RME User Forum

After some experiments and reading a lot of documentation I have a working LINUX ALSA .asoundrc for the RME Hammerfall DSP 9632. It allows to simultaneously playback several sounds,  to simultaneously record from several channels and to do a simultaneous capture and playback. Since I didn't find a .asoundrc which provides these functionality anywhere, I thought it could be could helpful to publish it here.

If you have any idea to improve it in these aspects
- number of offered channels for recording in audacity goes up to 128
- it's not possible to adjust the recording gain in audacity
- any feature I have overlooked
please contact me or write a comment to this post.

(Linux kernel 2.6.35.7, ALSA 1.0.23, 9632 Firmware 152, my own distribution)

Kind regards!

#
# RME 9632
#

# aplay   -D plughw:DSP         -> "Out 1" & "Out 2"
# aplay   -D RME-0506           -> "Out 5" & "Out 6"
# aplay   -D RME-1112           -> "Out 11" & "Out 12"
# arecord -D RME-0910           <- "In   9" & "In 10" (SPDIF)

# If you only have one sound for playback at a time, it works this simple way

# pcm_slave.rme0-44 {
#     pcm {
#         type hw
#         card "DSP" # <card #> or string from /proc/asound/cards
#     }
#     format "S32_LE" # default nearest
#     rate 44100      # default nearest or "unchanged"
#     channels 12     # default nearest or "unchanged"
# }
#
# pcm.RME-pb0102 { # playback to "Out 1" & "Out 2"
#     type plug
#     slave rme0-44
#     ttable.0.0 1
#     ttable.1.1 1
# }
#
# pcm.RME-pb0304 { # playback to "Out 3" & "Out 4"
#     type plug
#     slave rme0-44
#     ttable.0.2 1
#     ttable.1.3 1
# }
#
# ...
#

# But for simultaneous playback of serveral sounds it gets more complicated.
# You have to use the 'dmix' plugin for playback and the 'dsnoop' plugin
# for capturing.

# playback pcm definition
pcm.RMEpb {
    type dmix
    slave {
         pcm {
             type hw
             card "DSP" # <card #> or string from /proc/asound/cards
         }
         format "S32_LE" # default nearest
         rate 44100      # default nearest or "unchanged"
         channels 12     # default nearest or "unchanged", required for RME9632
         buffer_size 2048
         period_size 1024
    }
    ipc_key 16258
    ipc_key_add_uid TRUE
    ipc_gid {
        @func refer
        name defaults.pcm.ipc_gid
    }
    ipc_perm {
        @func refer
        name defaults.pcm.ipc_perm
    }
}

# capture pcm definition
pcm.RMEcap {
    type dsnoop
    slave {
         pcm {
             type hw
             card "DSP" # <card #> or string from /proc/asound/cards
         }
         format "S32_LE" # default nearest
         rate 44100      # default nearest or "unchanged"
         channels 12     # default nearest or "unchanged", required for RME9632
         buffer_size 2048
         period_size 1024
    }
    ipc_key 16260
    ipc_key_add_uid TRUE
    ipc_gid {
        @func refer
        name defaults.pcm.ipc_gid
    }
    ipc_perm {
        @func refer
        name defaults.pcm.ipc_perm
    }
}

# And for simultaneous playback and recording, the 'asym' plugin is used
pcm.RMEasym {
    type asym
    playback.pcm "RMEpb"
    capture.pcm "RMEcap"
}

# one definition for each stereo channel
pcm.RME-0102 {
    type plug
    slave.pcm "RMEasym"
    ttable.0.0 1
    ttable.1.1 1
}

pcm.RME-0304 {
    type plug
    slave.pcm "RMEasym"
    ttable.0.2 1
    ttable.1.3 1
}

pcm.RME-0506 {
    type plug
    slave.pcm "RMEasym"
    ttable.0.4 1
    ttable.1.5 1
}

pcm.RME-0708 {
    type plug
    slave.pcm "RMEasym"
    ttable.0.6 1
    ttable.1.7 1
}

pcm.RME-0910 {
    type plug
    slave.pcm "RMEasym"
    ttable.0.8 1
    ttable.1.9 1
}

pcm.RME-1112 {
    type plug
    slave.pcm "RMEasym"
    ttable.0.10 1
    ttable.1.11 1
}