Sound Editing, K3b cdaudio burning, Sound is slowed?? solved

**Cuddles** · 02-25-2004, 03:55 PM

Champagnemojo,

I tried Stephen's idea of alsa-autoconfig, instead of your link to kano - not sure if ALSA is running, or working, or anything...

Upon assuming, ALSA is, I figured since I am "going" to be pointing KDE to "aplayer", that aplayer must exists on my system already. So I tried "aplayer test.wav", from a console - it errored out with the following:

$ aplayer test.wav
bash: aplayer: command not found

Then - getting the brain-dead idea of "looking" for it, with a apt-cache search alsa, came up with way too much ...alsa.... stuff - shesh, this is worse than typing "kids" in an internet search engine - you get BILLIONS of "porn" sites, but in this case, thousands of packages that have alsa in the "somewhere", and which the descriptions don't give me a clue what I want, need, or have, to have...

Consider that frustrations are at an "all time" high right now - can someone just "tell me" what I need, exactly, specifically, and to ensure that alsa is working, what do I need to find that out. Second, what mixer, appears alsamixer is NOT a package that can be gotten, but I did see in the thousand package search from above, a "xalsamixer" and a "xaplayer" - I think.

This is getting way too complex for me here, when I am running without my business doing its work, and my money-maker, "tid-bit" information, in which I need to run everywhere, and waste more time looking, for, what appears, nothing I can find, is more time away from getting my business back into running again. Can I get "exactly" what I need to do here?

After I get my business up and running again, then, I can play "find out where the "X" is? You can search for it, or do a search on the internet for anything having to do with "alsa" :. Then tangle with the fact that this OS is so new to me, that I haven't a clue what I am doing, or what I need, or how to do it, or anything, and I can't get my work done in the meantime...

Sorry, I haven't been myself lately, since finding out I can't do my business work now...
Cuddles

**gowator** · 02-25-2004, 04:19 PM

Cuddles,
This might not help but a while ago I downloaded a few .wav's (kinda cute ones with star treck computers saying things like "incoming message"
.. yeah all very childish and trivial....

However everything was screwy in terms of what you describe about the sampling... from micky mouse on helium to baritone Lt. Uhura.

Eventually i sorted some of these (all I wanted was a nice mail notification) using CLI tools...
I seem to remember using LAME and deliberately changing the inoput and output bitrates..... It was more trail and error than anything educated but I played around and unfortunately its not the sort of thing you document (if your just trying to get a cool mail notification as opposed to running a business)

**Stephen** · 02-26-2004, 05:24 AM

Originally Posted by Cuddles

Stephen, I am not sure if this "did" anything, how can I check?

I did the /etc/init.d/alsa-autoconfig -=- and added aumix -w [space] 75 -v [space] 75 to the script you stated - and then rebooted. I still can not get alsamixer to run, I get the same error:

alsamixer: function snd_ctl_open failed for default: No such file or directory

You can check with the lsmod to make sure the modules are getting loaded and there should have been an /etc/modutils/alsa file that would have been created as well that contains the settings for the card. You should also remove or put a # character in front of the line for the via module in the /etc/modules if it is there that will stop alsa from loading properly.

**champagnemojo** · 02-26-2004, 06:01 AM

I'm terribly sorry Cuddles. I was working off memory as I was at work and didn't have Linux handy.

I should have said "aplay" and not "aplayER"

It should work as long as ALSA is working to type "aplay somefile.wav".

Sorry for adding to your confusion.

Watch the dealsites for cheap soundcards too...you can get them really cheap at times.

**champagnemojo** · 02-26-2004, 06:12 AM

Originally Posted by Cuddles

Consider that frustrations are at an "all time" high right now - can someone just "tell me" what I need, exactly, specifically, and to ensure that alsa is working, what do I need to find that out. Second, what mixer, appears alsamixer is NOT a package that can be gotten, but I did see in the thousand package search from above, a "xalsamixer" and a "xaplayer" - I think.

