Help with Sound Device UsbPre and Alsa/Jack

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athos
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Posts: 13
Joined: Fri Dec 31, 2010 5:33 pm

Help with Sound Device UsbPre and Alsa/Jack

Post by athos »

hi everyone,

i got an old Sound Device Usbpre and i would like to use it with linux (ubuntu 10.10). I made some searches, and there's lot of infos about the Usbpre 2, but mine is the older model, and just found some occurences that didn't help me at all.

I tried just plugging it in, and i see it in qjacktl settings - selecting alsa driver - as hw:1 and with it's proper name indicated. But no matter how i set up jack settings, it fails starting. I also tried loading with cadence (where i need to manually write hw:1 in the device textbox), but it freezes.

My system is a little bit messy, i admit, with jack started at startup automatically by cadence (in a way i didn't fully understand), but since now i happily run different cards: a FA-101 firewire card, an M-audio MobilePre and a SuperCrappy Chinese usb mini sound card.

So, i tried just plugging it in another pc, with linux mint 11 and no modification to the audio stack, so just pulseaudio. The device was recognized and i could select it in the pulseaudio settings panel, but no sound came out, or in.

It seems very weird, is it possible that it's recognized but not actually usable?
Maybe i have to write to someone involved in alsa development? Or is it a pulsaudio/jack issue?

EDIT: i actually get the usbpre working with pulseaudio, but the sound is ultra-bad. Like it's gated and distorted at the same time (maybe too much quantized). And the headphones are not working. I'm thinking about filing a bug for the alsa developers, do you think this might be the case?
mattt
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Re: Help with Sound Device UsbPre and Alsa/Jack

Post by mattt »

USB interfaces require 3 periods (in your jack settings). I'd guess yours is set to 2 - jack never starts for me under such circumstances ;-)

Cheers,
Mattt.
Pablo
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Re: Help with Sound Device UsbPre and Alsa/Jack

Post by Pablo »

Hi,

I suggest you take a look at alsamixer, Just type that in a terminal. Select the card with F6 key. With a bit of luck it is just a matter of rising some levels.
athos
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Posts: 13
Joined: Fri Dec 31, 2010 5:33 pm

Re: Help with Sound Device UsbPre and Alsa/Jack

Post by athos »

thanks for the advices,

I just tried with 3 periods and with 4, but jack won't start. I also used longer buffers, but nothing.
I played with alsamixer yesterday, when i got the first "sound" from the device, and there is just one volume control, which seems to work mostly like a switch, under a certain treshold i can't hear anything, above that level i hear the super-crappy sound.

I run the alsa info script, and uploaded it so it may be helpful. Here it is:

http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=e748a ... 0fd00d5275

I'm going to post the same issue on the alsa users mailing list, and see what happens.

athos
mattt
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Posts: 21
Joined: Wed Aug 31, 2011 8:57 am

Re: Help with Sound Device UsbPre and Alsa/Jack

Post by mattt »

What does the qjackctl messages window have to say when trying to start jack?

Cheers,
Mattt.
athos
Established Member
Posts: 13
Joined: Fri Dec 31, 2010 5:33 pm

Re: Help with Sound Device UsbPre and Alsa/Jack

Post by athos »

here is the qjackctl message window's text (Some parts are in italian, i tried to traslate in { } brackets):

Code: Select all

13:19:16.936 Script di inizio... {init script}
13:19:16.937 /home/athos/script/rt-optimization.sh
Cannot connect to server socket err = Connessione rifiutata {connection refused}
Cannot connect to server socket
jack server is not running or cannot be started
vm.swappiness = 1
13:19:17.634 Script di inizio terminato con successo. {init script successfully terminated} 
13:19:17.634 JACK sta partendo...
13:19:17.635 /usr/bin/jackd -r -p128 -t1000 -dalsa -dhw:1 -r44100 -p512 -n3 -i2 -o2
13:19:17.638 JACK è stato avviato con PID=18589. {jack has been started with pid...}
no message buffer overruns
no message buffer overruns
jackdmp 1.9.7
Copyright 2001-2005 Paul Davis and others.
Copyright 2004-2011 Grame.
jackdmp comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY
This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it
under certain conditions; see the file COPYING for details
JACK server starting in non-realtime mode
control device hw:1
control device hw:1
audio_reservation_init
Acquire audio card Audio1
creating alsa driver ... hw:1|hw:1|512|3|44100|2|2|nomon|swmeter|-|32bit
control device hw:1
configuring for 44100Hz, period = 512 frames (11.6 ms), buffer = 3 periods
ALSA: final selected sample format for capture: 24bit little-endian
ALSA: use 3 periods for capture
ALSA: final selected sample format for playback: 24bit little-endian
ALSA: use 3 periods for playback
13:19:24.864 Non sono riuscito ad avviare JACK come client. - Operazione fallita. - Errore di comunicazione col server JACK. Controlla la finestra dei messaggi per maggiori informazioni.
{couldn't start jack as client - operation failed - comunication error with jack server. Check messages window for further informations}
13:19:24.877 JACK si sta arrestando... {jack is stopping}
JackProcessSync::LockedTimedWait error usec = 5000000 err = Connection timed out
Driver is not running
JackSocketClientChannel read fail
Cannot create new client
Cannot open qjackctl client
jack main caught signal 15
By the way, i wrote to alsa users list and i was told that this sound card was not supposed to work, but after inspecting my lsusb, they found out it's usb compliant, so i was asked to make some tests on a mac. As soon as i have news i will post there, and here.
mr_zlatko
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Oct 19, 2015 2:11 pm

Re: Help with Sound Device UsbPre and Alsa/Jack

Post by mr_zlatko »

Hi Athos,

Did you manage?

Cheers
nachoir
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Aug 28, 2019 1:40 pm

Re: Help with Sound Device UsbPre and Alsa/Jack

Post by nachoir »

By chance I made usbpre 1 work in linux. Maybe it can serve as a workaround or to complete a driver. In a dualboot system - first booting in windows (windows 10 - 64 bits with ploytec 2.8.46 drivers installed) and then restarting in linux (ubuntu mate 16.04) the card works perfectly with alsa.

If the card is disconnected and reconnected it stops working.

It seems that the generic driver snd_usb_audio handles the card well except for initialization.

If there is an alsa developer that needs any information to finish the job, I am at the service to do tests.

regards

Ignacio
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