On Sat, 2020-01-25 at 13:43 +0000, Dmitri Seletski wrote: > > Oops: > > > > > However, accessing the software mixer requires a driver. > > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ > > actually it's the device's hardware mixer > > that is doing internal routing, providing > > digital effects or any other special feature. > > You could always use a software mixer, such as > > the one available by Ardour. However, such a > > software mixer doesn't allow to benefit from > > the device's hardware (mixer) features. > > Having a software mixer beats not having it at all.
Depending on what you want to do, there are different kinds of Linux internal mixers available. I can use Ardour's mixer for my needs, regarding output volumes, regarding input volumes I either need to use the audio devices volume control potentiometers and PAD switches or a "real" mixing console. Not all audio devices provide input potentiometers or PAD switches, let alone a way to select between +4dBu or -10dBV. For other usages than professional audio recording, even a sound server such as pulseaudio probably provides volume controls. However, output usually isn't an issue at all, but by using a plain Linux software mixer, that can't access the input hardware controls, you can't compensate what going wrong in the first place. Assuming the hardware input is distorted, you can't fix it by a software mixer's input volume. For people using multi-channel devices for audio recording, monitor routing could become an issue. This probably isn't an issue for your seemingly stereo device. IOW output volume shouldn't be an issue for you, there should be one or the other way that fits to your needs. Input volume shouldn't be an issue either, but it could be an issue. Assuming the input should be in a "sane" range in the first place. then you could control the input volume by an Linux internal software mixer, but if the input volume should be that loud, that it does cause unpleasant distortion or assuming it should be way lower than the circuits noise level, then there's no way to fix it by a Linux internal software mixer. _______________________________________________ Alsa-user mailing list Alsa-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/alsa-user