E-Mu 1616m PCI mixer usage
Gökhan Yurdusev
this mixer. It made me forget the MS environment. That's the first
time i get to hear the voice of my synthesizer through Ubuntu.
My problem is that i can not use this mixer as a mixer :)))
I can only hear either the computer or the synthesizer. My active
sound monitors are attached to Dock DAC 1L&1R and i can only assign
one sound source to that output. I probably am doing something stupid
that's for sure but i still couldn't figure it out where i am going
wrong.
My card is E-Mu 1616m PCI. I am from Turkey and the distributor of
this brand is a friend of mine. So your mixer is going to be published
in his directory for Linux users.
Waiting for a clue on how to use this mixer properly.
Thanks a lot once again for the great work.
Gokhan
Camilo Polymeris
Hello Gorkhan,
thanks for the feedback.
As for your question: Right now, emutrix is intended only for routing,
(maybe mixer isn't the right term :), that is, only one input per
output (but multiple outputs per input)
Mixing is theoretically possible, but much harder. I would have to
code a custom firmware for the card or work out how the default one
works, which isn't that clear to me right now.
I wanted to keep the software simple and easy to use so I decided to
skip that for the moment. I think most serious linux audio users use
other software for mixing anyway.
For software mixing, if you are using jack, there are a lot of
options, e.g ardour's built-in mixer (www.ardour.org) or jack_mixer
(http://home.gna.org/jackmixer/), but I guess you knew that already.
Anyway, I understand you'd like hardware mixing and I'll look into it
when I get the time.
There is also the issue of usability. I'd like to stay with the matrix
paradigm but don't know how to incorporate mixing elements without
making it too complicated and cluttered. If anyone has suggestions as
how the *mixing* GUI would look like, please let me know.
Thanks again for your comments,
Camilo
dimitri
>
I meant Gokhan, of course. Sorry.
Gökhan Yurdusev
Thank you again for your explanations and too bad that i can not use
this as a hardware mixer.
You mentioned about software mixing and i looked up for them but i
couldn't get anywhere. No matter what i do, i can not get the computer
and the synthesizer sound together. The only way that is possible to
hear from any of them is your router. I tried the "Patchage" package
but did not work. Any other software was not helpful either.
Do you have the patience and the time to walk me through some ways to
achieve the mixing?
Thank you very much for your efforts. Take care,
Gokhan
Camilo Polymeris
> Hello Dimitri,
>
> Thank you again for your explanations and too bad that i can not use
> this as a hardware mixer.
>
> You mentioned about software mixing and i looked up for them but i
> couldn't get anywhere. No matter what i do, i can not get the computer
> and the synthesizer sound together. The only way that is possible to
> hear from any of them is your router. I tried the "Patchage" package
> but did not work. Any other software was not helpful either.
>
> Do you have the patience and the time to walk me through some ways to
> achieve the mixing?
>
Hello Gokhan,
let's see.
I have a 1212M myself so I can't try your setup exactly. And right now
I don't have access to my machine anyway.
Let's assume you have your synth connected to Dock ADC 3 L&R, and your
monitors to Dock DAC 1 L&R.
Let's also say that your Emu 1616M is ALSA card 0.
Then:
* Check that jackd is running. Is duplex mode set? Are you using
devices 0,2 and 0,3 for input and output? Those are the multichannel
devices IIRC. There should 16 system inputs and 16 system outputs in
jack.
* Using emutrix route Dock ADC 3 L&R to some "ALSA Capture" channel,
let's say 15&16
* Now, using either qjackctl or patchage, connect jack system inputs
15 & 16 to, say, system outputs 1 & 2
* Using emutrix route ALSA Playback 1&2 to Dock DAC L&R, or whatever
port your monitors are connected to.
Does that work? Can you hear the synth now? If so, then you are
already software mixing. If not, tell me where you had problems above
and I'll try to help you. As I said, I don't have access to my box
now, so I may have changed the names of some things slightly.
Greetings,
Camilo
Gökhan Yurdusev
Gökhan YURDUSEV
Camilo Polymeris
> [...] With your directions i get to work the
> Jackd without any Xruns. Very happy with it.
Nice.
> The problem is that once i start Jack the
> computer sound is disabled. No sound player works while Jack is started.
> Actually it loads the mp3 file indicates that is playing but the progress
> indicator stays still until i stop Jack. Youtube shows the video but no
> sound. I think that it is a problem between the Pulseaudio and Jack sound
> servers.
