Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Diamond · Joined: 11 Dec 2007 Posts: 141

Hi there!
I just want to ask,is there any chance that linux drivers for sound will be better ? I am using SB audigy SE sound card,and in Windows everything sounds better than in Linux.
I set 16 bit sound in KDE,still windows is better.
Thanx!

disciple · Posted: Thu 24 Sep 2009, 01:31 Post subject:

Please describe what you mean by "better".
Usually Linux sound drivers are fine, but it depends of course on how good a specific driver is on your specific hardware. You might want to look around to see if there are any alternative drivers for your hardware, or it might even be better with a different version of the Linux kernel, or of alsa.

Diamond · Joined: 11 Dec 2007 Posts: 141

I mean that when I listen to music in windows it sounds richer and better,than in Linux.
I don't know where to find an alternative drivers for SB audigy SE,or alsa or kernel.
I just want to ask everyone with SB audigy card,what is their experience,wich drivers/alsa/kernel produce the best sound for playing music files ?

Pizzasgood · Posted: Thu 24 Sep 2009, 11:30 Post subject:

That might be an effect of the media player you use in 'doze. It could be applying a filter to the audio to enhance it. Some media players have options like "Extra Stereo" and stuff. Or it could be equalizer settings. Both the media player and the drivers can have their own equalizer settings. In fact, the Windows drivers for my sound chip even have filters to add echos to make it sound like I'm in a stadium and stuff (not that I ever use it).

I don't know what kind of support Alsa has for equalization and fancy filters because I don't really bother with that stuff. I do know that some of the Linux media players do have their own equalizers and filters though.

Diamond · Joined: 11 Dec 2007 Posts: 141

I think it is about drivers.For example I tried several drivers in windows and with each new driver sound got better and better.
It isn't any filter,because I don't use any filter from soundcard,and I don't use equalizers in winamp.
I mean just clean sound that could be better.
For example it seems to me that Amarok produces "cleaner" tones than Audacious ,which sounds a little "filtered" to me.
Nevertheless,I hope that audio drivers for linux will produce richer and better sound.

disciple · Posted: Thu 24 Sep 2009, 17:52 Post subject:

scsijon · Posted: Fri 25 Sep 2009, 00:12 Post subject:

have a look at ttuuxxx's amarock

tempestuous · Joined: 10 Jun 2005 Posts: 5139 Location: Australia

Diamond, what's your reference for "good"? What amplifier and speakers do you have?
Are your audio files compressed? If so, this is a sub-optimal foundation upon which to make judgments, and may mean your audio files are not particularly good.

I cannot talk about the specific ALSA driver (snd-ca0106) for the Audigy SE sound card,
but the Linux ALSA audio subsystem, itself, is fundamentally superior to the audio subsystem in Windows XP.
You can read about it here -
"Linux Audio the way to go!?"
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=93315
The practical results, through listening tests, match the theory.
This is a group of hifi fanatics who listen through music systems which sometimes cost more than a car.

Windows Vista is better than XP, but still not as good as ALSA, particularly if you configure your ALSA driver to bypass its internal plugin mechanism (which means bypassing volume control).

I, personally, have heard an Envy 24HT-S based soundcard (better than Audigy) running under Linux playing through a very expensive hifi system. When I boot the same system into Windows, the superior sound of Linux/ALSA is evident.

If your sound card doesn't sound as good in Linux, then ...
- you have a configuration problem.
- or your audio player application is confusing the issue (try the commandline application, ecasound)
- or you have poor quality (harsh, for example) audio files, and the ALSA driver is revealing this to you for the first time.

disciple · Posted: Fri 25 Sep 2009, 02:31 Post subject:

tempestuous · Joined: 10 Jun 2005 Posts: 5139 Location: Australia

Yes, the ALSA system is very flexible.
To configure your ALSA driver to bypass all "dmix" processing, create this text file -

disciple · Posted: Fri 25 Sep 2009, 06:54 Post subject:

Thanks, although I though dmix was about more than one application being able to play at once... and I remember it was enabled by default in older alsa versions.

glassparrot · Posted: Thu 12 Nov 2009, 04:25 Post subject:

People might get some improvement in sound by installing one of the pets on this page, such as Alsa-3in1-k262516-1.0.20.pet

These are not packages made expressly for puppy 4.31, but they seem to work.

In addition, it will help to turn the volume all the way up in alsamixer on "Master" "Front" and "PCM."

ttuuxxx · Posted: Thu 12 Nov 2009, 06:50 Post subject: Re: Better sound in linux

glassparrot · Posted: Thu 12 Nov 2009, 13:17 Post subject:

Those Ladspa sound tools look very exciting, ttuuxxx. Do you know of any way in which I might get those things into XFCE? Is there a place where I can find those resources which you are picturing there, so I can compile them from scratch?

By the way, just a note for anyone who is interested in learning about the ALSA sound stuff. It's important to realise that there are TWO sites devoted to this project which look almost exactly alike. There is the official wiki, and the unofficial wiki.

ttuuxxx · Posted: Fri 13 Nov 2009, 04:26 Post subject: