geoffreybennett/alsa-scarlett-gui

v0.3.1 -- Clarett+ 8pre -- missing phantom power controlls

Opened this issue · 3 comments

71GA commented

First I would like to thank you for creating this program. It is awesome and even surpasses the native application.

I bought a new "Clarett+ 8pre" yesterday and I updated it to the newest firmware using my Windows workstation and Focusrite controll program.

Then I went to my Debian 12 (Bookworm) workstation:

  1. Enabled bookworm-backports repositories by adding:

    http://deb.debian.org/debian/ bookworm-backports main contrib non-free non-free-firmware

    to the /etc/apt/sources.list.

    Note:
    This repository has Linux kernel 6.5 available for us.

  2. Updated my system with:

    sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

  3. Upgraded Linux kernel from stock 6.1 version to 6.5 by using this command and then rebooted (if anyone tries to repeat this command use sudo apt search linux-image and sudo apt search linux-headers first to see which versions are available at that moment and install those versions instead):

    sudo apt install linux-image-6.5.0-0.deb12.1-amd64 linux-headers-6.5.0-0.deb12.1-amd64

  4. I built and installed version 0.3.1 of alsa-scarlett-gui GUI application by following your instructions.

  5. I built and installed version 6.5.11c1 of scarlett-gen2 driver by following your instructions.

    Attention:
    I used snd-usb-audio-kmod-6.5.11c1.tar.gzand not snd-usb-audio-kmod-5.15.138c1.tar.gz because first one was meant to compile on kernel 6.5.xx whilke later one was meant to be compiled on 5.15.xx.

  6. I rebooted PC.

  7. I ran the alsa-scarlett-gui.

At this point ewverything works fine, except, I can not find any software controlls for phantom power (image). It would be nice to have them. Is there any initiative to include them?

20231119_20h22m45s_grim

Note:
It also seems to me that both headphone outputs are really quiet compared to the levels that I hear on the Windows workstation using the propietary Focusrite controll application. I tried maxing out faders in the mixer, but then I got distorted sound. So now I keep faders at 2.0 which is a bit quiet... (headphones 1 ----> Mix C/D and headphones 2 ----> Mix E/F) .

geoffreybennett commented

Hi @71GA!

That's great! Thank you for the feedback! :)

In answer to your questions:

At this point ewverything works fine, except, I can not find any software controlls for phantom power (image). It would be nice to have them. Is there any initiative to include them?

That's a hardware limitation. The buttons are on/off switches which are wired to the power control circuitry, and there is no way to control them through software.

It also seems to me that both headphone outputs are really quiet compared to the levels that I hear on the Windows workstation using the propietary Focusrite controll application.

About 56dB quieter, I'm guessing? You can fix this by clicking the "HW" buttons for channels 7–10 and raising the gain to 0dB. The internal architecture of the headphone outputs has the physical headphone volume knob applied after (and in addition to) the volume control that is applied to the channel according to your screenshot. So when it's set it to HW-controlled like in your screenshot, then you need both the master volume control and the headphone volume control knobs turned up. Generally, if you're using the headphone outputs, you would want those channels set to SW, 0dB.

I think you'd only want outputs 7–10 as HW controlled if you were running speakers from the line outputs and wanted to use the master volume control knob to adjust the volume of them.

Regards,
Geoffrey.

71GA commented

@geoffreybennett Hey! Thank you for your answer regarding the quiet headphones! It helped to set outputs 7-10 as HW controlled. However, hardware architecture is a bit confusing. It was really weird that "master volume" was affecting "headphones volume".

This is now a configuration with working headphones (additional improvement that I made was to create a "true stereo" for headphones as can be seen in the Mixer (Mix C, D, E, F):
20231221_05h51m18s_grim

Maybe this should be documented somewhere as a comment for the Clarett+ 8pre product.

geoffreybennett commented

@geoffreybennett Hey! Thank you for your answer regarding the quiet headphones!

No problem, glad you got it sorted!

It helped to set outputs 7-10 as HW controlled.

I think you mean SW controlled. The sensible selection is SW controlled, and that's what your screenshot shows.

However, hardware architecture is a bit confusing. It was really weird that "master volume" was affecting "headphones volume".

I agree. At least it's configurable :) (if not separately for the Line Outputs vs. the headphone outputs)

This is now a configuration with working headphones (additional improvement that I made was to create a "true stereo" for headphones as can be seen in the Mixer (Mix C, D, E, F):

Nice :)

Maybe this should be documented somewhere as a comment for the Clarett+ 8pre product.

See https://github.com/geoffreybennett/alsa-scarlett-gui/blob/master/USAGE.md#analogue-output-controls:

The volume controls for the headphone outputs on each interface operate in addition to any other hardware or software volume controls for those channels. When using headphones, the volumes for those channels would usually be set to 0dB and the actual volume controlled with the physical headphone volume control(s).

Also https://support.focusrite.com/hc/en-gb/articles/207546805-How-do-the-headphone-outputs-work-on-the-Scarlett-18i20- has an explanation (it says Scarlett but it also applies to the Clarett interfaces).