WinMM constants for Center/Rear

veetid · 06-08-2005, 02:31 PM

Anyone know the constants to control the Center and Rear channels in the mixer?

for example here are some others:

public const int MIXERLINE_COMPONENTTYPE_DST_SPEAKERS = (MIXERLINE_COMPONENTTYPE_DST_FIRST + 4);
public const int MIXERLINE_COMPONENTTYPE_SRC_LINE = (MIXERLINE_COMPONENTTYPE_SRC_FIRST + 2);
public const int MIXERLINE_COMPONENTTYPE_DST_LINE = (MIXERLINE_COMPONENTTYPE_DST_FIRST + 2);
public const int MIXERLINE_COMPONENTTYPE_SRC_WAVEOUT = (MIXERLINE_COMPONENTTYPE_SRC_FIRST + 8);
public const int MIXERLINE_COMPONENTTYPE_DST_MICROPHONE = (MIXERLINE_COMPONENTTYPE_DST_FIRST + 3);
public const int MIXERLINE_COMPONENTTYPE_SRC_MICROPHONE = (MIXERLINE_COMPONENTTYPE_SRC_FIRST + 3);
public const int MIXERLINE_COMPONENTTYPE_SRC_COMPACTDISC = (MIXERLINE_COMPONENTTYPE_SRC_FIRST + 5);
public const int MIXERLINE_COMPONENTTYPE_SRC_AUXILIARY = (MIXERLINE_COMPONENTTYPE_SRC_FIRST + 9);

It's probably in the winmm header file, which I don't have right now... I don't have all my c++ dev stuff installed... Not sure if it's different on different sound cards, but if so then I am looking for the M10000 values... I don't care what language, I'll convert...

david

replicant · 06-08-2005, 04:33 PM

David,

I wish I had an answer for you. c# web applications are my bag. Tapping into hardware via code, is certainly not my forte. I would suggest searching the usual c#/vb.net respositories for the answer (which I'm sure you've already done). Expert Exchange usually has every answer I'm looking for.

Good luck.

veetid · 06-08-2005, 04:51 PM

I can't find much info on it... The Rear and Center are not standard I don't think, but since they are displayed in the windows mixer then I can control them the same way I control everything else... I just don't know which constants to use to help identify them... I also don't have a complete understanding of the windows mixer... I tried to loop through it and grab an identifier, but couldn't make it work...

david

replicant · 06-08-2005, 04:53 PM

David,

What language are you coding in natively? VB.Net I'm assuming? When I get home I'll check through some sites my .net friend recommends to me for obscure help with stuff like this.

RPM_VR4 · 06-08-2005, 04:54 PM

I have a little experiance doing this in Delphi, but all I do is pass it 5 numbers:

0/1 (Playing/Recording)
Slider # (In the order it appears in windows volume control with all enabled)
0-255 (Left Volume)
0-255 (Right Volume)
0/1 (Uncheck/Check for "mute" if on playing or for "select" if on recording)

...and it is definatly different for different sound cards because different cards have different sliders and different orders of the sliders.

I would not think you could change Center/Rear/Sub unless the particular sound card had a seperate slider for those (which one of my 5 sound cards does have, the rest don't).

Anyway, isn't this feature something that could be added in a point release rather than holding up 1.3 (since most of us use stereo output rather than 5.1 anyway)? Not that I'm trying to tell you what to do... keep up the great work David. 1.2 is still f-ing awesome

replicant · 06-08-2005, 04:57 PM

RPM-VR4,

I think that him adding at least the sub volume control would rock as right I'm running the actual sub channel from the m10000 to my amp and could hvae software control of the sub much like many aftermarket headunits have.

We've waited this long, might as well let him add all of the features that he was planning on.

RPM_VR4 · 06-08-2005, 05:02 PM

...but can't you already control the sub volume just by lowering the bass on the mixer?

Personally, I have my CarPC line out connected to my Pioneer P1R's line-in. That way I have a real-head unit to control Front/Rear, Sub Volume, Digital Cross-Overs, Time Delay, SFC, etc (plus my Sub amp came with a boost knob anyway). I know a lot of people are running their PCs directly to an AMP, but for less than $50 you could get a cheapo head-unit with line-in that would make the system a lot more configurable and sound a lot better IMHO.

veetid · 06-08-2005, 05:15 PM

this isn't what is holding up 1.3.... I am still waiting on the skin to get finished so I am just adding features I have wanted to add... You are right in the fact that the Rear and Center/Sub controls will only work with the M10000 and some other soundcards with Smart 5.1 enabled... Otherwise most users will just use the Front control which will be master on other sound cards or the M10000 with 5.1 disabled... It's just a little extra.. Mainly because I run 5.1 on my M1000 so I can run a signal to my front speakers and a seperate to my rears... And not everyone would want to get a cheap headunit to replace multiple expensive amps... Amps are something you add to a cars audio system to upgrade it, give you more power, to run nice speakers instead of stock, etc...

david

god_of_cpu · 06-08-2005, 05:25 PM

Rear and center channel speaker support is not specifically supported through the mixer controls. It is a generic interface. You can get the different destination lines and volume controls associated with them and this is what is displayed by the windows mixer controls.

Different sound cards also do things in different ways. Some may have a single line with 4 channels, others may have multiple lines with 2 channels each. You could do an interface like the windows mixer, but you won't be able to something that will work consistently on differnent hardware to control specifically just the rear or center channel speakers etc. In other words there is not automatic way to tell which line is for a specific part of a surround sound system.

If you just want to support the M10k, then just enumerate through all the different lines on the sound card and pick the one you want based on name.

RPM_VR4 · 06-08-2005, 05:26 PM

Oh, no... I totally agree. My head-unit is connected to a 2-channel sub-amp and a 4-channel speaker amp. My head-unit doesn't even have a built in amplifier or speaker outs. Almost any after market head-units will have line-out, and many have line-in.

Anyway, I'll stop hogging this thread. Did the info I posted help you figure it out at all? If you do implement this, you might want to make a setting in an ini or XML so user could tell you which # slider their center/rear was.

veetid · 06-08-2005, 05:56 PM

RPM_VR4: Yep... Your info helped... I just got it working... I always grabbed mixer controls based on component type... This made it work on every soundcard because it wasn't based on an index, but on the type... I just created a section to grab just the rear and center based on index and left everything else still using component type... I didn't know you could grab by index... thanks...

david