RME Multiface II question

[Giorgio-10]

Hi,
Does anybody have experience with RME Multiface II? Is it all well supported? Do analog/digital (Adat) I/Os work together?
Thank you

G

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[Brett McCoy-2]

On Tue, Nov 3, 2009 at 10:36 AM, Giorgio - Audiophilo
<anomalsound@...> wrote:

> Does anybody have experience with RME Multiface II? Is it all well
> supported? Do analog/digital (Adat) I/Os work together?

I use the Multiface II with Gentoo Linux and have used it previously
with Fedora + CCRMA. The RME cards are among the best supported under
Linux. The HDSPMixer tool is virtually identical to the one used under
Windows. I use the digital I/O (SPDIF input coming from a second
machine using M-Audio hardware) and analog together all of the time,
no problems at all.

One word of warning,  you need to open hdspmixer to intialize the
device. Not a big deal for me, since I keep hdspmixer open all of the
time anyway, but something you need to be aware of if you try to use
the device and can't get anything to work.

-- Brett
------------------------------------------------------------
"In the rhythm of music a secret is hidden;
    If I were to divulge it, it would overturn the world."
               -- Jelaleddin Rumi
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[Raphaël Doursenaud]

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Giorgio - Audiophilo a écrit :
> Hi,
> Does anybody have experience with RME Multiface II? Is it all well
> supported? Do analog/digital (Adat) I/Os work together?
> Thank you
>
> G
>

This is IMHO the best sound interface for linux!

It's very well supported and yes, analog/headphones/adat/spdif IOs work
together and can be routed through the hdspmixer tool.

- --
Raphaël Doursenaud
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[Fons Adriaensen-2]

On Tue, Nov 03, 2009 at 10:46:01AM -0500, Brett McCoy wrote:

> One word of warning,  you need to open hdspmixer to intialize the
> device. Not a big deal for me, since I keep hdspmixer open all of the
> time anyway, but something you need to be aware of if you try to use
> the device and can't get anything to work.

Wouldn't an 'alsactl restore' do the job as well ?

(provided you stored the state of course)

Ciao,

--
FA

Io lo dico sempre: l'Italia è troppo stretta e lunga.

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[Brett McCoy-2]

On Tue, Nov 3, 2009 at 11:53 AM,  <fons@...> wrote:

> On Tue, Nov 03, 2009 at 10:46:01AM -0500, Brett McCoy wrote:
>
>> One word of warning,  you need to open hdspmixer to intialize the
>> device. Not a big deal for me, since I keep hdspmixer open all of the
>> time anyway, but something you need to be aware of if you try to use
>> the device and can't get anything to work.
>
> Wouldn't an 'alsactl restore' do the job as well ?
>
> (provided you stored the state of course)

I don't know, never tried it... I thought the RME cards were a special
case where hdspmixer had to be started first whenever you restart your
machine.

-- Brett
------------------------------------------------------------
"In the rhythm of music a secret is hidden;
    If I were to divulge it, it would overturn the world."
               -- Jelaleddin Rumi
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[Giso Grimm]

fons@... wrote:

> On Tue, Nov 03, 2009 at 10:46:01AM -0500, Brett McCoy wrote:
>
>> One word of warning,  you need to open hdspmixer to intialize the
>> device. Not a big deal for me, since I keep hdspmixer open all of the
>> time anyway, but something you need to be aware of if you try to use
>> the device and can't get anything to work.
>
> Wouldn't an 'alsactl restore' do the job as well ?
>
> (provided you stored the state of course)
>

Not with the hdsp mixer (I mean the matrix mixer in the hdsp based RME
sound cards, not the software); it's state is not saved by ALSA, and I
even doubt that it can be read at all.

To unmute the card at boot time it is possible to use amixer, though.
See also the LAU thread "RME HDSP 9632 - amixer control" for more details.

Giso
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[Lars Zobbe]

I think I've tried everything to make hdspmixer start minimized or in a tray, in another workspace, you now, anywhere.
I've tried tools like devilspie, alltray, compiz and more that I don't recall. It still sits there, right in my face everytime I boot up. But it's ok, because it does cool stuff. But every other program I tested with reacted to stuff like devilspie and compiz, but hey, hdspmixer won't listen. I guess I just have to get used to it.

But my RME HDSP works great. However it does not work with pulseaudio (i can make it load through some hacking, but the sound is terrible - stuttering).
Still I recommend RME, if you don't depend on pulseaudio for something.

Lars.

On Tue, Nov 3, 2009 at 8:12 PM, Giso Grimm <gg3137@...> wrote:

fons@... wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 03, 2009 at 10:46:01AM -0500, Brett McCoy wrote:
>
>> One word of warning,  you need to open hdspmixer to intialize the
>> device. Not a big deal for me, since I keep hdspmixer open all of the
>> time anyway, but something you need to be aware of if you try to use
>> the device and can't get anything to work.
>
> Wouldn't an 'alsactl restore' do the job as well ?
>
> (provided you stored the state of course)
>

Not with the hdsp mixer (I mean the matrix mixer in the hdsp based RME
sound cards, not the software); it's state is not saved by ALSA, and I
even doubt that it can be read at all.

To unmute the card at boot time it is possible to use amixer, though.
See also the LAU thread "RME HDSP 9632 - amixer control" for more details.

Giso

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[Brett McCoy-2]

On Tue, Nov 3, 2009 at 2:28 PM, Lars Zobbe <fedesensfar@...> wrote:

> I think I've tried everything to make hdspmixer start minimized or in a
> tray, in another workspace, you now, anywhere.
> I've tried tools like devilspie, alltray, compiz and more that I don't
> recall. It still sits there, right in my face everytime I boot up. But it's
> ok, because it does cool stuff. But every other program I tested with
> reacted to stuff like devilspie and compiz, but hey, hdspmixer won't listen.
> I guess I just have to get used to it.
>
> But my RME HDSP works great. However it does not work with pulseaudio (i can
> make it load through some hacking, but the sound is terrible - stuttering).
> Still I recommend RME, if you don't depend on pulseaudio for something.

