volume controls change the wrong channel (accidentally?)

[forscher]

This bug hit gnome-media or / and alsa-base, I think....
alsa-base 1.0.20+dfsg-1ubuntu4
gnome-media 2.27.91-0ubuntu1

I have an "audiotrak prodigy 7.1" - VT1720/24 [Envy24PT/HT] PCI Multi-Channel Audio Controller / ICE1724 - multitrack.

SOUND PREFERENCES:

If I use the soundcard with the "analog stereo ouput" profile and change the main output volume, then sometimes the volume is not changed and instead the output balance is changed (to the right or to the left).

Then I changed the profile to "analog surround 5.1 output + analog stereo input" and the output sound device flipped form "VT1720.." to "internal audio analog stereo". That shouldn't happened.
So I turned it back to "VT1720.."

After that the sound is overmodulated / overdriven and it sounds like a bad e-guitar.

If I change the output volume, then maybe the volume is changed (i cannot hear it - only the loud bad sound) and the fade and the subwoofer slider changed. The fader shouldn't changed.

If the output volume increase, the application volume increase. This is the behaviour which I expect.
If the output volume decrease, the application volume decrease. This is the behaviour which I expect.
If the application volume decrease, the output volume decrease too. This is not the expected behaviour.

If I changed the fade to front (moving by mouse, not clicking), the balance changed to the right and the subwoofer decreased.
If I changed the fade to rear (moving by mouse, not clicking), there is no effect on balance and subwoofer, but there is also no change in the sound which I listened.
To set balance and fade in the middle I had to click in the middle (not moving by mouse).

Changing the subwoofer had an optical effect on the output volume, but neither the real volume had changed nor the subwoofer sound had changed.

ALSA MIXER (no External Amplifier):

Changing the Master changed the fade in sound preferences and the other way around.

ALSA MIXER (with External Amplifier):

Changing the Master changed the fade and the balance in sound preferences.
Changing the fade to front in sound preferences change the Master to low.
Changing the fade to rear in sound preferences sometimes change the Master to low, sometimes is reset to the middle...
Changing the balance to left or right in sound preferences changed sometimes the fade, sometimes not, but never changed anything else in the alsa mixer.
Changing the Master balance to the left, then the Master volume decrease.
Changing the Master balance to the right, the real sound turned to the right and the balance of sound preferences turns to the right too.
....

Which further information are needed?

[wavded (wavded)]

This bug if affecting me as well. Lots of overdrive happening on the sound..

[cccccccc (cccccccc)]

as well here. what the just happened to 5.1 surround in koala?
i have set up analog surround 5.1 output instead i have set up analog surround 5.1 output + Analog Stereo Input (I do not now the difference)
I see no gui for controling volume for each repro. all I can see is balance, fade and subwoofer (what the is fade?)
if I move subwoofer - total output volume is changing. Except that sound is lagging (stuttering) all the time at the right side. Central repro is instead of front left (yes, I have checked the wires).
Gosh guys, I'm really confused...

[cccccccc (cccccccc)]

In case, if somebody wants to fix this in the near future, I found also this interesting:
Having padevchooser installed and launched, chose "volume control" (using 5.1 of course), you can see in "output devices" gui to control each speaker (in fact I was searching for this). but last slider is "Low Frequency" which causes the problem, when this value is more than "Base" level.
By using multimedia keys on mouse or keyboard there should be no chance to change any from this value over "Base" (to "Max"). This causes effect of "overmodulated / overdriven and it sounds like a bad e-guitar" like Forscher mentioned.
Please fix this. Thanks.

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

@cccccccc
Have you tried enabling lfe remixing in /etc/pulse/daemon.conf?

[cccccccc (cccccccc)]

Hi,
yes, I have tryed, but still nothing (stuttering on whole right side o 5.1 & sound like bad e-guitar if slider is over "Base" value). If some screenshots can help you, or further explanation, let me know...

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

Is this with or without PULSE_NO_SIMD=1?

[cccccccc (cccccccc)]

I actually do now know what is it PULSE_NO_SIMD... I googled it, and found out its env variable? If correct, my system does not have it:
echo $PULSE_NO_SIMD
(nothing)
Should I set it when starting my user session or /etc/bash.bashrc?

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

Yes, please set it. Also note that this is a debugging measure and
will not fix your volume control affecting the wrong mixer element.

[cccccccc (cccccccc)]

I have tried this:

pulseaudio -k && PULSE_NO_SIMD=1 pulseaudio

and bad e-guitar effect dissappeard! (even if slides are over "Base" value on "Max")
But my stuttering effect increase to all 6 speakers (channels) like a virus now :0)

[cccccccc (cccccccc)]

debugging measure you say:)? do not understand it. but i found this out:

when sliders are set to "Base" level in volume control, only 2 right speakers stutter, but over value "Base" up all 6 stutter:(

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Thank you for reporting this bug to Ubuntu.
Ubuntu 9.10 (karmic) reached end-of-life on April 30, 2011.

See this document for currently supported Ubuntu releases:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases

Please upgrade to the latest version and re-test.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for pulseaudio (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]