Dual Volume Control

[Kartman]

Hi,

I have speakers in my yard plus a (or is that an?) FM transmitter. Around 9am I turn the volume down which also turns the volume down on the FM transmitter.

Is there a way to just reduce the volume just on the speakers, ie can I run 2 sound blasters and just mute one, or maybe use the GPIO pins to do it?

 

[Notenoughlights]

You could just use a headphone splitter on the output of the usb sound card assuming you're going through an amplifier for your speakers and turn the amplifier down. I think the volume slider on the web interface is a master for all volume.

 

[Mark_M]

From the FPP Facebook group earlier in the year:

I'm looking for a way to add a volume control to FPP for some outdoor speakers but I also have an FM transmitter which needs a constant level set.

If you google "asoundrc split to two audio outputs at the same time" you might be able to use one of the examples to setup a /root/.asoundrc file which will duplicate the output on both the onboard audio and an external device such as a soundblaster. This may provide you with two volume controls and you could use a pair of scripts tied to GPIO inputs to use the 'amixer' command to turn the volume up/down on the desired output.

Sounds like you want some form of network preamp.
Alternatively, you might be able to pick up a second hand Yamaha, Onkyo or Denon or similar receiver (as people upgrade) which have either ethernet or rs232 control.

Chris P's idea is for two sound devices.... and it sounds complicated.

 

[Skymaster]

Who would suggest such a thing as a network preamp
I use a hardware audio compressor- my speakers are set with minimal compression to round off the huge peaks, but the transmitter is set with relatively hard compression. This keeps the level relatively flat for the transmitter, irrespective of the input.
As such, i can ramp the FPP level up and down within reason, and it only has a minimal impact on the broadcast level.

 

[Kartman]

Who would suggest such a thing as a network preamp
I use a hardware audio compressor- my speakers are set with minimal compression to round off the huge peaks, but the transmitter is set with relatively hard compression. This keeps the level relatively flat for the transmitter, irrespective of the input.
As such, i can ramp the FPP level up and down within reason, and it only has a minimal impact on the broadcast level.

That sounds like a good solution, if I had a clue what you meant, he he he.

 

[foodi]

i have a seperate am/fm amp radio and speakers in the front yard so i can turn up and volume with touching transmitter volume

 

[Croydon Lights]

if you have two PI, master and player with both the media down loaded to them and connect the player to the speakers and the master to the FM transmitter and set the player to a lower volume after a set time would that work
I ask this a I am planneing a new display sigh with P5 panels and thought I could also run some speakers of the PI running my color light card

 

[djgra79]

i have a seperate am/fm amp radio and speakers in the front yard so i can turn up and volume with touching transmitter volume

I'm pretty much the same. Pi audio goes to transmitter, I then have an old hifi stereo in the garage that is tuned to the transmitter, and that has a speaker in the yard, so I can adjust the yard speaker volume seperate to what is being transmitted. If I adjust the audio on FPP, it will impact the transmition, and therefore also the speaker.

 

[Mark_M]

I'm pretty much the same. Pi audio goes to transmitter, I then have an old hifi stereo in the garage that is tuned to the transmitter, and that has a speaker in the yard, so I can adjust the yard speaker volume seperate to what is being transmitted. If I adjust the audio on FPP, it will impact the transmition, and therefore also the speaker.

i have a seperate am/fm amp radio and speakers in the front yard so i can turn up and volume with touching transmitter volume

Same for my display, but issue is changing the volume of the stereo through FPP or some other network device.
Past few years I have used an IR to RF thing for the stereo remote control. That works fine but I would find it more convenient to control the stereo on FPP dashboard.
That's the issue Kartman has got... a stereo without an interface for external control isn't going to lower it's volume automatically without human intervention.

It seems to be only two options known to solve this issue;

• Two sound outputs and each can be controlled individually.
• The speakers amplifier can have external control commands sent from FPP (RS232, IP, IR, etc).

Something like an ESP8266 could be made to send an IR command to the stereo (imitating the IR remote) and FPP tells the ESP8266 when to send each signal.
I experimented with that in Home Assistant this year and sadly had issues getting it to work properly.

 

[Kent]

I'm using a motherboard that has the 6x 3.5mm jacks for 5.1 analogue output. I have the front stereo audio duplicated to the rear, with the FM transmitter connected to the front and amp connected to the rear. The intention was to use xSchedule to control the volume of the rear channels whilst leaving the front at a constant volume. Never got around to automating the adjustment of the rear channels - something for next year I guess

 

[Skymaster]

if you have two PI, master and player with both the media down loaded to them and connect the player to the speakers and the master to the FM transmitter and set the player to a lower volume after a set time would that work
I ask this a I am planneing a new display sigh with P5 panels and thought I could also run some speakers of the PI running my color light card

Gotta be careful doing this. Audio on remotes is not great. I think posted this on Facebook in regards to it:

Remote audio may be problematic. If the audio falls out of time (and it will, due to slight differences in each instance of FPP), then a sync packet from the master will pull it back in time. This causes the audio to skiop, creating this static/jittery sound. Now, as you edgy the Pi using the onboard sound doesn't seem to do this, you may find that it just happens to be running at almost the exact same speed as the master, so the jitter is much less noticeable. Differences in the way the audio is processed by each sound driver can cause these millisecond differences. Because if this, it's generally not recommended to run audio from your remote FPP instances. Transmit on FM from your primary player and use an analog FM receiver at the far end if required.