I have the sblive 5.1 as well. True, kmix has a limited feature set and is incapable of handling all the features in the card. Gamix has pretty much most of the features but is quirky. One problem is that Alsa modules is incompatible with some of the creative features. The OSS drivers are more compatible with the sound card but as yet I haven't figured out how to compile these so I can utilize the emu dspmgr and config programs. With Alsa drivers the access to the effects is all but gone, such as digital delay, and modulation (chorus, flange, etc..). Gamix has access to the features but without the emudspmgr and config to init these it is quite difficult to enable and control these features. One thing I have had success is to plug in speakers in to both the primary and secondary output jacks and reboot the sys. In turn many of the features are recognized and initialized in this manner. I have been able to discretely setup many of the multiple channels and access the 3d environments in this way, but it still isn't complete. The chipset on the SB live and more over the audigy has built in freq modulations and multiple channels for this (hence how EAX really works). Until Creative gets off their Lame arses and opens up the development cycle again for the OSS (and hopefully ALSA) teams, getting access and control over the full range of features (and their is almost a staggering amount of them) will be hit or miss at best. However, if your a programmer and proficient at Hardware coding then setting up some of the Creative features and accessing them is attainable, but for lame end-users as myself, were pretty much at the mercy of any new drivers and programmers that take on this challenge. Just my $ 0.02. Curtis. Charles Philip Chan wrote:

On Wed. Jul. 17, 2002 at 01:10:54 +0100 GMT, a lone cry was heard from David Bartlett in the wasteland called the Internet:

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The normal volume control has no effect on the volume of the headphones! I also found that I had to turn up the digital in from the CD drive to hear a CD playing. Later I discovered that I can actually control these setting using Gamix.

Are you sure you are not turning up the PCM volume instead of the master? Also, you have to make sure that the headphone and CD volumes are set at a reasonable volume to begin with.

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Also KMix seems pretty useless: it doesn't have controls for half the features of the card. No headphone volume. No setting for the digital in from the CD drive. Gamix does a much better job of managing the sound card. It's a bit of a nuisance that the main volume control does not affect the headphone volume

Maybe because Kmixer is as OSS mixer and not ALSA.

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but since I have a LiveDrive! with a volume control on the front I guess I can live with it - it's just not It's really quirky.

Use alsamixer in a console (hint: use the right arrow key to scroll, there are a lot more controls than you think), turn everything up to the maximum that you want them to be with the exception of the master, then run

alsactl store card_number

The card_number is most likely 0. From now on just use the master from any mixer to control the volume. I personally use wmmixer in X (it has most controls including master, bass, treble, headphone, CD, PCM, mic, etc...), you might be able to swallow it in kicker.

Charles