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Recently, I moved from Slackware 9.1 to Slackware 10.0 (read last
night). I performed a fresh install. With 9.1, I was using the OSS
drivers for my onboard Via 8233. With Slack 10.0, I decided to try the
default ALSA drivers.

I'm finding that the sound quality from the ALSA drivers is noticably
worse than from the OSS drivers. I've read the opposite from many
people. I'm wondering if I've done something wrong with my setup. All
I did was allow Slack 10.0 to autodetect my card and autoload the proper
modules. I used alsamixer to turn up the volumes, and then a graphical
mixer in KDE (aumix) to turn up the rest of the input, outputs, etc.

I was noticing the poor sound quality when playing MP3s through XMMS.

Any suggestions? Anything I should be checking into?

Many thanks,
Dave

On Fri, 10 Sep 2004 09:28:25 -0700, Dave wrote:
> I'm finding that the sound quality from the ALSA drivers is noticably
> worse than from the OSS drivers. I've read the opposite from many people.

But we have a significant contingent of ALSAphobes here. We see this
assertion from many posters. IME the opposite is true. For example, I
once had my emu10k1 card in a P166 machine, where under OSS it was not
functional: too much CPU load when trying to play anything. But with
ALSA 0.5x drivers it was very nice. I've stuck with ALSA ever since.

One thing I notice in alsamixer is that there are oodles of controls,
and I have no idea what most of them are. Perhaps if you fiddled a bit
more in alsamixer you could solve your problem.

> used alsamixer to turn up the volumes, and then a graphical mixer in KDE
> (aumix) to turn up the rest of the input, outputs, etc.

aumix doesn't list all those confusing controls.

> Any suggestions? Anything I should be checking into?

I've said before that it's quite possible that on a driver-by-driver
basis, the ALSA drivers may be behind their OSS counterparts. And
whilst I swear by the ALSA emu10k1 driver I've seen others here
swearing AT it.

Your onboard Via sound probably isn't as sophisticated as an emu10k1
card, so don't sweat it! If OSS works fine, go back to OSS. That, as I
suppose you know, is very easy to do. ($EDITOR /etc/hotplug/blacklist ;
echo "for those who might not know.")

FWIW I also have onboard SiS sound which works in ALSA. Oh, one of our
machines also has Via onboard sound. We've never tried it in OSS, but
it works with ALSA. If you'd like its /etc/asound.state file let me
know; I can send it.
--
/dev/rob0 - preferred_email=i$((28*28+28))@softhome.net
or put "not-spam" or "/dev/rob0" in Subject header to reply

Dave <dave@example.net> wrote:
> Recently, I moved from Slackware 9.1 to Slackware 10.0 (read last
> night). I performed a fresh install. With 9.1, I was using the OSS
> drivers for my onboard Via 8233. With Slack 10.0, I decided to try the
> default ALSA drivers.
>
> I'm finding that the sound quality from the ALSA drivers is noticably
> worse than from the OSS drivers. I've read the opposite from many
> people. I'm wondering if I've done something wrong with my setup. All
> I did was allow Slack 10.0 to autodetect my card and autoload the proper
> modules. I used alsamixer to turn up the volumes, and then a graphical
> mixer in KDE (aumix) to turn up the rest of the input, outputs, etc.
>
> I was noticing the poor sound quality when playing MP3s through XMMS.
>
> Any suggestions? Anything I should be checking into?
>
> Many thanks,
> Dave

Might want to check which output plugin you're using in XMMS. Note
that artsd (the KDE sound system) can very much get in the way. On
this desktop I'm at right now I use KDE and have the artsd sound
system turned *off* and xmms/ALSA work dandy.

On the Slackware PC in my studio at home I had to stop using KDE -
it threw in all sorts of occasional interruptions which mangled the
incoming sound streams during recording. I doubt ALSA is the problem
here - just for yucks try a different WM and see if the problems
persist. Ive found that in KDE (artsd *off*) both the OSS and ALSA
output plugins in XMMS work fine (the OSS output plugin requires the
module snd-pcm-oss to be loaded, the OSS emulation layer in ALSA).

HTH - JB


--------------------------------------------
John Bleichert - syborg@earthlink.net
"The meek shall inherit nothing." - FZ

/dev/rob0 <rob0@gmx.co.uk> wrote:
> On Fri, 10 Sep 2004 09:28:25 -0700, Dave wrote:
<snip>>
>> Any suggestions? Anything I should be checking into?
>
> I've said before that it's quite possible that on a driver-by-driver
> basis, the ALSA drivers may be behind their OSS counterparts. And
> whilst I swear by the ALSA emu10k1 driver I've seen others here
> swearing AT it.
>
<snip>

For cheap onboard sound systems and also for inexpensive consumer
grade (games and music playback) cards such as soundblasters the OSS
drivers are on par with the ALSA drivers. For pro gear such as that
from Hammerfalle and M-Audio OSS is as useful as a microphone at a
Britney Spears concert.

