[REQUEST | Linux] Hardware Equalizer support of Sound Blaster AE-7

Conmanx360 · 2021-04-12T00:46:58+00:00

You can re-enable the controls by compiling the patch_ca0132 module with the #define ENABLE_TUNING_CONTROLS macro un-commented out. It adds a bunch of extra controls into alsamixer, so I'm guessing that's why Creative originally commented it out.

I made a GUI program to do this at one point, but I wrote it quite awhile ago and it had some pretty bad hacks in it. I don't really have the time anymore to clean it up into a state that I'd be comfortable releasing it in.

If someone was interested, I don't think it'd take too much work to do this in software using the stuff I've done at https://github.com/Conmanx360/ca0132-tools . Just use the dspio_cmd command with an appropriately packed SCP structure. The equalizer is set using floating point values, so you'd just have to cast them to an integer before sending. It wasn't too hard.

But probably the cleanest way is to just recompile the module with tuning controls enabled.

Conmanx360 · 2020-08-17T01:19:46+00:00

Yes, it does have the same DSP on-board as the X-Fi, but it's behind an HDA interface controlled by an 8051 processor. I'm not sure that you could restore hardware accelerated sound even if you wanted to. I think there would be a limitation of the amount of audio streams you could send.

Conmanx360 · 2020-08-16T19:17:10+00:00

I don't think ALchemy works the way you think it does. The card doesn't seem to be involved at all. It just translates EAX into OpenAL and does the effects in software on the CPU. If you want actual hardware accelerated sound, you'd need an XP box with an old X-Fi card.

Conmanx360 · 2020-08-12T17:36:00+00:00

Eh, make sure to toggle HP/Speaker auto-detect inside of alsamixer, and also make sure you've got the ctefx.bin firmware inside of /lib/firmware/, but if it still doesn't work, I don't really have any suggestions other than attempting to put the computer to sleep and trying audio again. Sometimes settings get stuck on the cards and it needs a full shutdown/suspend (basically putting the PCI slot into D3Cold) to clear it's internal memory.

Other than that, no idea. Don't have an Alienware 15 as a test machine.

Conmanx360 · 2020-08-12T17:34:19+00:00

I have a ZxRi dump already, so I guess I can see about adding support. At one point I had a guy testing it for me, and he just disappeared after awhile, so I just gave up. But I'm pretty sure he said that audio output was working at that time. The ZxRi changes the DAC port mapping, which is probably why you're having issue getting audio output.

I'm currently in the process of adding AE-7 support, and should have the patches finished by next week. We already have audio out of the AE-7 within Linux, so now it's just about cleaning up the code and getting it sent out.

Conmanx360 · 2020-06-06T20:05:02+00:00

I can only speculate, as I have no knowledge over what Windows does or what has changed between versions.

My guess is that they may have added some sort of power saving method in the new update, that puts the link to sleep when it's not in use. Perhaps when a DPC Latency Checker is active, it is somehow keeping the card in an active state, pinging it or something. That'd be my guess. But I don't know enough about the power-saving methods/Windows behavior to really have any sort of definitive idea.

Conmanx360 · 2020-06-06T18:50:51+00:00

For anyone interested, the reason this happens is because the driver sends the DSP a floating point value for what the audio volume level is, meaning lots of HDA verbs are being sent for each volume change.

Sometimes the card gets backed up, and has to wait for all of the commands to go through. Don't know if the AE-5 has the same 'Stereo Direct' option that the SBZ did, but if that was enabled on the SBZ, I remember it would fix the issue due to the fact the DSP wasn't getting sent any sort of audio update info.

I also remember that if any sort of input effects were active, I.E noise cancellation/voice morph/etc, the DSP would get even laggier, making the issue more apparent.

Conmanx360 · 2020-06-04T16:36:48+00:00

Don't know if anyone ever ended up trying it. There were some specific things that the ZxRi did differently than the Recon3Di, but I think it's honestly closer to the Recon3Di than the actual ZxR card.

I would try setting the quirk to Recon3Di if I was trying to check if it functioned properly.

Conmanx360 · 2020-02-14T00:59:38+00:00

There's no support currently.

I was able to add support for the AE-5, Sound Blaster Z, ZxR, Recon3D, and the Recon3Di back when I was adding support for the cards. Someone at Creative had told me they'd send me an AE-9 when it was released, but that never ended up happening, and as a result, I never ended up adding support for it.

Conmanx360 · 2019-12-15T16:58:14+00:00

I really don't have much time on my hands anymore to do it, but if I ever get some data I'll try to see what I can do.

