Arch Linux

froxi

Member

From: de

Registered: 2015-12-05

Posts: 2

Problem with Pulseaudio and Scarlett 18i8

Apologies in advance for my not so profound knowledge of linux and arch in general, i just switched recently from windows.
I use the Scarlett 18i8 as my main soundcard to drive my speakers and headphones. It's working really great so far but there is one pretty annoying problem left:
Pulseaudio is recognizing the device as 7.1 output but the 18i8 has 4 stereo outputs! Therefore VLC (and other apps) is playing movies in 7.1 mode and not stereo as it should. It's really noticeable when listening to music in ncmpcpp.

I tried setting it to Analog-Stereo via

pactl set-card-profile 1 output:analog-stereo

but it returns

Failure: no such entity

So i looked into

pacmd list-cards

and it shows why

3 card(s) available.
index 1:
	name: <alsa_card.usb-Focusrite_Scarlett_18i8_USB_10000F18-00>
	driver: <module-alsa-card.c>
	owner module: 7
	properties:
		alsa.card = "2"
		alsa.card_name = "Scarlett 18i8 USB"
		alsa.long_card_name = "Focusrite Scarlett 18i8 USB at usb-0000:00:1a.0-1.4, high speed"
		alsa.driver_name = "snd_usb_audio"
		device.bus_path = "pci-0000:00:1a.0-usb-0:1.4:1.0"
		sysfs.path = "/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1a.0/usb1/1-1/1-1.4/1-1.4:1.0/sound/card2"
		udev.id = "usb-Focusrite_Scarlett_18i8_USB_10000F18-00"
		device.bus = "usb"
		device.vendor.id = "1235"
		device.vendor.name = "Focusrite-Novation"
		device.product.id = "8014"
		device.product.name = "Scarlett 18i8"
		device.serial = "Focusrite_Scarlett_18i8_USB_10000F18"
		device.string = "2"
		device.description = "Scarlett 18i8"
		module-udev-detect.discovered = "1"
		device.icon_name = "audio-card-usb"
	profiles:
		input:multichannel-input: Multichannel Input (priority 1, available: unknown)
		output:analog-surround-71: Analog Surround 7.1 Output (priority 3700, available: unknown)
		output:analog-surround-71+input:multichannel-input: Analog Surround 7.1 Output + Multichannel Input (priority 3701, available: unknown)
		off: Off (priority 0, available: unknown)
	active profile: <output:analog-surround-71+input:multichannel-input>
	sinks:
		alsa_output.usb-Focusrite_Scarlett_18i8_USB_10000F18-00.analog-surround-71/#1: Scarlett 18i8 Analog Surround 7.1
	sources:
		alsa_output.usb-Focusrite_Scarlett_18i8_USB_10000F18-00.analog-surround-71.monitor/#1: Monitor of Scarlett 18i8 Analog Surround 7.1
		alsa_input.usb-Focusrite_Scarlett_18i8_USB_10000F18-00.multichannel-input/#2: Scarlett 18i8 Multichannel
	ports:
		multichannel-input: Multichannel Input (priority 0, latency offset 0 usec, available: unknown)
			properties:
				
		analog-output: Analog Output (priority 9900, latency offset 0 usec, available: unknown)
			properties:

So Analog Surround 7.1 Output is the only Profile but

aplay -L 

shows more available modes

sysdefault:CARD=USB
    Scarlett 18i8 USB, USB Audio
    Default Audio Device
front:CARD=USB,DEV=0
    Scarlett 18i8 USB, USB Audio
    Front speakers
surround21:CARD=USB,DEV=0
    Scarlett 18i8 USB, USB Audio
    2.1 Surround output to Front and Subwoofer speakers
surround40:CARD=USB,DEV=0
    Scarlett 18i8 USB, USB Audio
    4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=USB,DEV=0
    Scarlett 18i8 USB, USB Audio
    4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=USB,DEV=0
    Scarlett 18i8 USB, USB Audio
    5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=USB,DEV=0
    Scarlett 18i8 USB, USB Audio
    5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=USB,DEV=0
    Scarlett 18i8 USB, USB Audio
    7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
iec958:CARD=USB,DEV=0
    Scarlett 18i8 USB, USB Audio
    IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output

So my question is:
Is it possible to manual add a pulseaudio profile or is there a way to route all the other channels to the left-front and right-front channels?

Thanks in advance and please tell me if I should provide more infos!

Last edited by froxi (2015-12-05 17:17:43)

hannson

Member

From: .de

Registered: 2014-01-28

Posts: 37

Website

Re: Problem with Pulseaudio and Scarlett 18i8

Saw this in another thread, might help? https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pu … nd_systems
Btw, welcome to the forums!

Last edited by hannson (2015-12-07 15:35:57)

froxi

Member

From: de

Registered: 2015-12-05

Posts: 2

Re: Problem with Pulseaudio and Scarlett 18i8

That looks pretty promising, i'll give it a try!
Thank you for the nice welcome and the help

jmx

Member

Registered: 2016-02-06

Posts: 19

Re: Problem with Pulseaudio and Scarlett 18i8

Hey froxi,

did you find a solution for this issue? I'd be very interested in your efforts, since I've also got a Scarlett 18i8 and ran into the exact same problem.

Best,
jmx