I have an Creative Labs SB Live! EMU10k1 in my system running FC5. In KMix, everything seems to fall under the PCM (and Master) volume sliders. How can I fix it so that when I'm playing MIDI files it routes through the correct volume slider (whichever that might be) and when I'm playing MP3, it goes through the PCM one?
Looking at all the KMix channels available to me, I have:
Wave Center, Wave LFE, Wave Surround, Master, Headphone, Bass, Treble (which incidentally don't do anything either one), 3D Control Sigmatel - Depth, PCM, Center, LFE, PC Speaker, and AC97. Under the Input tab there's a whole slew of sliders, and under Switches tab there are a few more.
Everything seems to get routed through the PCM channel and I can control volume using that slider and the Master volume slider. When I used this card under WinXP, I was able to get MIDI through the MIDI channel (or Synth), MP3/Wave through a separate one, and the PC speaker through a different one, so I could individually control each one. Is this possible under unix?
On Saturday 29 July 2006 23:51, Ashley M. Kirchner wrote:
I have an Creative Labs SB Live! EMU10k1 in my system running FC5.
[snip]
Wave Center, Wave LFE, Wave Surround, Master, Headphone, Bass, Treble (which incidentally don't do anything either one), 3D Control Sigmatel - Depth, PCM, Center, LFE, PC Speaker, and AC97. Under the Input tab there's a whole slew of sliders, and under Switches tab there are a few more.
I second this. What are all these sliders for? Any decent docs about the function of each? (here 'decent' means that I want more detail then "3D Control Sigmatel - Depth slider is used for controlling the depth of the 3D Sigmatel"...) How to make them all work? Why is the PCM slider not linear? (the volume is practically off from bottom to approx. 3/4 of the slider, then increases exponentially...)
And also, I think I counted more sliders in alsamixer then in kmix (but don't hold my word for it). Why is that? And is the number of sliders in alsamixer varying sometimes or is it just me (again... :-) ...)?
Best regards, :-) Marko
On Sun, 2006-07-30 at 23:23 +0200, Marko Vojinovic wrote:
Why is the PCM slider not linear? (the volume is practically off from bottom to approx. 3/4 of the slider, then increases exponentially...)
You wouldn't actually want a linear volume control, you'd start to turn the control, then the sound would jump out at you as it suddenly gets very loud. A logarithm *is* a desirable trait (our hearing isn't linear), though some seem to have peculiar characteristics.
On Monday 31 July 2006 04:41, Tim wrote:
On Sun, 2006-07-30 at 23:23 +0200, Marko Vojinovic wrote:
Why is the PCM slider not linear? (the volume is practically off from bottom to approx. 3/4 of the slider, then increases exponentially...)
You wouldn't actually want a linear volume control, you'd start to turn the control, then the sound would jump out at you as it suddenly gets very loud. A logarithm *is* a desirable trait (our hearing isn't linear), though some seem to have peculiar characteristics.
I agree on that, but what I would like is the "perceptually linear" behavior, like with all other sliders. The 'Wave surround' or 'wave center', for example, behave just as I expect, but PCM does not.
Best regards, :-) Marko
Marko Vojinovic wrote:
I agree on that, but what I would like is the "perceptually linear" behavior, like with all other sliders. The 'Wave surround' or 'wave center', for example, behave just as I expect, but PCM does not.
By the way, I also have to concur with Marko's observation with the PCM slider...it starts of pretty dead, you reach 1/4 of the way in (or 3/4 depending on how you're looking at it) and suddenly the sound jumps up... Something's not right, it only happens with the PCM too.
Tim:
You wouldn't actually want a linear volume control, you'd start to turn the control, then the sound would jump out at you as it suddenly gets very loud. A logarithm *is* a desirable trait (our hearing isn't linear), though some seem to have peculiar characteristics.
Marko Vojinovic:
I agree on that, but what I would like is the "perceptually linear" behavior, like with all other sliders. The 'Wave surround' or 'wave center', for example, behave just as I expect, but PCM does not.
I can't say that I've noticed differences between sources (other than some being just too damn quiet overall), though I do believe you. My sound card is rather simple, without a lot of options. I don't have many to compare against each other.
I wonder whether you get different responses whether you're using software or hardware mixing? If you have a sound card that can do its own mixing, its response to controls might be different (automatically doing a log response to a linear control change, or expecting that controls give a log control signal). More so if some things the volume sliders control are done in hardware, the rest in software.
I'm revisiting this because there didn't seem to have been any suggestions as to a possible fix. Marko seconded the multitude of sliders and commented on the linear versus exponential volume slider, while Tim pointed out that you really do want a logarithmic slider, not linear. But, we still don't have a solution for my initial problem posted below. And I'd also like to add something else I noticed today: SB Live! has two speaker outputs, labeled channel 1 and 2. Under XP, I can get both channels to work simultaneously (and thus allowing me to use 2 sets of speakers.) But no amount of slider configuration or turning on or off of the little red and green indicators would output sound on the second channel - everything's on the first one. So...is that another undocumented "feature"? Something missing?
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Ashley M. Kirchner wrote:
I have an Creative Labs SB Live! EMU10k1 in my system running FC5. In KMix, everything seems to fall under the PCM (and Master) volume sliders. How can I fix it so that when I'm playing MIDI files it routes through the correct volume slider (whichever that might be) and when I'm playing MP3, it goes through the PCM one?
Looking at all the KMix channels available to me, I have:
Wave Center, Wave LFE, Wave Surround, Master, Headphone, Bass, Treble (which incidentally don't do anything either one - *update:* these works now), 3D Control Sigmatel - Depth, PCM, Center, LFE, PC Speaker, and AC97. Under the Input tab there's a whole slew of sliders, and under Switches tab there are a few more.
Everything seems to get routed through the PCM channel and I can control volume using that slider and the Master volume slider. When I used this card under WinXP, I was able to get MIDI through the MIDI channel (or Synth), MP3/Wave through a separate one, and the PC speaker through a different one, so I could individually control each one. Is this possible under unix?
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Ashley M. Kirchner -
Marko Vojinovic -
Tim