PGA gain in supercollider

RafaeleAndrade

Good morning!

I’ve been delayed in installing the new image mostly because I had a lot of concerts, and I didn’t want to risk a full re-patching process, especially with the TrillCraft UGens, WiFi setup, and all the wiring on my instrument.

Now, though, I’ve finally tried the new image on a fresh micro USB card, but I’m running into issues using SuperCollider with the audio input channels. I always rely on the SoundIn UGen to capture the signals from my pickups—currently, I’m working with 9 inputs: 8 electromagnetic pickups (very low gain) plus one Arduino mic input (which is louder). When I run my simple code to listen to all these channels, I only get sound from channel 0 and 1. Even after modifying the server options (setting the input bus channels to 10 and output bus channels to 10), it still doesn’t work. I checked other patches, and they run fine, so it seems isolated to this one SuperCollider patch.
Do you have any idea what might have changed in the new image or if there’s something I missed in the configuration? Any advice would be super appreciated. Thanks so much!
Best,
Rafaele

giuliomoro

RafaeleAndrade I checked other patches, and they run fine, so it seems isolated to this one SuperCollider patch.

Do you mean that other supercollider patches can read channels beyond 2 through 9? Or that examples in other languages can ?

RafaeleAndrade

giuliomoro I tried the example patch from c++ of multichannel delay reading channel 3 instead of 2 for example. That didn't work as well.

What it works in other patches and projects is the output channel configuration. If I send a sinewave to 8 outputs channels for example, it works pretty fine.

giuliomoro

what's the revision of your Multi cape? A2 or A3 ?

RafaeleAndrade

giuliomoro I have revision A3

RafaeleAndrade

I wanted to give you an update on my testing. I wrote a simple C++ patch to check the MultiGem channels, but it didn't work in the new image builder from February or January. To double-check, I rolled back to my old November image,It works as expected: I can hear sounds from SoundIn.ar([2,3,4,5,6,7,8]). The channels from 2 to 8 respond fine, but when I try to adjust the gain in the old image, the behavior breaks down similarly to the new image as well.

Could we take a look together or see if something changed in the signal processing chain?
Let me know! Thanks so much.

giuliomoro

with that version of the board you need either a hw rework of the board or the following software patch:

echo "CPPFLAGS+=-DGEMMULTI_REVA3_NOREWORK" >> /root/Bela/CustomMakefileTop.in
touch /root/Bela/core/Gem_Multi_Codec.cpp /root/Bela/include/BelaContextManager.h
make -C /root/Bela lib

After this, try again and you should have all 10 input channels working - at the very least in C++/PureData and in the signal monitor.

RafaeleAndrade

Sorry Giulio , when I run this code on the ssh terminal, I get a different response than in the bela platform terminal, here is the print screen for you

giuliomoro

RafaeleAndrade

Running these 2 lines at the terminal doesn't solve the problem on my bela

giuliomoro

Run this program, look at the scope and look at the signal monitor:

#include <Bela.h>
#include <libraries/Scope/Scope.h>

Scope scope;

bool setup(BelaContext *context, void *userData)
{
	scope.setup(context->audioInChannels, context->audioSampleRate);
	return true;
}

void render(BelaContext *context, void *userData)
{
	for(unsigned int n = 0; n < context->audioFrames; ++n)
	{
		float vals[context->audioInChannels];
		for(unsigned int c = 0; c < context->audioInChannels; ++c)
			vals[c] = audioRead(context, n, c);
		scope.log(vals);
	}
}

void cleanup(BelaContext *context, void *userData)
{
}

RafaeleAndrade

giuliomoro I
get:

giuliomoro

It feels like you put some garbage in CustomMakefileTop.in. Do this:

echo "CPPFLAGS+=-DGEMMULTI_REVA3_NOREWORK" > /root/Bela/CustomMakefileTop.in
touch /root/Bela/core/Gem_Multi_Codec.cpp /root/Bela/include/BelaContextManager.h

RafaeleAndrade

giuliomoro running this code and rebooting doesnt give me any progress as well :/

giuliomoro

you should run the code one line at a time or put semicolons in between. Use the below (note the single >, which you didn't use in the latest screenshot )

echo "CPPFLAGS+=-DGEMMULTI_REVA3_NOREWORK" > /root/Bela/CustomMakefileTop.in;
touch /root/Bela/core/Gem_Multi_Codec.cpp /root/Bela/include/BelaContextManager.h;
make -C /root/Bela lib;

RafaeleAndrade

giuliomoro Running this code isn't making the channels from 2 to 8 be hearable but some different things happen on this visual monitor:

giuliomoro

Run my code, do the channels show up in the scope? By the way, are you plugging them into the jacks or straight into the pins?

RafaeleAndrade

giuliomoro I’ve been testing this configuration for the last few hours and I wanted to give you a detailed update, as I’ve realized something very specific is happening.
Initially, I thought it was a syntax problem in SuperCollider. When I ran a single channel (like Channel 8, the Arduino mic), it worked perfectly. However, as soon as I added more channels or tried to use multipliers, the output would immediately mute.
After further testing, I’ve discovered that this is likely a headroom/gain threshold issue in the new image. It seems the system is preventing me from setting any gain louder than -6dB (which is the 0.5 multiplier in SuperCollider). If I keep everything at or below 0.5, it works; if I go above that, it mutes.
I’m currently stuck because I need to be able to set a louder gain for my inputs, but the system is muting them as if they are hitting a hard limit. I would appreciate your guidance on how to resolve this—is there a setting in the new image I can adjust to regain that headroom?

P.S. I did try the latest code you sent me and it is currently running on my Bela, but it hasn't resolved this specific muting behavior.

RafaeleAndrade

giuliomoro I checked the SuperCollider console output, and it shows the ADC level is 0 dB and the DAC level is 0 dB. I also looked for the "ADC Level" adjustment in the Bela IDE Settings tab that we used to have, but it seems to be missing in this new image.

giuliomoro

While the program is running you can open the audio tab in the IDE to observe the audio inputs and adjust the input gain. Can you see reasonable input levels there and do they respond to changes in the input?

Also,

Run my code, do the channels show up in the scope? By the way, are you plugging them into the jacks or straight into the pins?

RafaeleAndrade

giuliomoro
I am not using the jacks or the pins, I made my own PCB.

Here is the code you asked:

RafaeleAndrade

giuliomoro

On this screenshot I have the levels at 0 dB. That prevents of some channels being muted in the beginning. Few things I notice:

Channel 0 and 1 can go up to 30dB, if doing so they will mute other channels if starting at 10dB
Channels 2,3,4,5,6,7 can go until 9 dB , if I place 10dB they get muted

I would like to have 8 channels (0 to 7) 15dB of gain on the start. Is that possible on the new bela?

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