Page 1 of 1

Missing Retrovol sliders/labels? [SOLVED]

Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2022 6:26 am
by houndstooth

I can check/uncheck the boxes, but I didn't notice a change in output. This is in 64Fossa:


Re: Missing Retrovol sliders/labels?

Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2022 11:40 am
by mikewalsh

@houndstooth :-

Mm. Okay.

Those 'IEC958' checkboxes ARE just that; checkboxes. You never see sliders associated with them.

I'm going to hazard a guess that your rig is quite an old one, yes? IEC958 is the reference 'standard' associated with S/PDIF sockets.....these are more often than not a type of co-axial port that carries pure, digitally-encoded audio.

My old Compaq rig, from 2005, had them. This is a very old standard that dates back to before the turn of the century, sometime in the late 90's:-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S/PDIF

It's still in use today, but is usually for audio purists, and today will be served via special, 'TOSLINK' optical fibre ports. To all intents & purposes, it's not really relevant for the majority of people.....only those who've lashed out a lot of money on the special digital audio equipment that can make use of such a signal.

People that use this kind of stuff will usually control the audio via controls on the digital equipment itself, NOT on the computer.

Mike. ;)


Re: Missing Retrovol sliders/labels?

Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2022 12:05 pm
by Jasper

@houndstooth

Are you using speakers via HDMI?


Re: Missing Retrovol sliders/labels?

Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2022 3:17 pm
by houndstooth
mikewalsh wrote: Mon Oct 17, 2022 11:40 am

I'm going to hazard a guess that your rig is quite an old one, yes? IEC958 is the reference 'standard' associated with S/PDIF sockets.....these are more often than not a type of co-axial port that carries pure, digitally-encoded audio.

good info but brand spanking new Win 11 ASUS laptop

Jasper wrote: Mon Oct 17, 2022 12:05 pm

Are you using speakers via HDMI?

I am on a different machine, but I do not believe I am unless HDMI speakers are an internal configuration. There's an open external HDMI port I'm not using.

On this machine it's generic audio & Retrovol displays normally. I will check the laptop later.


Re: Missing Retrovol sliders/labels?

Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2022 3:47 pm
by Jasper

Houndstooth

I had to untick the analog box (IEC958 - audio ports on the back of the PC) and then select the HDMI port to ensure that I was getting audio playback through my monitor speakers.


Re: Missing Retrovol sliders/labels?

Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2022 9:49 am
by houndstooth
Jasper wrote: Mon Oct 17, 2022 3:47 pm

I had to untick the analog box (IEC958 - audio ports on the back of the PC) and then select the HDMI port to ensure that I was getting audio playback through my monitor speakers.

@jasper they are all checked & all but one mention HDMI.

SCW.png
SCW.png (27.13 KiB) Viewed 878 times

My Retrovol only displays the five IEC entries (no regular sliders, Master, PCM, etc.).

IEC.png
IEC.png (7.09 KiB) Viewed 878 times

What would you do here?


Re: Missing Retrovol sliders/labels?

Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2022 11:30 am
by Jasper

@houndstooth

I set the soundcard as HDMI 1 as I am using my monitor's speakers via the Soundcard Wizard.

For the 2nd Soundcard wizard, that is just left as the default setting.

I unticked the additional boxes to ensure that it was only 1 output.


Re: Missing Retrovol sliders/labels?

Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2022 11:45 am
by bigpup
houndstooth wrote:

brand spanking new Win 11 ASUS laptop

I assume you want audio from the laptop speakers.

In Sound Card Wizard
Have only card 1 selected as default card to use.
Only have it selected.
Click on test sound.
It will be a static type sound.
Do you get sound from speakers?

Note:
Anytime you provide computer info.
We need the make, model, and type.
We may need to look up info about it.


Re: Missing Retrovol sliders/labels?

Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2022 6:54 am
by houndstooth

Image

I went through all of these one by one and the very last option, card 1, was success. Bingo.

The only thing I'm still curious about is there are only two mixer controls with card 1 activated, PCM & Mic Capture. The machine has no analog 1/8" mic input, so my only guess is a potential mic (haven't tried it) next to the webcam or unused expansion possibility on the audio board.

PCM alone controls ALL audio output, no Headphone box, Front, or Master.


Re: Missing Retrovol sliders/labels? [SOLVED]

Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2022 11:05 am
by mikewalsh

@houndstooth :-

The only thing I'm still curious about is there are only two mixer controls with card 1 activated, PCM & Mic Capture.

Card 1 is a USB card. For these, that's perfectly normal.

I have two different USB headsets, and a USB plug-in audio card, that has 3.5 mm mic-in and line-out analog ports. All three have these same two sliders - "PCM" & "Mic Capture". Seems to be standard for most USB audio devices, unless you start getting into dedicated USB audio cards (like SoundBlasters, etc). I would hazard a guess that the majority of USB audio devices probably use the same, 'generic' controller chip. :)

The machine has no analog 1/8" mic input, so my only guess is a potential mic (haven't tried it) next to the webcam or unused expansion possibility on the audio board.

Try a USB microphone. No reason why it shouldn't work; once again, it'll have its own built-in card to power it. Either that, or the machine will have its own built-in condenser microphone somewhere; my "new-to-me" refurb'd Dell Latitude, I only discovered the other day, has one just to the left of the right-hand screen hinge, above the keyboard. This was kind of a halfway-house between older machines - which had nothing like this - and newer ones which have both webcam AND microphone built-in.

PCM alone controls ALL audio output, no Headphone box, Front, or Master.

Uh-huh. It takes a bit of getting used-to after the normal bunch of controls we normally see, but I suspect things have been "dumbed-down" as much as possible for the current generation.... :D

Mike. ;)