How to create a surround setup by combining different speakers GUIDE

Howdy y'all!

I've used Linux quite a fair bit for my homelab, but recently I decided to embark my main desktop on the open-source train. With this change, I also needed to migrate my audio solution over to Linux.

I'm currently using Yamaha HS8's through a Behringer audio interface as my front channels, and a Logitech 5.1 Surround setup as my Centre/LFE, Sides and Rears. I achieved this using Voicemeeter on Windows, but as you may know, this doesn't quite exist on Linux. Pulsemeeter has nowhere near this capability either.

After hours of playing around and many re-installs of the entire audio system, I finally found a way to get it working! I'd figured I'd share just in case someone else out there would like to create a full surround setup using whatever speakers they may have lying around. I tried finding any guides online that could potentially detail how to do this, but to no avail. So here it goes!

PLEASE NOTE, THIS GUIDE WAS WRITTEN FOR MANJARO INITIALLY BUT SHOULD BE APPLICABLE TO MOST DISTROS

This guide is also done mostly by walking back through the steps I took, so if anything is missing, please let me know!

Here's a screenshot of my prior audio settings!

https://preview.redd.it/eox4dwikwoze1.png?width=1647&format=png&auto=webp&s=680ea82dfdde999faf78c78eac6b8630850e436b

(https://preview.redd.it/how-to-create-a-surround-setup-by-combining-different-v0-oj51bvf3soze1.png?width=1647&format=png&auto=webp&s=19b72b09a3cc26c0a5258843b4debaec14cdd552)

The goal is to combine the "Line Out" audio output (Which has my Centre/LFE, sides and rear channels) and the "UMC404 192k" audio output (Which has my front channels)

PREREQUISITES

ALL OF THIS IS IN TERMS OF A GUI, AS APPLICATIONS WILL BE RUN.

You can look up the CLI commands to do everything, but I'm incredibly lazy :)

This solution uses PulseAudio to combine simultaneous outputs, and to remap the channels according to what speakers you have plugged in. You will need PulseAudio and ALSA capabilities. These are available through the package manager, or you can install this using the terminal with whatever package manager your Distro ships with.

pulseaudio
pulseaudio-alsa
pavucontrol
hdajackrestask
pipewire-server (If your distro comes with pipewire by default, most do. This just handles the preference of pulse audio in the case of Manjaro)
Some speakers (hopefully)

If your distro comes with pipewire, you'll need to disable pipewire entirely. This is due to the case of either Pulse or Pipewire becoming suspended, neither will be able to wake up and you will lose audio.

RE-ASSIGNING THE AUDIO JACKS

The first step will be to re-assign the audio jacks on the motherboard accordingly. This is where hdajackrestask comes in

https://preview.redd.it/je9lkm3nwoze1.png?width=618&format=png&auto=webp&s=c483a4dd0098d9bf3e120b0b036a374bd8f826d1

(https://preview.redd.it/how-to-create-a-surround-setup-by-combining-different-v0-y75puvy8roze1.png?width=618&format=png&auto=webp&s=c6c78d97a607220aac208ace5974923ce35ec76b)

Using hdajackretask, I was able to shift around what outputs on the back of my motherboard were for what channel. Since my studio monitors are my front channels, the "fronts" that came with my Logitech 5.1 setup are plugged in as side channels to create a full 7.1

So, I assigned the "Blue Line In" to be the side channel, the "Orange" to still be the Centre/LFE (Just to confirm that this was assigned correctly, orange is usually this by default) and Black to be the rear channels or "Back".

hdajackrestask won't let you apply this unless it detects a front channel. In this example, I just set the "Green Line In" to be the front channel, but I only have a dummy 3.5mm cable plugged into it with nothing attached. (This is because Windows Jack auto-detection destroyed my 7.1 setup at some point, you probably don't need a dummy plug for Linux)

The "Apply Now" button never worked for me, but please try that first. "Install boot override" will be the last button you

press, and upon restarting, you should now be able to select the "7.1" option in the audio settings for that line out device.

SCREENSHOT BEFORE RETASKING:

https://preview.redd.it/321izs3owoze1.png?width=215&format=png&auto=webp&s=cdd1b3ad3a5e7a1649daffd69e8c88cab6083c36

(https://preview.redd.it/how-to-create-a-surround-setup-by-combining-different-v0-2ambt9zjsoze1.png?width=215&format=png&auto=webp&s=dacd3ac987d13da6c6c0f90751ee5a5422ab1a41)

SCREENSHOT AFTER RETASKING:|

https://preview.redd.it/hf8tiyxowoze1.png?width=212&format=png&auto=webp&s=1e5078eaa701f12e6adb9741d04c075dd868a63e

(https://preview.redd.it/how-to-create-a-surround-setup-by-combining-different-v0-79c6d8vmsoze1.png?width=212&format=png&auto=webp&s=4fc268dd273b2489b6c74c58b37d6680c7b2194f)

Once you've selected the 7.1 Output option, we will need to enable simultaneous outputs via Pulse. This is where you will use "pavucontrol".

