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Support for Botic Linux driver

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L

Luca72c

Member
Joined 2013
amigo1 said:
For hqplayer an additional ARM or PC сomputer is required, isn't it?
Click to expand...


Yes, for hqplayer a quite powerful pc is needed at server side, while BBB can host NetworkaudioD client and output via I2S to the dac. This way, sound quality is even better than just using hqplayer server as usb player.
A bit similar to lms on a pc and squeezelite on a sbc/squeezebox, but hqp sound quality is much better: pc computing power is used to upsample and convert to dsd in a very accourate way that sigma-delta dac chips simply are not powerful enough to reach.

That's what i understand, i'm not a digital audio expert so i cannot explain better. But i have good ears and i can state that hqp sound quality is way above any other player i've heard - assuming your dac can play native dsd...
 
Last edited:
amigo1

amigo1

Member
Joined 2019
Best MPD player for BBB!

Luca72c said:
Yes, for hqplayer a quite powerful pc is needed at server side, while BBB can host NetworkaudioD client and output via I2S to the dac. This way, sound quality is even better than just using hqplayer server as usb player.
A bit similar to lms on a pc and squeezelite on a sbc/squeezebox, but hqp sound quality is much better: pc computing power is used to upsample and convert to dsd in a very accourate way that sigma-delta dac chips simply are not powerful enough to reach.

That's what i understand, i'm not a digital audio expert so i cannot explain better. But i have good ears and i can state that hqp sound quality is way above any other player i've heard - assuming your dac can play native dsd...
Click to expand...
Thank you for your explanation! Unfortunately I am not interested in dsd-format at all!
 
L

Luca72c

Member
Joined 2013
amigo1 said:
Thank you for your explanation! Unfortunately I am not interested in dsd-format at all!
Click to expand...

I'm not interested in dsd format, too. All the files i have in my library are pcm flacs. But dsd conversion is performed by hqp on the fly, starting from pcm files, and it's just a trick to obtain better reproduction by the vast majority of dacs. You just play normal pcm files as you ever did.
If you want, you can avoid dsd conversion in hqp and let it just oversample pcm files to higher resolution, but that way you loose the highest quality level hqp can deliver...
 
pixelpusher

pixelpusher

Member
Joined 2004
Luca72c said:
Newer version of gentooplayer for BBB available at Download - GentooPlayer
Now configuration via web interface is possible and user can choose between different ALSA versions. Various kernel options (including RT and botic ones) and players/servers available (more than one can be enabled at once), ramdisk support and more.
Stable, high performance and very good sounding! :up:
Click to expand...

I tried this Gentoo Player last night. Wow, quite an improvement. Even my wife commented on it. I use the Roon Bridge formerly on Debian Jessie.
There are 14 Botic kernels to choose from. Do you know what the differences are? There is not much documentation.
 
L

Luca72c

Member
Joined 2013
pixelpusher said:
I tried this Gentoo Player last night. Wow, quite an improvement. Even my wife commented on it. I use the Roon Bridge formerly on Debian Jessie.
There are 14 Botic kernels to choose from. Do you know what the differences are? There is not much documentation.
Click to expand...


Sorry i'm just an user, not a developer. But you can ask the developer (Antonello Caroli) in this forum: GentooPlayer - Page 28 - Software - Audiophile Style
 
amigo1

amigo1

Member
Joined 2019
disabling plughw for Beaglebone black debian 10

coroner21 said:
This is due to the original botic kernel being massively outdated and I believe no cpufreq driver for BBB was implemented in mainline kernel back then.
Click to expand...

Hi coroner21!
Please explain, how disable plughw?

arecord -L
null
Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
hw:CARD=Botic,DEV=0
Botic,
Direct hardware device without any conversions

plughw:CARD=Botic,DEV=0
 Botic,
Hardware device with all software conversions
---------------------------------------------------------

Configuration file /etc/asound.conf not help
pcm.!default {
type hw
card 0
}
ctl.!default {
type hw
card 0
}
 
Last edited:
amigo1

amigo1

Member
Joined 2019
output to hw:0,0

francolargo said:
plughw in ALSA is only active if you send some data source to it. If you do not want various controls being executed by ALSA, such as volume, EQ, etc., then send all your output to hw:0,0 - you can simply ignore plughw.
Click to expand...
Thank you for your advise!
Yes I do not want various controls being executed by ALSA, such as volume, EQ, etc.
Please give me an example of the basic configuration (linux file) I need to set up to send all my output to hw:0,0 !? Unfortunately modifying mpd.conf not give me the necessary resalt!?
 
