Has ALSA's emu10k1 driver gotten better?

Tisephone · n00b Joined: 15 Sep 2003 Posts: 31

I believe I tried it about six months ago, and it sounded like crud. I would really prefer to use ALSA, but not if I have to sacrifice sound quality.

This is primarily directed towards 2.6 testers. Trying to make GIMP 1.3.19 happy with my GTK version somehow screwed my kernel up and I'm getting sporadic panics, but it's bearable. I might wait for 2.6 to reach final, then try out kernel ALSA when I reinstall.

Dillinger · Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2003 4:20 am Post subject:

I think I've noticed some improvment with the 2.6 kernel, I have a SB Live as well. I think that's the first thing I noticed with the new kernel was the sound improvment. It's not HUGE mind you, but you can tell the difference.

GentooBox · Veteran Joined: 22 Jun 2003 Posts: 1168 Location: Denmark

The alsa emu10k1 driver works like a charm here.

its really nice quality and it can play at a really high volume

_________________
Encrypt, lock up everything and duct tape the rest

GentooBox · Veteran Joined: 22 Jun 2003 Posts: 1168 Location: Denmark

The alsa emu10k1 driver works like a charm here.

its really nice quality and it can play at a really high volume

_________________
Encrypt, lock up everything and duct tape the rest

GentooBox · Veteran Joined: 22 Jun 2003 Posts: 1168 Location: Denmark

The alsa emu10k1 driver works like a charm here.

its really nice quality and it can play at a really high volume

_________________
Encrypt, lock up everything and duct tape the rest

Roguelazer · Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2003 7:49 pm Post subject:

I used to use OSS with my SBLive! Value. It sounded pretty bad, crashed, all that. Then I got ALSA. First with my 2.4 kernel, which worked like a charm (after I figured out that ALSA-OSS is nice to have). Now with my 2.6 kernel, it only sounds better. However, I got a couple of helpful hints:

1. With digital AND analog speakers, PCM must be 0
2. With 2 sets of speakers, Surround must be on and Surround Center to Max
3. Set tone to on in alsamixer. It makes everything nicer.

Now if only it would auto-load my volumes at startup. I tried to make an init script, but it failed. So instead, I have to type "alsactl restore 0" every time I boot up.

_________________
Registered Linux User #263260

Roguelazer · Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2003 7:51 pm Post subject:

I used to use OSS with my SBLive! Value. It sounded pretty bad, crashed, all that. Then I got ALSA. First with my 2.4 kernel, which worked like a charm (after I figured out that ALSA-OSS is nice to have). Now with my 2.6 kernel, it only sounds better. However, I got a couple of helpful hints:

1. With digital AND analog speakers, PCM must be 0
2. With 2 sets of speakers, Surround must be on and Surround Center to Max
3. Set tone to on in alsamixer. It makes everything nicer.

Now if only it would auto-load my volumes at startup. I tried to make an init script, but it failed. So instead, I have to type "alsactl restore 0" every time I boot up.

_________________
Registered Linux User #263260

Techie2000 · Guru Joined: 16 May 2002 Posts: 344

jaska · Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2003 6:13 am Post subject:

Alsa emu10k1 working excellent here, the oss drivers worked for me, but since alsa is new standard in new kernels, thought I would change.

Roguelazer · Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2003 10:44 am Post subject:

Techie2000: Hmmm.... Good idea!
_________________
Registered Linux User #263260

Flipperrr · Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2003 11:51 am Post subject:

With the 2.4 kernel I used OSS which delivered perfect quality. I'm now using 2.6 test3 with ALSA, and althought the quality is ok, it's not as good as I had with OSS. (Edit: soundcard = SBLive!)

SeaPig · n00b Joined: 18 Jun 2002 Posts: 70

if the thought of going to the 2.6 kernel doesn't scare you too much, I would recommend it.
with the vol all the way up it doesn't sound as good as the windows drivers, but it is better than the 2.4 oss for sure.

