Reroute surround sound in alsa

English Hardware
#1

I have surround sound set up on my computer, but because I am using 3 separate speakers the default 5.1 channels do not work properly. I want to override the default 5.1 configuration so that whenever I play surround sound with any program it automatically uses my re-routed configuration instead of the normal one. I want to reroute the channels the following way:

Channel 0 (left front) to sound card channel 0
Channel 1 (right front) to sound card channel 1
Channel 2 (left rear) to sound card channel 2
Channel 3 (right rear) to sound card channel 3
Channel 4 (center) to sound card channels 4 and 5
Channel 6 (subwoofer) to sound card channels 0, 1, 2, and 3

I’ve tried various things but nothing seems to get it to work.

I am using opensuse 11.1, and my sound card is an audigy 2 zs notebook. My physical speaker configuration is as follows:

The front channels are connected to a 2.1 speaker
The rear channels are connected to a different 2.1 speaker
The center/subwoofer(LFE) channels are connected to a 2.0 speaker.

That is why I am trying to send the center channel to both the center and subwoofer/LFE channel and why I am trying to send the subwoofer channel to both the front and rear channels (since that is where the subwoofer is).

While I am at it, having the left stereo channel go to the left front and left rear channel and having the right stereo channel go to the right front and right rear channel automatically would be nice, but not as important.

#2

My experience is one has the best chance of getting help on a Surround System by going to a “location” where some of the sound guru’s hang out. I think one will not find that sort of expertise so much on openSUSE forums, as I believe such questions are not distribution specific.

I recommend you install xchat, and then join IRC freenode channel #alsa. I find user “gnubien” and also “wishie” are quiet good at helping. There are also others on that channel who are quite helpful. They typically are only present at certain times of the day due to their living in different locations in the world. Hence you may have to ask for help a half dozen times, each time at different times of the day. But when you do finally locate someone who can help, the learning curve is quick and fast … ensure your chat program is setup to log any help to a log file, so you can review later at your leisure.

I recently installed a 5.1 surround system myself (and documented my experiences here: Exploring surround sound in Linux - openSUSE Forums ) , but I am very much still a newbie at 5.1 surround sound.

#3

They were able to show me how to get it working. Thanks.

#4

Superb ! IRC #alsa is one of my favourite IRC channels.