No Instrument Connections for SB Live 5.1

[Adam Sweet]

Recently reinstalled a working Jokosher devel Dapper system with svn Jokosher and CVS gstreamer with Edgy.

Installed all packages listed on http://jokosher.python-hosting.com/wiki/JokosherOnUbuntu and
http://jokosher.python-hosting.com/wiki/InstallingCvsGstreamer

Have checked out and compiled gstreamer from CVS as per above instructions, updated and rebuilt several times as per gstreamer instructions' build-all script.

Have checked out latest svn Jokosher and updated on several occasions (rev 933 atm).

I have 2 soundcards, Delta-44 and SB Live 5.1, SB Live is default sound card in Gnome. Have enabled and unmuted all 'capture devices' in Gnome Audio preferences.

Problem is that I have Delta-44 Instrument connections in Jokosher but none for SB Live. I can play guitar via external mixer through line-in port of SB Live and hear through speakers, but can't record it in Jokosher due to missing Instrument Connections. In Jokosher Instrument Connections have only Delta-44 ICE1712 devices and 'Multichannel Capture/PT Playback input 0' which appears to capture sound from the system (ie Rhythmbox if it's running).

Can provide screen shot of instrument connections or Gnome Audio settings etc if required.

adam@marvin:~/sources/gstreamer/head/trunk$ cat /proc/asound/cards
 0 [Live ]: EMU10K1 - SB Live 5.1
                      SB Live 5.1 (rev.7, serial:0x80641102) at 0xa800, irq 185
 1 [M44 ]: ICE1712 - M Audio Delta 44
                      M Audio Delta 44 at 0xbc00, irq 209

adam@marvin:~/sources/gstreamer/head/trunk$ lspci
<abbreviated>
00:0a.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Live! EMU10k1 (rev 07)
00:0a.1 Input device controller: Creative Labs SB Live! MIDI/Game Port (rev 07)
00:0b.0 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies Inc. ICE1712 [Envy24] PCI Multi-Channel I/O Controller (rev 02)

No idea if problem is with Gnome, ALSA, CVS gstreamer or Jokosher but will take suggestions to locate problem.

[Adam Sweet (adsweet76)]

Included screen shot of Instrument Connections.

[John Green (john-thegreens)]

The device detection code has changed quite a bit. If you have an old ~/.jokosher/config then this has been known to cause problems. It might be worth trying to delete that first and then seeing what gets detected.

[Adam Sweet (adsweet76)]

Have tried this several times

[John Green (john-thegreens)]

OK. Try running the attached script which is culled from the ALSA detection code only before it removes duplicates and any other funky stuff. This should just give what HAL is reporting through DBUS. Just to see if your card is being picked up in the first place.

[Adam Sweet (adsweet76)]

OK, ran the above script and output as follows:

adam@marvin:~$ python ./sources/gstreamer/head/devices.py

Devices for playback
Multichannel Playback hw:1
Multichannel Capture/PT Playback hw:1
ADC Capture/Standard PCM Playback hw:1
ICE1712 multi hw:0

Devices for capture
Multichannel Capture/PT Playback hw:1
Mic Capture hw:1
ADC Capture/Standard PCM Playback hw:1
ICE1712 multi hw:0

Which seems to conclude that D-BUS isn't seeing my Sound Blaster Live 5.1. Does this make it my problem and not a Jokosher problem? Any idea where to go now?

[John Green (john-thegreens)]

You said that you had 2 cards and this shows 2 cards (the hw:0 and hw:1). Try the following command

arecord -l

which should display what alsa thinks the capture devices are and

aplay -l

for playback devices. I don't really know what's happening here. This shows the delta as card 0 and on your first report it was card 1. The other card in the last list you gave might still be the SB but we're reading the wrong description. arecord seems to give longer info.

[Adam Sweet (adsweet76)]

adam@marvin:~$ arecord -l
**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Live [SB Live 5.1], device 0: emu10k1 [ADC Capture/Standard PCM Playback]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Live [SB Live 5.1], device 1: emu10k1 mic [Mic Capture]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Live [SB Live 5.1], device 2: emu10k1 efx [Multichannel Capture/PT Playback]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: M44 [M Audio Delta 44], device 0: ICE1712 multi [ICE1712 multi]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

adam@marvin:~$ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Live [SB Live 5.1], device 0: emu10k1 [ADC Capture/Standard PCM Playback]
  Subdevices: 32/32
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
  Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
  Subdevice #2: subdevice #2
  Subdevice #3: subdevice #3
  Subdevice #4: subdevice #4
  Subdevice #5: subdevice #5
  Subdevice #6: subdevice #6
  Subdevice #7: subdevice #7
  Subdevice #8: subdevice #8
  Subdevice #9: subdevice #9
  Subdevice #10: subdevice #10
  Subdevice #11: subdevice #11
  Subdevice #12: subdevice #12
  Subdevice #13: subdevice #13
  Subdevice #14: subdevice #14
  Subdevice #15: subdevice #15
  Subdevice #16: subdevice #16
  Subdevice #17: subdevice #17
  Subdevice #18: subdevice #18
  Subdevice #19: subdevice #19
  Subdevice #20: subdevice #20
  Subdevice #21: subdevice #21
  Subdevice #22: subdevice #22
  Subdevice #23: subdevice #23
  Subdevice #24: subdevice #24
  Subdevice #25: subdevice #25
  Subdevice #26: subdevice #26
  Subdevice #27: subdevice #27
  Subdevice #28: subdevice #28
  Subdevice #29: subdevice #29
  Subdevice #30: subdevice #30
  Subdevice #31: subdevice #31
card 0: Live [SB Live 5.1], device 2: emu10k1 efx [Multichannel Capture/PT Playback]
  Subdevices: 8/8
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
  Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
  Subdevice #2: subdevice #2
  Subdevice #3: subdevice #3
  Subdevice #4: subdevice #4
  Subdevice #5: subdevice #5
  Subdevice #6: subdevice #6
  Subdevice #7: subdevice #7
card 0: Live [SB Live 5.1], device 3: emu10k1 [Multichannel Playback]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: M44 [M Audio Delta 44], device 0: ICE1712 multi [ICE1712 multi]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

