Audacity 1.2.4: recording from line in is distorted

[Gerhard Klünger]

Binary package hint: audacity

Ubuntu 6.10
Connected Sony MD Walkman with line out to line in of the sound card.
Started AudaCity, started recording with inpute-source line; started Walkman.

Recorded track sound like 1/4 speed or 2 oktaves deeper (estimated, cannot measure), distorted.
Timeline is synchronous with external watch: Displayed recording time in AudaCity fit to length of piece.

Saving the project and then listening again the track doesn't change anything.
Reboot of the system doesn't change anything.
Symptoms are reproducible.

With a windows installation and the same cabling all works fine.
Soundcard works fine with other mpegs or mp3.

Repeatedly checked all options, but couldn't find anything suspicious.

Gruß, Gerhard

[Gerhard Klünger (g-kluenger)]

As recommanded in https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+source/audacity/+bug/337 and
https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+source/audacity/+bug/47009
I performed a
killall esd
no change.

In Systems > Setting > Audio > Tab Devices for Audioconference Recording 'ALSA' is selected.
On the Sound-Tab Mixing of sounds with Software is unchecked.
On Tab Systembell bell is unchecked
No change at all.

Clicking on the microphone in Audacity even without recording results already in the distorted sound (2-3 octaves to deep sound), same is true when recording and playback.

Recording with Audio-Recorder 2.16.1 works fine. Saving the file as ogg and opening this file with Audacity shows a good and normal soundtrack.

If someone is interested I could attach here a sample-file.

[Gerhard Klünger (g-kluenger)]

Here are the values collected from https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+source/linux-source-2.6.17/+bug/42718/comments/11

For 2) I have no result - no idea how to perform or produce an amixer output (no instructions found how to do this) - BTW, I run the german versions of Ubuntu and Audacity.

Those are the results:

Mixers:
0: Analog Devices AD1980

3) lspci -nv
00:00.0 0600: 8086:2560 (rev 02)
        Subsystem: 1043:80b2
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
        Memory at f8000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=64M]
        Capabilities: <access denied>

00:01.0 0604: 8086:2561 (rev 02)
        Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 64
        Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=0
        I/O behind bridge: 0000d000-0000dfff
        Memory behind bridge: f3000000-f3dfffff
        Prefetchable memory behind bridge: f3f00000-f7ffffff

00:1d.0 0c03: 8086:24c2 (rev 02)
        Subsystem: 1043:8089
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 185
        I/O ports at b800 [size=32]

00:1d.1 0c03: 8086:24c4 (rev 02)
        Subsystem: 1043:8089
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 193
        I/O ports at b400 [size=32]

00:1d.2 0c03: 8086:24c7 (rev 02)
        Subsystem: 1043:8089
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 177
        I/O ports at b000 [size=32]

00:1d.7 0c03: 8086:24cd (rev 02) (prog-if 20)
        Subsystem: 1043:8089
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 201
        Memory at f2800000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1K]
        Capabilities: <access denied>

00:1e.0 0604: 8086:244e (rev 82)
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
        Bus: primary=00, secondary=02, subordinate=02, sec-latency=32
        I/O behind bridge: 0000a000-0000afff
        Memory behind bridge: f1800000-f27fffff
        Prefetchable memory behind bridge: f3e00000-f3efffff

00:1f.0 0601: 8086:24c0 (rev 02)
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0

00:1f.1 0101: 8086:24cb (rev 02) (prog-if 8a)
        Subsystem: 1043:8089
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 177
        I/O ports at <unassigned>
        I/O ports at <unassigned>
        I/O ports at <unassigned>
        I/O ports at <unassigned>
        I/O ports at f000 [size=16]
        Memory at 50000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1K]

00:1f.5 0401: 8086:24c5 (rev 02)
        Subsystem: 1043:80b0
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 217
        I/O ports at 9800 [size=256]
        I/O ports at 9400 [size=64]
        Memory at f1000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=512]
        Memory at f0800000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
        Capabilities: <access denied>

01:00.0 0300: 1002:5446
        Subsystem: 174b:7106
        Flags: bus master, stepping, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 185
        Memory at f4000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=64M]
        I/O ports at d800 [size=256]
        Memory at f3000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
        Expansion ROM at f3fe0000 [disabled] [size=128K]
        Capabilities: <access denied>

02:05.0 0200: 14e4:4401 (rev 01)
        Subsystem: 1043:80a8
...

[kjbull (eeck)]

if you disable "Play other tracks when recording new one" on the audio i/o tab of audacity preferences, then the pitch is not lowered. Is this bug somehow related to audacity auto-syncing multi-track recordings?

[kjbull (eeck)]

The Audacity 1.2.6 Release Notes (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/release-notes)
mention this problem in this sentence:
Linux: Recording in full duplex (playing existing tracks while recording) on some systems causes mono recordings to sound distorted or low-pitched. To work around this problem, set Audacity to record in stereo.
This workaround works for me.

[Gerhard Klünger (g-kluenger)]

Thanks for your reply.

Trying different settings I can now confirm that the crucial point is whether "Software Playthrough" is selected or not. When selected, sound is heavily distorted also in the saved file as reported above.
(In german: Bearbeiten > Einstellungen > Audio E/A "Software Playthrough (Neue Spuren während der Aufnahme mithören)".

It doesn't make any difference if mono or stereo recording is selected.

With this settings it is possible to listen the sound before and during recording. Only a faint 50Hz-buzz accompanies the recording.

Gruß, Gerhard

[Emmet Hikory (persia)]

I believe this to be fixed in audacity 1.2.6 (released in Ubuntu 7.04) with the migration to portaudiov19. Please reopen if you still experience slow recording with the updated audacity.