Sorry, i didn’t know where to post this message… If that’s not the right place to post… just excuse me.
I’m desperately trying to configure the above mentioned Cuvave Cube-Baby under linux as a soundcard (it’s primarly a guitar pedal). I tried to post a request on ubuntu forum and on the alsa-project mailing list, but noone seems to really understand the problem (yet the alsa mailing list is pretty much desert). So lastly i’m asking here.
Here’s the lsusb out:
~$ lsusb
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 04f2:b044 Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd Acer
CrystalEye Webcam
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 008 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 007 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 301a:5555
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
And here’s the amixer log:
amixer: Mixer load hw:1 error: Connection timed out
Card hw:1 'Device'/'SmartlinkTechnology USB2.0 Device at
usb-0000:00:1d.1-1, full speed'
Mixer name : 'USB Mixer'
Components : 'USB301a:5555'
Controls : 7
amixer: Mixer hw:1 load error: Connection timed out
~$ sudo dmesg -l err,crit
[ 152.889527] usb 4-1: 2:1: cannot set freq 48000 to ep 0x82
There’s no mention on linux on the producer site and their answer to my question on any sort of compatibility with linux was: “install the asio4all sound card driver”… they clearly could not understand the problem.
Anything i could try to let it be recognized under linux?
I don’t own the pedal, so this is a shot in the dark after reading its manual. Have you tried both USB ports on the pedal? The mobile phone recording port seems more likely to be recognized as a class compliant USB audio device by Linux than the USB port that serves three functions (charging, mass storage, and audio). Try connecting it that way if you haven’t and see if lsusb outputs anything different than it did before.
Ah, interesting. I didn’t picture the other end of the mobile cord being a TRRS jack. I’m not sure if it is risky, to be honest. I wouldn’t think any damage would occur testing it, but if you have concerns, don’t do it. It may not work anyways. There is a download on the manufacturer’s webpage for the program to load IRs via Windows and Mac (CubeSuite V2.3.4). If that download includes a driver for the audio interface, it is unlikely Linux will be able to recognize the device, unfortunately.
You could always plug the TRRS cable into your computer’s Intel soundcard. If your computer’s jack isn’t a combo headphone/mic type, an adapter can split the signal into two TRS connections.
AFAIK the cube suite let’s you just load / download IRs and configure the effects via a computer interface. The sound card is plug and play.
Also I can see the sound card in alsamixer (you can only set the input volume) and when I try to assign the sound card to record for example in audacity it freezes audacity and takes forever (and doesn’t record any sound).
Some USB devices have no controls at all in alsamixer so just one is ok.
What sample rate do you have audacity set to? The cube says it is 48000 only. Also what latency do you have it set to? While it would make sense for such a device to handle low latency, they do seem to assume for recording purposes only and do have a monitoring (headphone) jack.
Under preferences: Devices, Interface Host: should probably show ALSA. Then below that set you recording device to the one you want to use (your cube) I do not know if the cube supports playback (it should but may not) but if it does it should show up in the Playback device dropdown. Recording channels may need to be one as this is a mono unit. Buffer length should be 100 ms to start with. If your device does not show up in the playback drop down it should be ok to select your computer device because this application generally doesn’t open both at the same time anyway. (you either record or playback) On the main window in the bottom left corner is Project Rate (Hz): set this to 48000. if you click on the meter top right (mine says click to start monitoring) you should see the meter move when you play guitar (or whatever) through the unit. (in my case it is my mic) and you can use the control just below the play button (beside the mic picture) to adjust level. If you get that far, you are gold. I am noticing in the very bottom right mine has an “Actual rate: 48000” this may be because I am using JACK (as always) and Audacity knows it has to just work with whatever JACK gives it
More notes: There is a very common USB audio chip out there that many guitar cord to USB devices use that only has an input but alsa shows a playback device too… opening the playback device may give a buzz or ringing sound on the input if this is the case… it seems they leave the outputs disconnected inside
BTW: the above mentioned guitar to USB cables are very cheap and might just work for you if nothing else does but if alsa shows the device it should work with the right settings.
Hi len,
thanks for the advises. I tried to configure jack also to use the cube, but it gave me a lot of errors, anyway I was able to add it to the recording / playback devices.
I’m not in front of the cube right now, but i will be later. I’ll let you know if something goes right.
Audacity:
This is pretty much ironic. I see the cube in the reproduction devices, but there’s no trace of it in the recording devices…
When i try to reproduce some audio through it… it works. I can hear the audio coming from the cube (headphones out).
