On Sat, 2004-05-22 at 15:58, Jos Laake wrote:
> Malcolm Baldridge wrote:
>
> Hi again Malcolm,
>
> I wrote earlier:
> >>In my mixer (I'm using the KDE sound mixer) there are a bunch
> >>of sliders, some with record buttons underneath. If I use the
> >>line-in slider ('Line' on my mixer) with the record button on,
> >>I get the results you're talking about.
> >>
> >>BUT!!!
> >>
> >>If I turn on the record button under the 'Line' slider, but
> >>leave the slider all the way down and instead use the slider
> >>marked 'IGain', then my line-in signal goes into the recording
> >>but *NOT* directly through to the line out.
>
> Malcolm wrote:
> > Hrm, I have two problems here.
> >
> > 1) This machine does not have X11, and cannot have X11 on it. Let alone KDE.
> >
> > 2) I don't see "IGain" in the alsamixer at all. I think if I turn down the
> > slider all of the way for "Line-In" I don't get any recorded audio from LINE-IN.
>
> <...snippage...>
>
> > I think I understand what you've done though, and I could probably figure
> > out how to replicate how you've setup your volume controls with alsamixer's
> > understanding of how things are configured on the sound hardware. But it
> > will be alot of trial-and-error. :( Alas, this setup is used during the
> > day so such experimentation will have to wait. Maybe some kind soul knows
> > what "IGain" is under the alsamixer? Maybe it's "Capture Volume"?
>
> Yes, it is. It's kinda tricky, but I took the time to dink
> around with alsamixer to try to get the same results. Here's
> what I came up with:
>
> You need to use the slider marked 'line'. Turn off the mute
> (using the 'M' key so that the -MM- at the top pf the slider
> is gone). Turn on recording (they call it capture) by pressing
> the space bar. Turn the volume on this slider ALL THE WAY DOWN
> so that the numeric readout shows "0<>0". Scroll left among the
> sliders using the right arrow key until you get to the slider
> marked 'Capture'. Unmute ('M') it and also select record on this
> one. At this point, the top of the slider should show 'CAPTUR' in
> red on BOTH the 'Line' slider *and* the 'Capture' slider. Now
> use the volume on the 'Capture' slider to set the recording
> volume, and Voila! You should get the line input in your
> recording but NOT mixed directly through to the output.
>
> Another bizarre little effect; the 'Line-in' slider just to the
> right of the 'Line' slider seems to add some kind of boost to
> the input gain. You might want to play around with that. The
> alsamixer calls it 'Line-In As Surround' in the caption in the
> upper left of the screen, but that seems kinda bogus. Also, the
> on/off (controlled by the 'M' key) seems to be reversed on my
> system which is to say, the boost appears to be on when alsamixer
> sez it's off and off when alsamixer sez it's on. Weird.
>
> > OK, maybe I can get what I want my manually editing the asound.state file
> > and doing an alsactl restore... So much for the GUI! :)
>
> I've never messed much with alsamixer before (and don't care to
> mess much more with it really.) So you'll have to figure out
> how to save your settings.
>
> > I'd really like to see the source document referenced by the engineers who
> > setup the volume control software for ALSA/OSS, because the appearance is
> > one of total chaos and disorganisation. This isn't rocket science, and we
> > aren't talking about THAT many inputs, outputs, and mixers: there's a
> > microphone input (mono, with selectable +20dB boost, and maybe optional
> > power), line input (stereo), CD audio (stereo), PCM wave output (stereo),
> > master output level (stereo).
> >
> > So what do I see under alsamixer? A dozen sliders, some with tri-state
> > toggles in addition to levels, with additional state for "record" or
> > "capture", with non-obvious interdependencies when I switch "sources".
> >
> > Crazy.
>
> Totally crazy. Alsamixer drove me so nuts that I finally gave
> up on it.It's either really buggy or totally non-intuitive or
> both. Maybe somebody who's actually used a soundboard might
> wanna try to redefine that interface so that it works like the
> rest of us would expect it to?
>
> Or better yet (for me anyway) how about a QT based GUI front
> end that actually works like a mixer with mute and record and
> solo buttons input select switches and a separate mastering
> section? (Hint: Put the Master slider on the RIGHT. That's
> how *everybody* else does it.)
What about Qamix...or AlsamixerGUI...or Gnone-alsa-mixer? I like QAmix
the best as it groups the similar like or relevant controls together on
tabs. It also has some midi capabilities which I have not yet tried. Of
them all I've found it easiest of the GUI mixers.
>
> > Even the Dark Lord could not have designed a more intentionally
> > obfuscatory interface to audio hardware,
>
> Well, it certainly blocks the flow of *my* Force. ;-)
>
> ~Jos~
>
