Monthly Archives: March 2007

This audio server is taking up way too much of my time

Well the joy of the success in splitting the stereo audio pair in 2 separate cards was short lived…
SoftSqueeze, since it runs in Java can’t access alsa virtual devices. Only sound cards.
Same goes for squeezeslave. It can only access the OSS device /dev/dsp
I’ve tries all I can think of to fake things to fool these applications, but I just don’t know enough about the linux sound system to pull it off (if there even is a way to do it)

So I just ordered 2 small USB sound cards for $4 plus $7 in S/H (what a rip off). Each can do 1 stereo pair.
Hopefully with these, I can run 3 zones (even though stereo is overkill) and I can set up this laptop to serve audio, and put this whole thing to rest.

alsa sound control

Since I’ve changed my strategy slightly on how to distribute audio to the house, I’ve needed to do some research on alsa.
Link
After coming across an article about house audio, someone mentioned the effects of pumping stereo audio to each zone…
Sound can get muddy if zones are playing the same music, lack of separation…
So the idea is to just put out mono audio to each zone. Make is easy since amplification and source becomes easier to manage.
A 5.1 surround sound card will give me 6 zones! I’m a little excited about this.

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