[ecasound] ALSA hints for multitrack recording

[Cassettes2CDs <cas...@ya...>]

Dear ecasounders,

OK, just one more, honest.

(Allow me to disclaim that this is -not- an ecasound
issue, but an ALSA issue, and that I can be said to be
"hijakking" the ecasound list just a tad.)

This is about doing multitrack recording with ALSA. 
Back in the OSS days I'd just fire off multiple
ecasound processes, each recording from a different
/dev/dsp#, and that was it.

But in ALSA, I can only record from the first of an M
Audio Delta 1010LT's stereo pairs:

     ecasound -i alsahw,0,0 -o file.raw

and trying to access anything else

     ecasound -i alsawhw,0,1 -i file.raw
     ecasound -i alsawhw,0,2 -i file.raw
     ecasound -i alsawhw,0,3 -i file.raw

gets me the same error:

(eca-control) ERROR:  Connecting chainsetup failed:
"Enabling chainsetup: AUDIOIO-ALSA: Unable to open
ALSA--device for capture; error: No such file or
directory"

Here's a CC of what I asked to the ALSA-user list:

--------------------------------------------------
I'm another idiot who can't configure his sound cards.
 
This is a computer running the brand new CCRMA/Fedora
3 distribution with ALSA, and a couple M-Audio Delta
1010LT sound cards, which each have four stereo pairs
of input.
 
(Back when this old brick ran Fedora 7.2 and the
commercial OSS sound driver, everything worked A-OK.)
 
I need to be recording from each of those eight stereo
pairs (four per card) at the same time, into eight
separate stereo RAW files.  Back in the OSS days, I
used ecasound for this, with eight separate processes
running at the same time.
 
My deal is that I can record from the first pair
(FWIW, it's -not- the everything-mixed-together pair
that comes from the hardware mixer):
 
      ecasound -i alsahw,0,0 -o file.raw
 
but trying to access the second, third, or fourth
pair:
 
      ecasound -i alsahw,0,1 -o file.raw
      ecasound -i alsahw,0,2 -o file.raw
      ecasound -i alsahw,0,3 -o file.raw
                                                      
                                                      
 
don't work.
                                                      
                                                      
 
So.  Maybe a look at /proc/asound/cards and
/proc/asound/devices might be useful:
                                                      
                                                      
 
[craig@record3 proc]$ cd /proc/asound
[craig@record3 asound]$ cat cards
0 [M1010LT        ]: ICE1712 - M Audio Delta 1010LT
                     M Audio Delta 1010LT at 0x8000,
irq 18
1 [M1010LT_1      ]: ICE1712 - M Audio Delta 1010LT
                     M Audio Delta 1010LT at 0x9000,
irq 19
[craig@record3 asound]$ cat devices
  8: [0- 0]: raw midi
 16: [0- 0]: digital audio playback
 24: [0- 0]: digital audio capture
  0: [0- 0]: ctl
 33:       : timer
 40: [1- 0]: raw midi
 48: [1- 0]: digital audio playback
 56: [1- 0]: digital audio capture
 32: [1- 0]: ctl
                                                      
                                                      
 
(BTW, what do those numbers mean?)
                                                      
                                                      
 
So anyway, folks, I KNOW that this is something dumb
and simple, but not dumb and simple enough for me to
figure out.  I suspect that .asoundrc and/or
etc/modprobe.conf are involved.
                                                      
                                                      
 
I would feel much better if I can make this go without
having to "go through" any plugins or extra layers of
software, as I'm super-paranoid about minimizing the
load on the processor.  Plus, I don't want to go
through any inadvertent/accidental amplifications or
rate-conversions between the card and the ecasound
process.
                                                      
                                                      
 
Well.  Cheers everyone, and thanks very much for your
help.


=====
--Craig Meyer
  Customer Service
  Cassettes2CDs.com