Sound Card

The next part I want to talk about is the sound card. Obviously, you need good quality sound card to get the best out of the convolver PC. For me, I think you need an external DAC to get "no compromised" sound quality while keeping all DSP under digital domain. So, after some research, I chose RME HDSP 9652 .

However, running this sound card in Linux is no easy task, especially for a Linux newbie like me! With great help from Uli and Hiroshi, I managed to get some idea. After you have installed the sound card based on the readings on DRC web page, you can type "amixer -c 0 contents" on the command prompt. The PC will show the current settings as folows

Output of amixer controls:


numid=23,iface=HWDEP,name='ADAT Lock Status',index=1
numid=24,iface=HWDEP,name='ADAT Lock Status',index=2
numid=25,iface=HWDEP,name='ADAT Lock Status',index=3
numid=20,iface=HWDEP,name='ADAT Sync Lock Status'
numid=26,iface=HWDEP,name='Analog Extension Board'
numid=14,iface=HWDEP,name='AutoSync Reference'
numid=9,iface=HWDEP,name='IEC958 Emphasis Bit'
numid=10,iface=HWDEP,name='IEC958 Non-audio Bit'
numid=7,iface=HWDEP,name='IEC958 Output also on ADAT1'
numid=8,iface=HWDEP,name='IEC958 Professional Bit'
numid=22,iface=HWDEP,name='Line Out'
numid=5,iface=HWDEP,name='Mixer'
numid=21,iface=HWDEP,name='Passthru'
numid=13,iface=HWDEP,name='Preferred Sync Reference'
numid=19,iface=HWDEP,name='SPDIF Lock Status'
numid=15,iface=HWDEP,name='SPDIF Sample Rate'
numid=12,iface=HWDEP,name='System Clock Mode'
numid=16,iface=HWDEP,name='System Sample Rate'
numid=18,iface=HWDEP,name='Word Clock Lock Status'
numid=3,iface=MIXER,name='IEC958 Playback Con Mask'
numid=4,iface=MIXER,name='IEC958 Playback Pro Mask'
numid=17,iface=PCM,name='External Rate'
numid=6,iface=PCM,name='IEC958 Input Connector'
numid=1,iface=PCM,name='IEC958 Playback Default'
numid=2,iface=PCM,name='IEC958 Playback PCM Stream'
numid=11,iface=PCM,name='Sample Clock Source'



Output of amixer contents:


