SBLive (emu10k1) with ALSA and 2.6.4 sounds metallike

HenrikM · n00b Joined: 30 Mar 2004 Posts: 5

Hello!

I've got a strange problem with my soundcard. Whatever I try, it sounds metallike. Voices are quiet whereas the rest seems to be nearly normal. The funny thing about it is that when I try to correct the levels in alsamixer, the sound becomes normal but the levels I keep correcting (named EMU10K1 PCM, PCM, PCM send... etc.) seem to vanish as soon as I stop using the soundcard. This means that I have to adjust the mixer levels as soon as for example xmms switches to the next song. When I try to adjust the levels while the soundcard is not being used, there are no sliders named EMU10K1.

All in all, there are sliders in alsamixer which can be used to correct the sound but their state can not be saved and they are gone as soon as the program using the soundcard stops playing music/sounds/whatever. alsactrl was setup alright so I guess the problem is related to a module or something alike being loaded when playback starts but I simply don't know what exactly is happening....

rfujimoto · Apprentice Joined: 22 Mar 2004 Posts: 195

I'm curious if you've added /etc/init.d/alsasound to your boot runtime level?

Also, try running `alsamixer` as root, then type in `alsactl store` again as root. Then add alsasound to your boot runtime `rc-update add alsasound boot`. Now finally start up the script `/etc/init.d/alsasound start`

That should fix your problems with the sound settings not saving.

HenrikM · n00b Joined: 30 Mar 2004 Posts: 5

Maybe it's just because of my bad English but I *think* I wrote that it is resetting the mixer even between two songs when using xmms. The rc scripts are setup alright, I read more than just one tutorial on setting up ALSA. My problem is related to the mixer settings of sliders only available during playback being lost from song to song or sound to sound - not when rebooting.

Thanks anyway.

rfujimoto · Apprentice Joined: 22 Mar 2004 Posts: 195

Yep, I read to quickly. Sorry about that. I had never needed to set the "emu10k1" setting in alsamixer for volume. Just the master and pcm. Are you in the group audio?

I don't think it's related to the module, but rather xmms resetting things. Have you tried different output plugins? Say OSS if you're using alsa currently or vice-versa?

Sorry 'bout reading your message to quickly.

HenrikM · n00b Joined: 30 Mar 2004 Posts: 5

That was my first thought as well but as it is just the same with mpg123 and all useable output plugins for xmms I discarded that idea. The problematic thing is that at least one of these EMU10K1 sliders has to be at ~90% percent for the soundcard to produce sounds but if all of them are up everything sounds :ugly:

I am in the audio group but what makes things worse is that I get the same results being root.

Henrik

taezou · n00b Joined: 01 Sep 2003 Posts: 15

I have this same problem... nothing except these EMU10k1 sliders affect sound volume, and they are ONLY available if I am playing something with XMMS or BeepMP. If I close them and then open a mixer app, these controls disappear.

jchomarat · Posted: Wed Apr 07, 2004 12:59 pm Post subject:

Stupid thing maybe, but have you updated Alsa in your kernel source to the version 1.03. Bear in mind that after doing that you have also to update alsa-lib and alsa-utils using "~x86"

Use this link to update alsa, it worked perfectly for me : https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=144246&highlight=alsa+patch

Hope this helps

Julien

yemu · Posted: Tue Sep 28, 2004 9:15 am Post subject:

i had the same problem. i'm not sure what I did to get rid of it (i did a lot of things :-)

but i suppose it was turning of the switches on the kmix (i use kde) on the switches tab (next to playback and record).
hope this helps
cheers
yemu
_________________
Centrum Jêzyka Francuskiego VOILA - http://www.voila.edu.pl

Jakub · Posted: Tue Sep 28, 2004 10:27 am Post subject:

Maybe try to unmute the needed sliders (like Master, PCM and Wave) but mute all the other ones. Specifically, mute the SB Live Analog/Digital Output Jack (set it to [Off] with 'm' in alsamixer).

placeholder · Advocate Joined: 07 Feb 2004 Posts: 2500

As for the settings not loading at startup; I had the same problem when my ALSA stuff was compiled into my kernel as modules. I have the same audio card and it has worked flawlessly for a long while. However, when I ran into that problem I just went ahead and compiled the stuff into the kernel instead and the problem went away.

All that /etc/init.d/alsasound does is restores the settings on start and drops them when it is stopped along with loading the modules. So if you want you can compile them into the kernel and just add alsactl restore to /etc/conf.d/local.start and alsactl store to /etc/conf.d/local.stop. If that does not work then at least you cannot say that you did not try. If all else fails then contact me and I could SSH in(no root privelages neccessary) and see what is wrong with your sound settings. Cheers.

hardcampa · n00b Joined: 11 Oct 2002 Posts: 58