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geoffreybennett / alsa-scarlett-gui

alsa-scarlett-gui is a Gtk4 GUI for the ALSA controls presented by the Linux kernel Focusrite Scarlett2 Mixer Driver
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Show stereo (or more) mixers on routing window #146

Open pazuzuzu opened 1 month ago

pazuzuzu commented 1 month ago

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Issue Description

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First - thank you for creating this lovely GUI! I use it constantly and I am a donor to the project.

The Routing window currently shows one mixer. Normally I send most of my input channels to that mixer, then send the mixer output to my FX, then to from the FX back to the inputs. With only one mixer available, I can only work in mono when doing this. Obviously, for most purposes there are workarounds but it would be wonderful if I had access to two (or more) mixers so I could do more complex (e.g. stereo) mixing and routing.

My apologies if there is already a way to do this type of routing and I just missed it. I would be willing to implement this feature myself if needed, but I might need to ask some questions (firstly, whether there is already a way to do this).

Thank you for helping improve alsa-scarlett-gui!

ironhouzi commented 1 week ago

I for one would be thrilled to have the ability to quickly switch between mixes!

You might be aware, but perhaps others might be wondering; the quickest way to switch mixes is to use File > Save Configuration to a file and switch between the mixer configs using alsactl, e.g:

alsactl restore <ALSA_CARD_ID> -f outboard-process.state

This is exactly what the "Load Configuration" menu selection is doing under the hood.

geoffreybennett commented 1 week ago

Hi @pazuzuzu,

Not sure what you mean by "only one mixer available". The 3rd Gen 18i20 mixer has 25 inputs and 12 outputs which is enough for 6 independent stereo mixes, so yes you can do it.

It's displayed as lots of mono channels, so it's a rather inconvenient UI, but it does work, because stereo is just 2x mono channels.

See e.g. here in the routing window you can see most of my connections are in stereo pairs: image

In the mixer window: image My Analogue 1/2 inputs in this example are two mono inputs going to Mix A/B (my first stereo mix) and 1 stereo input (Analogue 3/4) going to Mix A/B and Mix C/D.

Does that explanation help? Let me know if you need more assistance or examples or anything. If you want to tell me about your gear and how you want the connections in the Scarlett to work, I can give some better examples.

For example, if you have a stereo synth plugged in to the front Analogue 1/2 inputs and you want to send that through to an external FX unit plugged in to Analogue 3/4 inputs & outputs, like this: image

Then if you want to record the result, then you'd do this: image

Obviously you'd probably want to listen to the result as well so you'd route something to your Hardware Outputs Analogue 1/2, 7/8, or 9/10, but I just want to show the minimum connections there for clarity.

Regards, Geoffrey.

geoffreybennett commented 1 week ago

The mixer only comes into it if/when you want to send multiple things (sources) to the same place (sinks). For example:

geoffreybennett commented 1 week ago

I do have plans for a better UI, but I've only recently figured out a good way to do it (which involves a complete driver rewrite).

ironhouzi commented 1 week ago

@geoffreybennett - I interpreted the request to be similar to the mixer on Windows:

image

To me it just seems like instant switching between three mixer states, A, B and C.

ironhouzi commented 1 week ago

which involves a complete driver rewrite)

Will the redesigned drivers facilitate stereo linking channels as well, @geoffreybennett ?

geoffreybennett commented 1 week ago

@geoffreybennett - I interpreted the request to be similar to the mixer on Windows: To me it just seems like instant switching between three mixer states, A, B and C.

Instant switching in Windows isn't Mix A/B/C; it's "File > Load Snapshot" in Focusrite Control and "Presets" in Focusrite Control 2.

Mix A/B/C in Windows is three separate stereo mixes, which correspond to the alsa-scarlett-gui Mixer Outputs A–L.

Will the redesigned drivers facilitate stereo linking channels as well, @geoffreybennett ?

Yes.