SBLive! 4 Speaker output stinks
 

I don't care what Creative's website says about the emu10k1 driver, it doesn't work. Maybe for some cheap stereo speakers but I have a nice Cambridge Soundworks surroundsound system. The audigy driver doesn't work at all and the snd-emu10k1 driver is even more useless. So I have the emu10k1 driver installed and get ok sound from two of my speakers. With this driver the output for front and rear are reversed. Because of this, I plugged my front speakers into the rear output and the rear into the front. There's no equality between the distribution of volume. All of the sound is given mainly to the rear output. To increase the volume for the front output I have to use the 0Gain slider. In order to do this though I have to unplug my microphone to avoid feedback. It doesn't make sense to me that the mic input and speaker output are the same setting.

Wow! I just read through that and it sounds a lot more angry than frustrated... I'm just frustrated. I've been trying to get my sound working right for almost three hours now. Just looking for a push in the right direction. I have a SBLive! card (not mp3+, gamer, or value). Perhaps there's a better driver for this card than what I've selected. The default for the Mandrake 9.1 install used the snd-emu10k1 but I didn't get any sound from it. Also, KMix and Aumix are a little off as far as the labels for the inputs. Like the 0Gain being the same as mic. I'm not sure what the slider for mic controls in these but it doesn't have anything to do with the mic. Also, the video, cd, and other sliders neither increase nor decrease the volume on anything. Only three sliders seem to have any effect on the sound: Volume, Pcm, and 0Gain.



:scratch:

I don't know that this willl help but, you might try installing alsamixer gui from the mandrake cd's. Its about the same as kmix I think, but there could be some differences that will help you out. good luck, and I'd like to know how things turn out, because I'm thinking about buying a THX certified sound system for my puter. I have the live value, but Id still like a 4.1 setup. Two front and rear would be much better than 2 front.

Originally I had an mp3+ but the quality it produced in Linux was terrible so I traded it for this card and a 50 pack of CDRs. I have the Alsa-Mixer installed as well. It seems to be more of a problem with the mechanics of the driver itself, the reversal of front/rear outputs. I've even messed with the mixers to see if I could change the settings so that the sliders actually reflected something that was there. No luck!

This is just my opinion but I'd save my money before buying a THX card and soundsystem (that's 5.1 to 7.1, right). Unless you purchase an off-brand to SB, which I've seen for less that $40 (TurtleBeach makes one). There's a book though specifically written for using SB and Linux, so maybe that's something you might be interested in.

Somwhere out there is a project called KXB (or something like that, I really can't remember the name) that make their own driver for SB cards. I used to use it in my Windows machine and it was really nice. It did that same front/rear reversal but there was no sound loss. Anyway, I'm trying to google to find this project again because they did make a Linux driver. If I find it I'll post the link and let you know how it's working.

:jawa:

:D

grep sound-slot /etc/modules.conf
alias sound-slot-0 snd-sb16


Looks like that would be the correct driver for my card. Sounds wonderful... and the silly Kmix, even with its sliders that make no sense, can even control front and rear volume.

That alternative driver project I was trying to think of is called KX Audio but it's for Windows only. I have a terrible memory. I hope that helps. If you have an Audigy card then the Audigy driver will probably work great for you.

:newbie:

I read a post somewhere either here or in a NG that said you have to unmute something in the alsamixergui to enable sound to the rear speakers. I noticed you were getting sound but at un-equal levels. I tried the alsamixer-gui and swapped the front plug with the rear and they sounded pretty even.

Kind of off topic

I'd tell you which setting i un-muted, but Im not in linux at this point, I am in windows, deciding which linux I'm gonna re-install, mdk9.2, 9.1, slack9.1, or gentoo. I had problems with sound on slack out of the box. I couldn't adjust the bass and treble controls. In mdk9.1, when I tried to adjust the bass, the sound became distorted. I was using the snd-emu10k1 driver as it was out of the box. This is the alsa driver I think. Not sure what slack used. Id probably use that emu10k1.. driver instead of the sb16 your using.

As for the speakers, they are a somewhat cheap altec lansing set that are 2 front 2 rear and a sub. Supposed to be THX certified. Thats all the speakers my live value supports. I mainly just want a simple surround setup, with more power than what I have. I found them at www.computergeeks.com . I'm not going to buy a new card because money is tight. Thanks for the input, I'll look for the book you mentioned on the web, hopefully there's an online version.