numid=23,iface=HWDEP,name='ADAT Lock Status',index=1
; type=ENUMERATED,access=r----,values=1,items=3
; Item #0 'No Lock'
; Item #1 'Lock'
; Item #2 'Sync'
: values=0
numid=24,iface=HWDEP,name='ADAT Lock Status',index=2
; type=ENUMERATED,access=r----,values=1,items=3
; Item #0 'No Lock'
; Item #1 'Lock'
; Item #2 'Sync'
: values=0
numid=25,iface=HWDEP,name='ADAT Lock Status',index=3
; type=ENUMERATED,access=r----,values=1,items=3
; Item #0 'No Lock'
; Item #1 'Lock'
; Item #2 'Sync'
: values=0
numid=20,iface=HWDEP,name='ADAT Sync Lock Status'
; type=ENUMERATED,access=r----,values=1,items=3
; Item #0 'No Lock'
; Item #1 'Lock'
; Item #2 'Sync'
: values=0
numid=26,iface=HWDEP,name='Analog Extension Board'
; type=BOOLEAN,access=rw---,values=1
: values=off
numid=14,iface=HWDEP,name='AutoSync Reference'
; type=ENUMERATED,access=r----,values=1,items=7
; Item #0 'Word'
; Item #1 'ADAT Sync'
; Item #2 'IEC958'
; Item #3 'None'
; Item #4 'ADAT1'
; Item #5 'ADAT2'
; Item #6 'ADAT3'
: values=2
numid=9,iface=HWDEP,name='IEC958 Emphasis Bit'
; type=BOOLEAN,access=rw---,values=1
: values=off
numid=10,iface=HWDEP,name='IEC958 Non-audio Bit'
; type=BOOLEAN,access=rw---,values=1
: values=off
numid=7,iface=HWDEP,name='IEC958 Output also on ADAT1'
; type=BOOLEAN,access=rw---,values=1
: values=off
numid=8,iface=HWDEP,name='IEC958 Professional Bit'
; type=BOOLEAN,access=rw---,values=1
: values=off
numid=22,iface=HWDEP,name='Line Out'
; type=BOOLEAN,access=rw---,values=1
: values=on
numid=5,iface=HWDEP,name='Mixer'
; type=INTEGER,access=rw---,values=3,min=0,max=65536,step=1
: values=0,0,0
numid=21,iface=HWDEP,name='Passthru'
; type=BOOLEAN,access=rw---,values=1
: values=off
numid=13,iface=HWDEP,name='Preferred Sync Reference'
; type=ENUMERATED,access=rw---,values=1,items=6
; Item #0 'Word'
; Item #1 'IEC958'
; Item #2 'ADAT1'
; Item #3 'ADAT Sync'
; Item #4 'ADAT2'
; Item #5 'ADAT3'
: values=2
numid=19,iface=HWDEP,name='SPDIF Lock Status'
; type=ENUMERATED,access=r----,values=1,items=3
; Item #0 'No Lock'
; Item #1 'Lock'
; Item #2 'Sync'
: values=0
numid=15,iface=HWDEP,name='SPDIF Sample Rate'
; type=ENUMERATED,access=r----,values=1,items=7
; Item #0 '32000'
; Item #1 '44100'
; Item #2 '48000'
; Item #3 '64000'
; Item #4 '88200'
; Item #5 '96000'
; Item #6 'None'
: values=6
numid=12,iface=HWDEP,name='System Clock Mode'
; type=ENUMERATED,access=r----,values=1,items=2
; Item #0 'Master'
; Item #1 'Slave'
: values=0
numid=16,iface=HWDEP,name='System Sample Rate'
; type=INTEGER,access=r----,values=1,min=0,max=0,step=0
: values=44100
numid=18,iface=HWDEP,name='Word Clock Lock Status'
; type=ENUMERATED,access=r----,values=1,items=3
; Item #0 'No Lock'
; Item #1 'Lock'
; Item #2 'Sync'
: values=0
numid=3,iface=MIXER,name='IEC958 Playback Con Mask'
; type=IEC958,access=r----,values=1
: values=?
numid=4,iface=MIXER,name='IEC958 Playback Pro Mask'
; type=IEC958,access=r----,values=1
: values=?
numid=17,iface=PCM,name='External Rate'
; type=ENUMERATED,access=r----,values=1,items=7
; Item #0 '32000'
; Item #1 '44100'
; Item #2 '48000'
; Item #3 '64000'
; Item #4 '88200'
; Item #5 '96000'
; Item #6 'None'
: values=6
numid=6,iface=PCM,name='IEC958 Input Connector'
; type=ENUMERATED,access=rw---,values=1,items=3
; Item #0 'Optical'
; Item #1 'Coaxial'
; Item #2 'Internal'
: values=1
numid=1,iface=PCM,name='IEC958 Playback Default'
; type=IEC958,access=rw---,values=1
: values=?
numid=2,iface=PCM,name='IEC958 Playback PCM Stream'
; type=IEC958,access=rw---,values=1
: values=?
numid=11,iface=PCM,name='Sample Clock Source'
; type=ENUMERATED,access=rw---,values=1,items=7
; Item #0 'AutoSync'
; Item #1 'Internal 32.0 kHz'
; Item #2 'Internal 44.1 kHz'
; Item #3 'Internal 48.0 kHz'
; Item #4 'Internal 64.0 kHz'
; Item #5 'Internal 88.2 kHz'
; Item #6 'Internal 96.0 kHz'
: values=2


By following the settings you should be able to get somewhere