Last edited:
amigo1

amigo1

Member
Joined 2019
Now I have:

/proc/asound/cards

0 [Botic ]: Botic - Botic
Botic


arecord -L
null
Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
hw:CARD=Botic,DEV=0
Botic,
Direct hardware device without any conversions
plughw:CARD=Botic,DEV=0
Botic,
Hardware device with all software conversions


arecord -l
**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Botic [Botic], device 0: external botic-hifi-0 []
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0



Should I use in /etc/asound.conf belowmentioned settings?

pcm.!default {
type hw
card 0
device 0
}

ctl.!default {
type hw
card 0
device 0
}
 
Last edited:
francolargo

francolargo

Member
Joined 2007
Paid Member
coroner21 said:
Simply putting device "hw:0:0" into mpd.conf is all I ever had to do. But then I am using archlinux ARM so that might be different to debian.
Click to expand...

This is my experience as well, and I use Debian. My mpd.conf file includes:
Code: 
audio_output {
        type            "alsa"
        name            "J20"
        device          "hw:0,0"        # optional
        dsd_usb         "no"
        dsd_native      "yes"
        dsd_native_type "3"
        priority        "FIFO:32"
        mixer_type      "hardware"
        period_time     "1"
#       mixer_device    "default"       # optional
#       mixer_control   "PCM"           # optional
#       mixer_index     "0"             # optional
}

I have experience manipulating asound.conf in order to run various filters, mixers and channel alignments. *You are looking at 'arecord' sources.* These will have nothing to do with output from MPD or any other player software that the OS is running. You only need to address 'recording' ports if you want to *import* a PCM stream (for example, via external USB). Then ALSA will manage the synchronous PCM stream and make the stream available in the system. For player software (like MPD) running on the linux board, the only ALSA parameter that software needs are the available *play* ports and those you can list using 'aplay -L'. Each of the listed channels will be a working input channel into ALSA. One of the channels should be 'hw:xxxx,xxxx'. You can type out the words after the colon (the 'xxxx' in my example), or you can just use the numbers 0,0 if there is no need to further process the signal. The 'hw:0,0' sends the PCM out of the ALSA system.

If you have modified asound.conf and it is not working, try this for pcm.!default:
Code: 
pcm.!default {
    type plug
    slave {
     pcm "hw:0,0"
     rate "unchanged"
    }
}

In general, manipulating ALSA takes patience and study of documentation that is not at all simple nor even complete. Good luck.
 
amigo1

amigo1

Member
Joined 2019
avoid various filters and mixers!

francolargo said:
For player software (like MPD) running on the linux board, the only ALSA parameter that software needs are the available *play* ports and those you can list using 'aplay -L'. Each of the listed channels will be a working input channel into ALSA. One of the channels should be 'hw:xxxx,xxxx'. You can type out the words after the colon (the 'xxxx' in my example), or you can just use the numbers 0,0 if there is no need to further process the signal. The 'hw:0,0' sends the PCM out of the ALSA system.
Click to expand...

I try to avoid various filters and mixers :confused: and really appreciated for your help francolargo!
Hier is my aplay -L
~$ aplay -L
null
Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
hw:CARD=Botic,DEV=0
Botic,
Direct hardware device without any conversions
plughw:CARD=Botic,DEV=0
Botic,
Hardware device with all software conversions
 
C

coroner21

Member
Joined 2014
doremi said:
Hi coroner21,
could you provide the botic dts for debian 10 (trying to change mclk to half the frequency)?
Or is it the same/unchanged from Miero?
Click to expand...


Which mclk frequencies you need? In general, the debian buster branch of my github repository does not use the dts to specify frequencies. Instead it is a module paramter to the snd-soc-botic module:


Code: 
MODULE_PARM_DESC(clk_48k, "frequency of crystal for 48k modes");
MODULE_PARM_DESC(clk_44k1, "frequency of crystal for 44k1 modes");
 
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