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Date:      Fri, 2 Feb 2001 10:35:04 -0500
From:      Christopher Masto <chris@netmonger.net>
To:        Cameron Grant <gandalf@vilnya.demon.co.uk>
Cc:        Andre Albsmeier <andre.albsmeier@mchp.siemens.de>, cshenton@uucom.com, questions@FreeBSD.ORG, multimedia@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: 4.2R pcm/sbc AWE records noise, not audio: 16 bit bug?; gus broken?
Message-ID:  <20010202103500.A3028@netmonger.net>
In-Reply-To: <003f01c08d12$657a5e60$0504020a@haveblue>; from gandalf@vilnya.demon.co.uk on Fri, Feb 02, 2001 at 12:19:31PM -0000
References:  <20010117131850.A3402@cs.mcgill.ca> <3A670CA9.EEC14186@bowtie.nl> <lflms8ob1y.fsf_-_@Samizdat.uucom.com> <20010119155739.A9580@curry.mchp.siemens.de> <20010201142244.A17951@netmonger.net> <003f01c08d12$657a5e60$0504020a@haveblue>

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On Fri, Feb 02, 2001 at 12:19:31PM -0000, Cameron Grant wrote:
> to be quite honest, i've done very little but sound stuff for the last
> decade, and attitudes like yours only contribute to my feelings of
> dissatisfaction with it.  i feel honour-boud to finish what i started, and
> probably will, but you should remember that i'm not being paid for this, so
> i don't feel that you are in a position to make statements like those.  do
> feel free to take the torch, i've been wanting to pass it on for a while
> now.

Ok, my message was inappropriately rude.  I was in a bad mood at the time.

On the other hand, I don't think I should have to take over
development or buy you a bunch of sound cards just to keep things
working.  I am a programmer, and I know all too well the temptation to
say "this old code sucks, and I'm going to rewrite it from scratch".
I also understand that interfaces change, and sometimes it has to be
rewritten.  And I know that "legacy" usually means "I can't wait to
drop support for this".  I don't blame you personally for the
situation.  I'm trying to be honest here about the facts as I have
experienced them, not to attack or insult you.

I have a SoundBlaster AWE64 in my -current machine, which was a very
popular card, and I'm sure there are lots of them around.  As far as I
know, apart from the AWE stuff (which I couldn't care less about), it
should look like a SB16.  When I first got the thing, in the 2.2 days,
it worked perfectly.  Along the way, it stopped working a couple of
times due to PnP issues, but fiddling with the configuration brought
it back.  Then I lost the ability to record anything but static, along
with a bunch of other people, and there it has stayed ever since.  It
also seems much more prone to skipping or glitching under load, which
seems odd in a 500MHz PIII.  Now, my -current machine is frozen at
pre-SMPng, so I am missing any changes that were made that recently.
I am also busy, and sound is not important to my work, so I haven't
spent the maximal amount of time fiddling with it.  It's also possible
that I'm using the wrong driver, and complaining about nothing (except
perhaps lack of documentation as to which driver is currently
preferred).

Then there is the Sony 505TX laptop running -stable with an
ESS-something (it says 688 when it's probed).  This also worked great
when I first got it, but some upgrade along the way that changed.  I
have this interesting problem where half the time when something
starts playing, horrible static comes out instead, accompanied.  If I
stop and re-start it, it may play fine or may play static.  Sometimes
I get complete silence.  Oh, and when I suspend and resume, I
occasionally get the input source set to Mic and the volume turned all
the way up, so it produces loud feedback that sends me scrambling for
the mute button.

Let me say again that I am not trying to bash Cameron or his work.  I
imagine that sound is one of the most annoying things to work on.  It
is however a fact that of the two machines I have, two of them worked
fine in the past and two of them are currently working much less than
fine.  So occasionally when I say that there are problems with sound
on FreeBSD, I am not lying or trying to hurt someone's feelings; I am
merely summarizing my experience.  From what I see on -multimedia,
I am not alone in this experience.

Maybe we could use a list of known good/bad sound cards and chips and
where they can be found.  I'd replace my AWE64 if I knew what was the
best supported card.  On the laptop though, I don't have that option.
-- 
Christopher Masto         Senior Network Monkey      NetMonger Communications
chris@netmonger.net        info@netmonger.net        http://www.netmonger.net

Free yourself, free your machine, free the daemon -- http://www.freebsd.org/


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