Hi,
Alterface, my company, is a happy SDL and SDL mixer users for many years
now, and today I face a specific problem while testing a new
"professionnal grade" sound card, the m-audio Delta 1010.
We do a lot of 5.1 audio mixing and playback in our own realtime game
engine, using SDL and SDL mixer. So far we’ve worked with Creative Labs
Soundblaster 5.1 boards. We now intend to move to professional boards
featuring symmetric outputs (sym XLR or sym .25" jack) at +4dB level
(instead of the “public grade” asymmetric, -10dB signals you find on
typical mini-jack or cinch connectors).
We have received the m-audio delta 1010 board for testing from our audio
hardware supplier but I can’t get it to work with SDL mixer, not even
using the “waveout” audio driver, as soon as I try to initialize SDL
mixer for 6 channels output I get error messages (in both dsound or
waveout mode).
In stereo mode, things are better but still I can only get a proper
sound if I use the waveout driver, causing the well-known output delay.
Before going deeper with our testing, I would like to ask if anybody
knows if the m-audio delta 1010 is supported by SDL mixer or not.
Initially my understanding was that, under windows, SDL mixer was
relying on the “abstraction layer” DirectSound, to ensure that all audio
hardware correctly implementing DirectSound in its driver is usable. It
looks to be slightly more complex in practice… 
Finally, anybody round here already successfully using a pro audio board
(symmetric, +4dB) under windows with SDL mixer? If so, which one? We’re
looking for one with at least 6 outputs, that’s all…
Thanks in advance for any help, cheers,
Xavier–
Xavier Wielemans
Technical Support & Quality Control Manager
Alterface
Chemin des Etoiles 8
B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve
Belgium
e-mail: technical-support at alterface.com
tel: +32 10 22 40 16
mob: +32 472 98 56 97
fax: +32 10 48 00 69