[linux-audio-user] Sound cards inquiry (onboard solutions).

Hello list, I know my inquiry is more suited for the ALSA list, but I
thought I would ask you guys here first (more like the users, than users
having issues with drivers).

Well, the thing is that I would like to know which "embedded" audio
solutions, in your experience provide the best set of features? Let me
explain, I am conducting a research on Linux for the average user on
commodity hardware. The thing is that for some tasks, the embedded audio
solutions, simply won't "cut it", particularly for VoIP applications
which are gaining strength and the overall multimedia experience. To
this end, we all know audio plays a key role. However right now on Linux
there is a big problem: A mixed audio environment. Why do I say this?
well, on one hand we've got the incredible efforts made by the good
folks over at the ALSA project, an on the other hand, we've got the
number of applications that still use the Open Sound System for
compatibility with other Unix systems. This is not a bad thing, the
problem, in my experience, is that as a general rule commodity hardware
(i.e motherboard embedded audio solutions) do not, at large, support
hardware mixing with the ALSA drivers. This is a problem, because in the
mixed environment with ALSA drivers, and OSS applications it is simply
next to impossible to have proper software mixing. ALSA can do soft mix,
but it can do so with applications which "talk" ALSA. Fortunately ALSA
can decode OSS applications' audio calls, but can't soft mix the
streams. This is the problem (IMO a big problem) for the average user
who may want to play a game of supertux while talking with mom in Ekiga,
and having some music in the background while keeping the game's SFX.
These are not uncommon scenarios any more.

So, if a user asks what components would he have to buy in oder of being
able to experience all these sound-rich environments with Linux, or a
user who may be in the hunt for components for a new Linux PC with
commodity hardware that would do the job; which embedded solutions
support hardware mixing with ALSA in Linux?

I know the obvious answer is "Go check the ALSA sound card matrix", but
here's a problem: which chipsets are actually used for motherboard audio
solutions and which are used for separate cards? I know a plethora of
users have opted to some solutions like running two cards, the embedded
and a cheap add-on card, or stuff like that, while others are lucky to
have, say a VIA VT8235/37 southbridge based motherboard with an audio
controller, which supports up to 4 channels (voices/devices) in
hardware, or some others are even luckier and have one of the rare
4DWave based audio solutions (which support as much as 32
channels/voices/devices). I know some chipsets like ALi and VIA
(VT8235/37) support hardware mixing, but there might be a problem: the
offering of VIA based motherboards is not that great anymore ever since
ATi and nVidia started playing SLI/Crossfire, and as such have flooded
the market with these boards, which include an ALC audio codec or the
atiixp controller which both do not support hardware mixing (in my
experience, anyway, things might have changed). The majority of audio
solutions "in the wild" use the snd-intel8x0 driver which to the best of
my knowledge does not support hardware mixing or the chips used with it
do not support it.

Given the mixed audio environment in Linux, and hence the lack of
ability to successfully soft mix with either drivers (ALSA/OSS) while
using an application written for the other, is why in my opinion,
hardware mixing is a must for Linux for the average user as it stands
today. I realize this will slowly change overtime as even more
abstractions are made available to make this transparent across Unix
systems (like the use of Gstreamer as the platform-dependant sound
backend) and the audio system, applications and drivers used will no
longer be a problem, but in the mean time, a great deal of users who
want to use Linux experience some problems that for some may not be
showstoppers, but for others they deffinitely are.

By the way, I asked first here, to gather *user* information, rather
than developers, as different users usually have different experiences
with the same or similar hardware.

I am so terribly sorry if this is completely off-topic in the list and
if the e-mail is too large.
Received on Wed May 17 16:15:03 2006