Sound Blaster Live! I/O

[Jackass]

Hello,

I've recently been setting up my box for sound production. But I have a few problems. The most annoying of which is an issue with instant playback from my sound card's input. Even before I run Jack, for some reason ALSA plays back any sound from input. I'm pretty sure it's just a configuration issue, but I'm at a loss trying to find out what to do to fix it. I need more control over what reaches my speakers. It's hard to record when you have to fight with unwanted sound that doesn't get put down on track.

I'm running Linux Mint 8, with a Sound Blaster Live! sound card using the ALSA mixer... I guess. I'm still learning this stuff.

I'd appreciate any help,

Thanks

Tim

[StudioDave]

A few things to know about the Live card: First, it's hard-wired to record at 48 kHz, so if you use JACK make sure it's sampling rate is set to 48000. You can most easily do that with QJackCtl, a GUI for JACK. Consider it an indispensable tool. Install it from a repo if you don't already have it.

You can use the on-board synth but you need to load an SF2 bank into it. You can use the fxload or sfxload utility to do that, IIRC.

I'm sure you know that you'll need an adapter to access the hardware MIDI ports. MIDI isn't too bad with the Live, but I think the PCI128 was actually a bit better with regards to timing and jitter. Don't quote me though.

Btw, if you use another sr with the Live you'll eventually hear some unwanted noise. Use the thing at 48k.

Let us know how you fare.

Best,

dp

[Jackass]

Okay, thanks for that tip on the sampling rate. I was wondering why I was getting that static from. I doubt it will be any problem now.

Anyway, I appreciate all your help. I should have started out by asking here a couple of days ago how to set all this up. However, I have (with much pain) gotten that far. What I'm really having trouble with right now is instant playback of anything coming through the IN jack on my sound card, independent of jackd/qjackctl.

It's really annoying because when I try to play guitar, or use any other input device, I can hear the raw sound over whatever I'm recording, and for that reason I never quite know what I'm recording. So, somehow the sound coming into the sound card is being patched right to the speakers, and I don't know how to change that, or mute it. I've looked for ways to change it in my sound configuration, and tried to find a way to fix it in Jack, but I can't find anything relevant. The problem isn't the way I have my connections set up in Jack, because any sound coming from IN is immediately played from the speakers, even before Jack is started.

Thanks for your help StudioDave,

Tim

[raboof]

What I'm really having trouble with right now is instant playback of anything coming through the IN jack on my sound card, independent of jackd/qjackctl.

Not familiar with your card, but for some cards if i recall correctly the 'direct monitoring' can be turned off by muting something in alsamixer.

[brummer]

Not familiar with your card, but for some cards if i recall correctly the 'direct monitoring' can be turned off by muting something in alsamixer.

it's the "Mic" or/and "Line ", you can mute them, that will disable direct playback, and set the "capture" slider to the level you wone record.

Then you can connect your ports with qjackctl to the destination you wont.

[Jackass]

I'm having trouble seeing any Mic or Line in buttons in the alsamixergui. There's only Master and Capture; no other buttons. Am I looking at the wrong thing?

[StudioDave]

I'm having trouble seeing any Mic or Line in buttons in the alsamixergui. There's only Master and Capture; no other buttons. Am I looking at the wrong thing?

A Live should have about a gazillion controls, not just two. I think your card has been claimed by Pulseaudio or some other server. Try 'killall pulseaudio' then open the alsamixergui. If there's no change, it may simply mean that Pulseaudio is set for persistent behavior, i.e. it will always activate itself whenever there's a call to audio resources. No fear, there's a way to disable persistence, but I don't recall it just now. Anyone else know how it's done ?

It also occurs to me that you should check alsamixergui to make sure it's reading the controls for the Live and not for your on-board soundchip. In the top left corner of the mixer it reports which device it's reading.

What does 'cat /proc/alsa/cards' report ?

[raboof]

you should check alsamixergui to make sure it's reading the controls for the Live and not for your on-board soundchip. In the top left corner of the mixer it reports which device it's reading.

What does 'cat /proc/alsa/cards' report ?

I'd say this is your most likely culprit. use 'alsamixer -c 1' to open the mixer for your second card.

[Jackass]

I found the problem. alsamixergui seems to be claimed by Pulseaudio, but I gave up on that a while ago. I just typed alsamixer in my console and got to the mixers for my Live card. Then I muted AC97, which was the magic slider I was looking for. I don't know how it got included in the TriTech mixer but it's there, and muting it solved my problem.

A better mixer for Alsa if you're using Gnome is GNOME Alsa Mixer for anyone interested.

Thanks for your help everyone! I appreciate your time.

Best regards,

Tim

[raboof]

alsamixergui seems to be claimed by Pulseaudio, (...) I just typed alsamixer in my console and got to the mixers for my Live card.

Aargh, i assumed alsamixergui would just be the gui version of alsamixer.

A better mixer for Alsa if you're using Gnome is GNOME Alsa Mixer for anyone interested.

Good to know - i'm comfortable with plain alsamixer myself though.

[Pablo]

Have you tried gamix? It is a graphical front-end for alsamixer, similar to gnome-alsamixer but with a (imo) better layout.
Cheers! Pablo

[pkslot]

A few things to know about the Live card: First, it's hard-wired to record at 48 kHz, so if you use JACK make sure it's sampling rate is set to 48000. You can most easily do that with QJackCtl, a GUI for JACK. Consider it an indispensable tool. Install it from a repo if you don't already have it.

Does this sampling rate setting also count in audacity?

And thanks for the info, i didn't know this