INs are “hw:0,0”, “hw:2,0”, “hw:2,1”. The cube is hw:1,0 but it’s shown only in the OUTs.
Alsa:
As i told alsamixer can see the device, both recording and playback faders are working (very slow… i move the fader but i have to wait few seconds for it to update the position, both via gui or cli).
I used jack on an old Hoontech c-port with much success and I have no big problems using it. On jack’s devices list I see the cube both among INs and OUTs, but jack never starts (I’ve also tried to assign the out only, but no chance to start it).
Here jack’s state messages:
Cannot connect to server socket err = No such file or directory
Cannot connect to server request channel
jack server is not running or cannot be started
JackShmReadWritePtr::~JackShmReadWritePtr - Init not done for -1, skipping unlock
JackShmReadWritePtr::~JackShmReadWritePtr - Init not done for -1, skipping unlock
10:18:48.811 Cambiamento nel grafico delle connessioni di ALSA.
10:18:56.351 D-BUS: il server JACK non può essere avviato. Mi dispiace
Tue Feb 15 10:18:51 2022: Starting jack server...
Tue Feb 15 10:18:51 2022: JACK server starting in realtime mode with priority 10
Tue Feb 15 10:18:51 2022: self-connect-mode is "Don't restrict self connect requests"
Tue Feb 15 10:18:51 2022: ERROR: Cannot lock down 82280346 byte memory area (Cannot allocate memory)
Cannot connect to server socket err = No such file or directory
Cannot connect to server request channel
jack server is not running or cannot be started
JackShmReadWritePtr::~JackShmReadWritePtr - Init not done for -1, skipping unlock
JackShmReadWritePtr::~JackShmReadWritePtr - Init not done for -1, skipping unlock
Tue Feb 15 10:18:56 2022: Device reservation request with priority 2147483647 denied for "Audio1": org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NoReply (Did not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply,
Tue Feb 15 10:18:56 2022: ERROR: Failed to acquire device name : Audio1 error : Did not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broke
Tue Feb 15 10:18:56 2022: ERROR: Audio device hw:1,0 cannot be acquired...
Tue Feb 15 10:18:56 2022: ERROR: Cannot initialize driver
Tue Feb 15 10:18:56 2022: ERROR: JackServer::Open failed with -1
Tue Feb 15 10:18:56 2022: ERROR: Failed to open server
Tue Feb 15 10:18:56 2022: Saving settings to "/home/joe/.config/jack/conf.xml" ...
10:19:00.197 Non sono riuscito ad avviare JACK come client. - Operazione fallita. - Impossibile connettersi al server JACK. Controlla la finestra dei messaggi per maggiori informazioni.
Cannot connect to server socket err = No such file or directory
Cannot connect to server request channel
jack server is not running or cannot be started
JackShmReadWritePtr::~JackShmReadWritePtr - Init not done for -1, skipping unlock
JackShmReadWritePtr::~JackShmReadWritePtr - Init not done for -1, skipping unlock
I don’t have the device in hand so any thing I can say is reading the manual (such as it is or not) and from what you have to say. There are two USB ports on the unit and one of them is aimed at audio from the computer/tablet to the cube. The other is harder to tell but seems to indicate it is able to do audio from the cube to the computer at least. So try both.
The standard way to see what playback ports are available is to use:
aplay -l
And the standard way to see capture ports is to use:
arecord -l
in both cases the -l is a lower case L
Do try plugging into each of the usb ports on the cube as one may be better than the other or complimentary to the other. BTW the general rule is that if the unit advertises compatibility with macos it should work properly but if it is windows centric, that is only talks about windows and never mentions macos or only mentions ios on one port, all bets are off for linux.
Alsamixer or the alsa controls are separate from what ports are available. Alsa mixer interprets as best it can what kind of control it is dealing with and if it refers to a capture channel or a playback channel. I have more than one audio device where alsa calls many controls as both capture and playback controls because it just doesn’t know. mic boost controls are famous for this but looking at an old ice1712 based device will show a lot more. So do not expect to be able to tell if you have both capture and playback based on alsamixer controls use aplay/arecord -l as above.
I’ve tried connect the second usb port (the one used to connect smartphones), but nothing happens. lsusb doesn’t recognize anything.
I’ve also checked with aplay and arecord. They both recognize the card, but aplay shows: Subdevices: 1/1
Same for arecord, but as soon as i click the record button on audacity it turns to 0/1.
