Re: [Alsa-user] No recording from Xonar D2X

[chris h. <clh...@gm...>]

Werner, list:

On Sat, Apr 6, 2013 at 4:08 AM, Werner Arnhold <we...@ar...> wrote:
> Hi Chris,
>
> yes, thank you, my original problem can be considered as solved.
>
> I use a special box which does the equalisation. I used it in former
> times with former soundcards and it worked very fine. But with that
> former soundcards I could use a slider in the mixer to get more or less
> input "gain?" (Sorry, I'm not at all familiar with the technical terms
> of audio in English).

Don't worry, I don't know any of the terms in German so we're pretty
close to even there.

I guess your special box is a phono pre-amplifier.  Typically these
provide gain and equalization.  In general the idea is that the output
of an "average" phono cartridge, once amplified and equalized by the
phono pre-amplifier, should be at roughly the same level as any "line
level" source, like a CD player or a tuner.

In my experience, this never happens - usually the signal out of the
phono pre-amp is lower than the CD player, by a noticeable amount.
But I would not say a "massive" amount.  Often, too, the recording
level on older LPs (especially pop music) is llower and the bass is
rolled off.  This was done by recording engineers for several
purposes, including to require less monitoring for overload and to fit
more music on each side of the LP.

If you have a separate CD player and the same recording on LP and CD,
you can try both through the input of your sound card to see if your
phono pre-amp and cartridge are well matched.  Given that you say you
got good results with other sound cards, probably you will find that
the level from the external CD player and the level from the phono
pre-amp are similar, but it's worth trying anyway.

Back to controlling the D2X.

If I run "alsamixer" in a terminal window and set the card to my DX
and to capture, I see five controls: Line, Mic, Mic Source, S/PDIF
Validity Check, Aux.

I can enable one of Line or Mic, and Aux independentlyby moving the
focus to the relevant control with the arrow keys and then pressing
the space bar.

Only Mic and Aux have gain controls.  I can set either just fine.  It
looks to me as though Mic is mono or at least does not provide the
ability to control left and right separately.

The Mic Source allows me to select Mic Jack or Front Panel.

Based on the above, if I were going to rip some vinyl through this
sound card, I would connect the phono pre-amp to the Aux jack.  I
would probably start with only the Aux input disabled and the Mic
Source set to Front Panel.

What do you see when you run alsamixer?  Do you get an Aux as well as
a Line input?  It seems from your previous postings you were working
with the Line input.

>
> I like to create my own collections of music, in former times on audio
> cassettes, now on CD. When I mix titles from a CD and other taken from a
> Vinyl-LP they have massive different signal level. So I am forced to
> raise the level of each song in my sound editor afterwards or always
> change the output level on the cd player when the disk is finished. Both
> is not very attractive. It would be better to adjust the signal just
> when recording. That's what I want.
>
> Any idea?

I understand what you are trying to do.  For sure you want the
incoming analogue signal to be at a high enough level before you
convert it to digital, and it sounds like it's not.

Does you computer have both Alsa and Pulse Audio running?

--
Chris Hermansen · clhermansen "at" gmail "dot" com

C'est ma façon de parler.