Even after updating I do not have a headphone volume control in die ALSA mixer. I looked into the mixer settings within the webconf and there is also no option regarding headphone volume control available.
Webconf doesn’t show the headphones controller and that is OK.
It should appear on UI’s when enabled. That’s all.
Regards,
OK! I found the problem. Please update and test …
Now it should work for Buster RC-2 and later SD-images, all zynthian kits with RBPi3 & RBPi4.
Regards!
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I just updated and tested. Works like a charm on a V3 kit. Parameter shows up in the mixer and controls work as well. Nice addition!
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Yep! Headphones is good now. I would suggest that headphones are enabled by default on the stable build so that users with standard V4 kits will get expected behaviour. I would also suggest the option to disable be pushed down the admin menu. This does not seem like an option that is likely to be toggled often.
Note to users: Enabling headphones does increase CPU usage by a few percent. There may be use cases where this pushes you beyond the limit and causes xruns (clicks on all outputs). You may wish to disable headphones for such cases.
Note to technically minded users. The reason for the increase in CPU is that jack2 (the audio interface layer) binds to one physical audio interface and clocks at that interface’s samplerate. Any other audio interfaces will use their own hardware clocks which may drift hence there needs to be samplerate conversion (even at same samplerate) between jack2 and the extra audio interfaces. (There are ways to lock some (professional) audio interfaces, e.g. word clock but that does not exist for the RPi builtin audio interface used for headphones or most of the audio interfaces used by Zynthian for main output.)
There you go - more than you wanted to know but hopefully useful stuff.
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Hi @riban!
I just added the “-q 0” to the “alsa_out” command, as you suggested, and it works OK. I can’t feel the difference and CPU usage was reduced by a 3%. Nice!!
Regarding the “default” for Headphones, i’m not convinced of enabling by default…
- The Zynthian’s headphones output is low quality. I’ve implemented the software part because we already had the hardware and it can be convenient, but … it should be avoided when possible. I mean, if you connect your zynthian to a Mixer/Amplfier that already have a Headphones output, then you should connect the Headphones to them and not use the zynthian’s low quality headphone output. In other words, zynthian’s headphones output can be used occasionally, but nobody should be using it as the main output. I hope that having disabled the headphones output by default will force new users to be more conscious of these facts and avoid missuse/abuse of this headphones output.
- I don’t like the idea of wasting “by default” a 3% of CPU (1 core) on a feature that should be used occasionally only.
So, i rather prefer to put the “enable/disable Headphones” as the first option on the Admin menu, and keep it disabled by default. Anyway, zynthian will remember the status among reboots, so if you enable the Headphones output, it will remain enabled until you explicitly disable it.
Regards,
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Perhaps it’s viewed best as a test resource. The next stage up from our fine Cuban fellow. It does at least confirm jack is alive and well, and there are situations where quickly proving a signal chain & proper jack implementation really helps fault find at speed. I will be putting a 3.5mm jacked headphone in my wire case for just such a scenario. I’ve been using the Yeti’s audio out which requires the yeti!
We could probably have a look at using headphone out as CV clock or something, now we know what we’re doing.
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This was my initial thought, as you can read on v2 & v3 aluminum cases 
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If you add a “heaphone CV clock”, I vote for a “Korg Volca-compatible” mode too! (Which is just /2, so if the clock module included clock division, it would already have it by magic.)
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Hey everyone ! I want to use headphones output occasionally but I don’t find the way to activate it.
Nothing appears in the admin menu ui, alsa mixer ui and webconf.
I use RC2 and i just update it.
Edit : Solved ! I forgot to reboot the zynthian, my mistake.
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I’m having an issue with the headphone volume controls no longer showing up in the ALSA Mixer (this used to work).
UI log shows:
ERROR:zynthian_engine_mixer.get_controllers_dict: Can’t configure headphones volume control: Headphones volume control not found!
- Headphones are enabled in Admin and I can hear sound, so they work.
- System is up to date:
Kit: V4
Display: ZynScreen 3.5 (v1)
Soundcard: HifiBerry DAC+ ADC PRO
Wiring Layout: MCP23017_ZynScreen
zynthian-ui: master (2ea964)
zynthian-webconf: master (d25055)
zyncoder: master (d706b1)
zynthian-sys: master (a06533)
zynthian-data: master (74ceb3)
Any ideas what may be the issue?
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Please, open an issue on the tracker:
BTW, I also noted this “regression” yesterday …
Thanks!
I just commited a little fix that fixed the problem for me. Please, update and test … but disable and enable again the headphones.
Thanks!
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after updating, and toggling the headphone setting in Admin the headphone volume control reappeared in the ALSA Mixer. It works again. Thank you!
Thank God I read this topic! I have my 4.1 kit for 5 days now and for the first days I ONLY played with headphones. I wasn’t overwhelmed by the audio quality and not at all by the noticeable latency. Playing over my trusty old Genelecs made me happy again. (Very 
)
BUT: a high quality headphone out would be great. I understand that the unsoldered headphone out of the Hifiberry isn’t an output at all? Maybe I’ll take courage and drill some extra holes in the case and put in an extra little headphone amp on 5VDC and take the signal from the output jacks. Might be feasible?
Something to consider: design a Zynthian “pro” case with XLR/combo inputs with switchable bias and a good headphone out with dedicated (analog) volume pot. I would spend the few extra bucks easily for that. Maybe I’ll make it myself one day.
I think that the 3.65mm stereo jack just isn’t soldered at all (J2), but otherwise everything is there for that.
[Edit] => this 3.65mm jack is for Line In, you’re right
?/?
@wyleu the wifiberry can deliver 48V phantom power to the balanced output to connect electret & condensor mikes I read in the specs, via jumpers. A jumper could be replaced by a switch. Combined with a combo/xlr connector you could connect instruments, dynamic & condensor mikes because the ADC has a very broad range of input sensitivity. Wouldn’t that be nice?
Furthermore: I dug somewhat deeper into the hifiberry site and discovered they provide for some IO boards with headphone out, balanced jacks & also XLR with phantom power. I sure would like to use one of them in my Zynthian! They are only OEM, not available to end customers.