Re: [LAU] Edirol FA-101 and output level

On Fri, Aug 24, 2007 at 02:15:04AM -0400, Hector Centeno wrote:

> well... tested in Windows and the level is as high as in Linux. There is no
> Edirol control panel or software mixer to lower the levels in the interface.
> I guess I'll have to get a mixer.

A pair of XLR in-line attenuators will be much cheaper !

But I'm convinced that all this is a non-problem if looked at
in the right way. Consider this:

When using active speakers connected directly to the sound card,
you want to adjust the individual speaker gains once and then
forget about them - they are not meant as a 'volume control'.

In that case you adjust the gains of the monitors in such a way
that a full scale signal from the soundcard produces the _maximum_
_peak_ volume that you will ever require. This will be much higher
than the normal listening level, typically 30 dB or so higher.

In such a system you don't have a master volume control in hardware,
so you need to provide one in software. All applications then should
connect to the app providing this master volume control instead of
to the soundcard directly.

In other words, you don't try to use the full range of the sound
card all the time. If it's 24-bit and good quality there's nothing
wrong with that.

Imagine that your speakers would have a digital input. That would
create exactly the same situation - the average digital level you
would send to them would be quite low.

In this case, consider the software side of your soundcard to be
the digital input of your speakers. Then it becomes entirely
logical to put the volume control before the soundcard, i.e. in
software.

-- 
FA
Follie! Follie! Delirio vano è questo !
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