Mic volume, ALSA and X-Fi issue

Xyne · 2009-01-01 15:34:00

This is probably a driver issue but I wanted to check if anyone here has found a solution/workaround.

I have a Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer card and it works quite well now with Alsa using the (still) recently released ctxfi driver from the AUR (on x86_64, if that makes any difference). I bought a really cheap analogue microphone a week ago just to have one around (apart from the mic of an old broken headset). When I connect it to the card and turn up the mic volume on the capture panel of alsamixer, I can hear everything through it very clearly while the control is still in the green zone. If I push it up all the way, the input is very loud and I get a lot of background noise.

The problem is that in Audacity and when using arecord, the capture volume is really low (just a whisper) (Yeah, I've selected "capture" on the mic control in alsamixer). I can get better sound if I turn up everything in alsamixer, but then I have the sound blasting in my ears while recording. From what I can tell, input and output channels are "linked" with this driver. Normally you would have one control for mic recording volume and another one for mic playback volume so that you can boost the input only. If I go to the "all" panel in alsamixer, it shows a master out and a master in slider, but adjusting one adjusts the other, etc.

Is there any workaround to this? Does anyone know what's going on with ALSA? Their site still says that they've only received the card specifications. It doesn't even mention that the drivers have finally been open-sourced.

If anyone is using OSS with an X-Fi card, do you have this issue as well? Has OSS already incorporated the open-sourced drivers?

Arch Linux

#1 2009-01-01 15:34:00

Mic volume, ALSA and X-Fi issue

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