[PlanetCCRMA] Using 2nd sound card for output

[Fernando Lopez-Lezcano]

On Thu, 2007-11-15 at 15:51 -0500, Roy Vestal wrote:
> The first setup you mentioned was what I was hoping we could do. But I 
> didn't think about the word clock. As I have clients coming into the 
> studio with CD's and want me to listen, I need to be able to listen to 
> them, but I'm not as familiar with JACK under the hood.
> 
> I was hoping for something similar to scenario 2 you mentioned. I wanted 
> JACK to use the Delta 1010 and then the CD/Mplayer/Xine/Amarok would use 
> the AC'97 without stopping JACK. It sounds as if this too is no 
> possible. Am i correct?

That should be possible. You could set things up so that your 1010 is
the second card in your setup. And your ac97 the first card. So apps
that use alsa directly would default to your first card. And you could
set up qjackctl so that jack uses the second card (hw:1). 

What you can't do is use both cards under jack, or under alsa for that
matter, and at the same time. 

-- Fernando

> Just a brainstorm idea here, is there a way to assign Alsa to use the 
> Delta 1010, and OSS to use AC'97? Would that be a work around?
> I'm fairly confident, competent with Linux, as that's my job, but I've 
> never run multiple sound cards before now.
> 
> Bob Wilkinson wrote:
> Hold on - I think that there is a misunderstanding.
> 
> Are you attempting to use the Delta 1010 AND the AC'97 at the same time, 
> or are you attempting to record (at a given time) using the Delta 1010, 
> and then (at some other given time) use the AC'97 for monitoring and 
> output?
> 
> If the former, then no - you cannot do it.
> 
> If the latter, then it should be as simple as choosing your output card 
> (HW0 or HW1) in qjackctl before you start it up.
> 
> One time, you would have the Delta 1010 available, the other time the 
> AC'97 - but never both at the same time.
> 
> If you wanted both at the same time, you would need a method of syncing 
> the word clock - and the AC'97 has no method of doing that.
> 
> 
> Bob Wilkinson wrote:
> > Hold on - I think that there is a misunderstanding.
> >
> > Are you attempting to use the Delta 1010 AND the AC'97 at the same time, or are you attempting to record (at a given time) using the Delta 1010, and then (at some other given time) use the AC'97 for monitoring and output?
> >
> > If the former, then no - you cannot do it.
> >
> > If the latter, then it should be as simple as choosing your output card (HW0 or HW1) in qjackctl before you start it up.
> >
> > One time, you would have the Delta 1010 available, the other time the AC'97 - but never both at the same time.
> >
> > If you wanted both at the same time, you would need a method of syncing the word clock - and the AC'97 has no method of doing that.
> >
> >
> >  -------------- Original message ----------------------
> > From: Roy Vestal <rvestal@trilug.org>
> >   
> >> Ok, just for clarification, I cannot use the AC'97 for just output only 
> >> from any jack software, say Ardour2 or Hydrogen, correct?  If that's the 
> >> case, then i can live with sending the output back down my Delta 1010 ( 
> >> I don't have S/PDIF monitors yet).
> >>
> >> Follow up question:
> >>
> >> How do I get my AC'97 to be used by the CD/mplayer/xmms, etc? I was in 
> >> the studio last night and kept getting "could not find audio device" errors.
> >>
> >> Fernando Lopez-Lezcano wrote:
> >>     
> >>> On Tue, 2007-11-13 at 13:12 -0500, Roy Vestal wrote:
> >>>   
> >>>       
> >>>> I have FC7 with Ardour2, JACK, etc. working well. I have a Delta 1010 as 
> >>>> well as an on board AC'97. The output to the AC'97 is not showing in 
> >>>> JACK, but it works with "play wav.wav" for example. Is there a way to 
> >>>> get it so I can route the output of JACK apps (ardour2 for ex) to the AC'97?
> >>>>     
> >>>>         
> >>> Not really (unless you don't mind periodic clicks in the AC97 output).
> >>> If you want to use two cards they have to be in sync, that is, one has
> >>> to be a slave to the other. Otherwise the sampling rate clocks will be
> >>> slightly off and one card will output samples faster than the other and
> >>> eventually will have to skip a period so the other can catch up (ie: an
> >>> xrun or click will happen). 
> >>>
> >>> Does the AC97 onboard have an sp/dif output? If so you could perhaps
> >>> slave the 1010 to it.