I know what you mean. The mixer to install is "alsamixergui". You can also use aumix.

The way I installed ALSA this past time without Kano's script was to get the 1.0.2c alsa drivers package and compile and install that. Then I got the libasound2, alsa-base and alsa-utils debs for 1.0.2c from here (the drivers package is here too, but I got it from the ALSA site). I used dpkg to install those. Following the instructions for my card on the ALSA site it really wasn't very hard to get it going.

Snd isn't a bad program...it's a nice alternative to Audacity I like it's record interface much better than Audacity's. It shows you your levels and such. When you get to the editing part, it's very stripped-down in terms of menu options. But it would do recording and deleting silence very well. Audacity is more user-friendly for editing though.

Since you're going from an analog tape it doesn't seem like recording at 22,050 would be too bad either...I'm just throwing that out in case your VIA card can't record at 44,100 in Linux.

**Durand Hicks** · 02-26-2004, 06:13 AM

Cuddles,

I'm a newbie as well, but I had to compile alsa from source and insert the modules into the kernel for it to work. Not only that, you'll need to apt-get remove --purge knx-alsa as it doesn't seem to work on a hd install. You'll need to apt-get install alsa-base and alsa-source at the very least and then compile it to your kernel or make your own kernel and compile it along with the kernel (whichever works for you). If you haven't done any compiling before, it's not too hard once you get the hang of it. I'm using linux for all of 3 weeks, believe it or not, and got my sound from the alsa modules instead of the oss drivers (which was correct btw, but won't output sound). Once you have it compiled you can insert the module to be run by the kernel and test to see if it's working upon your next boot. Alsa-mixer should also work if the module is loaded as well. I should mention that you'll need to unload the oss driver for the sound card prior to loading alsa. The *only* oss driver you need is the snd module and nothing else, alsa should pick up and load the necessary additional modules as needed.

**Cuddles** · 02-26-2004, 03:47 PM

Ok, I think I did "something" right - but at a cost -=- I think

With the help from ALSA group, I think I resolved the Sample Rate on the recording issue...

Appears that my sound card can only record 48KHz - either that, or audacity can - either case, I found a way to work this out -=- Record speaches from audio tape using 48KHz in audacity, save/export the work as WAV - then open ReZound, and perform a Resample to the right Sample Rate of 44.1KHz - resave the file back out - and it APPEARS the file sounds like it should. I have played the file from the computer, and used K3b to burn the file to a Audio CD, so far, my CD players I have don't like CD-RW discs, so I am not sure on boom-boxes, etc... if the sound is right - but I am able to play the CD using XMMS - and it sounds perfect...

Now, along the lines of ALSA - (this is where I think I mucked things up...)

I tried doing a lot of "apt-get installs" - unfortunatelly, the output from all of that was posted into ALSA group, so I am just going to "copy/paste" the complete post below:

-=- Inclusion of ALSA posting (start)
Ok, I have been fighting this for a few days now, first trying to get WAV to
work after I burn it onto a CD, and now, can't get - I think - ALSA to start/
run/install - as far as I can tell...

I tried to run alsa-autoconfig - appeared to run, but not sure if it was up
and running... So,

Upon searching for "packages", I located alsa-utils, alsa-base, and
alsadriver...

I tried to apt-get install alsa-utils - which wanted to install alsa-base, and
suggested alsadriver.

