SbLiveCard

Sound Blaster Live! Audio

I've spent some time trying to get this card to work well under Linux. Basic audio is no problem, but some things (like SPDIF digital out) require a bit of tweaking. Here's what I found:

You can use the driver from ALSA or from Creative. However, I was never able to get CD audio in to work with the ALSA drivers.

To get 4-channel digital out working, you have to play with the sblive settings. See my example modules.conf entries below.

Similarly, to get Cd audio to play, you have to set the CD as your record device.

Here's what I put in my modules.conf

alias sound-slot-0 emu10k1 alias sound-service-0 emu10k1 post-install soundcore /usr/local/bin/mgr_text -a "Pcm L":"Rear L" && /usr/local/bin/mgr_text -a "Pcm R":"Rear R" && /usr/bin/aumix -c R post-install ide-cd /usr/bin/aumix -c R

The mgr_text program comes with the Creative driver.

I was unable to test SPDIF digital audio in as I have the SB Live! Value card, which lacks that.

I also experience quite a few random pops while playing audio. These seem to be related to electrical disturbances (for example, when someone turns on the dryer in the next room).

All in all this card works fairly well, although it would be nice if I could just use ALSA.

--phil 6/15/01