No Bass Ubuntu 10.10

[riddix]

hey people out there,

i've a problem getting my 5.1 sound machine correctly running, but first some general Info:

Motherboard => Abit IX38-QuadGT
cat /proc/asound/card0/codec#* | grep Codec => Realtek ALC888

now if i test the speakers in sound preferences, every single one sings and the woofer kicks. Error and Warning Messages from the System also produces bass, but if i listen to godsmack theres is no bass, youtube no bass, VLC no bass,... :'(

Can someone give me a hint?

thx rid

[Rubberman]

Well, I don't find a standard system tool for this, but some media players, such as VLC, have their own equalizer tools. If you are playing a song or video with VLC, go to Tools->Adjustments and Effects->Audio Effects. You get a pretty complete equalizer board to play with, along with a number of presets to try.

[TaZMAniac]

Getting 5.1 surround sound working in Ubuntu and VLC.
First you will need to click on the speaker icon in the task bar and then click on sound preferences.

Now click on the hardware tab and from the selected device profile choose Analog Surround 5.1 Output + Analog Stereo Input. Now click on close.

Next we need to check the speakers to make sure they are working and wired properly. Open up a terminal window and type in the following;
speaker-test -Dplug:surround51 -c6

If the all the speakers play a sound and are mapped to the proper channels then you can press Ctrl C to stop the command and exit out of the terminal screen.

If any speaker didn't play or was not mapped properly then you will need to check your connections and wiring.
Once you have it correctly wired you can proceed to the next step.

Now it's time to set up the pulse audio config file.
Open up a terminal and type in the following;
sudo gedit /etc/pulse/daemon.conf

Enter your password and you will now be able to edit the config file.
Look for the following 2 lines;

; default-sample-channels = 2
; default-channel-map = front-left,front-right

And replace them with these 2 lines;

; default-sample-channels = 6
; default-channel-map = front-left,front-right,rear-left,rear-right,front-center,lf

You will notice I left the commands commented.
If you uncomment them it will disable your volume control and sound preferences.
That will create a mess of other problems.

Close the file and tell it to save the file.
Now reboot your pc.

After you have rebooted you can try a audio file in VLC.
If it works, Great!
If not then you will need to make a configuration change in VLC.

I believe there is a bug in either VLC or pulseaudio as I can open a song in VLC and while it is playing in stereo mode I can change the hardware preferences in the audio profile and it will start playing in surround mode. But if I try to replay it or play a new song it will default back to stereo.

So if this is happening to you then we will need to tell VLC to use the OSS audio output.
To make the change, open VLC and under Tools you will click on Preferences.

On the left side click on Audio.
Under the Output category select Unix OSS audio output.
Now click on Save in the bottom right corner.
Close VLC. Now open a audio or video file with VLC.
You will now have 5.1 surround sound!

Hope this helps.

[riddix]

wow, thank you guys, much more help than i got in the ubuntuforums, respect!

I solved the bass problem by installing the package "paconfig". (Attention this disables the Ubuntu Sound Preferences)

But this tool dont likes the "pulseaudio equalizer" (sometimes the bass very heavy!).
But i can adjust the bass directly on my woofer, for me the problem is solved!

special thx, greets rid