Apt-get install of alsa-utils and alsa-base - died with the following:

$ apt-get -u install alsa-utils
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
alsa-base
Suggested packages:
alsadriver
The following NEW packages will be installed:
alsa-base alsa-utils
0 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 477 not upgraded.
Need to get 142kB of archives.
After unpacking 393kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
Get:1 http://ftp2.de.debian.org testing/main alsa-utils 0.9.8-1 [91.5kB]
Get:2 http://ftp2.de.debian.org testing/main alsa-base 1.0.1-1 [50.0kB]
Fetched 142kB in 45s (3104B/s)
Preconfiguring packages ...
Selecting previously deselected package alsa-utils.
(Reading database ... 107361 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking alsa-utils (from .../alsa-utils_0.9.8-1_i386.deb) ...
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/alsa-utils_0.9.8-1_i386.deb
(--unpack):
trying to overwrite `/usr/bin/alsamixer', which is also in package knx-alsa
dpkg-deb: subprocess paste killed by signal (Broken pipe)
Selecting previously deselected package alsa-base.
Unpacking alsa-base (from .../alsa-base_1.0.1-1_all.deb) ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
/var/cache/apt/archives/alsa-utils_0.9.8-1_i386.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

With these errors, I tried to install the alsadriver, which caused the
following:

$ apt-get -u install alsadriver
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
Package alsadriver is a virtual package provided by:
alsa-modules-2.4.16-k7 0.9+0beta10+1+2.4.16+1
alsa-modules-2.4.16-k6 0.9+0beta10+1+2.4.16+1
alsa-modules-2.4.16-686-smp 0.9+0beta10+1+2.4.16+1
alsa-modules-2.4.16-686 0.9+0beta10+1+2.4.16+1
alsa-modules-2.4.16-586tsc 0.9+0beta10+1+2.4.16+1
alsa-modules-2.4.16-586 0.9+0beta10+1+2.4.16+1
alsa-modules-2.4.16-386 0.9+0beta10+1+2.4.16+1
You should explicitly select one to install.
E: Package alsadriver has no installation candidate

Didn't have a clue on this one, so tried the "686" one:

$ apt-get -u install alsa-modules-2.4.16-686
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
You might want to run `apt-get -f install' to correct these:
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
alsa-base: Depends: alsa-utils but it is not going to be installed
alsa-modules-2.4.16-686: Depends: kernel-image-2.4.16-686 (= 2.4.16-1) but
it is not going to be installed
E: Unmet dependencies. Try 'apt-get -f install' with no packages (or specify a
solution).

As - I guess - this wasn't something I should have done... So, tried the
alsa-base, and then alsa-utils, seperately, and as a single install...

$ apt-get -u install alsa-base
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
alsa-base is already the newest version.
You might want to run `apt-get -f install' to correct these:
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
alsa-base: Depends: alsa-utils but it is not going to be installed
E: Unmet dependencies. Try 'apt-get -f install' with no packages (or specify a
solution).

$ apt-get -u install alsa-utils
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
Suggested packages:
alsadriver
The following NEW packages will be installed:
alsa-utils
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 477 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 0B/91.5kB of archives.
After unpacking 246kB of additional disk space will be used.
(Reading database ... 107385 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking alsa-utils (from .../alsa-utils_0.9.8-1_i386.deb) ...
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/alsa-utils_0.9.8-1_i386.deb
(--unpack):
trying to overwrite `/usr/bin/alsamixer', which is also in package knx-alsa
dpkg-deb: subprocess paste killed by signal (Broken pipe)
Errors were encountered while processing:
/var/cache/apt/archives/alsa-utils_0.9.8-1_i386.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

This time I thought the problem was in knx-alsa, so I tried a install of that:

$ apt-get -u install knx-alsa
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
knx-alsa is already the newest version.
You might want to run `apt-get -f install' to correct these:
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
alsa-base: Depends: alsa-utils but it is not going to be installed
E: Unmet dependencies. Try 'apt-get -f install' with no packages (or specify a
solution).