For the little stuff OSS is fine. For pro gear you need ALSA. The good
ALSA folks proably don't give a rat's arse about supporting every
cheap sh*t-ass onboard sound system and are concetrating their limited
resources on the big iron.

Good for them. Though, personally, I've never seen ALSA fail anywhere.

JB


--------------------------------------------
John Bleichert - syborg@earthlink.net
"The meek shall inherit nothing." - FZ

On Fri, 10 Sep 2004 09:28:25 -0700, Dave wrote:

> Recently, I moved from Slackware 9.1 to Slackware 10.0 (read last
> night). I performed a fresh install. With 9.1, I was using the OSS
> drivers for my onboard Via 8233. With Slack 10.0, I decided to try the
> default ALSA drivers.
> I'm finding that the sound quality from the ALSA drivers is noticably
> worse than from the OSS drivers. I've read the opposite from many
> people. I'm wondering if I've done something wrong with my setup. All
> I did was allow Slack 10.0 to autodetect my card and autoload the proper
> modules. I used alsamixer to turn up the volumes, and then a graphical
> mixer in KDE (aumix) to turn up the rest of the input, outputs, etc.
> I was noticing the poor sound quality when playing MP3s through XMMS.
> Any suggestions? Anything I should be checking into?

hmm, funny, had the same problem once.
resolved it by playing with alsamixer. i had to mute (or unmute??) some of
those extra weird devices (to the right). fire up some music playing in
xmms (alsa output) and try.

JB:

> Might want to check which output plugin you're using in XMMS. Note
> that artsd (the KDE sound system) can very much get in the way. On
> this desktop I'm at right now I use KDE and have the artsd sound
> system turned *off* and xmms/ALSA work dandy.
>
> On the Slackware PC in my studio at home I had to stop using KDE -
> it threw in all sorts of occasional interruptions which mangled the
> incoming sound streams during recording. I doubt ALSA is the problem
> here - just for yucks try a different WM and see if the problems
> persist. Ive found that in KDE (artsd *off*) both the OSS and ALSA
> output plugins in XMMS work fine (the OSS output plugin requires the
> module snd-pcm-oss to be loaded, the OSS emulation layer in ALSA).

Thanks for the great suggestions!

Dave

Mad-Eye Moody:

> hmm, funny, had the same problem once.
> resolved it by playing with alsamixer. i had to mute (or unmute??) some of
> those extra weird devices (to the right). fire up some music playing in
> xmms (alsa output) and try.

Thanks for the suggestions, I'll give it a shot. :-)

Dave

Dave <dave@example.net> wrote:
> JB:
>
>> Might want to check which output plugin you're using in XMMS. Note
>> that artsd (the KDE sound system) can very much get in the way. On
>> this desktop I'm at right now I use KDE and have the artsd sound
>> system turned *off* and xmms/ALSA work dandy.
>>
>> On the Slackware PC in my studio at home I had to stop using KDE -
>> it threw in all sorts of occasional interruptions which mangled the
>> incoming sound streams during recording. I doubt ALSA is the problem
>> here - just for yucks try a different WM and see if the problems
>> persist. Ive found that in KDE (artsd *off*) both the OSS and ALSA
>> output plugins in XMMS work fine (the OSS output plugin requires the
>> module snd-pcm-oss to be loaded, the OSS emulation layer in ALSA).
>
> Thanks for the great suggestions!
>
> Dave

Hope they help - note also that there is an artsd output plugin
available for XMMS, in case you use and want to retain all the KDE
interface noises. Forgot to mention that.

--------------------------------------------
John Bleichert - syborg@earthlink.net
"The meek shall inherit nothing." - FZ

Dave wrote:

> Recently, I moved from Slackware 9.1 to Slackware 10.0 (read last
> night). I performed a fresh install. With 9.1, I was using the OSS
> drivers for my onboard Via 8233. With Slack 10.0, I decided to try the
> default ALSA drivers.
>
> I'm finding that the sound quality from the ALSA drivers is noticably
> worse than from the OSS drivers. I've read the opposite from many
> people. I'm wondering if I've done something wrong with my setup. All
> I did was allow Slack 10.0 to autodetect my card and autoload the proper
> modules. I used alsamixer to turn up the volumes, and then a graphical
> mixer in KDE (aumix) to turn up the rest of the input, outputs, etc.
>
> I was noticing the poor sound quality when playing MP3s through XMMS.
>
> Any suggestions? Anything I should be checking into?
>
> Many thanks,
> Dave

When in doubt, I recommend reinstalling the ALSA drivers per their own
documentation, http://www.alsa-project.org. Mine work fine per their
recommendation.

--
There was a young lady from Hyde
Who ate a green apple and died.
While her lover lamented
The apple fermented
And made cider inside her inside.

Dave wrote:

Open kmix and click on advanced and uncheck
3d control
IEC958Mix
ExchangeD
Fourchann
these are the once i unchecked just to give you an example

it might be different for you but once i played around
in hear ximms sounds great