[Patch] Kmix alsa addtions

[Walt H]

Helio Chissini de Castro wrote:

>Hello all..
>
>Merry late xmas and new year first :-)
>
>So lets discuss about the "hell knowed as emu10k1".
>Sinec i have all three generations of this chip at home ( Live, Live 5.1 
>PLatinum, Audigy 2 ZS ), i know everything that i need about this beasts
>
>First of all, your patch is ok, but really is uneffective for Audigy and not 
>helthy for non emu10k1 based. Let me explain why.
>Audigy cards have a different approach than other emu10k1 based cards ( yes, 
>there's nothing related to chip itself ).
>After profiled Creative mixer and some tech docs, mainly this one 
>http://cvs.sourceforge.net/viewcvs.py/alsa/alsa-kernel/Documentation/Audigy-mixer.txt?view=markup, 
>i discovered that there's no unique record channel and a mix record channel 
>on audigy cards, as were on regular other boards.
>There's just the main Analog Mix record level, and all channels are routed 
>directly to record. So, for alsa point of view everything have a "Playback 
>volume". The main difference is that the volume on input channels are treated 
>like the "volume level" for this channel, which are recorded by default.
>The Windows Audigy mixer
>  
>
Yeah, I found this out too. All recording sources get mixed that's why 
you can't mute a recording source. But my patch should have no effect if 
used on a non-emu10k1 based card. The mixer elements that get created 
should be the same as the unpatched kmix.

>(article http://alive.singnet.com.sg/audigy/review/apps.htm )
>shows that all input ( treated as record enable devices ) are grouped, and you 
>can individually change the voluem of this ones, but not mute and note that 
>you don't have both Play and record channels, like the patch. 
>
Yes. My patch just pretends that the emu10k1 has individiual elements. I 
thought it made the GUI consistent from machine to machine whether they 
were emu10k1 based or not.

>This redirect 
>to very cleaver and important opinion of kamix author about kmix current 
>state and lack of some features like grouped channels, which is basically the 
>same as Creative did. http://kde-apps.org/content/show.php?content=10654
>About the patch, you split as a record and playback channels the devices, but 
>if you superpose kmix over any other mixer ( try alsamixer ), yuo can see 
>that all record channels are completly useless, since they didn't do nothing. 
>But, you can clearly see the Playback changes.
>  
>

Not sure why it's not working on your setup. That part works for me. 
Maybe it doesn't like older config files?  Then again, I was only able 
to test this on one emu10k1 based setup.

>So, Christian, i propose we follow the ideas of kamix author, and add new type 
>of widgets and MOVE definitively to the profile based kmix. Until then, we 
>will have more and more troubles with different cards, since i received some 
>reports that nforce 3 card will have differences too, and i didn't expect 
>things will be better and simple to maintain the current "one mixer fits them 
>all" kmix.
>
>Walt, i know this can be a little frustrating doing such a large patch and not 
>working or accepted, but believe me, i have the same problem as you since 
>acquired new Audigy card, and hope we need proper fix in the kmix 
>architecture to assure that everyone can have kmix well fitted to their card.
>  
>

No problem. My changes were just a hack to be able to see and control 
the input volumes of my existing Audigy card. What's the timeline for 
getting the profile based kmix? Would it be wise to use a hack such as 
mine in the interim?

>[]'s and peace
>
>
>  
>
Back at you :)

-Walt