Hi,
I noticed on the changelog that some devices are able to access all channels without doing any .asoundrc funkiness. Form 4.6 kernel onwards
- Add support for previously unavailable higher PCM channels on certain devices with high channel count, notably Focusrite Saffire PRO 40, Focusrite Liquid Saffire 56, and TC Electronic Studio Konnekt 48. These devices spread the PCM and MIDI channels across 2 tx + 2 rx IEEE 1394 channels instead of just 1 tx + 1 rx IEEE 1394 channel, as most other devices do.
Pretty sure I've tested with 4.6 and wasn't able to achieve this with my device. But can test again with 4.8 if I am wrong.
My device is an Allen and Heath Zed R16.. While latency performance in the way ALSA works is not satisfactory for my usage others may wish to use this device with ALSA for simplicity. (remove the need for FFADO entirely as there is no software mixer for this device and remove the need for any MIDI bridge)
Currently under ALSA in 44.1k or 48k the device has 16 inputs and 16 outputs on the first firewire channel, and then and additional 10 ins and 10 outs on the second.
If this is any help, here is the vendor info, as used by FFADO
{ # Allen and Heath Zed R16. Information from Brendan Pike. vendorid = 0x000004C4; modelid = 0x00000000; vendorname = "Allen and Heath"; modelname = "Zed R16"; driver = "DICE"; mixer = "Generic_Dice_EAP"; }
On that latency topic- just voicing my opinion and I don't expect change.
When the paradigm of using periods/frames and buffers is common across all OS and driver platforms, I don't believe that the driver should force developers to implement a new method, even if there are better ways of doing things. That might be okay for small open source projects, but bigger commercial applications would not be likely to maintain separate configuration options for Linux, they are more likely to drop Linux altogether if forced to adopt I also know that Takashi S, does not agree but as FFADO devs have agreed to keep the driver in FFADO I don't mind..