Hyperion Entertainment Message Boards

I wonder why the sound volume of my Envy24HT is extremely low with OS 4.1, even if I have set everything possible in sound prefs to the maximum...? E.g. the boot sound of OS 4.1 is just audible.

I thought first this would be a hardware problem, but when I tested shortly MorphOS I was scared how terribly high volume my hardware can create! Also Linux is able to create decent sound via Envy24HT, in the rare cases it happens to find the card (known but never fixed kernel bug).

Is there some bug in AmigaOS 4.1 sound software which limits the volume with Envy24HT...?

I'm afraid this will be a non-answer.
AHI has a separate volume control for each program/sound source.
Some programs use them, some ignore them.
So far, most have used "Mixer" (A non-OS program) to control master volume.

Mixer has separate code for each type of card it supports.

SO, it sounds like one or more registers in your Envy are not being initialized properly.
This can happen easily, when we only have the pre-set AHI controls to support, others may be forgotten.

If you're feeling adventurous, the source to Mixer has everything you need to get "inside" your sound card.
You could find some documents on the chip used, compare them to the registers that ARE being controlled, and hopefully spot the one that is being missed.

Of course you should consider adding any successes to the Mixer source, so everyone can enjoy them.

I hope this helps, whether you seek to understand or to correct the problem.

LyleHaze

@Roland:

If you mention "sound prefs" and setting volumes in the same sentence, I suspect you may have installed the Enhancer Pack and its Sound Prefs replacement.

Try first if you have the same problem on a clean OS 4.1 installation, without Enhancer. If not, you should direct your question to A-Eon instead.

Best regards,

Niels

LyleHaze wrote:I'm afraid this will be a non-answer.
AHI has a separate volume control for each program/sound source.
Some programs use them, some ignore them.
So far, most have used "Mixer" (A non-OS program) to control master volume.

Mixer has separate code for each type of card it supports.

I am not familiar with Mixer and have never tested it... Is it a third party program, not a part of AmigaOS? And it can be used for volume control, even if you are not doing any 'mixing' itself...?

Unfortunately I do not have the skills to modify the source code :-/.

BTW, does the normal volume control work ok with "Soundblaster Live!" -cards? AFAIK, it is the only sound card which is compatible with all three brands of OSs available for X5000. The only problem is that it is a PCI cards, and I have already both PCI slots in use...

nbache wrote:If you mention "sound prefs" and setting volumes in the same sentence, I suspect you may have installed the Enhancer Pack and its Sound Prefs replacement.

Try first if you have the same problem on a clean OS 4.1 installation, without Enhancer. If not, you should direct your question to A-Eon instead.

I tested with my 'System Zero' partition (no modifications, no Enhancer), and there I was not able to get ANY sound out from any program, except the sound test of 'AHI' prefs which shows the sound card is 'present'. Sound prefs (the original one) did not play the test sounds, and the boot sound is not audible at all. Tried also PlayCD but it just showed 'error 20' when I tried to open it (icon tools are set identically to the one which I use succesfully on my normal System partition). And also Boingcube demo was without sound....