From owner-freebsd-stable Fri Mar 17 12:34: 9 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Received: from fLuFFy.iNt.tElE.dK (fw1.inet.tele.dk [193.163.158.4]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 330C737B724; Fri, 17 Mar 2000 12:33:50 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from kvindeservice@fluffy.gets.an.analprobe.dk) Received: from localhost (kvindeservice@localhost) by fLuFFy.iNt.tElE.dK (8.9.3/8.9.3) with SMTP id VAA78031; Fri, 17 Mar 2000 21:33:44 +0100 (CET) (envelope-from kvindeservice@fluffy.gets.an.analprobe.dk) X-Authentication-Warning: fLuFFy.iNt.tElE.dK: kvindeservice owned process doing -bs Date: Fri, 17 Mar 2000 21:33:44 +0100 (CET) From: BEWARE OF DOGS X-Sender: kvindeservice@fLuFFy.iNt.tElE.dK Reply-To: FreeBSD@netscum.dk To: current@freebsd.org, stable@freebsd.org Subject: Soundcard support, or something Message-ID: X-Pedophile: BARRY BOUWSMA IS A ROGUE-CANCELLING AND REPOSTING PEDOPHILE MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Moin moin, I guess that -current is now -stable, and so is -stable, but the tests I made were on -current before it became -release, as well as on -stable before it was usurped by -devel, or something, my brane hertz, so I'm sending this to both -current and -stable, even though I bet both lists are frequented by mostly the same hackerz. So tell me I should have sent this to -multimedia instead.... Anyway, I spent last night with a stack of sound cards and a dual-boot machine with 3.4-stable and 4.0-current as of about a week ago, more or less, to try and figure why I failed so miserably with audio recording last week at this time. In short, 4.0-current (and I will bet good money on 5.0-current too) failed pretty miserably with audio recording from all cards, while most were successful (with some limitations) under 3.4-stable. Pilot error should not be dismissed. On the other hand, all cards tested were successful with playback of pre-recorded .wav files, although the mixer interface (aumix) sometimes left something to be desired. Maybe this info will be helpful to someone... I used the pcm k0dez exclusively in -current and 3.4, no Voxware was harmed for this test. Recording was made with a somewhat-hacked version of brec-0.96 or -0.99, with adjustments made to SHM/SEM options in the kernel config file. First, under 3.4-stable, one card that was detected under -current was not found -- some Vibra 16S Soundforte card with what appears to be an on-board FM tuner. * Secondly, again under 3.4-stable, all the soundblaster ISA cards that I tried only recorded a mono sum signal from both left and right input (line) channels. This included a gen-u-wine SB16, a Vibra 16, and an AWE 64. All these were reported at boot as SB16pnp, so there is no doubt some simple toggle to make all of them record stereo and suddenly become useful to me for audio input. The two Soundblaster PCI cards I tried, recorded stereo cleanly under 3.4, matching my previous experience with them in production machines without problems. I've just tossed in the 16 PCI now and have not thoroughly tested the mixer; however, I can say that the aumix program on the 128 PCI (or PCI 128? I know one of them is backwards) has the problem: When I attempt to select the recording source with the space bar (to switch from mic to line), aumix exits with SOUND_MIXER_WRITE_RECSRC. When restarted, the desired change was in fact made. (I can't remember if I see this with -current) I tried one other card that might be supported, a Crystal CS4235 chip on a card whose number I know not, and it was pretty much the same under both 3.4 and -current: Playback (line) worked, the line input was controlled as synth on the mixer, I might have fried the mic input since I never got sound from that, but aumix fails to select the desired source. I had to use the commandline `mixer' and use `=rec line' -- I think aumix tries to use the equivalent of `+rec' which, with this card, always resets the source to mic. However, I never actually got any sound from the line input to the recorded file no matter what I did. I think I used this card a couple years ago under Linux for audio input. Now, on to -current and newpcm: No card resulted in a clean clear recording the way most/all did under 3.4. Here are the results of each: * The SB 128 PCI recorded a sound with a continuous crackly static in the background of audible passages, the level of this depended on the audio level and the static was inaudible with silence. * The PCI 16 had almost a clean sound, so I don't think I botched the compilation of the audio recording program too much. It was not totally clean, with a repeating burst of static every few seconds, kinda like a vinyl record with a bunch of dirt in a stripe across the grooves. The CS4235 card performed (or didn't) as above, with the difference that the recorded silent file seemed to have a bit of static-like noise. * All the SB 16 cards -- the AWE 64, the Soundforte SF16, the SB 16, and the Vibra 16 sounded AWFUL. The recorded .wav file sounded like a chainsaw on overdrive, with no evidence of the audio source. It's real kewl, but somehow not quite exactly what I'm looking for. There are a few minor notes about the performance of aumix with each card, but they pale in comparison with the dirty audio I recorded. I can probably get my mitts all over a Gravis Ultrasound card that worked ... interestingly ... under 3.4 Voxware, but I never tried it under -current newpcm. My conclusion is that nope, I can't toss -current onto a production machine with my at-hand selection of soundcards for recording, and that I'll have to stay with 3.4 for any sound work for now. The only problem irking me with 3.4 is that all the ISA Soundblaster 16 cards that I have only record a mono sum signal, which I never caught in many weeks of production use. Argh. Neither -current nor 3.4 had playback problems with the supported cards. Now, I bet I should followup to this one card at a time on the multi- media list, no? barry bouwms,a, tle danmark internet (a la Reply-To header) -- *** This was posted with the express permission of *** ****************************************************** ** HIS HIGHNESS KAAZMANN LORD AND MASTER OF USENET ** ****************************************************** ********* We are simple servants of his will ********* To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-stable" in the body of the message