high-pitch crackling background noise when recording from microphone

[Stephan Hilb]

Information from alsa-info.sh:
http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=1fc85694ab880ed02d31bc535a2555082b6c006b

As noted in the summary, there is a high-pitch crackling background noise in recorded audio from a microphone connected to card0 (see information above).

I noticed this as a regression from Ubuntu Karmic, where the noise was not present.
In Ubuntu Lucid the following lines appeared in dmesg, that didn't appear in Karmic:

[ 16.380304] hda_intel: position_fix set to 1 for device 1458:a022
[ 29.837134] hda-intel: IRQ timing workaround is activated for card #0. Suggest a bigger bdl_pos_adj.

Trying various module-options I added the following line to /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf, which would make the lines above disappear in dmesg and resolve the crackling noise in recorded audio:

options snd-hda-intel position_fix=2 bdl_pos_adj=-1

I think the problem is a wrong default option set by alsa.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: alsa-base 1.0.22.1+dfsg-0ubuntu3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-22.36-generic 2.6.32.11+drm33.2
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-22-generic x86_64
AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.21.
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: stev47 1711 F.... pulseaudio
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'Intel'/'HDA Intel at 0xe8300000 irq 22'
   Mixer name : 'Realtek ALC889A'
   Components : 'HDA:10ec0885,1458a002,00100101'
   Controls : 40
   Simple ctrls : 22
Card1.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:1 'HDMI'/'HDA ATI HDMI at 0xe5010000 irq 17'
   Mixer name : 'ATI R6xx HDMI'
   Components : 'HDA:1002aa01,00aa0100,00100100'
   Controls : 4
   Simple ctrls : 1
Card1.Amixer.values:
 Simple mixer control 'IEC958',0
   Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined penum
   Playback channels: Mono
   Mono: Playback [off]
CurrentDmesg:
 [ 25.607586] ppdev: user-space parallel port driver
 [ 28.003777] hda-intel: IRQ timing workaround is activated for card #1. Suggest a bigger bdl_pos_adj.
 [ 29.837134] hda-intel: IRQ timing workaround is activated for card #0. Suggest a bigger bdl_pos_adj.
 [ 35.510107] eth1: no IPv6 routers present
Date: Sat Jun 19 13:38:38 2010
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release amd64 (20100429)
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=de_DE.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: alsa-driver
dmi.bios.date: 03/06/2008
dmi.bios.vendor: Award Software International, Inc.
dmi.bios.version: F5
dmi.board.name: X48-DS5
dmi.board.vendor: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
dmi.board.version: x.x
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAwardSoftwareInternational,Inc.:bvrF5:bd03/06/2008:svnGigabyteTechnologyCo.,Ltd.:pnX48-DS5:pvr:rvnGigabyteTechnologyCo.,Ltd.:rnX48-DS5:rvrx.x:cvnGigabyteTechnologyCo.,Ltd.:ct3:cvr:
dmi.product.name: X48-DS5
dmi.sys.vendor: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Pushkin (kovshovik-alexandr)]

The fix suggested by Stephan Hilb worked on my system.

After I've added "options snd-hda-intel position_fix=2 bdl_pos_adj=-1" to the end of /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf - the noise is gone.

I have Realtek ALC892, which came with ASUS motherboard.

[Devang Vyas (ddevangvyas)]

Hi,

I am still facing the crack noise issue in my recorded sample.
I am using Ubuntu 18.04.1 with latest stable kernel i.e. 4.18.12

I am using arecord utility to record my audio and then playing the .wav file with aplay.

I tried the suggestions which have been provided earlier in this post, but nothing seems to be working for me.
My board has ALC662 chip interfaced and using AMD processor.
Could you please help how can we get rid of this crack noise issue?

Thanks & Regards,
Devang Vyas