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bdm
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Joined: 20 Jan 2006
Posts: 305
Location: Canada, Barrie, Ontario
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 Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2007 6:39 pm Post subject: Compatible onboard sound card for Q6600 motherboard? |
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So like the topic shows, I'm planning on getting a quad-core soon and had a few Linux questions.
- Are Asus motherboards compatible with ALSA and surround sound? Right now, I have the Creative SB Audigy LS and the surround sound support with ALSA blows.
- Anything else I should know before buying a motherboard?
Thanks!
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SnEptUne
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Joined: 23 Aug 2004
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| Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2007 12:08 am Post subject: |
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Could you give me the chipset of the motherboard? Asus doesn't make their own audio chips. If it is by Analog Devices or ALi, it is probably supported. You may check the alsa database (http://www.alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Matrix:Main) for the chipset. However, the wiki seems outdated. For example, AD1988 should be supported, but it wasn't listed.
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PaulBredbury
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Joined: 14 Jul 2005
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| Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2007 4:38 am Post subject: |
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| Ignore the motherboard's soundcard - it will have low-quality audio (despite the advertising), and be incapable of hardware mixing. See thread. |
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Paapaa
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Joined: 14 Aug 2005
Posts: 955
Location: Finland
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| Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2007 8:53 am Post subject: |
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| PaulBredbury wrote: | | Ignore the motherboard's soundcard - it will have low-quality audio (despite the advertising), and be incapable of hardware mixing. See thread. |
This kind of claims should always be backed up with some valid references. What do you mean by "low-quality", how did you make that conclusion and what cards were you comparing?
And is HW-mixing really needed with quad core CPU? (I don't claim it isn't but was just wondering)
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PaulBredbury
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| Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2007 9:35 am Post subject: |
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For valid references, use Google. Example. I use my own ears to test.
Example: With an Audigy 2 ZS I have Doom 3 running at exactly 60fps. With the motherboard's audio (needing dmix), the framerate drops. That's a difference between smoothness and jerkiness.
I also tried a Terratec Aureon Fun 5.1 (yes, I have 3 sound cards in my PC right now, for comparison). The Audigy has noticeably better audio than both the Terratec and the Realtek ALC882. Someone with cheap speakers/headphones will not notice the difference in the audio quality, however.
Three of those four cores are useless if the game (e.g. Doom 3) only supports 1 core.
Someone who's serious about audio will want a soundcard that doesn't upmix to 48khz, though. |
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aidy
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Joined: 07 Apr 2005
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| Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2007 9:43 am Post subject: |
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well the hardware mixing is a stupid argument, but it's true that the sound quality is bad.
But you won't hear that with your average speakers you know... I only discovered how bad and noisy it was when I got decent headphones. |
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PaulBredbury
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| Posted: Sat Sep 15, 2007 6:43 pm Post subject: |
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Update: I got an Audigy 4 cheap off ebay ("reconditioned"), and the audio is of noticeably higher quality than with my Audigy 2 ZS.
Only problem is, it has an occasional little bit of static when changing songs in audacious (just a quick "pop"), which the Audigy 2 ZS does not suffer from at all. But the increased quality of audio is much more important.
So, I would recommend an Audigy 4 for those who have decent speakers  |
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bdm
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Joined: 20 Jan 2006
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Location: Canada, Barrie, Ontario
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| Posted: Sat Sep 15, 2007 7:27 pm Post subject: |
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| PaulBredbury wrote: | Update: I got an Audigy 4 cheap off ebay ("reconditioned"), and the audio is of noticeably higher quality than with my Audigy 2 ZS.
Only problem is, it has an occasional little bit of static when changing songs in audacious (just a quick "pop"), which the Audigy 2 ZS does not suffer from at all. But the increased quality of audio is much more important.
So, I would recommend an Audigy 4 for those who have decent speakers |
Nice.
I have the Creative Labs SB Audigy LS and the surround sounds works great. But I don't have two outputs. So if I'm listening to a song in Amarok and I pause it to view a video on YouTube. Amarok & Firefox both crash and I'm forced to restart ALSA.
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PaulBredbury
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| Posted: Sat Sep 22, 2007 9:16 am Post subject: |
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| I wrote: | | it has an occasional little bit of static |
This is 90% fixed by using xmms2 rather than audacious, so I regard it as a software problem. |
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PaulBredbury
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| Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2007 6:08 am Post subject: |
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In the interests of science, I bought an M-Audio Revolution 5.1 for comparison.
It sounds similar to my Audigy 2 ZS, and thus inferior to my Audigy 4. This is with analog connectors.
Interestingly, the Revolution 5.1 has the same little bit of static when changing songs in Audacious as with the Audigy 4.
I tried the Revolution 5.1 with ALSA 1.0.15 and OpenSound 4.0-1009
With ALSA, the surround mixers are messed up, e.g. centre speaker is rear-right - this should be fixable with a custom ~/.asoundrc. I'll even submit an ALSA bug if I can work up the enthusiasm.
