Multiple Soundcards - Volume Control...

Jarrod · 07-10-2006, 03:01 AM

I've just received my second souncard for the system, its a tiny little USB thing (only needed for headphones, so quality isnt a huge concern). I have tried setting RR to use soundcard 0, 1, 2, 3 and 4 but none of them will allow RR volume controls to adjust the USB soundcard's volume.

The music and audio from videos is playing through the correct soundcard (because I adjusted winamp and mcplayer to use the USB soundcard) but just volume control isnt working.

I am not able to change my systems default soundcard to the USB one because I am using the onboard sound for another RR instance.

Running muliple instances of RR is working great, I can have one song playing through the car and another song through the headphones (from USB soundcard). So the only thing not working with sound is the volume control.

sama · 07-10-2006, 07:08 AM

just out of interest, are you running two screens? if so,. when running 2xroad runner, can you play two videos at the same time?

Jarrod · 07-10-2006, 07:59 AM

I will soon be running two screens, just waiting to see if I can get it to work before I invest in a VGA roof-mount screen. I have a composite video roof mount screen, and the interface looks acceptable from the TV-out on my board, but I'd still rather go with a VGA roof mount or head rest screens.

I havent been able to run two videos at the same time yet, but this is simply due to both RR instances trying to use the same video window. I will be testing with Zoom player on the second instance soon, let you know how I go.

sama · 07-10-2006, 08:06 AM

nice one.

Jarrod · 07-10-2006, 10:13 AM

Anyone have any ideas as to how to get RR to control my second sound card? I know...it hasnt even been a day since posting this topic. I just want to get this happening ASAP, got a long drive up to the snow ahead of me!

guino · 07-10-2006, 07:30 PM

If the sound card setting is not working for you, it may just be because your USB card is placing the mixers together (speculation).. RR should try to list and enlist the cards as windows provides them.. I tested this with a Bluetooth Audio device and it worked.. never had a chance to try it with anything else..

Check the debug log when you're trying to use the usb card (should be =1), and see what it says.

Jarrod · 07-11-2006, 12:37 AM

I think my USB soundcard is #2 (I also have a Bluetooth device installed which shows as a soundcard output). Although I have tried with =0, =1, =2, =3, =4, =5, =6, and they all still control the onboard soundcard.

Attached is my debug.txt file (which is identical no matter which soundcard setting is used - not sure if thats meant to be the case). I deleted a heap of lines which were just GPS data.

On a side note, is there any way to use an external video player (not DVD player) so that I can use Zoom Player for playing videos? ZP can be setup to run multiple instances with different window names if that helps? Maybe RR can be coded to support the free ZP as a video player option for people who want to run multiple instances.

EDIT: Also attached is my hw.txt file incase it helps. The USB device is the C-Media device near the bottom.

Jarrod · 07-11-2006, 12:52 AM

Also, when running multiple instances of the video player, after hiding the controls (not moving the mouse) the controls are shown even if the mouse is moved on the second RR instance. Maybe the following line in frmMP.frm can be changed to only show the controls if the mouse moves over the current RR form position:

Code:

'If controls hidden, but moved cursor, show controls
If Menus(IsLoaded("video_player.skin")).Visible = False And (SC = 0 Or SC = HideTime + 1) And lpos.x > 0 Then

Maybe change to:

'If controls hidden, but moved cursor, show controls
If Menus(IsLoaded("video_player.skin")).Visible = False And (SC = 0 Or SC = HideTime + 1) And (lpos.x > Me.Left And lpos.x < Me.Left + Me.Width) Then

There might be a few more code changes needed (such as the 'Count if Hasn't moved' code), but without being able to program with VB6 (coz I use VB.NET on my machine) I cant really test.

guino · 07-11-2006, 02:49 PM

Have you tried to map the master volume to an audio line ?

Jarrod · 07-12-2006, 02:07 AM

All the audio lines are only lines of my onboard sound though. I tried "all lines" but that just controlled onboard sound. I also tried the "wave" line, but same thing.

Which line should I try? Is the audio line list meant to update depending on which soundcard you have selected?

guino · 07-12-2006, 11:13 AM

Sorry, that's a limitation on RRConfig..

You should look at the audio lines at the debug file when choosing the soundcard number.. Then set it to the number of the audio line in order of appearance, you may also try a custom vol command with the audio line name "VOL+;WAVE" etc.. to see if it works on the second audio card -- but I imagined that controlling multiple cards was not going to be just that simple.

JagPuter · 07-12-2006, 05:19 PM

I am trying the same thing and found that this idea worked the best.
I believe I am using the same USB sound card. Transparent green plastic, size of a memmory stick off ebay for about $10.00. I use it for rear audio, basically dvd only. I am also using a Bluetooth headset for voice control.

Go to your sounds and audio window under control panel. Select which ever sound card you want to be your default sound card. I use the USB sound card as the default. Then open winamp, go to the preferences menu and select the output selection. There you should find your USB sound card listed as C-Media (or what ever your driver is called for your USB sound card), you will also see Nullsoft output, direct sound output (this is your onboard sound card or default sound card) and wave out ouput.
Select your on board sound card and this will map all audio from winamp to your onboard sound card.
If you want to use you blue tooth head set as your microphone go back to sounds and audio window under control panel, select the voice tab and then select your default voice recording device. If you have the Voice SDK installed which I assume you do, there will be a few more configurations to make but it is pretty easy to figure out.
PowerDVD also has a configuration to map the audio to a certain device.
And that is how you can get specific devices to play in specific parts or your car simultaneously.
GOOD LUCK WITH THIS, it should work.

Jarrod · 07-12-2006, 09:46 PM

I have gotten winamp and MPC to play through the second sound card, I just can't get roadrunner to control the volume level of the USB soundcard.

Mine is transparent blue plastic, but yes, same card

I have my onboard sound set as default (so that windows sounds go through my stereo speakers), but I have tried setting the USB soundcard to default and still have the same problems (only now I cant get roadrunner to control the onboard sound).

BTW, I use direct sound output plugin for winamp, not wave out. You can choose which card it outputs on, and you get the nice fade effects when play/pausing a song.

Jag: Are you able to control the volume levels of both sound cards through roadrunner? If so, what roadrunner settings are you using?

Jarrod · 07-12-2006, 10:57 PM

The RRConfig only allows you to map a line to the default windows soundcard. Is there any way to make it show all lines of all soundcards?

Also, I noticed that in modMixer.bas the OpenMixer function redefines the SoundCard variable and doesnt set itself to any value, wouldn't this overwrite the rr.ini value and always use the first soundcard, 0 (zero) ?

Code:

Public Function OpenMixer() As Boolean
    Dim SoundCard As Double
    'try to open the mixer
    'if it can be opened, then the global hMixer variable will be set to it's handle
    If mixerOpen(hMixer, SoundCard, 0, 0, 0) = 0 Then
        OpenMixer = True   'life is grand, the mixer opened
        ReDim MixerState(0)
    End If

    'Test VolTable
    'ReDim VolTable(1, 2)
    'VolTable(0, 0) = 6
    'VolTable(1, 0) = 0.1
    'VolTable(0, 1) = 11
    'VolTable(1, 1) = 1
    'VolTable(0, 2) = 100
    'VolTable(1, 2) = 5
    
End Function

Then again, I could be way off....just want to get this to work so badly!

JagPuter · 07-13-2006, 06:01 AM

To tell you the truth I havent even tried to control the volume. I basically "set and forget it".

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