Figuring - I need TO READ the suggestion to resolve this, I tried the
suggested resolve:

$ apt-get -f install
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
Correcting dependencies... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
alsa-utils
Suggested packages:
alsadriver
The following NEW packages will be installed:
alsa-utils
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 477 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 0B/91.5kB of archives.
After unpacking 246kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
(Reading database ... 107385 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking alsa-utils (from .../alsa-utils_0.9.8-1_i386.deb) ...
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/alsa-utils_0.9.8-1_i386.deb
(--unpack):
trying to overwrite `/usr/bin/alsamixer', which is also in package knx-alsa
dpkg-deb: subprocess paste killed by signal (Broken pipe)
Errors were encountered while processing:
/var/cache/apt/archives/alsa-utils_0.9.8-1_i386.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

NOW - I'm stuck - I don't have a clue what to do - someone help me out here -
I'm a noob within Linux, and other than what I have done so far, is pretty
much the extent of my knowledge base.

How can I resolve this, and how do I get ALSA running, and then, lastly, how
do I know if ALSA is running when I get done?

Thanks to ANYONE who can get me through this...
-=- Inclusion of ALSA posting (end)

Nice thing is - with the help of Stephen and ChampangeMojo - I think all of ALSA is running - even with all the above junk still pending...

I can't run "aplay" - it says the command doesn't exist,
But I am able to run "alsamixer" - shessh, that is a bad interface, text-based graphics - Yikes

-=- the following is from lsmod:
$ lsmod
Module Size Used by Not tainted
lp 7492 0 (autoclean)
snd-mixer-oss 11256 0 (autoclean)
snd-via82xx 10540 0 (autoclean)
snd-pcm 56544 0 (autoclean) [snd-via82xx]
snd-timer 14824 0 (autoclean) [snd-pcm]
snd-ac97-codec 30784 0 (autoclean) [snd-via82xx]
snd-page-alloc 4000 0 (autoclean) [snd-via82xx snd-pcm]
snd-mpu401-uart 3056 0 (autoclean) [snd-via82xx]
snd-rawmidi 12288 0 (autoclean) [snd-mpu401-uart]
snd-seq-device 3764 0 (autoclean) [snd-rawmidi]
snd 27556 0 (autoclean) [snd-mixer-oss snd-via82xx snd-pcm snd-timer snd-ac97-codec snd-mpu401-uart snd-rawmidi snd-seq-device]
soundcore 3428 3 (autoclean) [snd]
ipt_state 632 48 (autoclean)
ipt_REJECT 3256 4 (autoclean)
ipt_limit 1080 6 (autoclean)
ipt_LOG 3352 6 (autoclean)
ip_conntrack_ftp 3888 0 (unused)
ip_conntrack_irc 3088 0 (unused)
ip_conntrack 18952 3 [ipt_state ip_conntrack_ftp ip_conntrack_irc]
iptable_filter 1736 1 (autoclean)
ip_tables 11576 5 [ipt_state ipt_REJECT ipt_limit ipt_LOG iptable_filter]
nls_cp437 4348 2 (autoclean)
autofs4 8756 0 (unused)
efs 7436 0 (unused)
hfs 76832 0 (unused)
minix 19848 0 (unused)
xfs 525120 0 (unused)
reiserfs 169616 0 (unused)
agpgart 38296 0 (unused)
nls_iso8859-1 2844 2
ntfs 51168 0 (unused)
msdos 4652 0 (unused)
parport_pc 24840 1
parport 22496 1 [lp parport_pc]
serial 51972 0
usb-storage 60960 0 (unused)
usb-uhci 21836 0 (unused)
usbcore 57472 0 [usb-storage usb-uhci]
rtc 6908 0
ext3 63940 1
jbd 46100 1 [ext3]

Is everything that belongs "their" there????

Last thing, how do I get rid of the following, when I do the following? Do I have to uninstall everything and start again - considering "apt-get" is now mucked up???
$ apt-get -u install alsamixergui
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
You might want to run `apt-get -f install' to correct these:
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
alsa-base: Depends: alsa-utils but it is not going to be installed
alsamixergui: Depends: libfltk1.1c102 (>= 1.1.3+1.1.4rc2) but it is not going to be installed
E: Unmet dependencies. Try 'apt-get -f install' with no packages (or specify a solution).

