I think I had that with a Delta66. As far as I can remember
this
was solved by using plughw: instead of hw:

Victor

>
> On Monday 01 May 2006 20:26, Tobiah wrote:
>
> > I have an SBLIVE, and a Delta44.  Csound writes realtime
> > through alsa just fine on the soundblaster device, but
> > when I try the Maudio Delta44, I get:
> >  *** Unable to set requested sample format on soundcard
> > Failed to initialise real time audio output
>
> What sample format did you use (-s for 16 bit integers, -l
> for 32 bit integers, or -f for 32 bit floats) ? Perhaps
> trying another format would fix the error. An alternate,
> even if possibly not optimal solution is using plughw:2,0
> instead of hw:2,0; the plughw devices can convert the
> sample format automatically to whatever is actually
> supported by the card. --
> Send bugs reports to this list.
> To unsubscribe, send email to
> csound-unsubscribe@lists.bath.ac.uk