Upmix stereo to surround asound.conf ALSA problem [Solved!!]

zen · 2009-09-09 08:49:09

Well, this is the biggest hurdle I've had yet. What I'm trying to do is upmix a stereo source (youtube, amarok, etc.) to surround sound so instead of sound just coming out of my front two speakers, it also comes out of my rear two speakers. I dont really want output out of the center channel but if I get it, no big deal. I also want the system to play back a true surround source (dvd, etc.) in all of it's non-matrixed glory. I'm trying to do this system wide by editing /etc/asound.conf. It shouldn't be that hard to acheive this, I dont think, alsa seems extremely flexible with it's abilities. Here's the contents of /etc/asound.conf.

pcm.!dmix {
type plug
slave {
pcm surround51
channels 6
}
}
pcm.!default {
type plug
slave.pcm "dmix"
slave.channels 6
route_policy duplicate
}

That seems like it should work, but it doesn't. I have a soundblaster audigy se (ca0106) and kde4.3 using the xine backend if that makes a difference. Any ideas why this is failing?

EDIT - For what it's worth, when I issue "speaker-test -c6 -twav" i get the following

Playback device is default
Stream parameters are 48000Hz, S16_LE, 6 channels
WAV file(s)
ALSA lib pcm.c:2084:(snd_pcm_open_conf) type is not defined
Playback open error: -2,No such file or directory

Last edited by zen (2009-09-09 22:25:24)

zen · 2009-09-09 19:46:31

Well, pacman -Syu updated alsa it looks like, which did not make any difference with my error. I tried changing the asound.conf after some further research. Here's my current asound.conf file contents.

# 2.0 to 4.0 simply mirrors the front speakers to the rear speakers.
pcm.20to40 {
type route
slave.pcm surround51
slave.channels 6
ttable.0.0 1
ttable.1.1 1
ttable.0.2 1
ttable.1.3 1
}

Now, when I reboot...still only get sound from front two speakers. I know the system is using this file because speaker-test -c2 -twav works and produces sound from the front L&R speakers now. However, speaker-test -c6 -twav, even though it runs through the list of all the speakers. my LFE and Center, as well as my rear speakers are silent. I think I'm getting closer, but its just not coming together.

I double checked my plugins to make sure I just had unplugged them accidentally also, and they are pluggin in, lol.

Last edited by zen (2009-09-09 19:49:36)

zen · 2009-09-09 19:48:08

Not sure if you guys can make use of this, but aplay -L output is

default:CARD=CA0106
CA0106, CA0106
Default Audio Device
front:CARD=CA0106,DEV=0
CA0106, CA0106
Front speakers
rear:CARD=CA0106,DEV=0
CA0106, CA0106
Rear speakers
center_lfe:CARD=CA0106,DEV=0
CA0106, CA0106
Center and Subwoofer speakers
side:CARD=CA0106,DEV=0
CA0106, CA0106
Side speakers
surround40:CARD=CA0106,DEV=0
CA0106, CA0106
4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=CA0106,DEV=0
CA0106, CA0106
4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=CA0106,DEV=0
CA0106, CA0106
5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=CA0106,DEV=0
CA0106, CA0106
5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=CA0106,DEV=0
CA0106, CA0106
7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
iec958:CARD=CA0106,DEV=0
CA0106, CA0106
IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output
null
Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)

zen · 2009-09-09 20:44:37

This may be a hopeless cause. I got alot of information from #alsa today, and they couldn't figure it out....

So, in short, can someone help me set up a different sound system? (pulse audio maybe) to do what I want to do, because this is crazyness.. lol.. .I know this should work, because I've had it working how I wanted it to in other distros, but something just wont play nice here.

zen · 2009-09-09 22:05:57

UPDATE - After further research, I've learned that the sound blaster audigy SE (or any card with the CA0106 chip) doesn't play nicely with linux. I picked up a soundblaster live 5.1 with a much more compatable (EMU10K1) chip and will be swapping that out today. I beleive one of the benefits of the EMU10K1 is hardware mixing as well. We'll see how it goes.

Edit - Swapped the sound card out, rebooted, problem solved (after unmuting the proper channels). If you are looking at getting a sound card for linux, steer clear of the audigy SE, or any card with a CA0106 chip. While I know they can be setup to work... unless you got time to spare and know more about alsa then most, the older sound blaster live 5.1 (based on the EMU10K1) did the trick right out of the box.

Last edited by zen (2009-09-09 22:28:49)

brebs · 2009-09-09 23:06:53

zen wrote:

also comes out of my rear two speakers

And what about your subwoofer. Upmix the proper way

zen · 2009-09-10 00:48:45

AHA! Thats amazing, thats exactly what I need. I've got a cheap logitech surround so the sound that goes to my main speakers also goes to the sub, thats why I never worried much about sending sound to the center and sub, just the rear two, sub just always worked. It's flawless now that I have the SB Live instead of that Audigy SE, but A low pass filter would help especially with how it's setup. Thanks alot man, lemme play with alsamixer to see if the SB Live can do that via hardware or not. It has waaay more settings in alsamixer then the audigy did.

Well, after playing with all the settings in alsa mixer, I'm pretty sure I have to exchange this SB Live for a different one. They have a whole box of stuff available for $5 a peice, so exchange it wont be hard. Unfortunately, I think the Center/LFE jack is busted on this one. speaker-test -Dplug:center-lfe (or -Dplug:surround51) doesn't give me any output on the center/lfe channels. It seems dead.

I'll be sure to try the Lowpass filter once I get that jack working.

Last edited by zen (2009-09-10 01:30:23)

Arch Linux

#1 2009-09-09 08:49:09

Upmix stereo to surround asound.conf ALSA problem [Solved!!]

#2 2009-09-09 19:46:31

Re: Upmix stereo to surround asound.conf ALSA problem [Solved!!]

#3 2009-09-09 19:48:08

Re: Upmix stereo to surround asound.conf ALSA problem [Solved!!]

#4 2009-09-09 20:44:37

Re: Upmix stereo to surround asound.conf ALSA problem [Solved!!]

#5 2009-09-09 22:05:57

Re: Upmix stereo to surround asound.conf ALSA problem [Solved!!]

#6 2009-09-09 23:06:53

Re: Upmix stereo to surround asound.conf ALSA problem [Solved!!]

#7 2009-09-10 00:48:45

Re: Upmix stereo to surround asound.conf ALSA problem [Solved!!]

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