ALC4082 - Asus Crosshair x670E Hero

[nitin88]

Hi,

I am using frontend Mic and Output of x670E Hero board.

Issues:

1. The mic volume is too low that I have to literally shout to record something.
2. Attached screenshot of Alsamixer (set everything to high)
   
3. Copied latest master configurations

Was closely following this thread #229 as this board uses same ALC4082 but from Asrock
I can help you debug/test every possible configuration with this board, any help to fix "sound recording" is appreciated.

Attaching the alsaucm -c hw:Audio dump text dump.txt

[perexg]

In alsamixer, you can control all USB units which are exposed using USB audio standard. If there is a non-standard USB setup, it would be difficult to do something. Most of users are using reverse engineering - monitor the USB communication in the working OS and analyze this stream.

Those chips also have own firmware so vendors may use slightly different version.

[nitin88]

Agree. But the record volume is so low that it's almost unusable in Linux. Any help is appreciated and I expect it's going to be the same issue with most of the Asus X670E boards.

[perexg]

Another way is to use 24-bit/32-bit sample resolution and increase the gain in software (PA/PW) - use pactl like pactl set-source-volume alsa_input.usb-C-Media_Electronics_Inc._KURZWEIL_Pro_Microphone_KM-1U-00.analog-stereo 200%. It cannot be set using GUI.

[nitin88]

Thank you. That's pretty good. I think the sweet spot is around 175% for me alsa_input.usb-Generic_USB_Audio-00.HiFi__hw_Audio_2__source

cat /proc/asound/card3/usbid
0b05:1a53

Configs from master:

> cat /usr/share/alsa/ucm2/USB-Audio/USB-Audio.conf | grep -i '1a53'
		# 0b05:1a53 ALC4082 on ASUS ROG Crosshair X670E Extreme
		
> cat /usr/share/alsa/ucm2/USB-Audio/Realtek/ALC4080-HiFi.conf | grep -i '1a53'
~

Shouldn't this be mapped as something like perexg@154aae1
Sorry I am trying to learn the correlation here

[nitin88]

@perexg just thinking out loud. Why does Capture have Front/Left channels? Isn't it supposed to be Mono?

❯ amixer
Simple mixer control 'Master',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 65536
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 44092 [67%] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 44092 [67%] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Capture',0
  Capabilities: cvolume cswitch cswitch-joined
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 65536
  Front Left: Capture 65536 [100%] [on]
  Front Right: Capture 65536 [100%] [on]

Between setting to 200% is not working as expected. There is gain in the volume (recorded) but it's par below than what I expect

[perexg]

Without -c parameter (amixer -c 0) you show the mixer settings from the sound server. Also, most microphones provide stereo output.

You may try also bigger values (400%) but the dynamic range will be worse.

The only real solution is to find how to control this hardware properly (e.g. reverse engineering as I suggested) and update the driver.

[ksenchy]

Agree. But the record volume is so low that it's almost unusable in Linux. Any help is appreciated and I expect it's going to be the same issue with most of the Asus X670E boards.

Can confirm this. Experiencing this as well on Rog Strix X670E-F Gaming Wifi. But this board has ALC4080 instead
Same thing happens on Windows so I doubt it's a driver issue as there I'm using official Realtek drivers. It's either a FW or HW issue. I think Realtek is gonna need another FW update but not sure if they are fully aware of this issue.
For now a cheap USB card from AliExpress fixed the issue for me. Hopefully we get a proper fix at all.

[bojankseneman]

Realtek released a firmware update a few days ago to fix the 'Line in volume'. So they fixed SPDIF, Line in and now we wait for them to figure out mic is broken too 🤣

[nitin88]

Realtek released a firmware update a few days ago to fix the 'Line in volume'. So they fixed SPDIF, Line in and now we wait for them to figure out mic is broken too 🤣

Can you please share the link to this?

[bojankseneman]

Realtek released a firmware update a few days ago to fix the 'Line in volume'. So they fixed SPDIF, Line in and now we wait for them to figure out mic is broken too rofl

Can you please share the link to this?

https://rog.asus.com/motherboards/rog-strix/rog-strix-x670e-f-gaming-wifi-model/helpdesk_bios/
Looks like Corsair Hero x670E page is still not yet updated, but I assume the same firmware can be used.
Also these firmware update tools can only be used in Windows. I don't recommend trying to run them on Linux via wine or something similar, you might brick your sound card chip.

[bojankseneman]

Looks like this FW is finally also published for hero board, let me know if it fixes it on hero. It did not fix it on my board
https://rog.asus.com/motherboards/rog-crosshair/rog-crosshair-x670e-hero-model/helpdesk_bios/

[nitin88]

Thanks for updating the information. Updated the firmware. will check later.

[Zero3]

The mic volume is too low that I have to literally shout to record something.

Same problem for me with a MSI MAG B650M MORTAR WIFI motherboard that has an ALC4080 audio chip.

Boosting the volumes to 153% (slider maximum value) in pavucontrol under both the "Input Devices" and "Recording" tabs (when the recording application is using the microphone) helps somewhat, but the result is still not great.

I tested with a fresh install of Windows 10, and the problem is the same there. But after installing the "Realtek HD Universal Driver" (version 6.3.9600.2353) from https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/MAG-B650M-MORTAR-WIFI/support#driver, the recording volume is great. So that driver must be doing something to fix the problem.

@perexg do you know if there is any way I can assist in such a reverse engineering effort? I can run any necessary debugging tools etc. on my Windows installation if it can be any help. Maybe to provide a dump of the USB traffic between the driver and the audio chip or something like that?