)
with the latest CCRMA updates to RedHat 8.0 SMB workstation running
FluxBox (we've talked before), and everything seems to work as expected.
So, what's going on here? Is this a default behavior with mono files?
Is this a bug? Why can't a signal be forced to one channel?
Frank
Mark,
I don't have any experiences with your hardware and didn't think my
reply would be of much use to you, but running the exact command you
post on my cs4236 system produces sound that is under control of
alsamixer, as does -Dhw:0, so that suggests to me that aplay is directly
affected by the settings in the mixer.
Frank,
Actually, your results are extremely helpful. Now I know this is a
bug which is a step forward. Thanks.
My hardware (HDSP 9652) is currently unsupported, but we are trying
to get it to work. I just needed verification that the command worked
the way you say. I suspected it did.
Now, some cards do not have a mixer so they should
not behave this way,
as I assume would be the case if there were something wrong with the
driver for a card that does have a mixer. In either event I would not
expect to see controls in amixer or the gamix graphical interface. If
you see them and they have no effect that sounds like a malfunction.
Couldn't find any answer to your channel question. My system does not
seem to provide a relevant option to explore this further. I fooled
around with -c and -I options but could draw no useful conclusions.
May I ask what hardware you are using, and if you attempted to use (or
could you try out?) both mono and stereo wave files? I am curious
whether for you a mono wave file would be played on all channels, as my
driver is currently doing, or just channel 1, and whether a stereo file
is played as mono or in stereo.
Anyway, your response was exactly what I was hoping for. Thanks much
for verifying this.
Cheers,
Mark
4:17 p.m.
On Sat, 2003-07-26 at 10:34, fpirrone wrote:
Mark,
I absolutely cannot force a play out one channel. Again, using -c 1
which the manpage suggests is channel #, or to quote: "number of
channels." I played both a mono .wav and an .au file and they came out
of both channels. Stereo plays out both channels with the
psychoacoustic image of spatiality.
Frank,
This is interesting data. Thanks for checking things out. And I most
certainly remember talking before, but I did not remember anything about
your specific hardware! ;)
I read the man page for the -c option a bit differently. I thought it
was saying how many channels I wanted the file to be played or recorded
on, and not what channel number I wanted the file played on. To me this
would make more sense for the arecord command, where you could tell it
to record 1 channel only, but again the problem is 'which channel'?
Hardware here is an onboard cs4236 chip (also MidiMan 2x2 outboard USB)
with the latest CCRMA updates to RedHat 8.0 SMB workstation running
FluxBox (we've talked before), and everything seems to work as expected.
So, what's going on here? Is this a default behavior with mono files?
Is this a bug? Why can't a signal be forced to one channel?
Seems to be one or the other. Even under Windows Media Player a mono
file plays from both speakers, so Alsa doing the same thing is not a
real suprise I suppose, but I agree that I should at least have an
option to play it in mono, and also, since we are all using hardware
capable of more than stereo, I'd certainly like an option to choose what
channel/channels aplay sends audio to.
Where does one send enhancement requests for aplay/arecord?
Thanks much for your help! I see Clemens has also responded today with
some interesting info.
Mark
Frank
9:51 a.m.
Mark Knecht wrote:
This info is to help me do more debug work on a new
HDSP 9652 driver
version that I am helping to test.
Should the volume levels I hear when using the command
aplay -Dplughw:0 -r 44100 data/wave/seque~10.wav
be controlled by alsamixer?
Depends on the hardware (or the driver). Many cards have a mixer for
certain output streams and/or a master mixer, some don't. (ALSA
doesn't modify volume levels in software by default).
Also, on a multichannel card, how do I direct the
above aplay command to
a specific channel? I am finding that with this new driver the audio is
appearing on ALL channels on the card, even for a mono wave file. I think
this is a bug, but I'm not sure.
The plughw plugin automatically converts sample formats. To access the
hardware directly, use "hw:0" instead of "plughw:0", but this
won't
work if your file isn't exactly in a format supported by the hardware.
To access a subset of the channels, you can use the route plugin IIRC.
The "documentation" at
<http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/alsa-lib/pcm_plugins.html> lacks
the interesting parts, so try to search in the list archives.
HTH
Clemens
4:47 p.m.
Clemens,
Thanks very much for responding. A couple of questions below.
Cheers,
Mark
On Sat, 2003-07-26 at 04:37, Clemens Ladisch wrote:
Depends on the hardware (or the driver). Many cards
have a mixer for
certain output streams and/or a master mixer, some don't. (ALSA
doesn't modify volume levels in software by default).
OK, so the RME HDSP 9652 has a mixer as I use it under Windows. In this
case, I would assume that alsamixer would not show mixer controls if the
driver didn't tell it the hardware had a mixer?
To clarify, what I'm understanding is that since Alsa doesn't modify
volumes in software, then the hardware has to do it, and the alsamixer
controls (or amixer controls) show the levels that Alsa is telling the
hardware to modify volumes by?
Makes sense, I think...
The plughw plugin automatically converts sample
formats. To access the
hardware directly, use "hw:0" instead of "plughw:0", but this
won't
work if your file isn't exactly in a format supported by the hardware.
Very helpful. plughw would address having the card in a certain
frequency mode, but playing a file recorded at a different frequency.
This is great from a user's POV. Thanks.
I suppose hw:0 would be sensible if I recorded from the card, saved in
the card's data format, and then wanted to play that back. Sounds
efficient.
To access a subset of the channels, you can use the route plugin IIRC.
The "documentation" at
<http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/alsa-lib/pcm_plugins.html> lacks
the interesting parts, so try to search in the list archives.
Will do. Maybe this route plugin will help me test which channels are
and are not working with this new driver.
Thanks!
Cheers,
Mark
7844
days inactive
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linux-audio-user@lists.linuxaudio.org
8 comments
5 participants
participants (5)
-
Clemens Ladisch -
fpirrone -
Gustavo Zamorano S. -
Mark Knecht -
Mark Knecht