With OSS, Doom3 & Quake4 don't have surround sound that actually works without distortion - ludicrous.
So, my recommendation for non-musicians is still to get an Audigy 4 (and decent speakers).
Edit: Added URL.
Last edited by PaulBredbury on Thu Nov 15, 2007 4:02 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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mark_alec
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Joined: 11 Sep 2004
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Location: Melbourne, Australia
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| Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2007 12:57 am Post subject: |
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Moved from Off the Wall to Multimedia.
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PaulBredbury
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| Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2007 6:58 am Post subject: |
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I gave the M-Audio Revolution 5.1 another go. Here's the ~/.asoundrc to make it actually work with proper 5.1 surround sound, and split off bass to just the subwoofer:
| Code: | # http://alsa.opensrc.org/index.php/Dmix
# http://www.halfgaar.net/surround-sound-in-linux
# http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/alsa-lib/pcm_plugins.html
# http://www.volkerschatz.com/noise/alsa.html
# http://alsa.opensrc.org/SurroundSound
# http://alsa.opensrc.org/index.php/Low-pass_filter_for_subwoofer_channel_(HOWTO)
# Arch Linux: pacman -S ladspa blop swh-plugins libsamplerate tap-plugins cmt
# listplugins
# analyseplugin cmt
# http://plugin.org.uk/ladspa-swh/docs/ladspa-swh.html
# http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-4528619.html#4528619
pcm.lowpass_21to21 {
type ladspa
slave.pcm upmix_21to51
path "/usr/lib/ladspa"
channels 3
plugins {
0 {
id 1098 # Identity (Audio) (1098/identity_audio)
policy duplicate
input.bindings.0 "Input";
output.bindings.0 "Output";
}
1 {
id 1052 # High-pass filter
policy none
input.bindings.0 "Input";
output.bindings.0 "Output";
input {
controls [ 100 ]
}
}
2 {
id 1052 # High-pass filter
policy none
input.bindings.1 "Input";
output.bindings.1 "Output";
input {
controls [ 100 ]
}
}
3 {
id 1051 # Low-pass filter.
policy none
input.bindings.2 "Input";
output.bindings.2 "Output";
input {
controls [ 100 ]
}
}
}
}
# speaker-test -D upmix_20to51 -c 2 -t wav
# speaker-test -D plug:upmix_20to51 -c 2 -t wav
pcm.upmix_20to51 {
type plug
slave.pcm "lowpass_21to21"
slave.channels 3
ttable {
0.0 1 # left channel
1.1 1 # right channel
0.2 0.5 # mix left and right ...
1.2 0.5 # ... channel for subwoofer
}
}
pcm.upmix_21to51 {
type plug
# For emu10k1, can just be: slave.pcm surround51
slave.pcm surround51-ice
slave.channels 6
ttable {
0.0 1 # front left
1.1 1 # front right
0.2 1 # rear left
1.3 1 # rear right
# Front left/right to center.
0.4 0.5
1.4 0.5
# Subwoofer, more powerful to compensate for bass-removal from other speakers.
2.5 2
}
}
pcm.!default {
type dmix
slave.channels 2
ttable {
0.0 1 # left channel
1.1 1 # right channel
}
}
# Tech docs for M-Audio Revolution 5.1: http://seehuhn.de/pages/revolution
# http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Surround_Sound
# 6 channel dmix:
# From http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=400268
# Sound command for Pidgin: /usr/bin/aplay -D plug:surround51-ice %s
# Darkplaces command-line: -sndpcm "plug:surround51-ice" -sndspeed 44100
# Can still have nspluginwrapper blocking the soundcard, because it uses OSS!
# speaker-test -D plug:surround51-ice -c 6 -t wav
pcm.surround51-ice {
slave.channels 6
type route
ttable.0.0 1
ttable.1.1 1
ttable.2.4 1
ttable.3.5 1
ttable.4.2 1
ttable.5.3 1
slave.pcm {
type dmix
ipc_key 1024
ipc_key_add_uid false
# ipc_perm is probably not needed:
# http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/alsa-lib/pcm_plugins.html
ipc_perm 0660
slave {
pcm "hw:0,0"
#rate 48000
# Is 44100, to stop "clicks and pops" when changing songs in Audacious.
rate 44100
#format "S32_LE"
channels 6
period_time 0
period_size 1024
buffer_time 0
# buffer_size of e.g. 2048, 4096, 5120, 8192, 16384, 32768.
# Some apps may prefer different sizes - create a separate pcm for those.
# Doom 3 wants buffer_size 8192
# In ~/.doom3/base/autoexec.cfg
# And ~/.quake4/q4base/autoexec.cfg
# seta s_alsa_pcm "plug:surround51-ice"
buffer_size 8192
}
}
} |
The reason for the slight clicking when changing songs in Audacious seems related to the 44.1khz --> 48khz upmix that was previously taking place. Is 90% fixed with the M-Audio Revolution 5.1 by having the above upmix_20to51 as the "ALSA audio device" in the Audacious preferences.
nspluginwrapper on amd64 can block the soundcard due to OSS (even with Dmix it seems!), and support for the the M-Audio Revolution 5.1 for surround sound in Windows games seems to be hit-and-miss, so I still very much recommend the Audigy 4 to non-musicians.
