soundcard confusion
Ok. First question. I've got a SB Awe64PCI. What is the difference between the es1370 driver and the es1371 driver?
Well, I compiled the es1370 driver into my kernel and I have sound... kind of. I can play audio CD's fine but the volume is so low I can barely hear it. The same goes for sound samples but I also find a large drop in sound quality too.
In the es1370.c file it says the only supported devices are /dev/dsp, /dev/dsp1, /dev/mixer, and /dev/midi. But I get zero output from /dev/dsp. Its only under /dev/dsp1 that I get any sound, which is the lineout I believe.
So I'll just start throwing out questions:
What's the difference between /dev/audio and /dev/dsp? Why do most command line sound programs want to output to /dev/audio by default?
Why I'm I not getting any sound from /dev/dsp? Why is the lineout channel (dsp1) so low on volume? How do I tell the es1370 driver to have the joystick port ON by default?
How do I use /dev/midi? Nothing seems to work.
Thanx.
Quoted 3 lines · Terra NovA' B. Loeding
Ok. First question. I've got a SB Awe64PCI. What is the difference between the es1370 driver and the es1371 driver?
One driver is for the ES1370 ASIC and the other one for the ES1371 ASIC :-) The main difference between these chips is the codec interface.
The latter supports the generic AC97 interface, which means it has to have built in sample
rate converters.
Quoted 4 lines
and I have sound... kind of. I can play audio CD's fine but the volume is so low I can barely hear it. The same goes for sound samples but I also find a large drop in sound quality too.
use a tool like xmixer to increase the volume. Also enable CD as a recording source.
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What's the difference between
/dev/audioand/dev/dsp?
The default sample format for /dev/audio is ALAW (or was it ULAW?), which is not supported by the es137* drivers. /dev/dsp's default is linear 8bit.
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Why do most command line sound programs want to output to
/dev/audioby default?
Maybe inherited from old Sun audio hardware.
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Why I'm I not getting any sound from
/dev/dsp?
maybe because the mixer volume is too low?
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Why is the lineout channel (dsp1) so low on volume?
Same as above probably
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How do I tell the es1370 driver to have the joystick port ON by default?
Joystick might be a bit of a problem currently, you might need to delete the request_region for the joystick ports
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How do I use
/dev/midi? Nothing seems to work.
/dev/midi is possibly not what you want, it is a raw interface to the MIDI UART. If you just want to play midi files, use eg. timidity.
Tom
Hello,
sorry, I don't have many answers :
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Well, I compiled the es1370 driver into my kernel
Wasn't there a SB-specific option to set when you configured the
kernel? What did you configure your kernel with? "make menuconfig"?
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What's the difference between
/dev/audioand/dev/dsp?
I'm not sure, but for me, doing :
cat ~/ftp/sndkit/dsp/endoftheworld > /dev/dsp
does some normal quality sound, whereas
cat ~/ftp/sndkit/dsp/endoftheworld > /dev/audio
does some noise vaguely reminiscent of what the original sound was.
Quoted 1 line
Why I'm I not getting any sound from
/dev/dsp?
None none? Turned the volume up?
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How do I use
/dev/midi? Nothing seems to work.
Did you try the program called "playmidi" ?
As you see, I haven't been of much help.
There seems to be many questions, on this list but few answers.
Good luck, and don't hesitate to ask more questions.
Etienne