I "did" try the apt-get -f install (with nothing after it, see above, in the post made to ALSA Group) - it didn't change anything - I blew it, didn't I?

Funny thing about Linux - once you try fixing "one" thing, something else happens, ( I promise Stephen, I am "really" trying to learn here ).

I bet the problem is that one of these "packages" was a release 0.9.something, and one of the dependancies was something like 1.x.something? (did I guess right?) Taking my hypothosis further, the "broken pipe", I remember seeing way back when I started doing the installs, stated the version numbers - and I think the next thing I did, was another apt-get install to try and correct the problem - I think the problem with all of this is that I "installed" two, or more, packages that "depend" on each either to be same versions, and they aren't (did I get this one right too?)

Now, the fun part, how, if I guessed this right, do I undo what I screwed up???

Thanks to everyone, I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel again, and I can thank all three of you for that one

Thanks...
Cuddles

**Cuddles** · 02-26-2004, 04:00 PM

Almost forgot Stephen - here is the output from /etc/modules...
$ cat modules
# /etc/modules: kernel modules to load at boot time.
#
# This file should contain the names of kernel modules that are
# to be loaded at boot time, one per line. Comments begin with
# a `#', and everything on the line after them are ignored.
rtc
usb-uhci
usb-storage
serial
parport_pc
# commented below out for ALSA support 20040226
#via82cxxx_audio
msdos
ntfs
nls_iso8859-1
ext3
agpgart
reiserfs
xfs
minix
hfs
efs
autofs4

And here is the output from /etc/modutils...
$ cat alsa-0.9-knoppix
# --- BEGIN: Generated by ALSACONF, do not edit. ---
# --- ALSACONF version 0.9.0-knoppix ---
alias char-major-116 snd
alias snd-card-0 snd-via82xx
alias char-major-14 soundcore
alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0
alias sound-service-0-0 snd-mixer-oss
alias sound-service-0-1 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-3 snd-pcm-oss
alias sound-service-0-8 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-12 snd-pcm-oss
options snd major=116 cards_limit=1 device_gid=29 device_mode=0660
options snd-via82xx index=0
# --- END: Generated by ALSACONF, do not edit. ---

Does all of this look like it should? Did I do right Stephen????
Cuddles

**Cuddles** · 02-26-2004, 04:38 PM

I don't think ALSA is working, or it appears it isn't, if it looks like it is, that is....

XMMS freezes when you click play on a valid audio cd in the Play Location list, and I realized that it used to point to OSS for playback, I changed that to an ALSA setting, same lock-up when you click play - I have to use xkill and then a ctrl-c to regain my Konsole window prompt, user prompt - the only message that shows up when I fire off XMMS in the shell is "Message: output format: 7" - and then it just freezes - XMMS gui up to the point of pressing play, is scrolling the title of the cd, when you click play, the scrolling "marque" of the title just locks up.

I think I still need some help on this one - something is definatelly not right,
Cuddles

**windos_no_thanks** · 02-26-2004, 07:12 PM

Originally Posted by Cuddles

I don't think ALSA is working, or it appears it isn't, if it looks like it is, that is....

XMMS freezes when you click play on a valid audio cd in the Play Location list, and I realized that it used to point to OSS for playback, I changed that to an ALSA setting, same lock-up when you click play - I have to use xkill and then a ctrl-c to regain my Konsole window prompt, user prompt - the only message that shows up when I fire off XMMS in the shell is "Message: output format: 7" - and then it just freezes - XMMS gui up to the point of pressing play, is scrolling the title of the cd, when you click play, the scrolling "marque" of the title just locks up.

I think I still need some help on this one - something is definatelly not right,
Cuddles

If you are using KDE I think your applications should be using arts instead of the "real" sound driver, for xmms that would mean installing the xmms-arts package and configure xmms to use it for playback. (at least that applies when using oss, don't know if it applies to alsa too)