kmix balance problem

[mjc]

I have consistently had a problem with audio balance when using Kubuntu. When I slide the left/right balance slider to the right it has no effect, and when I slide it to the left instead of the right speaker fading out, all sound from both sides fades out. That happens because it actually males the input master volume slide down in unison with the balance slider. I have had this same issue with Edgy, Feisty, and Gutsy. I'm always using the same Creative Audigy2 Platinum card.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!

lspci -v :

00:0a.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Audigy (rev 04)
Subsystem: Creative Labs SB Audigy2 ZS
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 22
I/O ports at a400 [size=64]
Capabilities: <access denied>

00:0a.1 Input device controller: Creative Labs SB Audigy Game Port (rev 04)
Subsystem: Creative Labs Unknown device 0060
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32
I/O ports at a800 [size=8]
Capabilities: <access denied>

[dibl]

Re: kmix balance problem

It sounds like you have no operational left channel, so only the right channel is functioning.

Maybe you can test and see if that is the case. I'm not sure what would cause it -- maybe something set to "mono" that should be "stereo", or something like that?

I've seen more posts about the Audigy cards on Ubuntu Forum than here -- if you suspect a driver or ALSA setting problem, you might want to search on the Audigy card there.

[mjc]

Re: kmix balance problem

Thanks for the reply. I can eliminate your mono theory though, because I have a stereo recoding of a song where one voice is in the left channel and the other voice is on the right, and it plays back correctly. If I had only one channel, or my audio set to mono, it could not play back the true stereo sound the way it does.
Any other thoughts?

[dibl]

Re: kmix balance problem

Hmmmmmmmmmm.

Well, OK, hold on a minute. If a stereo recording plays back "correctly" as you say, then there will be an audio signal on the left channel, no? So, if you slide the balance slider all the way to the left, then you should only hear the left channel track (the right channel being turned down to zero dB). But if instead of hearing the left channel track, you hear nothing, then I'm claiming one of two situations has to be true:

- there really is no left channel audio there
- the kmixer is kmixed up, i.e. malfunctioning in a way not previously reported

I dunno -- that's the way I think balance controls are supposed to function, with stereo channels. Just pushing a single audio channel through both speakers (when the balance control is somewhere in the middle or right) does not equal "stereo", right?

[mjc]

Re: kmix balance problem

Right. I had to prove to myself that I wasn't hearing the same channel through both speakers, which is why I listened to the track that I know contains two different voices one on the left and one on the right.
Since I know the left channel is coming out the left speaker and the right channel coming out the right side, the problem has to be something other than a missing channel. What baffles me is the kmixer balance control. Sliding right has no effect at all and sliding left turns down the master input volume and so both speakers get tunred down. As far as I can tell the kmixer is the ONLY program that has any kind of audio balance control whatsoever, including alsamixer. That really makes this problem a bitch.

[dibl]

Re: kmix balance problem

Audacity is a pretty nice audio capturing/editing/playing package -- well, I like it, you might hear mixed opinions. If you load a stereo audio file, it will open it with a left-right balance control, and display both tracks for you. Audacity is in the standard repos, so install it with Adept Manager and then play around with a stereo .wav file and see what you can learn.

[mjc]

Re: kmix balance problem

Yes, I know Audacity well... in fact I used it when I recorded the song I mentioned previously. I used Ubuntu Studio which never gave my any balance problems, it was too buggy or something because it crashed a lot so I've switched back to Kubuntu. I will try installing Audacity and see how it's balance control works. As you said that might lead to some more insight into what's wrong.
Thanks again!