[nzlug] Using the Sound Blaster Live! 24-bit USB on Linux

[Nick Rout]

On Thu, November 1, 2007 7:09 pm, Robin Sheat wrote:
> As a bit of a gamble, I bought a Sound Blaster Live! 24-bit USB soundcard
> model SB0490) for my laptop, so I can get multichannel sound out of it
> (I've
> been playing with http://mixxx.sf.net recently). There was an easy but
> slightly non-obvious step to making it work better, so I figure I may as
> well
> detail it here.
>
> To start with, it doesn't work great in Linux, but it does seem to
> function,
> which is the important bit for me. When you plug it in to an Ubuntu Gutsy
> machine, it will see it as USB audio immediately, and the headphone port
> will
> function.
>
> If you install linux-backports-modules (and reboot), to get the latest
> version
> of ALSA, then surround sound starts working, and you can direct output to
> the
> front or rear speakers as you like.
>
> That's about all you can do with it. It has a single PCM volume control,
> and
> the mute button on the device will mute but not unmute it. Mine also seems
> to
> have a fast clicking on the right-front channel that I can only hear when
> wearing good headphones. I'll play with it a bit more before I decide that
> it's a fault or not, as it's not easily audible.
>
> I haven't tried recording, I have little use for that, although I might
> experiment some time.

I am confused - are you doing digital output (eg to a dolby amplifier) or
are you doing analogue out (direct to speakers, perhaps via an external
amp)?

With digital out don't expect much in the way of controls on the computer
to control volume, tone etc. Its expected that this will be handled on the
decoding amp.

Although alsa has a lot of docs available online, i find it either at the
very beginners level or assuming a lot of knowledge that I don't have.

-- 
Nick Rout