[kde-linux] KDE resetting microphone setting upon login

[Mark Knecht]

On Wed, May 2, 2012 at 9:37 AM, Duncan <1i5t5.duncan at cox.net> wrote:
> Mark Knecht posted on Tue, 01 May 2012 11:28:12 -0700 as excerpted:
>
>>> Personally, alsamixer has worked well for me, for years.
>>>
>> And that will work for me also, but it's clunky and not easy to remember
>> which mic levels to set. My system has multiple sound cards, and each
>> sound card has multiple inputs. If I find the correct inputs in
>> alsamixer I can set the levels, and they stick through reboots, etc.,
>> but it's just clunky.
>
> Yes.  I think you're into audio more than most linux users.  KDE's phonon
> is supposed to help route audio for different purposes to different
> soundcards, for people with more than one, but there's a couple problems
> with that: (1) Not so many people have (or actually use if they do have)
> multiple sound cards, so testing isn't as thorough as it is for the
> single-card-used case, and (2) phonon only controls kde4-based apps.
>
> Meanwhile:  I've read a lot about jack-audio, for the low-latency audio
> professionals need.  (For desktops, audio that plays without
> interruption, thus large buffers and higher latency, is ideal.  For
> professionals, latency is paramount, and they're prepared to deal with
> small buffers and the occasional x-run interruption in ordered to get the
> latency they need -- with the idea that if they're getting xruns, the
> system simply isn't upto the task.  That's where real-time kernels, etc,
> help out.
>
> I don't actually know if you're an audio professional or not, or if
> you're using it or not, but if so, how does that fit into the rest of the
> picture?  As I've never used it, I don't actually know.  But from what
> I've read, it has its own ecosystem.  Not all desktop-audio apps support
> it as it really is more professional end, but from what I've read, within
> its ecosystem at least, it has its own mixers, visualizers, etc,
> supplying all that's needed... because it pretty much has to since
> ordinary desktop audio apps simply aren't designed to be low-latency
> enough to viably fit the requirements it's targeted at.

I write my own music and do some recording using Ardour, Rosegarden,
etc. I've used Jack for over a decade so reasonably I'm familiar with
all of those capabilities. Jack is very good at what it does, much
better than the Windows equivalents.

My systems used for audio usually have multiple sound cards where I
use the on-board sound chip for KDE audio and more expensive RME cards
with external D//A converters for recording stuff. Jack runs on the
pro-audio cards, just plain Alsa on the sound chip. I mix the output
of the sound chip into my speakers or just keep a cheap pair a small
speakers attached for that stuff.

On a lark I reinstalled kmix and the problem with KDE resetting saved
mic levels returned so I think there's a bug to be reported. I'm going
to post that up to the Gentoo devs and let them take care of it. In
the short term I can live without kmix.

Thanks,
Mark