Tag Archives: 5.1

No LFE (Low-Frequency Effects) in Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope)

Posted by on April 30, 2009 1 comment | This post has 632 views.

There is a new catch if you want to enable 5.1 surround sound in Ubuntu 9.04. First you need to follow the same steps like you did for Hardy Heron. There is an old post I wrote about it.
In this new version of PulseAudio they don’t synthesize an LFE signal anymore by default.
They introduced this new option called disable-lfe-remixing.

When upmixing or downmixing ignore LFE channels. When this option is on the output LFE channel will only get a signal when an input LFE channel is available as well. If no input LFE channel is available the output LFE channel will always be 0. If no output LFE channel is available the signal on the input LFE channel will be ignored. Defaults to “on”.

The solution to get you bass back is to set this option to no.
As a result, here are the steps you need to take:

Uncomment the line containing:

and replace '2' with '6' (if you have a 7.1 card, replace '2' with '8').
Next, set disable-lfe-remixing option to no

Restart your computer and you’re in business.
NOTE: Documentation for this article is taken from here and here.

PulseAudio and 5.1 surround sound on Hardy Heron

Posted by on May 15, 2008 4 comments | This post has 1,411 views.

The new Ubuntu 8.04 look very good and has many improvements over the older releases. I will not discuss about them now. I’ll just stick on the new default sound server, PulseAudio that offers sophisticated mixing capabilities and network transparency.
The purpose of this post is to help other Ubuntu users to enable 5.1 surround sound on their computers, using PulseAudio (you must have a 5.1 capable sound card).
I have a Creative Labs SB Audigy sound card but I tested this solution on a Creative Labs SB Live!. The results were the same in both cases.
The solution is very simple. Run this in your terminal:

Uncomment the line containing:

and replace '2' with '6' (if you have a 7.1 card, replace '2' with '8')
Restart the window manager and enjoy the new sound!