[CLUE-Tech] SB Live! Mixer Tweaking

[Timothy Klein]

On Saturday 29 May 2004 04:40 pm, Jed S. Baer wrote:
> Well, when I run xmixer, or gnome-volume-control, I don't see 62 channels.
> I see the typical vol, pcm, line, etc. controls.

I think you are running OSS.  I didn't have more than a few mixer channels 
when I used to run OSS, but it sounded bad then, too.  That is why I switched 
to ALSA, hoping it would fix things.

> According the the Creative Labs specs
> <http://www.soundblaster.com/products/sblive/specs.asp>, it has "64-voice
> hardware polyphony". Is this what you're referring to? These would be used
> for synthesis (e.g. MIDI), and not for pre-recorded audio playback.
>
> Can you point to a web page which at least lists what these 62 channels
> are?

No.  They start Master, Head LFE1, Head...1, Head...Center1, Tone,Base,Treble, 
3D Control Switch,3DControlSigmaDepth, etc...  There are two Wave channels, 2 
surround channels, 2 EMU PCM Send channels, 4 EMU PCM Send Routing Channels, 
3 EMU PCM Send Routing Chanel's, 7 channels related to IEC958, 2 AC97 
Channels, the usual assortment of AUX, CD, MUSIC, Phone, etc. etc.  Some of 
these seem to do nothing.  Some of them greatly effect the sound.  Some of 
them only effect the sound when some other mixer channel has high gain or low 
gain.  It's amazingly complex.  Googling hasn't helped me much.

> Which mixer program are you using?

Both Kmix and Alsamix/Alsamixer GUI.  Kmix does not show as many channels -- 
it eliminates some of them.  But, to have any chance of really getting it to 
sound right, I need to tweak some of the ones that only AlsaMixer shows.

> > The biggest problems seem to come from Artsd applications in KDE, XMMS
> > seems to be somewhat better.  Annoyingly, the mixer channels seem to
> > behave differnetly depending on which primary sound output/software I am
> > using.
>
> Examples would helpful here, particularly those which sound bad.

Juk, a KDE MP3/Ogg app.  It will usually give me trouble.  XMMS does not give 
as much trouble.  Say I tweak (it seems that the surround, and emu pcm 
channels have the most effect) the sound so that Ani DiFranco sounds good.  
Next, Rage Against the Machine comes on, and I am back to distortion at the 
high amplitude portions (it sounds a little bit like a blown speaker, but I 
really don't think it is hardware, given how much I am able to effect it via 
software.).  Once in a while, I get everything just right, it sounds great, 
but for some reason it does not last.  It is like something is messing with 
the mixer setting when I am not looking.  When I get really exasperated, I go 
back to XMMS, which plays sound much better.  Sadly, I don't like XMMS as 
much (I have way too many MP3s, and XMMS is not as effective at sorting 
them).  The problem may be in Arts, but I am not completely convinced.  Once 
in a while, XMMS will start to sound distorted, too.  Sometimes sound ends up 
unbalanced, having much greater amplitude and effect from the right, even 
though every single mixer channel is locked left to right and even left to 
right.

> I haven't encountered any difficulties. My usage is almost entirely
> playing OGGs using XMMS, but I also use mplayer some, and the command-line
> "play" program. I sometimes listen to CDs as well.
>
That's pretty much exactly what I am doing, too.  Most people that I have read 
about seem quite happy.  I don't know what is unique about my situation.

It is hard to describe the way it sounds bad.  Distortion is a start.

Tim
-- 
== Timothy Klein || teece at silverklein.net
== Vanity Page: http://tinyurl.com/vkhp
== ----------------------------------------
== Hello_World.c: 17 Errors, 31 Warnings...