Audio 6 Linux support

Hi all,

I have recently bought a Traktor Audio 6 sound card...
Is it already supported in linux? I didn't see it listed in ALSA's supported sound cards list however I could see some patches applied to latest git version which seems to add support for NI MK2 devices.

Tried to compile the git version of ALSA and installed on my laptop - still no luck, the card is detected as below:

Apr 16 15:21:26 W400210 kernel: [ 1.972952] usb 2-5: New USB device found, idVendor=17cc, idProduct=1010
Apr 16 15:21:26 W400210 kernel: [ 1.972957] usb 2-5: New USB device strings: Mfr=12, Product=7, SerialNumber=13
Apr 16 15:21:26 W400210 kernel: [ 1.972961] usb 2-5: Product: Traktor Audio 6
Apr 16 15:21:26 W400210 kernel: [ 1.972964] usb 2-5: Manufacturer: Native Instruments
Apr 16 15:21:26 W400210 kernel: [ 1.972967] usb 2-5: SerialNumber: XXXXXXXX

however even with latest ALSA I unfortunately can't make it working,..

Is there anyone around who can help please?
My system is Fedora 14, kernel 2.6.35-12-x64, HP 6530b, 4GB RAM, C2D P8600 (@ 2,4GHz)

Thanks a lot

 

Ok so after getting 2.6.39-rc1 patched kernel with latest alsa drivers there is a progress. I can now see the Audio 6 device listed in /proc/asound/cards and snd-usb-audio modules gets loaded automatically.
The only issue I have right now is to switch the THRU mode and enable the other 2 channels as I do see only 1 :|
Maybe a proper ~/.asound.rc will be required. Hopefully will figure out soon

Lukas

 

got it working already with excellent results
here's my /etc/asound.conf

Code:

[root@W400210 ~]# cat /etc/asound.conf
# Traktor Audio 6

pcm.T6_capture {
	type dsnoop
	ipc_key 1646
	slave {
		pcm "hw:T6"
		period_size 0
		buffer_size 65536
		rate 44100
		channels 6
	}
}

pcm.T6_playback {
	type dmix
	ipc_key 1646
	slave {
		pcm "hw:T6"
		period_size 0
		buffer_size 65536
		rate 44100
		channels 6
	}
}

pcm.T6_duplex {
	type asym
	playback.pcm T6_playback
	capture.pcm T6_capture
}

pcm.T6_pair1 {
	type plug
	ttable.0.0 1.0
	ttable.1.1 1.0
	slave.pcm T6_duplex
}

pcm.T6_pair2 {
	type plug
	ttable.0.2 1.0
	ttable.1.3 1.0
	slave.pcm T6_duplex
}

pcm.T6_pair3 {
	type plug
	ttable.0.4 1.0
	ttable.1.5 1.0
	slave.pcm T6_duplex
}

you have to map your application to alsa device T6_pair1 or T6_pair2 etc.

to enable/disable passthrough or switch between phono / line use these commands:

Code:

[B]amixer -c T6 cset numid=1 on[/B] (off)
 // enable (disable) PASSTHRU on channel A
[B]amixer -c T6 cset numid=2 on[/B] (off)
 // enable (disable) PASSTHRU on channel B
[B]amixer -c T6 cset numid=3 on [/B](off)
 // switch PHONO/LINE on channel A
[B]amixer -c T6 cset numid=4 on[/B] (off)
 // switch PHONO/LINE on channel B

Hope this tiny guide will help other people using this great card in linux.

happy DJing
Lukas

 

problems with audio 6 linux

hi lucky,

i found your topic on the traktor audio 6 device and i've the same device but am not possible to get it to work using your config. Plugin in the card results in the following debug messages:

[ 167.840054] usb 2-1: new high speed USB device number 3 using ehci_hcd
[ 168.088066] usb 2-1: reset high speed USB device number 3 using ehci_hcd
[ 168.220182] usb 2-1: device firmware changed
[ 168.220207] snd-usb-audio: probe of 2-1:1.0 failed with error -5
[ 168.220312] snd-usb-audio: probe of 2-1:1.1 failed with error -5
[ 168.220389] snd-usb-audio: probe of 2-1:1.2 failed with error -5
[ 168.220464] snd-usb-audio: probe of 2-1:1.3 failed with error -5
[ 168.220509] usb 2-1: USB disconnect, device number 3
[ 168.336084] usb 2-1: new high speed USB device number 4 using ehci_hcd
[ 168.474692] ALSA sound/usb/endpoint.c:434: 4:1:1: add audio endpoint 0x1
[ 168.475547] ALSA sound/usb/endpoint.c:434: 4:2:1: add audio endpoint 0x82

i'm using linux-2.6.39-rc5. with your conf i'm still able to set/unset thru mode, but its not possible to use the device with xwax. are you able to use it with xwax, or a you using any other timecode software? are you also havin troubles with 2.6.39-rc5?

greetings
bam

 

hello bam,

I am starting xwax with this command, unfortunately my config wont let me go under 11ms, xwax wont start saying latency is too low....it seems ALSA wont let it setup this latency:

Code:

xwax -m 11 -l /home/lukas/tracks -a T6_pair2 -a T6_pair3

I have no xruns with this config, the responsiveness is acceptable but not ideal.

