Problem with multi channel sound via M Audio Delta 1010LT

[eszwoelf]

Hello everybody -

after days of testing my configuration and having tried nearly everything I hope to get help in this forum.

My case is this:

I have an Ubuntu 11.10 + a M-Audio Delta 1010LT with ICE1712-Chipset in my test-environment.
My Intention is to play a multi channel audio file (not surround but multi channel) and get every channel on a separate output of the Delta 1010LT. Finally I need to configure several Ubuntu-servers.

There is hardly any post or a link I haven't read since now and I've tried several things to get the configuration to work: De-installed pulseaudio since that brought many problems, updated the alsa-stuff, configured a multi-channel .asoundrc (modified for the ice1712-chipset) with an instruction I found on the internet. So I did with the ice1712.conf. I also disabled the default sound device so the Delta 1010LT is the only sound device. Still not working.

When I play my (for example) 3-channel audio file with the vlc-player I get a stereo-output. I can control the output via hearing and visually by using the Envy24-mixer.

I only can guess I found out why: The Terminal tells me the (only) available format is s32le which means 32Bit of my audio file, if I am right. (Tested it by creating a 32bit-file which worked via "aplay" and "mplayer"). *My conclusion was that the Delta 1010LT needs 32bit-stuff which sounds pretty weird to me (as audio normally is 16 or 24bit).

I found just one working configuration which I unfortunately cannot use: I use the vlc-player and Jack for the routing and everything works just fine. *That would mean that Jack converts the file to 32bit before forwarding it to the sound device (??).
But as I mentioned I need to transfer the configuration on Ubuntu-servers which isn't working since the Jack patchbay-file cannot be started / loaded automatically (via Terminal). (tested)

So I am still searching for a solution with just ALSA and VLC. But of course I am open to any other hints or ideas!

I hope there's anyone that can help my with that case.

Thank you!

[AutoStatic]

Hello,

JACK doesn't do ANY conversion. And JACK connections can perfectly be managed from the CLI, you don't need the patchbay for that. There are quite some tools available to manage your connections, like jack_connect from the standard JACK package or a tool like aj-snapshot (http://aj-snapshot.sourceforge.net/).
I think you do need JACK to be able to route every output port of the mediaplayer into the input ports of your sound card (in a JACK context). And you could try a different mediaplayer. I know of some people that work with multichannel stuff that they use mplayer on the CLI.

Best,

Jeremy

[eszwoelf]

Hi Jeremy,

thank you for your quick answer. I will try that as soon as possible and post the results here again.

eszwoelf

[eszwoelf]

It seems as I am getting closer to it.

There was still one configuration missing in the vlc-player: I did choose Jack for audio output but did not check the appropriate checkbox to automatically connect with writeable clients.

After that I was able to start the Jack server and vlc via CLI with correct routing.

Next step is to transfer the whole thing to Ubuntu 10.04 LTS - will report.

eszwoelf

[AutoStatic]

Cool! Keep us posted!

Best,

Jeremy

[eszwoelf]

Hey -

tomorrow I gonna test the server version. I'll report.

Stay tuned
eszwoelf

[eszwoelf]

Hey there,

I am a little bit delayed since I had to order some speakers for the ultimate test which took way longer than I expected.

Will keep you posted.

eszwoelf

[AutoStatic]

Ok, no problem

[eszwoelf]

Got it working. Ubuntu plays three separate channels after being fed with an interleaved ogg-vorbis-coded file.

(Ch1 is my source file (could be any song which I convert to mono), Ch2&3 are generated out of Ch1 and are like a triggered ambient.)

I am really happy it works - Thanks a lot for your help, Jeremy!

eszwoelf

Ps: Talk to you

[AutoStatic]

Hello eszwoelf,

That's great! Which player are you using now? And what kind of hardware on the servers (M-Audio 1010?)?

Best,

Jeremy