My apologies if this turns out not to be a Jokosher problem, but I'm very grateful for your help :)

[John Green (john-thegreens)]

So it looks like what Jokosher describes as 'Multichannel Capture/PT Playback' is actually your SB card. (Both descriptions are in the arecord output.) Maybe we could look at our options for picking out the text labels we are displaying as this looks like we might be causing some confusion.

The next trick is to get it working :) You have to connect through whatever mixer you use and select record to either line-in or capture or whatever you have to do to make it work.

Sorry I'm not an expert at this sort of thing. It looks like getting soundcards to play with Jokosher might be a bit of an adventure for some setups :)

[Adam Sweet (adsweet76)]

OK, if I open a new project, add a new drum kit instrument, import a wav of a drum track into the instrument, add another new instrument, this time a bass guitar, disarm the drum track, arm the bass track and then change the instrument connection for the bass guitar to Multichannel Capture/PT Playback, I get a recording of the drum track in the bass track, but quieter.

The problem for me apart from the above is that in Dapper there were more audio inputs for the SB Live in Jokosher, such as a mic input and a line input etc, now there is only one. And they worked.

I will include some screenshots of my Gnome Audio properties so you can see whether I am missing something stupid...

[Michael Sheldon (michael-sheldon)]

> The problem for me apart from the above is that in Dapper there were more audio inputs
> for the SB Live in Jokosher, such as a mic input and a line input etc, now there is only one.
> And they worked.

This is normal, we no longer configure the user's mixer for them, we just see how many channels their device offers and let them select those channels (input 0, input 1, etc.). So the user now has to make sure their mixer is configured correctly themselves.

Could you try disabling sound capture from everything except for Line LiveDrive Capture, Capture and AC97 Capture? (toggle the little microphone switch in the mixer's capture panel)

[Adam Sweet (adsweet76)]

Ok, I have used the switches to disable everything except line-in and turned off all of the capture devices except Line LiveDrive Capture, Capture and AC97 Capture but still no cigar. Interesting thing is I'm not using a LiveDrive...

Also, perhaps this helps, Gnome Sound Recorder produced an error stating that my audio settings are invalid and that I should change them in the multimedia settings before bailing out, until these changes. Now the programs opens correctly, but all selected capture devices revert to AC97 as soon as I hit record and nothing gets recorded.

That leads me even further away from Jokosher as the cause of the problem. So perhaps this bug should be closed as invalid.

[John Green (john-thegreens)]

FWIW my experiences with the gnome mixer have not been great. It won't show any capture options for my card. Using the console based alsamixer lets me set things right though.

[Adam Sweet (adsweet76)]

Here is a screenshot of alsamixer, the line capture device seems to be in some way disabled or something. Any advice in enabling?

[Ernst Persson (ernstp)]

I'm having some trouble with this also, and I have an Audigy 2 ZS
I can't connect an instrument to anything at all in Jokosher.
The capture device for Line In is Analog Mixer I think, btw..

[Ernst Persson (ernstp)]

Oh, wait, you see a list of input. My bug is that my soundcard isn't listed by hal.

[isabella (isabella)]

Having same issue with no capture ability on sb live's line-in when using any recording software. But i found something not mentioned so far, it WILL capture from other external sources such as AUX IN 2, and MIC/LINE In 2 on the Live! Drive (the expansion box that goes in a 5 1/4 slot) and is controllable on the gnome-mixer as Line LiveDrive and Line2 LineDrive under the Capture tab.

Other observations and thoughts:
 In the gnome mixer under Playback tab there is a line-in slider with a little speaker (playback) but no little microphone (capture) exactly as seen in the screencapture above.

 On the gnome mixer under Switches tab (as also seen above) is an oddly placed line-in switch (and also a mic-in more on that later) that when clicked behaves exactly as if you had clicked the little speaker under line-in in the playback tab. It seems this switch should really be on the Playback tab under line-in as a little microphone.

 It seems both alsa and gnome mixers consider any source originating from the pc such as wave, cd, etc as playback and external sources as capture. For some reason the microphone and line in sources are listed under playback and could that be somehow confusing the mixers? How does alsa know what controls to display is there a preset list for each card in the driver or does it probe the card for a list?

 I'll try to dig up some more info on my own but any pointers would be appreciated.

[Michael Sheldon (michael-sheldon)]

Hi isabella,

 The switches you see in playback are unlikely to be related to capture, these enable the input to be played straight through the soundcard (without the data ever even touching ALSA), so you can hear the input through your speakers whether you're attempting to record something or not. It's quite normal on many sound cards to see at least the microphone listed under both capture and playback. But I have no idea why the SB Live should be reporting the line-in only on the playback tab.

 The available devices and mixers should be presented to ALSA through the card's ALSA driver (which I think in turn queries the hardware itself, although this may not be the case).

 I may try and get my hands on a second hand SB Live in a few months so I can have a poke around, but it'd be great if you could continue looking in to the problem and save me the trouble ;).

 Cheers,
  Mike.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for Jokosher because there has been no activity for 60 days.]