linux-works
my table setup at 'burning amp' this year (sercona audio remote controlled preamp)
I ended up bringing more gear than most. took well over an hour to setup. too many cables; why can't we go all wireless? lol
the main component of this setup that I'm demo'ing is the silver 1U rackmount style device in the center, with the red (bigfonts) lcd display. its an 8-channel analog (consumer/pro line level) preamp that is controlled digitally but varies volume purely in the analog domain.
the new feature I just added was a 'link up' between the computer's notion of a volume control (eg, a volume slider on linux ALSA sound system) and my own preamp's volume value. turn the knob on my real-world preamp and the value inside the pc changes. change the pc's volume slider via any of the usual means (eg,android or alsamixer) and my volume mirror that value and your volume will go up or down that amount, to match.
any app that has a volume slider and uses alsa sound engine in linux (almost all do) can make use of my preamp. the connection is even RF wireless between the pc and the preamp (small xbee rf modem sitting on the white wifi router, right behind the silver sercona preamp box). this means your pc music server could be located somewhere else, and the preamp and pc can still 'stay in touch' and keep the mirrored volume slider working. and, of course, you can walk around with your android phone, change music using mpd and now change volume, too, without harming the sound in the process.
and btw, if your source is natively analog (turntables, etc) this volume control avoids any conversion to digital. its purely an analog volume control that happens to be digitally controlled.
it runs the open-source LCDuino command code and a 2nd arduino processor runs embedded on the cirrus 3318 (vol control engine chip, itself) board. the 2 arduinos are linked via serial-to-softserial. the main arduino is 'reachable' via its hardware uart serial port and this is what the webserver or mpd server uses to talk over.
a linux daemon process runs in the background keeping the mixer volume slider on ALSA linked to the serial stream on the sercona preamp. if the sercona changes, alsa updates. if alsa changes, the sercona updates. its just that simple ;)
top view of the preamp, showing the hand-wired proto boards: www.flickr.com/photos/linux-works/8126599842/in/photostream
my table setup at 'burning amp' this year (sercona audio remote controlled preamp)
I ended up bringing more gear than most. took well over an hour to setup. too many cables; why can't we go all wireless? lol
the main component of this setup that I'm demo'ing is the silver 1U rackmount style device in the center, with the red (bigfonts) lcd display. its an 8-channel analog (consumer/pro line level) preamp that is controlled digitally but varies volume purely in the analog domain.
the new feature I just added was a 'link up' between the computer's notion of a volume control (eg, a volume slider on linux ALSA sound system) and my own preamp's volume value. turn the knob on my real-world preamp and the value inside the pc changes. change the pc's volume slider via any of the usual means (eg,android or alsamixer) and my volume mirror that value and your volume will go up or down that amount, to match.
any app that has a volume slider and uses alsa sound engine in linux (almost all do) can make use of my preamp. the connection is even RF wireless between the pc and the preamp (small xbee rf modem sitting on the white wifi router, right behind the silver sercona preamp box). this means your pc music server could be located somewhere else, and the preamp and pc can still 'stay in touch' and keep the mirrored volume slider working. and, of course, you can walk around with your android phone, change music using mpd and now change volume, too, without harming the sound in the process.
and btw, if your source is natively analog (turntables, etc) this volume control avoids any conversion to digital. its purely an analog volume control that happens to be digitally controlled.
it runs the open-source LCDuino command code and a 2nd arduino processor runs embedded on the cirrus 3318 (vol control engine chip, itself) board. the 2 arduinos are linked via serial-to-softserial. the main arduino is 'reachable' via its hardware uart serial port and this is what the webserver or mpd server uses to talk over.
a linux daemon process runs in the background keeping the mixer volume slider on ALSA linked to the serial stream on the sercona preamp. if the sercona changes, alsa updates. if alsa changes, the sercona updates. its just that simple ;)
top view of the preamp, showing the hand-wired proto boards: www.flickr.com/photos/linux-works/8126599842/in/photostream