I just have hdspmixer open in a separate workspace after I start X, so
it's always out of the way of my main workspace but there when I need
it.

-- Brett
------------------------------------------------------------
"In the rhythm of music a secret is hidden;
    If I were to divulge it, it would overturn the world."
               -- Jelaleddin Rumi
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[Lars Zobbe]

But can you make it do that automatically? No click involved?

Lars.

On Tue, Nov 3, 2009 at 8:33 PM, Brett McCoy <idragosani@...> wrote:

On Tue, Nov 3, 2009 at 2:28 PM, Lars Zobbe <fedesensfar@...> wrote:

> I think I've tried everything to make hdspmixer start minimized or in a
> tray, in another workspace, you now, anywhere.
> I've tried tools like devilspie, alltray, compiz and more that I don't
> recall. It still sits there, right in my face everytime I boot up. But it's
> ok, because it does cool stuff. But every other program I tested with
> reacted to stuff like devilspie and compiz, but hey, hdspmixer won't listen.
> I guess I just have to get used to it.
>
> But my RME HDSP works great. However it does not work with pulseaudio (i can
> make it load through some hacking, but the sound is terrible - stuttering).
> Still I recommend RME, if you don't depend on pulseaudio for something.

I just have hdspmixer open in a separate workspace after I start X, so
it's always out of the way of my main workspace but there when I need
it.

-- Brett
------------------------------------------------------------
"In the rhythm of music a secret is hidden;
   If I were to divulge it, it would overturn the world."
              -- Jelaleddin Rumi

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[Fons Adriaensen-2]

On Tue, Nov 03, 2009 at 08:12:04PM +0100, Giso Grimm wrote:

> Not with the hdsp mixer (I mean the matrix mixer in the hdsp based RME
> sound cards, not the software); it's state is not saved by ALSA, and I
> even doubt that it can be read at all.

If it can't be read you can't use 'alsactl store'.
But AFAIK 'alsactl restore' uses the equivalent of
amixer's sset and/or cset commands, so provided you
can somehow create the required file, 'alsactl restore'
should work ?

Ciao,

--
FA

Io lo dico sempre: l'Italia è troppo stretta e lunga.

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[Brett McCoy-2]

On Tue, Nov 3, 2009 at 2:40 PM, Lars Zobbe <fedesensfar@...> wrote:

> But can you make it do that automatically? No click involved?

Yeah, but it may depend on your window manager... I have hdspmixer
startup via .xinitrc (or .xsession, depending on how X starts for
you), and my window manager (fluxbox) allows the app to "remember"
which workspace to open in. I do this for qjackctl and other utilities
I need to always be open when I am in a composing and/or recording
session.

-- Brett
------------------------------------------------------------
"In the rhythm of music a secret is hidden;
    If I were to divulge it, it would overturn the world."
               -- Jelaleddin Rumi
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[Giso Grimm]

fons@... wrote:

> On Tue, Nov 03, 2009 at 08:12:04PM +0100, Giso Grimm wrote:
>
>> Not with the hdsp mixer (I mean the matrix mixer in the hdsp based RME
>> sound cards, not the software); it's state is not saved by ALSA, and I
>> even doubt that it can be read at all.
>
> If it can't be read you can't use 'alsactl store'.
> But AFAIK 'alsactl restore' uses the equivalent of
> amixer's sset and/or cset commands, so provided you
> can somehow create the required file, 'alsactl restore'
> should work ?

alsactl store/restore works for most parameters (e.g., clock rate, clock
source, SPDIF-flags etc), but not for the matrix mixer of the hdsp
cards. The reason is probably that the mixer element "numid=5" is a
complex mixer with three arguments, where the first two define the
address of the mixer element in the hardware mixer, and the third one
its value. Thus, all hardware mixer elements are accessed through a
single ALSA mixer element (the hdsp cards have up to 2*26^2=1352 mixer
elements). The read command of numid=5 always returns the triplet 0,0,0.

-- Giso
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[Esben Stien]

Brett McCoy <idragosani@...> writes:

> you need to open hdspmixer to intialize the device.

Nope. I never use hdspmixer.

#init 96kHz operation
amixer -c $1 cset numid=11,iface=PCM,name='Sample Clock Source' 6

#direct out playback 1&2 to headphones
amixer cset numid=5 28,26,10000
amixer cset numid=5 29,27,10000

#set volume for main out
amixer -c 0 cset numid=5 26,0,$1
amixer -c 0 cset numid=5 27,1,$1

#mute playback 26 and 27 to output 26 and 27 (headphone)
amixer -c $1 cset numid=5 26,26,0
amixer -c $1 cset numid=5 27,27,0

#direct out playback 1&2 to headphones
amixer -c $1 cset numid=5 28,26,10000
amixer -c $1 cset numid=5 29,27,10000

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[Esben Stien]

Esben Stien <b0ef@...> writes:

> I never use hdspmixer.

Some general information:

# source:
# 0-17  -> physical input
# 26-43 -> playback (software output)

# destination:
# 0-17  -> physical output
# 26-27 -> line out (phone)

# gain: 0-65536 -> 0 is minus infinity, 32768 is 0 dB, 65535 is + 6dB

# use 'Mixer' ctl with amixer (numid=5).

# 3 parameters: source, destination and gain

amixer -c <device> cset numid=5 <source>,<destination>,<attenuation>

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