I'm running slack-11 on a laptop, and would like to use it to digitize some old
78's off my stereo. The laptop has no audio line in, only a mono mic jack.

I've borrowed an Audigy 2 NX USB sound device off my son, and recompiled my
kernel with the necessary snd_usb_audio modules. When I plug it in, all the
modules appear. Cat /proc/asound/cards reveals the presence of the audigy as
well as the built in Via sound system. Running "alsamixer -c 1" enables me to
unmute the mixer in the time honoured fashion. KInfoCenter shows both cards to
be present. Everything appears to be working fine - except I can't get a
squeak out of the damned thing!

It isn't hardware, because it works fine under windoze.

The internal via card still works OK - in fact I think this is the problem: the
internal card is taking priority over the audigy!

How do I force the system to use the audigy instead of the internal card, when
it is connected?

I want to leave the Via card as default, as that is how the machine is mostly
used, but I do need to be able to over-ride it to use the Audigy when
requested, and I can't find any obvious way of doing this!

I'm sure it must be simple!

Suggestions, please?


--
Pete
christy@NOattglobalSPAM.net
(make the obvious amendments to reply!)

On 2007-01-30, Peter Christy <christy@attglobal.net> wrote:
> The internal via card still works OK - in fact I think this is the problem: the
> internal card is taking priority over the audigy!

I think so, what about to rmmod (of internal card)?

> I'm sure it must be simple!

Maybe not so simple: Second idea is that you install jack (and qjack) and a
programm that communicates with jack like audacity. From jack you can select
hardware (hw). The only drawback is that you have to install some
dependecies, I don't remember. lame, libsndfile,
libsamplerate and some others, to work with audacity.

--
Please excuse my english writing!
Slackware 11
Knowledge report: One year, still plenty to learn

> I think so, what about to rmmod (of internal card)?

Maybe, but there are a lot of dependent modules loaded as well. You can't just
unload the via module without unloading the others, and they are probably
needed for the audigy card.....
*
>> I'm sure it must be simple!
>
> Maybe not so simple: Second idea is that you install jack (and qjack) and a
> programm that communicates with jack like audacity. From jack you can select
> hardware (hw). The only drawback is that you have to install some
> dependecies, I don't remember. lame, libsndfile,
> libsamplerate and some others, to work with audacity.

Hmm! That's a possibility! I already have Audacity installed - along with its
dependencies. In fact that's what I want to use to record my old 78's!

I've heard of jack vaguely, but never investigated as its not something I've
needed - until now anyway! Thanks for the pointer - I'll look into it!

Oh, and by the way - your English is much better than my Greek ;-)

Cheers,

--
Pete
christy@NOattglobalSPAM.net
(make the obvious amendments to reply!)

On 2007-01-31, Peter Christy <christy@attglobal.net> wrote:
> Maybe, but there are a lot of dependent modules loaded as well. You can't just
> unload the via module without unloading the others, and they are probably
> needed for the audigy card.....

For that reason you can make a script. It's not hi-tech solution, so
let's abandon this :-)

Or maybe you can study
http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc...module=Generic
to configure multiple cards.

> I've heard of jack vaguely, but never investigated as its not something I've
> needed - until now anyway! Thanks for the pointer - I'll look into it!

I just thinking, that from audacity > Menu > edit > Preferences >
Audio I/O > your second card appears there? If not maybe alsaconf
will help, or asoundrc


> Oh, and by the way - your English is much better than my Greek ;-)

I am trying :-)

--
Please excuse my english writing!
Slackware 11
Knowledge report: One year, still plenty to learn

korgman wrote:

> Or maybe you can study
> http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc...module=Generic
> to configure multiple cards.

I've had a read through that, but find it a little hard to follow. It seems to
offer advice on how to make specific programs use another card, but not how to
change the default!

> I just thinking, that from audacity > Menu > edit > Preferences >
> Audio I/O > your second card appears there? If not maybe alsaconf
> will help, or asoundrc

Now that's the funny thing!

Everywhere I look, I find evidence of the second sound card. The modules are
loaded. It appears in cat /proc/asound/cards. It appears in kinfo. It appears
if I run "alsamixer -c 1". (I can also turn various leds on and off from
alsamixer, so it is clearly communicating!)

But it *doesn't* appear in the audio i/o section in Audacity!

Well at least it didn't yesterday!

Today when I tried plugging it in *after* the machine had booted, it did indeed
appear in audacity's i/o menu.

However, selecting it caused a total system hang, and I had to pull the power
from the laptop to regain control!

Something is definitely not right here, and I need to do more investigation I
think!

I notice that in the Control Center > Sound & Multimedia > Sound System >
Hardware there is an option to "override device location", but no suggestions
as to the syntax necessary to use it! hw1,0 or maybe /dev/dsp1 might be worth
a try - but not tonight - its getting late, and I'm tired after work!

Thanks for your help and suggestions!

--
Pete
christy@NOattglobalSPAM.net
(make the obvious amendments to reply!)

On 2007-01-31, Peter Christy <christy@attglobal.net> wrote:
> Something is definitely not right here, and I need to do more investigation I
> think!

:-\ Maybe, just to do your work to download dynebolic, a live cd that
has music programs (audacity / jack e.t.c.)

Or maybe from jack you can select the usb card. Jack is easy to install
only jack and qjackctl. Maybe you experience problem with configuration
but I am here for that :-)

> Thanks for your help and suggestions!

I have 2 pro audio cards but none is working under linux. So I don't
have experience to help you further. Good luck!

--
Please excuse my english writing!
Slackware 11
Knowledge report: One year, still plenty to learn