[How to] Have sound on all of your speakers., Agregate Device + AU Lab + Soundflower Options

[macgirl]

Ok you have more than 2 speakers but few movies and songs are 5.1 and you wish to have Speaker fill excitment

Before you begin you need to download and install XCode (at least its Audio Applications) Soundflower: linky original maker: http://www.cycling74.com/downloads/soundflower

Soundflower is a system extension (or kext) that allows applications to pass audio to other applications.

Reboot and begin with Auio Midi Setup and add an Agregate Device (Audio Menu or with Command-Shift-A keys)
put all you speakers there and one of the soundflower devices (when it is installed it will show on your Sound Decives as Soundflower(2ch) and Soundflower(16ch)
 Picture_1.png ( 146.97K ) Number of downloads: 2349

EDIT:
But check that all of your outputs has the same frequency, if they don't have it they wont add outputs

Now Open AU Lab (it is located in /Developer/Applications/Audio) and add as many outputs as you have (each one can handle 1 to 7 speakers) I chose stereo in this example, see:
 Picture_2.png ( 51.22K ) Number of downloads: 1147

Then add an input:
 Picture_3.png ( 53.89K ) Number of downloads: 472

Now select your agregate device in the Audio Device drop menu:
 Picture_4.png ( 68.15K ) Number of downloads: 819

Then time pass to the "Input Channels" tab and select the SoundFlower you attach to the Agregate Device:
 Picture_5.png ( 57.18K ) Number of downloads: 531

Then a new window appears with this:
 Picture_6.png ( 148.64K ) Number of downloads: 625

Select the little numbers on the left of the Audio 1 slider so they appear on the output sliders.
Now, double click on the "Output 1" title and select your agregate device in the drop down menu:
 Picture_7.png ( 181.12K ) Number of downloads: 614
 Picture_8.png ( 172.85K ) Number of downloads: 442

Optionally you can add buses (2 for stereo of course), I did this before without the bus thing ant it worked, but there is something different in the sound, I will investigate this later.
 Picture_9.png ( 146.3K ) Number of downloads: 396

Finally you end with this:
 Picture_A.png ( 210.8K ) Number of downloads: 538

You can save this setup with any name.

But in order to make this work you need to select the soundflower device as your output:
 Picture_b.png ( 137.48K ) Number of downloads: 825

Remember that Au Lab needs to be running in order to all this work togetther.

With this I can have 6 speaker of my ALC888 plus 8 of my Audigy and another 8 with my Sonica Theater

22 speakers = party time:

Enjoy.

[Vis]

Lot of detail there, thanks.

I'm curious if this would work for me. I have a 5.1 setup but no 5.1 (which isnt fixable at the present apparently.) so my sound comes out of just two of my speakers.I wouldn't mind getting the other 3 speakers to work though for listening to music, etc. Does this guide only work with digital output? My current setup is 3 co-ax analog ones but I can probably get a cheap spdif cable if the guide calls for it.

[fredouille]

Thanks !
it's a pity that I haven't seen it before to test it for the new year party at home !
best wishes
fred

[lamune]

Absolutely awesome guide, finally got 5.1 on my ALC888 =DD
thanks alot macgirl

[skull1]

i can't get this to work. Should this be paired to a specific kext or codec dump? I'm currently using my own codec dump from my Fedora 9 install.

[danroj]

work with sound card stac9228 ?

[macgirl]

@skull1 No specific kexts, just a soundcard with several outputs

@danroj sure, you can have internal speakers plus 2 output jacks.

[cernst]

Thanks macgirl, that works perfectly.

What about the other aggregate device?
Is this a normal aggregate device, to which you manually switch if you watch dvd for example?

[macgirl]

Yes I created one for stereo on all speakers and another for 5.1 output, since I don't have 5.1 on iTunes music I use stereo but in all my speakers, and use 5.1 with 5.1 movies.

[starobrno1]

This sounds great but when I told people I succesfully managed to make an aggreagate device out of all my soundcards my Delta 44, Phonic firefly and my Saffire Pro 10I/0 getting a whole bunch of inputs and outputs avaliable for Logic studio Pro 8 some guy said well that´s great but it´s well known aggreagate device does´nt work so good so you will get phaseout problems. Does it work ok for you? I mean it´s hackmacs we´re talking about here and maby this phaseout problem are only happening in real macs?

[cernst]

What is the function of buses in AU Lab?

As I can hear, it only makes the output louder and you have the possibility, to add extra effects.

Do you already have any idea?

[macgirl]

I really don't know about the phase out problems. I gues using this for profesional work is not the best option.

As I said the first time I did it I didn't add the buses, and it worked, then when finally want to write the guide I found another guide that includes these buses and I gave a try, I hear some differences but don't know what is really happening.

[Johnnie Foxtrott]

Hi macgirl,

if I followed your tutorial but only see this:



This is my setup:




Maybe you know what I'm doing wrong? I have got the Audigy 2ZS.

EDIT: I lately recognized that I can't uninstall soundflower (EXC_BAD_INSTRUCTION (SIGILL)) - wtf?

[macgirl]

You need to select the sound card in order to the agregate device has outputs, see:
 Picture_7.jpg ( 71.02K ) Number of downloads: 256

[Johnnie Foxtrott]

Hm thx for the reply, but how can I get xcode without registering at apple? I didn't find it in my System lol

[tmongkol]

Thank you for your guideline, especially pictures.

[downlord]

Nice. Will try.

thank you

[dan0ne]

Works great with Audigy2 ZS! Thank you so much!!
Can it be that the sound is better than under Windows? I believe that it is clearer!
Here some Pics:

[kikko088]

hello at all, exucese me for my english i try to follow this thread but when i select Soundflower there isn't any sound, all mute.
I upload my configuration, there is some one that can help me?






I have an alc 882


kikko088

[Oxtie]

hmmm, Sound flower output starts distorting after few minutes for me, Is it happening with anyone with 10k2 chip??? I'm talking about listening to music continuously for 1 hour or more (ofcourse you will notice distortion a lot earlier).

closing and reopening AU Lab + .trak file solves it (more like reloading). Am i the only one with this?