LinuxMusicians

I know I have given this thread a slightly dumb title, but dumbness matches the situation I find myself in.

I have an M-Audio 1010LT running with JACK on Lubuntu 13.04. Using envy24control I can set "H/W Out 1" and "H/W Out 2" to "H/W In 4" and "H/W In 5" respectively. This allows me to hear what I am playing through my line-in inputs.

With the JACK Audio Connection Kit I can draw all kinds of lines between output ports (system capture, ardour, etc.) and input ports (system playback, ardour, etc.) but none of these make any difference to what ardour actually hears when I start playing.

Either I have got something wrong with Ardour and Audacity, neither of which hear any sound, or I have got something wrong with the JACK Connections, or I have got something wrong with Envy24control. I would have assumed that if I can hear the sound coming through the computer, then that sound should be found in system:capture that ardour is supposed to be recording from.

I've had this sound card since last December and so far, it's never done anything more exciting than what the most basic built-in sound device can do.

Can anyone suggest how I can sort this problem out? Thanks in advance.


additional edit:
I've had a look around and I think JACK might be trying to use the wrong sound card, ie. the one built into the motherboard. My M-Audio is listed in /proc/asound.cards as card 2. Would this be corrected if I simply disable the onboard sound card? In JACK's settings, I have a choice of "interfaces" such as hw:0, plughw:0, dev/audio. How can I find out which of these (if any) is the card I'm actually trying to use?

another edit (sorry everyone):
I knew this would happen. For such a long time I had this problem. Since asking the question a couple of hours ago, I have ALMOST sorted the problem out. Jack was looking at the wrong card. Now all I don't know is why the bars on the meter in Ardour go up and down, but no sound actually records. I could be at risk of taking my own topic off-topic!

I think you are on the right track.

I'm not sure which one you should choose, but IF YOU ARE USING KXStudio:

you will need to select the correct one in Cadence>>System>>Driver>>Device/Interface.

You will also need to "Switch Master" in Cadence>>System after that selection.

And I think, you should reboot after that.

I am sure others here use the Maudio interface and will be able to offer better clues.

One other thing.

Audacity only makes itself visible for connection in JACK when it is actually recording or playing back, or when paused while doing either of those actions.

Thanks for the tips.

I had seen stuff about how awkward Audacity is for recording (not showing up until you hit the record button). I prefer the look and feel of Audacity, but it hasn't been playing nicely with me recently. I had considered using KXStudio, but at the moment I'm on a very noisy, slow computer while I wait for the bits to build a nice quiet, powerful machine. Lubuntu suits most of my needs at the moment. What I really need to do is keep track of every change I make so that when I set up my next computer, it should all be easier.

What I find is that it's so easy not to notice some very simple things when setting up sound on Linux. It turned out that my computer was making sounds through the 1010, but Jack's connections were working for the in-built sound card.

So would Cadence be the way to go? I know I've seen the name around before but I haven't checked it out yet. It seems there are so many windows that need to be open and so many clicks that need to be done all the time. I'm a computer nerd and I'm a musician, but I'm not a very good studio engineer. However, the good news is that I have made my first ever recording on Linux. If I hadn't posted here and answered my own question, I'd probably still be in the dark.

In my humble opinion, KXStudio is the way to go.

Cadence (as far as I know) only works within KXStudio.

I would do a completely fresh install directly from the KXStudio DVD if I were in your position. I've put KXStudio over top of Ubuntustudio several versions, and it worked very well. But I am amazed at how well installation directly from the KXStudio DVD works. It just works. A few minor tweaks were required here and there, is all.

I use Catia for the JACK interconnections. There are other choices for that, but that's the one I use almost exclusively.

And I use Audacity many times per day.

Hi and welcome to LM!

Using envy24control I can set "H/W Out 1" and "H/W Out 2" to "H/W In 4" and "H/W In 5" respectively. This allows me to hear what I am playing through my line-in inputs.

...

It turned out that my computer was making sounds through the 1010, but Jack's connections were working for the in-built sound card.

I don't think your computer was making any sounds. This was just the 1010 and its built-in hardware mixer.

I've had a look around and I think JACK might be trying to use the wrong sound card, ie. the one built into the motherboard. My M-Audio is listed in /proc/asound.cards as card 2. Would this be corrected if I simply disable the onboard sound card? In JACK's settings, I have a choice of "interfaces" such as hw:0, plughw:0, dev/audio. How can I find out which of these (if any) is the card I'm actually trying to use?

Use hw:

However, there has always been this problem with the card order: It is not persistent between reboots. So, one day your 1010 will be card 0 and next day card 1 or 2. This forces you to check/ change the interface in the jack setup before you start it, almost every time. A chore.

There are two solutions for this. One is give the cards a fixed order, as explained here [1]. The conf file in ubuntu is "/etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf" I use the slots method. You know the driver names from the output of "cat /proc/asound/cards /proc/asound/modules" (you want the names in the second file, the 1010 is driven by snd-ice1712). In any case, if you don't the need the internal audio card, disabling it in the BIOS is a good idea.

Alternatively or in adittion to this, you can call the card by its short name instead of by number. For example, you can edit the interface field in qjackctl and type:

hw:M1010

I am not sure if the name is "M1010". Use whatever it is in /proc/asound/cards, between square brackets.

[1] http://alsa.opensrc.org/MultipleCards#H ... lled_cards

As for Cadence vs qjackctl, I don't think it is related to the problem.

Cadence (as far as I know) only works within KXStudio

The OP doesn't need to install KXstudio from scratch and if he decides to try Cadence, he can install it in lubuntu from the kxtudio repos

Thanks for the recent responses. I disappeared from here again for a couple of days because it was all working fine (WOOHOO)!

Then I came back because it wasn't. Luckily, Pablo said something highly relevant:

"there has always been this problem with the card order: It is not persistent between reboots. So, one day your 1010 will be card 0 and next day card 1 or 2"

This meant a fix was mere moments away. On my previous computer, I had gone into the BIOS and disabled the onboard sound card, but on this computer, searching around the BIOS yielded absolutely nothing. I really couldn't find anything that looked like what I needed to disable. But knowing that the interface name should be hw:M1010LT was essential. I had called it hw:2, which of course changed a couple of reboots later.

Although I have got this working now, the real challenge will be to follow the notes I've taken, and get it right when I do set up a new system. This would be one good reason for not going with KXStudio. Sometimes it's better the devil you know. However, just about anyone who uses Linux must enjoy tinkering with things, so a change some time in the future is inevitable.


By the way, I copied some old stuff from 4-track cassette and made one entirely new recording over the last couple of days. It was comforting to know that no matter what I record or how I do it, I always end up sounding a bit like a school orchestra with just a hint of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop! When I get my first real project done I might consider sharing some sounds on here. I don't know if that would work as a thankyou or as undue punishment!