Pulseaudio and audio interface - cannot select output jacks for speakers

General system Gaming, sound and video
1

Hello,

I’m using Komplete Audio 6 and the headphone jack is working

so I can listen to music with my headphones but there’s addition output jacks for speakers on the interface

I cannot select the to my speakers

I’m unable to do so and been troubleshooting the issue for several hours and I’m getting no where

heres output of sinks https://pastebin.com/qLgNaMvC

How can I create a profile/sink that will allow me to use the stereo jacks only?

I tried following this guide but unsure what to do

I tried checking /usr/share/pulseaudio/alsa-mixer/ and the path doesn’t exist

2

Hi! :slight_smile:

I assume this is pretty complex audio interface for pro audio, since it’s Komplete…
So i don’t advice to use pulseaudio, it’s just not capable.

You should familiarize yourself with jack, coz there you can connect any input / output with any input / output…It’s like :octopus:

image

Jack

Here’s basic setup…

Install those packages:

jack2
cadence
pulseaudio-jack
zita-ajbridge

Launch Cadence and do it’s most basic settings (to route all audio through JACK):

JACK Settings
[x] Auto-start JACK or LADISH at login

ALSA Audio
Alsa -> PulseAudio -> JACK (plugin)

PulseAudio
[ ] Auto-start at login

Engine
[x] Realtime

Driver
[x] ALSA
    [x] Duplex Mode !
    Device/Interface - your audio card
    Sample rate - 44100 kHz
    Buffer size - 512
    Period/Buffer - 2

System settings - Audio
[x] JACK sink (PulseAudio JACK Sink)

Smaller buffer size - obviously smaller will be latency, but if you just listen and don’t create music - it should be safe starting value (although outcome heavily depends on Audio hardware, usually you should aim for as small value as possible, which doesn’t introduce crackles / xruns)

Inside Cadence there is Tools - Catia - here you can route anything to any connection like an octopus :slight_smile:

Realtime config quick scan

For best performance, you should also do that:

https://github.com/raboof/realtimeconfigquickscan

Run as:

perl ./realTimeConfigQuickScan.pl
2 Likes
3

Pulseaudio sucks for serious stuff :laughing:

For example with my RME Fireface UCX it just see 2 stereo outputs, instead of…
8 stereo outputs + headphones :upside_down_face:

4

holy!

I got both speakers working with your Jack2 setup + Catia

within 20 mins !

I had the audio interface for months and spent 6 hours trying to get the thing to work in Pulseaudio and went insane. This post wa a last ditch effort…

thank you x1000

I have to leave so no more time today to play around with Jack

I’ll check out that real time scan later on

I figure out about buffer/latency (mostly for listening but I also use DAW/play instruments)

Wonder how complicated it will mutliply applications and devices. I need to use a headset for work but I guess I can route that with Catia

I’ll play around more and post later on

3 Likes
5

Glad to help :partying_face:

It’s all about knowledge!
I’ve known about jack for a looong time before actually switching to Linux, it’s well known for extremely low latency abilities and routing capabilities matched to none other :yum:

There is also some ongoing effort to make defaults on Linux little more sane, by replacing pulseaudio with new thing called pipewire, which has cleaner code, better performance, no complicated settings hassle and is a bit of a compromise between normal needs / pro-audio…

But i doubt it will get any close to jack very soon, so there is that :upside_down_face:

Not much really, just in your DAW or audio application choose jack audio output, if it’s capable, if not choose alsa / pulseaduio, with that settings i’ve provided you - they all route to jack now anyway :wink:

1 Like
6

I’ll figure out about volume control and using other interfaces/audio devices

thanks for the help

I was reading about pipewire and was going to wait until it’s offically released

I’ve read about jack but wasn’t sure if it was the way to go

Pulseaudio forums/documents really mislead me and I couldn’t believe how complicated/ frustrating it was just to select an output on my audio interface

1 Like
7

Yeah i know…

Back in a day and still to some degree pulseaudio had it’s purpose, it’s initially made as some easier way to deal with default direct way of dealing with audio in Linux which is alsa and even more complicated, in fact it’s just insane for normal user :laughing:

Pulseaudio is mostly fine for some normal stuff like motherboard builtin audio-interfaces which has simple routing like 1 stereo or 5.1 etc