squeezelite and USB DAC

[Killerbee]

Ok I am a happy xbian user since alpha 5.

I can remember in alpha 5 I was able to run squeezelite as a daemon next to xbmc without any issues.
recently I was trying to install squeezelite again, but unfortunately I get very bad quality audio (cracks and sometimes very slow) on my soundblaster play!

I tried various things:
-.- various alsa buffer options -a 80:4, -a 160:4, -a :::16: etc
-.- stopped xbmc and run squeezelite "dedicated" result is the same
-.- intalled squeezeslave, result is the same!
-.- disabled zram (set size to 0) result is the same
-.- disabled btrfs autodefrag, result is the same
-.- dwc_otg.speed=1, result is the same

I think it has to do with firmware/kernel.

So my question is. Is it possible to install the alpha 5 firmware (and kernel?) in Beta2?
Also I like to use the "cmdline.txt from alpha 5"?

Or maybe somebody has a good suggesion?

KB

[mk01]

@Killerbee

as B2 is very very VERY nice to CPU system resources I would be surprised if buffer / dedicated process / zram or autodefrag would help. at least you are sure.

following the changes for past moths my personal guess is less kernel more firmware. although the USB BAD BAD RPI design will never be corrected, past kernel patches going to this direction were more to a benefit and not making things worse. you can check raspbian forum discussions searching for audio or external audio or similar.

what firmware you currently have? the stock beta2 (oct 2013 - 1.4-7) or -8 (nov 2013 release according to users and popcornmix version solving passthrough skipping / problems) or -9 (dec 2013).

I don't have preference there, but 1.4-7 (or even -6) was quite without reported issues for whole month until we released -7 with B2. passthrough DTS/HD/ES/whatever issues and fixes always fixed one issue and created two new - please take this as general info.

but if you tell me the version I can install the same and try attaching one 8ch 32bit USB sound card or another 8ch digital audio mixer.
last time I checked I played 2ch with no issues - but not through squeezeslave. what is it anyway???

[Killerbee]

@mk01

Thanks you (again) for your feedback!

Sorry for not explaining about squeezeslave and Squeezelite .
Both are slaves (clients) for the squeezebox server.

Squeezelite is a very lightweight client daemon developed by Triode. He is also the author of the spotify plugin for squeezebox server. This makes is possible to listen to my favorite music and watch my favorite movies using my Xbian pi .
Squeezebox server is running on another (512Mb) pi.

Squeezeslave is more or less the same as squeezelite, except it's not possible to run it in combination with the spotify plugin. It doesn't play ogg files.
One advantage of squeezeslave is that is has some kind of a GUI.

The current version of firmware I am using is:

Terminal

Nov 28 2013 21:11:14
Copyright © 2012 Broadcom
version 97d9a116746b859d0ccceef55b6cbd96b801f5a8 (clean) (release)

apt-get-versions xbian-package-firmware shows this:

Terminal

xbian-package-firmware/devel uptodate 1.4-9

This version of the firmware doesn't solve the cracking sound issue.

Some more information:
When I hear a cracking sound or a verrrryyy sslowwwww ssssoundddd CPU is quite low.
When I stop xbmc the CPU doesn't even goes get higher than 40%

So indeed I agree with you it's seems to be a USB issue. That's why i'd like to try the alpha 5 firmware. Just to check if crackling sound is gone.

KB

[mk01]

@Killerbee

just going to test that, installed alsa. but realized I didn't ask. are you using alsa or pusleaudio ?

[Killerbee]

(4th Dec, 2013 06:08 PM)mk01 Wrote:  @Killerbee

just going to test that, installed alsa. but realized I didn't ask. are you using alsa or pusleaudio ?

@mk01
alsa FYI squeezelite is alsa only.

[mk01]

AH.

my USB audios are not playing on ALSA

NI AUDIO DJ8 nor DENON DJX1600 …

[Killerbee]

(4th Dec, 2013 07:56 PM)mk01 Wrote:  AH.

my USB audios are not playing on ALSA

NI AUDIO DJ8 nor DENON DJX1600 …

@mk01
Are you able to test it with ALSA? Just to confirm it could be an ALSA problem.
KB

[mk01]

not with ALSA

so tell me if I should spend some time at least with USB DAC in general (with pulse audio I can use the cards for audio output).

