sound is distorted

[Miroslav Hadzhiev]

When you increase the volume to 60-70 % and above, there's a little sound distortion (it can be heard especially when human voice is being listened) and a lot sound distortion when the master volume is set to over 90 %.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 13.04
Package: pulseaudio 1:3.0-0ubuntu6
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.8.0-22.33-generic 3.8.11
Uname: Linux 3.8.0-22-generic i686
ApportVersion: 2.9.2-0ubuntu8
Architecture: i386
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: miroslav 1960 F.... pulseaudio
Date: Thu May 23 01:19:03 2013
InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-05-15 (7 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 13.04 "Raring Ringtail" - Release i386 (20130424)
MarkForUpload: True
PulseList:
 Error: command ['pacmd', 'list'] failed with exit code 1: Home directory not accessible: Permission denied
 No PulseAudio daemon running, or not running as session daemon.
SourcePackage: pulseaudio
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 07/11/2008
dmi.bios.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
dmi.bios.version: 68YAF Ver. F.1D
dmi.board.name: 309F
dmi.board.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
dmi.board.version: KBC Version 54.3D
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnHewlett-Packard:bvr68YAFVer.F.1D:bd07/11/2008:svnHewlett-Packard:pn:pvrF.1D:rvnHewlett-Packard:rn309F:rvrKBCVersion54.3D:cvnHewlett-Packard:ct10:cvr:
dmi.product.version: F.1D
dmi.sys.vendor: Hewlett-Packard

[Raymond (superquad-vortex2)]

 control.1 {
  iface MIXER
  name 'Master Playback Volume'
  value.0 49
  value.1 49
  comment {
   access 'read write'
   type INTEGER
   count 2
   range '0 - 63'
   dbmin -9150
   dbmax 300
   dbvalue.0 -1800
   dbvalue.1 -1800
  }
 }
L

[Raymond (superquad-vortex2)]

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Audio/UpgradingAlsa/DKMS

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PulseAudio/Log

[Miroslav Hadzhiev (xtigyro)]

The same problem under 12.04.

[Raymond (superquad-vortex2)]

do you mean sound is distorted when master playback volume is over 0dB ?

!!Amixer output
!!-------------

!!-------Mixer controls for card 0 [Intel]

Card hw:0 'Intel'/'HDA Intel at 0xf4700000 irq 46'
  Mixer name : 'Analog Devices AD1981'
  Components : 'HDA:11d41981,103c309f,00100200 HDA:14f12bfa,103c309f,00090000'
  Controls : 13
  Simple ctrls : 9
Simple mixer control 'Master',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 63
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 49 [78%] [-18.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 49 [78%] [-18.00dB] [on]

[Miroslav Hadzhiev (xtigyro)]

When is it over 0 dB? I set the sound volume only through the standard Ubuntu indicator and the built-in application sound indicator.

[Raymond (superquad-vortex2)]

Simple mixer control 'PCM',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 23 [74%] [0.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 23 [74%] [0.00dB] [on]

 control.3 {
  iface MIXER
  name 'PCM Playback Volume'
  value.0 23
  value.1 23
  comment {
   access 'read write'
   type INTEGER
   count 2
   range '0 - 31'
   dbmin -3450
   dbmax 1200
   dbvalue.0 0
   dbvalue.1 0
  }
 }

[Miroslav Hadzhiev (xtigyro)]

And what is this? Should I do anything? What are you trying to tell me? :)

[Miroslav Hadzhiev (xtigyro)]

Some log output which I got from:
"$ echo autospawn = no >> ~/.pulse/client.conf
$ pulseaudio -k
$ LANG=C timeout --foreground -k 10 -s kill 10 pulseaudio -vvvv 2>&1 | grep device.buffering -B 10
$ sed -i '$d' ~/.pulse/client.conf"