Roguelazer · Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2003 10:52 pm Post subject:

2.6 is easy, no sweat. I've had no problems except that my QuickCam express webcam doesn't work.
_________________
Registered Linux User #263260

Lord Tocharian · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 11 Mar 2003 Posts: 75

I have an Audigy Gamer. The biggest different for me between using the OSS driver and testing out the emu10k1 driver in the 2.6 kernel is the speaker support. Both drivers sound good as far as sound quality, but with OSS drivers I get surround support while the ALSA driver only plays sound over two speakers.

zez · Posted: Fri Sep 19, 2003 4:35 am Post subject:

I'm using ALSA with a SBAudigy and it's working great (but I'm only using headphones, dunno about surround sound). The emu10k1 package in portage seemed to work about as well as ALSA for the audigy. But the emu10k1 drivers in portage were horrible when used with my SBLive! Value. Certain sounds and songs would distort, etc. For the SBLive I switched to the default emu10k1 OSS drivers included in the 2.4.x kernels and it works fine.

neenee · Veteran Joined: 20 Jul 2003 Posts: 1786

hm.. i have pcm on, not off. pcm seems
to control my front left and right speaker.

bibi[M] · Apprentice Joined: 10 Aug 2003 Posts: 153

Rogueutilz: FIY you should probably already have the script "aslsasound" in /etc/init.d/, it came with the drivers once, now it's in alsa-utils (v 0.9.6 i think!), it works nice, and even saves volumes at shutdown.
Lord Tocharian: I have an audigy too, here audio channel mirroring is controlled by the "wave" controls in alsamixer(i definetely suggest to use that): wave surround make stereo sound goes to the rear speakers, "wave lfe" and "wave center" control the stereo downmixing to the center channel. As i mainly hear classical jazz, i suppose i have tryed with mono sound mirroring too, even if i don't recall

Flipper: Bjork rules^_^ Though this is like the second time in my life i've "met" an eestimer of her... d'oh
Well now... my experience with alsa0.9.6+audigy... really good! Limitations/problems so far:
1) Still lookin' for a way to control all the volumes with the master, analog volumes always work at pairs (front R/L, rear R/L, center/LFE), it's a mess
2) It seems the digital output doesn't work with audigy, i was told it shouldn't work with oss too, so... i was managing to buy a dolby/dts decoder/amplifier, but... :/ If someone has one working with audigy tell me, please.
3) PCM volume to the max make sound distorted.
4) uhm... well... Does eax works with oss? I don't recall (nor i ever tryed), well it isn't available in alsa, same for the ac3 decoding, that AFAIK with the windows drivers should be full hw in the audigy. BTW liba52 works without problems.
_________________
jazz lives!
For the italians: evitate: "ke", "xké", "qlc", "nn"...

Miguel · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 21 Aug 2002 Posts: 118

About your fourth point (EAX), I've read it's a Windows only feature (I think it's in the drivers).

Roguelazer · Posted: Fri Sep 19, 2003 10:44 am Post subject:

Sadly, alsasound only works if your ALSA is non-kernel-2.6.

Oh, and I alsa have found that ALSA supports the Digital Out jack on my soundcard, and OSS doesn't. So I now have 1 analong 2.1 setup and 1 digital 2.1 setup, for a dual-woofer 4.2 setup. Mmm.
_________________
Registered Linux User #263260

trikke · n00b Joined: 08 Jul 2003 Posts: 35

i have a sblive pro with a digital out (din) and a dolby dts decoder im using the alsa drivers and i got all my speakers working on the dts
the only thing i cant is control the volume of it

Elm0 · Apprentice Joined: 24 Nov 2002 Posts: 281 Location: UK

Roguelazer · Posted: Fri Sep 19, 2003 7:45 pm Post subject:

Hmmm.... /me goes off to modularize things...
_________________
Registered Linux User #263260

crimson · Posted: Tue Mar 16, 2004 5:32 pm Post subject:

My answer is NO , alsa with my Audigy sounds awful! not only with the PCM mixer all the way up, but if you want to even use an equalizer like in XMMS, all you can hear is the gravely distortion like a radio that's not getting a clear signal. I suggest trying for yourself, but I"m seriously considering just using the old OSS emu10k1 drivers. I'm using kernel 2.6.3.