[AppleALC] Combine multiple Line-Out into a single Multichannel output

[SkyrilHD]

Hey guys,

 

I built a Hackintosh with a Gigabyte B660 Gaming X board which has 8 channel outputs at the back. I created a layout-id (for the first time) and now I have 4 Line-Out in Audio-MIDI-Setup. I know macOS supports multi-channel in a single audio device (e.g. Blackhole, Loopback, Dolby Audio Bridge), but is there a way to do it in AppleALC? I know I could create an "Aggregate Device" but it is inconvenient (volume control does not work, etc.) and does not work very well if audio devices are being added or removed.

 

Do I have to change something inside PlatformXX.xml?

 

Here are some files which might help (If this is not enough, I could provide them):

codec_dump.txt

 

[SkyrilHD]

3 hours ago, Ana William said:

but it may require some configuration

Great, I wanted to know what I need to do to enable multi-channel audio.

 

3 hours ago, Ana William said:

you will need to make sure that your motherboard's audio codec is supported by AppleALC and that you have the latest version of the kext (kernel extension) installed.

Sorry, but this makes no sense. If you have read my post, you'd notice that a. my codec is already supported and b. I already created a layout-id which is also working. So, using the latest version of AppleALC does not help. The comment you made does not relate to any of my issues.

[Slice]

It is not possible with AppleALC. It is possible with VoodooHDA.

 

[Fortitude]

Hi @SkyrilHD,

Wow your CodecDump looks insane haha! (I’m coming from a laptop so mine’s not as crazy lol.)

I’m confused with your original post… You have 8 channel outputs, but 4 Line-Out in macOS? I’m assuming that they’re stereo.

 

What you’re trying to accomplish might actually in fact be possible as AppleHDA does have native multi-channel output support, but it appears to be mostly uncharted territory within HackintoshLand and might require some experimentation as there’s not really a guide for this currently. (This “multi-channel output aggregation patch” might help me out too with an issue that I’m facing on my system so I’m interested in taking a look at it with you to see what I can find.)

 

This person many years ago created a six channel aggregate output for their codec using SignalProcessing parameters within their layoutID file. I would advise you to take a look at this first for ideas.

 

I’m a little familiar with the SignalProcessing parameters as I’ve unraveled the ones for EQ, but nothing of this scale haha. Not sure which OS you have, but in macOS Big Sur version 11.5.2 (20G95), there are 49 DSPs available (I used Ida Pro to unravel these parameters):

Delay
GainStage
ClientGainAdjust
Equalization
Equalization32
FIREqualization
MultibandDRC
DynamicRange
StereoEnhancer
BassEnhancer
DCBlocker
Crossover2Way
Crossover2Dot1
Crossover2Dot2
NoiseCanceller
BeamFormer
2ChInput
3ChOutput
4ChOutput
6ChOutput
2To4Splitter
CalibrationEQ
Volume
Volume_4ch
Volume_3ch
Limiter
MultiBandCompressor
Loudness
StereoToMono
Virtualization
AudioMeter
2To6Splitter
PreGainStage
AutoGainControl
SplineLimiter
Sum
SplitBand
Beam2
MozartCompressor
MozartCompressorDualBand
BuzzKill
ControlFreak2ch
ControlFreak4ch
XTC_2chIn_2chOut
XTC_2chIn_4chOut
ThermalSpeakerProtection2ch
ThermalSpeakerProtection4ch
FIRdirect_2chIn_2chOut
FIRdirect_2chIn_4chOut

Take a look within the AppleHDA kext for your OS to see if you can find a layoutID file with a SignalProcessing function called DSP4ChOutput or similar. I’ll see if I can find it on my OS. We need to work out how the parameters work for this patch.

Edited December 24, 2022 by Fortitude

[ndungu6678]

deleted content

 

 

Edited December 24, 2022 by ndungu6678

[SkyrilHD]

8 hours ago, Slice said:

It is not possible with AppleALC. It is possible with VoodooHDA.

 

Yep, tried VoodooHDA on my second boot drive and it works. Sadly, I want to keep my SIP enabled (as I want to keep "Full Security"), so I might pass this one. Also my microphone does not work for some reason.

 

 

4 hours ago, Fortitude said:

I’m confused with your original post… You have 8 channel outputs, but 4 Line-Out in macOS? I’m assuming that they’re stereo.

Sorry, explained it very poorly. Basically I have 4 Output Jacks (per Jack with Stereo, so 8 channels in total).

 

4 hours ago, Fortitude said:

This person many years ago created a six channel aggregate output for their codec using SignalProcessing parameters within their layoutID file. I would advise you to take a look at this first for ideas.

I followed this guide (only the Platforms part) and now I have 8 channels working! (Also if I want to I can even select 2 channels only; A very nice feature) However this now raised another issue: The audio plays very weird as if the CPU is under load. (on 6 channels, I still have the same issue but it is a bit better) Sadly, changing the audio format in Audio-MIDI-Setup does not help.

 

 

 

EDIT: Forgot to tell more about my hardware:

Intel Core i5-12400F

AMD Radeon RX 6600XT (so I can't run anything lower than 12.1)

macOS Ventura 13.1

Edited December 24, 2022 by SkyrilHD