Edit: Creative Labs have terrible customer relations, so hopefully there'll be a better choice from a different manufacturer.
Last edited by PaulBredbury on Sat Mar 29, 2008 12:31 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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c_martini
n00b
Joined: 23 Nov 2007
Posts: 3
Location: London
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| Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2007 9:55 am Post subject: |
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| Does this ~/.asoundrc duplicate the front channels to the rear for non surround sources? |
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PaulBredbury
Watchman
Joined: 14 Jul 2005
Posts: 6609
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| Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2007 10:40 am Post subject: |
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| Yes. More specifically, it upmixes stereo to 5.1, and sends bass to only the subwoofer. Makes best use of a 5.1 speaker system. Works with an Audigy 4 (emu10k1) also. |
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c_martini
n00b
Joined: 23 Nov 2007
Posts: 3
Location: London
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| Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2007 11:24 am Post subject: |
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| PaulBredbury wrote: | | Yes. More specifically, it upmixes stereo to 5.1, and sends bass to only the subwoofer. Makes best use of a 5.1 speaker system. Works with an Audigy 4 (emu10k1) also. |
Excellent. i will try this one. The one I was using was good, but it failed to upmix for all stereo sources. It would only work for certain applications and not others (not sure why)...
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c_martini
n00b
Joined: 23 Nov 2007
Posts: 3
Location: London
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| Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2007 6:04 pm Post subject: |
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| This custom .asoundrc does not work on my system. Only the front channels play for both 5.1 and stereo sources. I have gone back to the one I was using before which does work for most applications... |
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PaulBredbury
Watchman
Joined: 14 Jul 2005
Posts: 6609
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| Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2007 6:22 pm Post subject: |
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I bet you have a different soundcard. Your ttable lines probably need changing. Or perhaps you can just use "surround51", if it's predefined for you - as I put in the comments for "emu10k1". The M-Audio Revolution 5.1 needs those ttable lines, otherwise sounds go to the wrong speakers 
Practically every soundcard model needs a different ALSA setup  |
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Monkeh
Veteran
Joined: 06 Aug 2005
Posts: 1656
Location: England
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| Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2007 8:10 pm Post subject: |
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| PaulBredbury wrote: | | I wrote: | | it has an occasional little bit of static |
This is 90% fixed by using xmms2 rather than audacious, so I regard it as a software problem. |
This is due to the device being closed and reopened on track change. Blame the driver. |
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PaulBredbury
Watchman
Joined: 14 Jul 2005
Posts: 6609
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| Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2007 8:24 am Post subject: |
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And now for a bit of fun, and to add a little to the pitiful lack of documentation for ladspa & ~/.asoundrc
This adds distortion to a stereo input, as though from a vintage record player:
| Code: | # aplay -D playvyniltest chan-id.wav
pcm.playvyniltest {
type plug
slave.pcm "vyniltest"
}
# listplugins | grep -A 1 -i vynil
# analyseplugin vynil_1905
# Use via playvyniltest, do not use directly.
pcm.vyniltest {
type ladspa
slave.pcm default
plugins {
0 {
# id 1905 # VyNil (Vinyl Effect) (1905/vynil)
label vynil
input {
# "Year" input, control, 1900 to 1990, default 1990
# "RPM" input, control, 33 to 78, default 33
# "Surface warping" input, control, 0 to 1, default 0
# "Crackle" input, control, 0 to 1, default 0
# "Wear" input, control, 0 to 1, default 0
controls [ 1940 78 0.5 0.5 0.5 ]
}
}
}
} |
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PaulBredbury
Watchman
Joined: 14 Jul 2005
Posts: 6609
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| Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 2:29 pm Post subject: |
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| Monkeh wrote: | | PaulBredbury wrote: | | I wrote: | | it has an occasional little bit of static |
This is 90% fixed by using xmms2 rather than audacious, so I regard it as a software problem. |
This is due to the device being closed and reopened on track change. Blame the driver. |
Finally fixed this annoying clicking between songs in audacious, with audacious-crossfade |
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Monkeh
Veteran
Joined: 06 Aug 2005
Posts: 1656
Location: England
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| Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 9:39 pm Post subject: |
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| PaulBredbury wrote: | | Monkeh wrote: | | PaulBredbury wrote: | | I wrote: | | it has an occasional little bit of static |
This is 90% fixed by using xmms2 rather than audacious, so I regard it as a software problem. |
This is due to the device being closed and reopened on track change. Blame the driver. |
Finally fixed this annoying clicking between songs in audacious, with audacious-crossfade |
Unfortunately I find crossfading is simply annoying. |
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Multimedia