However if I try to start xwax with -a plughw:T6,0,0 I can get it to 5ms but I have only one deck with all inputs/outputs mixed and phono preamp wont work - tested with serato CD but had lot of dropouts.

still trying to figure out how to decrease the latency, for now I've sticked with Win7 where I can get smooth playback with 5ms latency and Mixxx on a desktop machine.

Found also that with Mixxx(linux version) I can configure it to use the Audio 6 directly (without using T6_pair1 & pair2 devices created with asound.conf) and setup 5ms latency but it seems I am facing some king of HW issues on my laptop HP 6530b as it randomly stops playing...same machine with Windows 7 also cant get it lower than 11ms without dropouts.

Could you please tell me what distribution are you using? The latest dev alsa I used would compile on all latest kernels but when I try to load new modules got a weird error(will paste it later)...tried on Fedora and Ubuntu - same results. The only two kernels where it worked was RT kernel from planetccrma repository and custom 2.6.39rc1+ kernel (latest alsa included in kernel source) under FC14.

Also there were some pages on the internet saying to load the snd-usb-audio module with option nrpacks=1 for performance increase but some pages saying this is obsolete, not sure about that didn't notice any change though.

Which kind of issues are you having with 2.6.39-rc5? Where did you get the source? Vanilla? I have just compiled it and it seems its running fine maybe even better than rc1 (had strange resolution problems etc), just couldn't test sound yet, will do in the evening...

Lucky79

 

Hi lucky

I've tested some more last night, after setting up an entire new system(ubuntu 11.04 + vanilla 2.6.39-rc5). Running xwax using your config + phono pream is only possible with a latency of less than even 16ms. The next problem is, that somehow the pitch of the timecode stream (vinyl) and the imported mp3 do not match. It works on the first assigment of a mp3 to one deck, but once i try to assign a track "on the fly" things go mad.

The strangest behaviour of all is the init of snd_usb_audio, because the official productID of the car is 0x1010 but after snd_usb_audio is loaded the productID has changed to 0x1011. This might have something to do with the USB disconnect and reassignment of the device.

I've also took a short look into mixxx, which somehow worked even with latency 1ms, but really unstable. It seems like there is no possibility to assign pair_<x> - in to pair_<x> - out, which is my intension. But i had almost no time to properly figure out the entire behaviour of mixxx. Will give it for sure one more try.

Have you tested xwax more so far? Do you experience the same behaviour described in the second paragraph (can you post your debug output on plugin of the card)?

greets bam

 

Hi bam,

further development on this have moved a bit

I have tweaked the asound.conf so I can now get as low as 2ms where I have very small amount of occasional xruns. With 3ms no xruns and awesome responsiveness. Please try new config below, I think it also has something to do with pitch control.
BTW The ProductID change is the way how driver works, there is nothing wrong with it...
http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.linux.alsa.devel/82179

xwax command:

Code:

xwax -r 48000 -m 3 -l /home/lukas/Plocha/NEWTRACKS/ -a T6_pair2 -a T6_pair3

asound.conf

Code:

# T6

pcm.T6_capture {
        type dsnoop
        ipc_key 1646
        slave {
                pcm "hw:T6"
                period_time 3
                period_size 512
                buffer_size 32768
                rate 48000
                channels 6
        }
}

pcm.T6_playback {
        type dmix
        ipc_key 1646
        slave {
                pcm "hw:T6"
                period_time 3
                period_size 512
                buffer_size 32768
                rate 48000
                channels 6
        }
}

pcm.T6_duplex {
        type asym
        playback.pcm T6_playback
        capture.pcm T6_capture
}

pcm.T6_pair1 {
        type plug
        ttable.0.0 1.0
        ttable.1.1 1.0
        slave.pcm T6_duplex
}

pcm.T6_pair2 {
        type plug
        ttable.0.2 1.0
        ttable.1.3 1.0
        slave.pcm T6_duplex
}

pcm.T6_pair3 {
        type plug
        ttable.0.4 1.0
        ttable.1.5 1.0
        slave.pcm T6_duplex
}

 

thanks for the information, i'll try it later at home

about the alsa-driver i allready found out, but somehow my edit got stuck in the forum yards

 

Youre welcome, let me know if it works for you...
I've found the problem with hanging sound in Mixxx seems to be known issue in Fedora - see this http://mixxx.org/wiki/doku.php/mixxx_on_fedora, maybe there is same bug in Ubuntu.
Also I don't configure Mixxx to use T6_pairs but directly choose the T6 HW for each deck, using outputs / inputs 3-4 & 5-6

Anyway Xwax is now the choice for me cause it works as expected and I like it for it's simplicity

Lucky

 

sorry for the late answer, but still wanted to give some feedback. i got it finally working, but had to set the latency to >= 15/16ms in order to run xwax without xruns. this problem might be related to my hw which runs on a core duo 1.6Ghz. i'm on the search for a new laptop anyway, which will hopefully solve the latency issues.

thanks for the support so far.

 

Hi Bam,

no worries, I am planning to make more tests with better sample rate so hope I may have better asound.conf in near future, but have been busy unofortunately.

Regarding latency issues, I've also had some - solved by compiling the kernel in preemption mode (for real-time use) and excluded all useless modules/kernel drivers like wireless card, v4l etc.
Also I've found usb flash-disk is causing many xruns so try to avoid using any other usb devices at same time.
I dont think CPU is causing a bottleneck as there are people using xwax on Atom based laptops....

Lucky