This post may be a bit late--but I think it still worth mentioning that the issue with sound cards runs deeper than just whether the sound device is soldered on the mother board or inserted in a pci slot. The question is really about where the dsp work is done, and more specifically whether the card is able to mix on its chips or requires that task to be performed by the main board cpu systems. In this, the issue is a lot like the old modem days. Once upon a time modems came with their own on board dsp chips, then that task was migrated to the cpu and all hell broke loose for us. There's the additional insanity, perpetuated for a long time by the primary alsa developers, that the proper behavior of a sound device was to queue sounds to be played sequentially. This was even so stated in the primary ALSA FAQ as "correct behavior," and "don't bother us about it." Fortunately, that outrageous statement seems to have been retracted somewhere along the line. Still, it exhibits the depth of real world understanding of many people who just simply don't understand sound. Fortunately, the wider world of Linux has begun to notice. The upcoming Fedora 4, for example, will include dmix by default. I guess that's good, but I'd still rather have my mix done in hardware, off the cpu, as the default card behavior. Steve Holmes writes: > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > Hash: SHA1 > > The man page does mention the -D (uppercase) option but doesn't say a > lot about it. I just did a 'arecord -l' and got some interesting > info. > > I'm really tempted to install a second card in my machine as I'm not > happy with how ALSA deals with my SI7012 on-board sound card. My MIC > gains are very low and under linux are plain staticy. I can't even > use the reflector effectively. My soundblaster live card used to be > great though that was in a different machine. I also get a repeated > ticking noise whenever I record using arecord on linux. Goldwave > records line input just fine under windows but the mic gain is > extremely low over there too. I'm about to conclude that on-board > sound cards just don't cut it! > > On Tue, Mar 01, 2005 at 08:37:39AM -0500, Chuck Hallenbeck wrote: > > Cheryl, > > > > The option is -D (capitalized) but it is never explained. Janina once > > described the syntax for using aplay on a second card, so perhaps the > > same syntax works for arecord. Maybe she can elaborate. But meanwhile, > > try this: > > > > arecord -D hw:1,0 ... other parameters > > > > The "1" is what specifies your second card. > > > > HTH > > > > Chuck > > > > > > On Mon, 28 Feb 2005, Cheryl Homiak wrote: > > > > > > > >Does anybody know whether there's an option for arecord to work on your > > >second soundcard. I didn't see it in the info or man page. > > >Thanks. > > > > > > > > > > > > > -- > > The Moon is Waning Gibbous (73% of Full) > > The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons. > > Personal site www.hhs48.com, Software site www.mhcable.com/~chuckh > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Speakup mailing list > > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca > > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup > > > > > > - -- > HolmesGrown Solutions > The best solutions for the best price! > http://ld.net/?holmesgrown > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- > Version: GnuPG v1.2.4 (GNU/Linux) > > iD8DBQFCJHsFWSjv55S0LfERAq+7AJ9ndXA3warfUzkcNXKgKCuvfZ7HIQCfT4/L > VUFvB5T4NxEhFdfhvI6S5sg= > =Yda+ > -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- > > _______________________________________________ > Speakup mailing list > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup -- Janina Sajka Phone: +1.202.494.7040 Partner, Capital Accessibility LLC http://www.CapitalAccessibility.Com Chair, Accessibility Workgroup Free Standards Group (FSG) janina at freestandards.org http://a11y.org If Linux can't solve your computing problem, you need a different problem.
