I use Skype periodically for phone calls from my PC. I also enjoy listening to music while I work. My main workstation is a Dell Dimension E520 – Running Kubuntu 8.04. So, on the box, I have 2 front connections to the sound card, a headphone jack and a microphone jack. Using my headset which splits the 2 out, it’s very handy for connecting. Trouble is I’m constantly unplugging the headphone jack to utilize the normal speaker set I have on my desk. What I’d love to do is direct regular audio output (ie, Music, System notifications, etc) through the rear connection, and have the Skype audio directed through the front headphone connection. This would allow me to listen to music, and when I saw a Skype notification arise, I could just pick up the headset and go, rather than fumble with the headphone connection.
Putting this post up on the ‘tubes to see if anyone has found a solution for this sort of setup.
July 17th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
My sound is onboard and uses Realtek drivers, and it has an option to make front and rear output devices playback two different audio streams simultaneously. Kubuntu probably has a similar feature to vista that allows you to have per process volume controls as well. So you could turn skype all the way down in your speaker stream but up on your headset stream.
July 17th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
Yeah, the soundcard is from Intel, not sure if it’s based on a Realtek chipset or not. For some reason, I’m thinking it may be a hardware switch, as turning up all channels wheil playing music, only allows one connection to be in use.
I may look into a USB headset, as it would run completely separate from the soundcard. Per process volume controls seems like a pretty cool idea.
July 17th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
Funny, I just came back to suggest getting a usb headset and saw your response.
Side note our team uses oovoo now instead of skype because it supports multiple webcams in a multiuser call.
July 17th, 2008 at 11:24 pm
Grabbed a Logitech USB headset. Works like a charm. No more messing with the plugs *whew*
I’ll have to check out oovoo. We haven’t done anything with webcams yet, not sure if we will.