default alsa pcm improvement

default alsa pcm improvement

[Aleksandar Kostadinov]

Hello,

>From some time now ALSA is a real pleasure to use. Namely it works by
OOB and has lots of predefined useful PCMs so one doesn't need to be a
guru to do advanced operations.

I think that a small improvement in how default PCM is defined can
help users with multiple sound cards that like to use pure ALSA and
not some of the many available sound servers.
I want to be able to switch the default sound device easily in
asoundrc but the way the default pcm is defined makes this not very
straightforward. I like to use the definitions of default:<CARD> but
if I define "pcm.!default" in .asoundrc I lose the "default:<CARD>"
definition. I now can rename the "default" definition in default.conf
to someting like "defaultorg" and then reference it asoundrc but that
requires root as well change can possibly disappear after an alsa-lib
package upgrade. Or I can use the dmix and dsnoop predefined PCMs to
put together PCMs that I can later reference in my "pcm.!default"
definition but in this case one needs to know if the card needs
dsnoop/dmix and probably other tweaks that default.conf contains.
Additionally this needs to be done for every sound card one owns.

So I would suggest the "default" PCM as defined now in the
default.conf file to be renamed to something like "alsadefault". Then
"default" PCM should be an alias to the alsadefault pcm. This will be
backwards compatible to what users have now and owners of multiple
sound devices can define their "default" pcm in asoundrc referencing
the alsadefault pcm benefiting from the good work already done and not
have to mess with a complex asoundrc file or make changes to the
system configurations files.

Please CC me in replies because I'm not subscribed.

Thanks again for the cool work!

Re: default alsa pcm improvement

[Takashi Iwai]

At Wed, 20 Jan 2010 21:20:40 +0200,
Aleksandar Kostadinov wrote:
> 
> Hello,
> 
> >From some time now ALSA is a real pleasure to use. Namely it works by
> OOB and has lots of predefined useful PCMs so one doesn't need to be a
> guru to do advanced operations.
> 
> I think that a small improvement in how default PCM is defined can
> help users with multiple sound cards that like to use pure ALSA and
> not some of the many available sound servers.
> I want to be able to switch the default sound device easily in
> asoundrc but the way the default pcm is defined makes this not very
> straightforward. I like to use the definitions of default:<CARD> but
> if I define "pcm.!default" in .asoundrc I lose the "default:<CARD>"
> definition. I now can rename the "default" definition in default.conf
> to someting like "defaultorg" and then reference it asoundrc but that
> requires root as well change can possibly disappear after an alsa-lib
> package upgrade. Or I can use the dmix and dsnoop predefined PCMs to
> put together PCMs that I can later reference in my "pcm.!default"
> definition but in this case one needs to know if the card needs
> dsnoop/dmix and probably other tweaks that default.conf contains.
> Additionally this needs to be done for every sound card one owns.

That's true.

> So I would suggest the "default" PCM as defined now in the
> default.conf file to be renamed to something like "alsadefault". Then
> "default" PCM should be an alias to the alsadefault pcm. This will be
> backwards compatible to what users have now and owners of multiple
> sound devices can define their "default" pcm in asoundrc referencing
> the alsadefault pcm benefiting from the good work already done and not
> have to mess with a complex asoundrc file or make changes to the
> system configurations files.

Agreed, I've had also the same idea.  But, a good name didn't come to
my mind, so I didn't actually implement it.

"alsadefault" PCM also sounds somewhat a system-wide default, thus
might be a bit confusing.  Basically it should be a default PCM
definition for each card.  Well... a good godfather / godmother is
wanted ;)


thanks,

Takashi

Re: default alsa pcm improvement

[Aleksandar Kostadinov]

On Fri, Jan 22, 2010 at 12:40 PM, Takashi Iwai <tiwai@suse.de> wrote:
....
>> So I would suggest the "default" PCM as defined now in the
>> default.conf file to be renamed to something like "alsadefault". Then
>> "default" PCM should be an alias to the alsadefault pcm. This will be
>> backwards compatible to what users have now and owners of multiple
>> sound devices can define their "default" pcm in asoundrc referencing
>> the alsadefault pcm benefiting from the good work already done and not
>> have to mess with a complex asoundrc file or make changes to the
>> system configurations files.
>
> Agreed, I've had also the same idea.  But, a good name didn't come to
> my mind, so I didn't actually implement it.
>
> "alsadefault" PCM also sounds somewhat a system-wide default, thus
> might be a bit confusing.  Basically it should be a default PCM

Well, I thought it out to differentiate with userfefault because
"default" actually should mean "userdefault". And alsadefault is what
alsa lib puts as default (really a system default vs user default). So
I still like the name but I see your point also.

here are few more suggestions:
auto:<CARD>
autosense:<CARD>
autoconf:<CARD>
plugandplay:<CARD> #may provoke bad associations
autoplug:<CARD> #may confuse with the plug PCM tyme
alsaauto:<CARD>

> definition for each card.  Well... a good godfather / godmother is
> wanted ;)

Regards,
Aleksandar
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