Yeah, that's a bit complicated.. I remember having trouble with the
pulseaudio/jack interface myself. As I said I don't have access to my
box right now, but IIRC you have to set pulseaudio's output to jack
somehow -- there is a "jack sink" for pulseaudio.
Here is a forum thread for ubuntu:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1470407
Or just google "pulseaudio jack sink <your distro>" or something similar.
In general terms, you have to make sure every audio app you are using
supports and uses jack, be it through pulse or not. Most do.
(Rhythmbox, VLC, mplayer, and of course nearly all "pro" apps: ardour,
renoise, rosegarden, various synths, etc.)
Some connect automatically, some don't. I use qjackctl's patchbay to
control that, but there are other tools.
> So far, it seems that i have done well with the sound routing but now have
> to solve this co existing problem.
> Any luck for me? Please do not rush things for me. Will be waiting for
> your instructions patiently. I am learning a lot with them.
> Thank you again a thousand times Camilo..
> Take care,
> Gokhan
The linux audio environment can be a bit complicated at first, but
things like jack make it very flexible and powerful.
BTW, What synth do you play? Which kind of music?
> P.S. Camilo or Dimitri?
Either is ok.
Greetings,
Camilo
Gökhan Yurdusev
Thank you for your follow up and time to explain things to me.
After writing you, i made a small research and got to work both sound servers together. So now, i have the synth, the drum and the computer make "noise" together.
But
I have another challenge now, i need to control the sound levels. That's where i need a mixer i think
. The synth is too low compare the computer that i can not play together. If i use Hydrogen for drum sequencing, the master volume of the internal mixer of this software is set to around %2 to have a equalized sound level with the synth and others.Long story short, i desperately need to control the sound levels of the outputs or the inputs. Do you have any solution in mind since you are not near your gadgets?
By the way, i have a Peavey DPM C8 master keyboard (around 20 years old) one of the best keyboard in terms of feelings and feedback. As synth, a Yamaha EX5 and Alesis Quadrasynth Module (same age with the DPM C8). I am 41
I recently bought a electro drum set for me and my son. So we both play together, he can play piano and drums like me. He's 8.The kind of music i try to do is mostly New Age but i sometimes find my self doing unisons with Al Di Meola songs. So a little jazzy, new agey kinda thing...Hard to define. When back a high school we used to play Deep Purple song too, hard rock!! John Lord is still one of my favorite players in the field. So a little bit of this and that.
Thank you for listening me
Take care,
Gokhan
Camilo Polymeris
Dear Camilo,
Thank you for your follow up and time to explain things to me.
After writing you, i made a small research and got to work both sound servers together. So now, i have the synth, the drum and the computer make "noise" together.
But
I have another challenge now, i need to control the sound levels. That's where i need a mixer i think. The synth is too low compare the computer that i can not play together. If i use Hydrogen for drum sequencing, the master volume of the internal mixer of this software is set to around %2 to have a equalized sound level with the synth and others.
Long story short, i desperately need to control the sound levels of the outputs or the inputs. Do you have any solution in mind since you are not near your gadgets?
By the way, i have a Peavey DPM C8 master keyboard (around 20 years old) one of the best keyboard in terms of feelings and feedback. As synth, a Yamaha EX5 and Alesis Quadrasynth Module (same age with the DPM C8). I am 41
The kind of music i try to do is mostly New Age but i sometimes find my self doing unisons with Al Di Meola songs. So a little jazzy, new agey kinda thing...Hard to define. When back a high school we used to play Deep Purple song too, hard rock!! John Lord is still one of my favorite players in the field. So a little bit of this and that.
Thank you for listening me
Take care,
Gokhan
Camilo Polymeris
Long story short, i desperately need to control the sound levels of the outputs or the inputs. Do you have any solution in mind since you are not near your gadgets?
Ardour has a good built-in mixer. If you prefer stand-alone, I recommend jack_mixer (http://home.gna.org/jackmixer/, supports LASH). I have heard good things about non mixer, too: http://non-mixer.tuxfamily.org/, haven't tried it, though.Also, try toggling the input PADs. (through emutrix)It may have something to do with the card's input levels, too. Emutrix is supposed to set those to reasonable levels, but I haven't really tested them all. I don't own a Dock, so there are some levels I can't test at all.Let me know if the above works for you, or If the input levels are still too low.