Open PulseAudio Preferences, and click the "Simultaneous Output" tab. Ticking "Add virtual output device for simultaneous output on all local sound cards" will allow us to later combine the two different outputs.

https://preview.redd.it/jvyk1zzpwoze1.png?width=631&format=png&auto=webp&s=0cd6de1bb4ec0a779d5821707b7d6eca94eac264

(https://preview.redd.it/how-to-create-a-surround-setup-by-combining-different-v0-3ncuk2a1toze1.png?width=631&format=png&auto=webp&s=32c48a3aedeff89d5bcddb3aed5cbdbc8ac9446e)

Now, we will need to do some terminal magic.

We will now combine the two audio outputs using "pacmd". One of the devices will be the master of the combination and the other will be a slave device.

Obviously my audio interface was stereo and my Logitech device was surround. If I set one or the other as the master, it would always default to which device has the least amount of channels. In this case, my audio interface is only capable of stereo, so the combination would only output stereo.

Pulse will only output whatever the lowest audio device in the combination is capable of (This also applies to sample rate and bit-depth, so please be mindful if you are using differing audio interfaces that they are capable of the same sample rate. It's ideal to leave these at 44100 or 44800)

To counter this, we will need to remap the stereo source as 7.1, so it is treated as a 7.1 device. Obviously, sound will only come out of the two speakers and no other channels can be heard because my audio interface doesn't have the 6 other channels plugged in.

First, we will need to find the name of the "sink". This is what Pulse calls the audio devices. Use the follow command to list the sinks:

pacmd list-sinks | grep name:

This will output something similar to this:

https://preview.redd.it/0tbp2q5rwoze1.png?width=780&format=png&auto=webp&s=13edfae19863b7721466405f84c82c5e75b4b4c9

(https://preview.redd.it/how-to-create-a-surround-setup-by-combining-different-v0-ccova9g1uoze1.png?width=780&format=png&auto=webp&s=aea0650a33c110898c47f634eca8f738a8d607fe)

In this case, I want "alsa_output.usb-BEHRINGER_UMC404_192k-00.analog-surround-40" to be seen as a 7.1 device, rather than just stereo.

Using this command, we are able to tell Pulse that my Behringer interface is a "7.1" device.

pacmd load-module module-remap-sink sink_name=remap71 master=alsa_output.usb-BEHRINGER_UMC404_192k-00.analog-surround-40 channels=8 channel_map=front-left,front-right,rear-left,rear-right,front-center,lfe,side-left,side-right master_channel_map=front-left,front-right,rear-left,rear-right,front-center,lfe,side-left,side-right remix=yes

This will add 8 channels and re-map the channels to include FL, FR, CE/LFE, RL RR, SR and SL. This remapped audio output will be labelled as the "remap71" sink.

Remix is used to upmix stereo sources into 7.1. This doesn't work in the traditional sense of upmixing, as the channels are still separated based on audio source. So if you are listening to 5.1 audio, it will correctly use the 5.1 channels, but if you are just listening to stereo, this will be upmixed to 7.1 as required.

Now that my audio interface is seen as

a "7.1" device labelled "remap71", we can combine this with the Logitech audio output to mesh the two together (with no latency!)

Use the following command to create a new audio output named "SurroundCombine" and a corresponding sink called "SurroundComb"

pacmd load-module module-combine-sink sink_name=SurroundComb sink_properties=device.denoscription=SurroundCombine slaves=alsa_output.pci-0000_0c_00.4.analog-surround-71,remap71 channels=8 remix=yes

No remapping required, as we previously setup both audio outputs to display as 7.1!

Now set this as the default sink, and you should now have full 7.1 audio with two separate audio devices!

pacmd set-default-sink SurroundComb

And there you have it! You should be able to test your audio and have the speakers correspond correctly. I've tested this with a few different audio devices plugged in and as long as the audio device itself can decode what it needs to (in this case, my audio interface knows it has stereo speakers and my motherboard itself can handle 7.1 audio), this should hopefully work across a range of combinations!

Now, this will wipe the next time you restart your device, as Pulse sets defaults each time your device is reset. You can set this back up again by just re-entering the commands into terminal. Or, in theory, if you comment out the following line from /etc/pulse/default.pa

load-module module-default-device-restore

Then this shouldn't reload by default. Unfortunately, this doesn't work for myself but it does work for some people. I'm currently working on a bash noscript to run on startup to re-create this surround setup, but Pulse isn't playing nice. I might update this thread with the noscript if I do get it working though!

Hope this helps someone out and saves them a bunch of time, it took me AGES to figure this out. Thanks to the Linux community for providing answers on various forums on what commands to use for what! Here's some sources I used:

https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/748775/front-center-mapped-as-lfe-lfe-as-front-center-on-my-5-1-debian-12

https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/396185/pulseaudio-use-both-hdmi-stereo-and-5-1-simultaneously

https://forum.manjaro.org/t/how-to-enable-analog-surround-sound/42704/8

https://www.reddit.com/r/linuxquestions/comments/6gnuo0/how\_do\_i\_remap\_the\_sound\_channels\_71\_surround\_in/

Thank you! If I've missed anything, please let me know!

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