soundcard confusion

soundcard confusion

['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?

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.

Re: soundcard confusion

[Thomas Sailer]

'Terra NovA' B. Loeding wrote:

> 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.

> 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.

> What's the difference between /dev/audio and /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.

> Why do most command line sound programs want to output
> to /dev/audio by default?

Maybe inherited from old Sun audio hardware.

> Why I'm I not getting any sound from /dev/dsp?

maybe because the mixer volume is too low?

> Why is the lineout channel (dsp1) so low on volume?

Same as above probably

> 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

> 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

re: soundcard confusion

[Etienne Grossmann]

  Hello,

  sorry, I don't have many answers :

> 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"?


> What's the difference between /dev/audio and /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.

> Why I'm I not getting any sound from /dev/dsp?

  None none? Turned the volume up?

> 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