Bad sound from Santa Cruz

SiliconFOXX · 10-15-2004, 01:44 PM

Got a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz sound card and a 4.1 audio setup. I'm using KDE with 2.6.7. First, the sound only comes out of the front two speakers, don't know how to make it all four. Second, the sound quality is...um...bad. That's the only way to put it, bad. As in when I fire up WindowsXP on the box it's a WORLD of difference.

When I built the kernel I did NOT use the experimental kernel module for the, um, "C+" I think it was called? I also did not enable the experimental "new DSP" module. Could these be the source of my frustration?

Any help on these two would be appreciated, I hear of various people with Santa Cruz cards doing just fine, I don't want to try to hassle with the onboard sound of my nForce 3 (though if it's better I'd love to hear how to use it instead).

Electro · 10-15-2004, 04:37 PM

I use kernel version 2.4.x and it sounds fine. I think kernel version 2.6.x has trouble although I have not yet tested with that kernel version. If you have compiled sound as modules, try using the latest stable version from ALSA. You can can try to use kernel version 2.4.27.

To get 4.1 channel or 5.1 channel output. You have to use the alsa audio plugin for video and audio players. Next specify either surround41 or surround51. Audio CDs are only 2 channel so you have to use simulated surround sound and mixing to get the sound output for the rears and subwoofer.

jagibbs · 11-13-2004, 10:30 PM

I'm using the Santa Cruz card CS4630 in Mandrake 10.1 which uses the 6.7.x kernel and ALSA 1.0.6 (most recent stable drivers) and have clean sound. I just got the 2 channel working tonight after a week of trying. I'm not going to temp 4 or more channels yet. I still have "newbie" status. This is my post on another forum, but don't think it will help you much as you seem to know a little bit more than me about this stuff and your looking for 4 or more channels.

http://mandrakeusers.org/index.php?showtopic=20466

Electro · 11-14-2004, 12:14 AM

To get four channels output from a two channel source (mp3, cdda, etc). Edit or make ~/.asoundrc to include

Code:

pcm.cs46xx {
  type hw
  card 0
}

ctl.cs46xx {
  type hw
  card 0
}

###############################
#
# Simulated Surround Sound
#
###############################
# 0 = Front Left
# 1 = Front Right
# 2 = Rear Left
# 3 = Rear Right
# 4 = Center
# 5 = Subwoofer
pcm.simsurround {
  type route
  slave.pcm "cs46xx";
  slave.channels 6
  ttable.0.0 1 
  ttable.1.1 1
  ttable.0.2 1 
  ttable.1.3 1
  ttable.5.5 1
}

In xmms or mplayer, specify simsurround for your alsa device. It will then output to four channels. If you want subwoofer output and you do not have a filter for your subwoofer, use mplayer. Using ladpa plugins such as the lowpass filter will not work because they only recieve mono signals.

Have a look at
http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc...&module=cs46xx
if you still have not setup the card correctly. Yes turning off 3D Control and turning it to 0% will fix the problem. Also adjust DAC and ADC to 100%. Do not forget to enable External Amplifer too. To record, select what input to use for capture by pressing the spacebar in alsamixer. Also make sure you select ADC or DAC depending what input you select. Do not select both or else it will capture both. Make sure capture is selected and adjust it so it does not clip (distort). Using arecord -vv will give you a VU meter to show you if you are clipping the sound card. I suggest using arecord -vv before making a final capture.