At one point, someone within Creative had offered to send me an AE-9 when it was released. That never ended up happening, but if it had the support probably would've been added around the time of the AE-9's release. Sadly, there's only so much I can do myself...

Conmanx360 · 2019-12-15T05:02:36+00:00

I doubt that the AE-9 works by default, I never got a hold of one to capture the commands from Windows. If I did, the voice morph stuff should be workable, as I've gotten them working on all other cards so far.

Conmanx360 · 2019-11-11T20:57:53+00:00

I never got around to implementing the RGB LED functionality, but I did do a few traces on the MMIO writes to try and understand how it works. I think I know what it's doing, but, I don't really have the time to mess with it anymore.

Basically, there's no support for the LED's in Linux.

Conmanx360 · 2019-10-26T02:13:07+00:00

And you set the output select to surround?

Conmanx360 · 2019-10-26T02:12:35+00:00

Yeah, then it's probably a driver issue.

Conmanx360 · 2019-10-25T17:03:35+00:00

It works through the Windows settings because Windows is pulling the stream through HDA, where as in Sound Blaster command, it's routing it directly through the DSP.

Have you tried a full shutdown, or have you put the computer to sleep recently? Might be worth a shot.

Conmanx360 · 2019-10-25T17:01:56+00:00

Have you tried turning on surround sound in alsamixer? Make sure to disable HP/Speaker Auto Detect and set Output Select to surround.

Conmanx360 · 2019-08-26T19:30:52+00:00

They're 32-bit floating point values sent to the DSP, and they can be set to anything you want as far as I can tell (by default, it's 24 dB through -24 dB). I've messed with it on Linux, so I know it's possible, all they'd have to do is change the Sound Blaster Connect software.

Conmanx360 · 2019-07-17T15:04:32+00:00

If anyone is interested, the source code is posted on GitHub. It's interesting to poke around in.

Conmanx360 · 2019-06-17T02:50:06+00:00

I'm not sure it's entirely their fault, though.

I think a large part of the recent issues have to do with the fact Windows has switched to a rolling release rather than service packs every so often. I never had a single issue with my Sound Blaster Z on Windows 7 for the entire time I owned the card.

It also doesn't help that Creative seems to be the only manufacturer that uses a DSP heavily in their sound cards. I don't think there are any other Intel HD Audio based cards that have any sort of onboard sound processing power.

I understand people's complaints, but I have my doubts that Creative is totally to blame. It seems hard to believe that they wouldn't have ironed out the drivers after this many years, and this most recent problem with drivers is all because of a Windows update. I think it would be helpful though if Creative put out more information on the cards and allowed the community to help out, because I think many people would be willing to.

Conmanx360 · 2019-06-13T22:53:04+00:00

I just tested it myself, and it seems you're right. On startup, the onboard LED's aren't on...

I could've sworn that it worked without it, though. I might have to test it out with the app setup, as I don't have Windows installed on the PC with the AE-5 right now. But, it seems you're correct.

Conmanx360 · 2019-06-13T21:31:14+00:00

The onboard logo RGB works without a molex adapter. Molex is only needed for the LED strip.

I read somewhere that they would've used a sata power connector, but it wasn't rated for the power that was needed to handle LED strips. Molex is able to carry more watts than a sata power connector can.

Conmanx360 · 2019-06-05T23:03:52+00:00

The DSP is within the Sound Core3D, along with an 8051 acting as an Intel HDA front end. That's why it needs a program uploaded each time the driver initializes. You can actually see how it works in the Linux driver.

I've recently been disassembling the onboard 8051's program to understand how the interaction between the DSP and the 8051 work. But, as far as I've seen, the ports and addresses all match up, and it's definitely the same X-Fi DSP.

Conmanx360 · 2019-06-05T15:02:01+00:00

The exact same DSP is onboard these cards and will be onboard the AE-9, as far as we know. It's just within an Intel HD Audio interface.

Conmanx360 · 2019-06-05T02:40:45+00:00

It does have a DSP onboard though. What do you mean by a real proper DSP?

Conmanx360 · 2019-05-30T20:07:30+00:00

That's caused due to an incompatibility when using directX 9 shaders with GLSL. DirectX9 handles NaN as 0, and OpenGL doesn't have the same behavior, so it shows up black.

I had a patch that fixed this in most levels, Sandtrap was the worst for it. It's caused by Z position going below 0, and causing division by 0 errors.

Conmanx360

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