I purchased a cheap USB sound device with a single speaker port and a single microphone port:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/151860178313...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT


When I plug this in, dmesg shows that it is using the generic USB audio driver. Sometimes I get messages about unable to get freq 0x82 or something like that. After some time, I've got it to work fine with speaker-test without any clicking as the command:

This seems to indicate that the ALSA device is working. However, when I try to play back with other software I get some problems. If I use Traverso, set it to use the ALSA device in playback only, I don't get any sound. The same happens if I use JACK to use the USB device as playback only. Everything shows up in the Connections window, but I don't get any sound output. I plan on testing LMMS later.

Why doesn't it seem to work with other ALSA applications or with JACK? Is there any .asoundrc configuration I can set up to get it to work? If it is a hardware issue, is there any cheap dongle that provides a single input and output that works well with ALSA and JACK?

Just to rule out the obvious. Have you tried turning up the volume. You'd be surprised how often this catches people out.

Yes. When I use speaker-test I can hear the result. I check with alsamixer -D hwevice and the volume is up. When I configure JACK the same as I have before, and make sure the connections are made to systemlayback..., I don't get sound with the USB device where I did get sound before with the onboard audio.

Honestly I'm still a linux newb too. The only thing I can think of is to look into the kernel and see if there is a driver being loaded there for this device, and if not mess with the kernel to configure it and compile. Was there any driver disk provided for it?

Hi pcCoder...

If you would, with your sound device plugged in, please provide the output for...

Perhaps additional information on the chip might be helpful.

Regards...

Some specs:

OS: Debian Jessie
Desktop: XFCE
Kernel: 4.2.0-0.bpo.1-amd64
lsusb Device: Bus 002 Device 008: ID 1908:2070 GEMBIRD
According to dmesg, it is detecting it as the USB PnP Sound Device

Oddly, now it seems to be working okay-ish when using JACK in playback mode. However, when using JACK if I use Duplex mode the output is choppy. It also seems to work if I use JACK with the dummy driver, and use alsa_out to connect.

My test to see if it works is to start JACK (using qjackctl), then run Yoshimi (A ZynAddSubFx fork) and connect to the desired output, test the virtual keyboard of Yoshimi to see if it sounds good and not choppy. Audacity also seems to work fine over JACK. LMMS seems to be working. Traverso will crash when I try to play back something unless I'm using the dummy driver and alsa_out. Then it seems to work fine.

I figure this is what you get for a cheap USB audio adapter. I may look into a better USB device down the road. It was intended to be a cheap sound solution for a laptop that still works okay but the onboard sound is failing.

Hi...

I found this thread that might give you some ideas should you want to purchase another device down the road. Unfortunately, I'm finding next to nothing on Google concerning your current device.

If you would, if you feel this is resolved, please mark this thread as "SOLVED" by clicking on "thread Tools" directly above your initial post. Thanks!

Regards...

Thanks, I'll check that out. Most of the USB devices I've used work fine under Linux, including the cheaper $6 MIDI to USB devices, a midiplus keyboard, even USB to serial adapters. Funny thing is this sound adapter works quite well under Windows, but is finicky under Debian. I've also read around about DIY projects such as some AVR projects that use V-USB to implement a simple USB sound device.

You're welcome.

Unfortunately, that's often the case with various hardware devices under Linux, mainly because of a lack of drivers or lower quality (or reverse engineered) ones. In your case, I'm not entirely sure.

Regards...

I was thinking it just followed some standard USB audio class specification, much like every thumb drive and external hard drive has always worked just find.

Just an update. I decided to purchase a slightly more expensive option:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ilpage_o00_s00

I've tested it, using Debian Jessie. It seems to work just fine with JACK and ALSA. It's bigger so not as "portable" as the simple dongle, but seems to work great.

Awesome, I'm glad you found something that works well.

Regards...