soundblaster and audigy sound cards

[cmc4bsd]

I have a Soundblaster Live! in my FreeBSD box now.
It's a PIII desktop with a 500 mhz processor and
512MB of memory running FreeBSD 8.0.

I use it a lot for listening to mp3s with 2.1
Creative speakers. It sounds good.

I've thought about upgrading my sound card and
the Creative Audigy SE looks like a good match.
Would I notice much difference?

Thanks for any advice,

[adamk]

The Audigy SE is not an emu10k1 chip, and will not work with any of the drivers that ship with FreeBSD. It should work with OSS from ports, though. Having said that, I don't think you'll really notice any difference in the quality or performance of the audio.

Adam

[phoenix]

What about audio/emu10kx?

Personally, unless you absolutely need 7.1 channel audio, I don't think there's a reason to get a separate/newer soundcard.

[adamk]

The Audigy SE does not use any emu10k* chip. It uses the CA-0106 controller.

EDIT: Oh, BTW, emu10kx is actually in the base system now.

[Seeker]

Would this port be useful for me on 8.0?
# ossdetect -v
Detected Sound Blaster Audigy LS / Live7.1

[adamk]

As I said, the emu10kx driver is in the base system (and has been for at least most of the 7 series and all of the 8 series). I do not believe it supports any more soundcards than the emu10k1 driver also in the base system and, iirc, the Audigy LS is not an emu10k* soundcard.

ossinfo should show you what driver OSS is using, and my guess is that it won't be oss_sblive.

Adam

[Seeker]

# ossinfo
Number of audio devices: 4
Number of audio engines: 8
Number of MIDI devices: 1
Number of mixer devices: 1


Device objects
0: oss_audigyls0 AudigyLS interrupts=1048214 (1048214)

MIDI devices (/dev/midi*)
0: AudigyLS UART (MIDI port 1 of device object 0)

Mixer devices
0: AudigyLS (STAC9750) (Mixer 0 of device object 0)

Audio devices
AudigyLS front /dev/oss/oss_audigyls0/pcm0 (device index 0)
AudigyLS center/lfe /dev/oss/oss_audigyls0/pcm1 (device index 1)
AudigyLS surround /dev/oss/oss_audigyls0/pcm2 (device index 2)
AudigyLS 5.1 output /dev/oss/oss_audigyls0/pcm3 (device index 3)

Nodes
/dev/dsp -> /dev/oss/oss_audigyls0/pcm0
/dev/dsp_in -> /dev/oss/oss_audigyls0/pcm0
/dev/dsp_out -> /dev/oss/oss_audigyls0/pcm0
/dev/dsp_ac3 -> /dev/oss/oss_audigyls0/pcm0
/dev/dsp_mmap -> /dev/oss/oss_audigyls0/pcm0
/dev/dsp_multich -> /dev/oss/oss_audigyls0/pcm3

[adamk]

So your soundcard is not an emu10k* card, and you have to use OSS.

Adam

[Seeker]

That is..., to continue to use OSS... :P