Getting the Sound Working

The following steps provides information on how to get audio working on an Access Grid

Audio Setup

Getting the sound working for your Access Grid will probably be the most difficult part of this whole process. The setup will vary, as many computer workstations generally will have different sound cards.

Before you start to setup the sound, there is an option that needs configuring. In RAT, click on the “Options” button. This will bring up a window similar to the one below.
Click on the button “personal” and select “audio”. This will bring up another window.
Silence Suppression may be on “Automatic” by default. It is recommended that you configure this option to be “Off”. It is also recommended that the option echo Suppression is turned off as well. Once these options have been selected, click on the "Apply" Button. This will bring you back to the RAT window.
To set up the sound you will need to watch the talk and listen meter levels in RAT. You will probably want to see the talk and listen meters move up until about 2-3 bars from the end when someone is talking in their normal voice, as seen below in the second.
It is best to get the sound working collaboratively with other people. If the talk levels in RAT are not moving when you talk, you will need to change the input levels. When other people are talking your RAT "Listen" meter should be moving. If the meter in RAT does not move, you will need to adjust the output levels. These setting can be adjusted using Kmix and Alsamixer. Another possible setting to check and test, is in the options menu within RAT, Category:Audio, check that a Audio Device is present. It has been found that using the OSS device produces the best sound quality.
This guide will provide you with CQU’s settings and will hopefully get you on the right track to setting up your sound.

Alsamixer Configuration

This section of the guide describes Alsamixer configuration. (Note that different settings might be displayed if using a different sound Card)

By default, fedora installs the ALSA -> OSS compatibly layer, in which using the alsamixer will adjust the mixer settings for OSS.

To get into Alsamixer, go into “Terminal” and type “alsamixer” and hit the “Enter” key. This will bring up the Alsamixer window. To change between settings use the left/right arrow keys and to change the level of the settings use the up/down arrow keys.
For CQU’s Access Grid Audio settings, the following options are not at zero. Master, Master Mono, Line, PCM and AUX. (Please note that the number of controls shown above would vary with the type of soundcard used)

Kmix Configuration

This section of the guide details Kmix configuration. (Note that different settings might be displayed if using a different sound Card)

Kmix can be found in “Sound and Video” in the Red Hat menu or by typing “kmix” at the terminal. This should bring up a window similar to the following. You will notice that some of the LED’s are lit while others are not. This indicates whether a setting is muted or not. If the LED is not lit up then the setting is muted.
In the Input tab these settings from left to right are: Line, CD, Mic, Phone, Aux and Capture.
In the Output tab these settings from left to right are: Master, Master Mono and PCM.
In the Switches tab turn all the settings off by clicking on the LED’s.

Additional Settings

If you are experiencing loop-back audio, you may have to change the “force_ac97” setting within the AudioService. This can be achieve by running the VenueClient, then selecting “Preferences” -> “Manage My Node” options within the menu.
Then by selecting the audio service and right click and select the "Configure" option, this will display the Audio Config Dialog.

AG 2.x AG 3.x
Then change the setting to “true” for the force_ac97 option. Click on the “OK” button. You will then need to store the node configuration on the “Access Grid Node Management” for the changes to be saved. Remmeber to ensure this is kept standard, you will have to make the same change to both AG2.x and AG3.x software.