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Raffaele BELARDI <raffaele.belardi@××.com> posted |
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1207924415.6155.35.camel@×××××××××××××.com, excerpted below, on Fri, 11 |
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Apr 2008 16:33:35 +0200: |
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> Actually it's the ADC/DAC that performs the mixing (the AD1986A in this |
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> case). I checked the chip specs, it supports spreading 2ch over 6ch so |
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> probably the feature is not yet supported by ALSA. Also some search in |
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> the Gentoo forums confirm this |
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> (http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-414308-postdays-0-postorder-asc- |
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start-25.html) |
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In parallel with the other reply (which I was going to reply to but hit |
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the wrong key and deleted instead, sorry) suggesting jack, AFAIK, ALSA |
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does have software mixing for this sort of thing as well, but it involves |
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rather "deeper magic" with the various plugins than I've ventured into, |
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myself. It's apparently extremely flexible -- if you know how to setup |
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the plugins in the right order, output of one into the input of the next, |
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etc. |
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There ought to be documentation out there for it and I've always been |
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going to look into it, but then I got a 5.1 Onkyo amp and now just use |
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its surround mixing and send the standard two-channel out the digital PCM |
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out on the computer, via the coax, to the digital PCM coax input on the |
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Onkyo. I figure it's about the same anyway, since the source I'm playing |
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is two-channel stereo to begin with. Except, if I really knew what I was |
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doing, doing it in software on the computer side would probably give me |
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rather more flexibility, but doing it on the Onkyo has been "good |
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enough", and offloads those extra CPU cycles compared to doing it in |
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software on the computer, as well. |
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BTW, the going opinion (at least the going opinion on /. whenever a |
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computer audio article comes up, however you judge /that/ opinion) is |
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that it's basically impossible to get good quality on-computer sound no |
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matter /what/ board you have in the computer, simply because there's too |
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much electrical noise in there. Not that it's going to matter on say 128 |
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kbps MP3s or cheap computer speakers anyway, but for good recording or |
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decent quality source and playback over a decent system, the |
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recommendation is to NOT do the DAC in-computer, but either use digital- |
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out (even on the built-in sound) and an external amp (as I'm doing now), |
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or one of those USB or firewire based soundcards, thus getting the DAC |
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out of the computer case and into its own somewhat more electrically |
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isolated environment. |
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-- |
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Duncan - List replies preferred. No HTML msgs. |
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"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master -- |
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and if you use the program, he is your master." Richard Stallman |
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-- |
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