How can I figure out if my sound card supports hardware mixing?

daedalusman · 2010-01-09 00:17:47

Title pretty much says it all. Is there some easy way to figure out if my sound card supports hardware mixing? I am pretty sure my sound card is the intel hd audio, it uses snd-hda-intel kernel module.

Also, if it doesn't support hardware mixing, what are some good sound cards that work well under linux that do support hardware mixing?

Thanks for any help, much appreciated.

brebs · 2010-01-09 01:53:51

See my recommendation - Audigy 4.

ngoonee · 2010-01-09 01:59:52

I suppose you could always try to directly access hw:0 in alsa twice with two different aplay instances.

Why are you interested in hardware mixing anyway? My understanding is that even relatively pro-audio cards don't support this anymore (besides the older ones), and things like per-app volume control would still be a software rather than hardware matter.

daedalusman · 2010-01-09 04:21:28

brebs wrote:

See my recommendation - Audigy 4.

Thanks, I use to own an Audigy 2, I wish I had not let that one go. Oh well.

Why are you interested in hardware mixing anyway? My understanding is that even relatively pro-audio cards don't support this anymore (besides the older ones), and things like per-app volume control would still be a software rather than hardware matter.

I guess there is no real good reason why I want hardware mixing. I don't really need it, as my system is plenty powerful and I rarely do anything that would really benefit from having the capability. But sometimes a man just wants something.

ngoonee · 2010-01-09 05:34:00

daedalusman wrote:

Why are you interested in hardware mixing anyway? My understanding is that even relatively pro-audio cards don't support this anymore (besides the older ones), and things like per-app volume control would still be a software rather than hardware matter.
I guess there is no real good reason why I want hardware mixing. I don't really need it, as my system is plenty powerful and I rarely do anything that would really benefit from having the capability. But sometimes a man just wants something.

Make that 'never', since I've never heard of any specific benefit of hardware mixing over software mixing besides the generic "but we should do things in hardware!" and some efficiency concerns.

I do understand the lure of features though . Unfortunately for you, this particular feature is becoming really rare.

Off-topic - whenever a man 'just wants something' I immediately start worrying about legality

daedalusman · 2010-01-09 05:46:05

ngoonee wrote:

daedalusman wrote:
Why are you interested in hardware mixing anyway? My understanding is that even relatively pro-audio cards don't support this anymore (besides the older ones), and things like per-app volume control would still be a software rather than hardware matter.
I guess there is no real good reason why I want hardware mixing. I don't really need it, as my system is plenty powerful and I rarely do anything that would really benefit from having the capability. But sometimes a man just wants something.
Make that 'never', since I've never heard of any specific benefit of hardware mixing over software mixing besides the generic "but we should do things in hardware!" and some efficiency concerns.
I do understand the lure of features though . Unfortunately for you, this particular feature is becoming really rare.
Off-topic - whenever a man 'just wants something' I immediately start worrying about legality

Yeah, I was pretty much thinking the same. After thinking about it a little more and reading up on this else where I decided to get the Asus Xonar D1 PCI. It will give me better sound quality than my on board, which is really what I was looking for anyway. But thanks for the comments.

Oh, and I assure you nothing of illegality happened here.

brebs · 2010-01-09 07:01:43

ngoonee wrote:

Why are you interested in hardware mixing anyway?

Because it's less hassle, and it's less CPU-intensive.

ALSA's emulation of OSS bypasses dmix (i.e. software mixing), which has confused the hell out of countless newbies. This was not an issue for me, because dmix wasn't needed anyway, so ALSA's emulation of OSS just plain *worked*.

With e.g. Doom3, hardware mixing results in a noticeably smoother framerate - even when nothing else is playing sound.

I've wasted a huge amount of time comparing the soundcards I've owned - Audigy 2 ZS, Audigy 4, Hercules Fortissimo 3, Terratec Aureon 5.1 Fun, M-Audio Revolution 5.1, X-fi Xtreme Gamer (which could only manage stereo in the Linux driver, when I had it) and 3 hda-intel onboard variants. The Audigy 4 is the best, and only a musician would notice or care about the 48khz resampling. The comparisons were done with decent speakers, and decent headphones.

The farcical thing about many soundcard threads (not this one, thankfully) is that people try to argue the pros & cons, when they don't even own one of the two soundcards being compared! The FUD on this topic reaches religious levels

ngoonee · 2010-01-09 09:46:54

Well, you come from a very different background from me then, my concern is music-making, and re-sampling is pretty important I'd say.

But yes, the topic is just about exhausted. Soundcard comparisons, just like headphone/speaker comparisons, are all about opinion in any case.

kelnoky · 2010-01-09 13:49:58

Hardware mixing also allows you to easily play Enemy Territory while using Teamspeak. Very important!

ngoonee · 2010-01-10 07:18:33

I use pulseaudio . The ONLY benefit of hardware mixing over software mixing is a (very) slight gain in efficiency. Software is much more flexible. No contest, in my opinion.

Arch Linux

#1 2010-01-09 00:17:47

How can I figure out if my sound card supports hardware mixing?

#2 2010-01-09 01:53:51

Re: How can I figure out if my sound card supports hardware mixing?

#3 2010-01-09 01:59:52

Re: How can I figure out if my sound card supports hardware mixing?

#4 2010-01-09 04:21:28

Re: How can I figure out if my sound card supports hardware mixing?

#5 2010-01-09 05:34:00

Re: How can I figure out if my sound card supports hardware mixing?

#6 2010-01-09 05:46:05

Re: How can I figure out if my sound card supports hardware mixing?

#7 2010-01-09 07:01:43

Re: How can I figure out if my sound card supports hardware mixing?

#8 2010-01-09 09:46:54

Re: How can I figure out if my sound card supports hardware mixing?

#9 2010-01-09 13:49:58

Re: How can I figure out if my sound card supports hardware mixing?

#10 2010-01-10 07:18:33

Re: How can I figure out if my sound card supports hardware mixing?

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