ALSA is listing them but somehow doesn't show as usable audio outputs? I don't have much experience with ALSA, always used pulseaudio.

I wan't to finish the boot loader so give me day or so, will install then ALSA back, check it and tell you exactly.

[Killerbee]

(4th Dec, 2013 11:38 PM)mk01 Wrote:  not with ALSA

so tell me if I should spend some time at least with USB DAC in general (with pulse audio I can use the cards for audio output).

ALSA is listing them but somehow doesn't show as usable audio outputs? I don't have much experience with ALSA, always used pulseaudio.

I wan't to finish the boot loader so give me day or so, will install then ALSA back, check it and tell you exactly.

Take your time. Thanks anyhow.
squeezelite -L shows all possible outputs.
Minimal requirement to start squeezelite are:

Terminal

squeezelite -o sysdefault:CARD=DAC 192.168.2.11

with
sysdefault:CARD=DAC is one of the outputs listed in squeezelite -L
192.168.2.11 is the ip adress of your squeezebox server
KB

[mk01]

root@xbianrpi:~# squeezelite -l
Output devices:
null - Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
pulse - PulseAudio Sound Server
default:CARD=ALSA - bcm2835 ALSA, bcm2835 ALSA - Default Audio Device
sysdefault:CARD=ALSA - bcm2835 ALSA, bcm2835 ALSA - Default Audio Device
default:CARD=Audio8DJ - Audio 8 DJ, Audio 8 DJ - Default Audio Device
sysdefault:CARD=Audio8DJ - Audio 8 DJ, Audio 8 DJ - Default Audio Device


looks like it is not ALSA only. but will test with ALSA.

---

@Killerbee


I hope I don't have to install squeezebox server now to actually test something ?

provide any server ip available for test or be dead within a minute !

[mk01]

@Killerbee

no way to get working my USB audio with ALSA. this are multichannel cards not providing the usual "mixer" control as this is controlled as MIDI controller on the audio mixer and special software in case of the second card (or external analogue mixer)

alsa (and ANY player) i tried failed to play.

(pulse audio was fine also with devices changing, live rerouting, audio channels output sharing and even I sent the whole to another pulse server).

[Killerbee]

(5th Dec, 2013 01:32 PM)mk01 Wrote:  root@xbianrpi:~# squeezelite -l
Output devices:
null - Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
pulse - PulseAudio Sound Server
default:CARD=ALSA - bcm2835 ALSA, bcm2835 ALSA - Default Audio Device
sysdefault:CARD=ALSA - bcm2835 ALSA, bcm2835 ALSA - Default Audio Device
default:CARD=Audio8DJ - Audio 8 DJ, Audio 8 DJ - Default Audio Device
sysdefault:CARD=Audio8DJ - Audio 8 DJ, Audio 8 DJ - Default Audio Device


looks like it is not ALSA only. but will test with ALSA.

---

@Killerbee
I hope I don't have to install squeezebox server now to actually test something ?

If you have a spare SD card (and some time) you could set-up a squeezebox server using this raspberry pi image squeezeplug
Don't you have a "simple USB DAC" laying around somewhere?

Thanks
KB

[mk01]

so in general I would need to use both of my PRIs, right ?

man you rule. buy an iPhone with Cloud and you are done

let's do it like this. I will check the sqeezeplug with squeezelite as counterpart - pulse only. as no, plain USB audio I don't have.

[Killerbee]

FYI

I finally got it working!!!!

By adding fiq_split_enable=0 to the cmdline.txt I am able to listen to my favorite music again without popping and distorted sound.
I'd like to share this with anybody facing the same issues.
And it's a nice backup in case xbian-update kills my cmdline.txt file again

More info here
http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=39175&start=150

KB

[mk01]

@Killerbee

fiq_fix_enable is still enabled (as per default)?