I: [pulseaudio] sink.c: alsa.long_card_name = "HDA Intel at 0xf4700000 irq 47"
I: [pulseaudio] sink.c: alsa.driver_name = "snd_hda_intel"
I: [pulseaudio] sink.c: device.bus_path = "pci-0000:00:1b.0"
I: [pulseaudio] sink.c: sysfs.path = "/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1b.0/sound/card0"
I: [pulseaudio] sink.c: device.bus = "pci"
I: [pulseaudio] sink.c: device.vendor.id = "8086"
I: [pulseaudio] sink.c: device.vendor.name = "Intel Corporation"
I: [pulseaudio] sink.c: device.product.name = "N10/ICH 7 Family High Definition Audio Controller"
I: [pulseaudio] sink.c: device.form_factor = "internal"
I: [pulseaudio] sink.c: device.string = "front:0"
I: [pulseaudio] sink.c: device.buffering.buffer_size = "65536"
I: [pulseaudio] sink.c: device.buffering.fragment_size = "32768"
--
I: [pulseaudio] source.c: alsa.long_card_name = "HDA Intel at 0xf4700000 irq 47"
I: [pulseaudio] source.c: alsa.driver_name = "snd_hda_intel"
I: [pulseaudio] source.c: device.bus_path = "pci-0000:00:1b.0"
I: [pulseaudio] source.c: sysfs.path = "/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1b.0/sound/card0"
I: [pulseaudio] source.c: device.bus = "pci"
I: [pulseaudio] source.c: device.vendor.id = "8086"
I: [pulseaudio] source.c: device.vendor.name = "Intel Corporation"
I: [pulseaudio] source.c: device.product.name = "N10/ICH 7 Family High Definition Audio Controller"
I: [pulseaudio] source.c: device.form_factor = "internal"
I: [pulseaudio] source.c: device.string = "front:0"
I: [pulseaudio] source.c: device.buffering.buffer_size = "65536"
I: [pulseaudio] source.c: device.buffering.fragment_size = "32768"

[Miroslav Hadzhiev (xtigyro)]

And I also tried this:

" Open a terminal, then enter these commands:

echo autospawn = no >> ~/.pulse/client.conf
killall pulseaudio
LANG=C pulseaudio -vvvv --log-time=1 > ~/pulseverbose.log 2>&1"

The log file is attached.

[Miroslav Hadzhiev (xtigyro)]

Yes, I'm using 12.04 x86, but the bug is absolutely the same no matter whether Ubuntu 13.04 or 12.04 is used.

[Miroslav Hadzhiev (xtigyro)]

And the problem is actually there is high pitched noise .

I'll attach the "ubuntu-bug" report on my Ubuntu 12.04 LTS.

[Miroslav Hadzhiev (xtigyro)]

Here it is:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pulseaudio/+bug/1199274

[Miroslav Hadzhiev (xtigyro)]

I've tried this with NO effect:

" down vote

Try sed 's/; default-sample-rate = 44100/default-sample-rate = 96000/g' -i /etc/pulse/daemon.conf

That and sudo gedit /etc/pulse/default.pa and adding tsched=0 to load-module module-udev-detect so it becomes load-module module-udev-detect tsched=0 solved the issue for me.

For reference, the commands were put to my attention at https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/PulseAudio#Glitches.2C_skips_or_crackling."

from here: http://askubuntu.com/questions/191403/sometimes-strange-audio-distortionpeeping-scratching-ubuntu-12-04

[Raymond (superquad-vortex2)]

open a terminal and run "alsamixer -c0"

change the volume slider in sound preference and watch the changes in alsamixer

[Miroslav Hadzhiev (xtigyro)]

I increased the volume step by step.

These are the screenshots so you can see by yourself what's going on.

[Miroslav Hadzhiev (xtigyro)]

the next image

[Miroslav Hadzhiev (xtigyro)]

the next image

[Miroslav Hadzhiev (xtigyro)]

the next image

[Miroslav Hadzhiev (xtigyro)]

the next image

[Miroslav Hadzhiev (xtigyro)]

the next image

[Miroslav Hadzhiev (xtigyro)]

the next image

[Miroslav Hadzhiev (xtigyro)]

the next image

[Miroslav Hadzhiev (xtigyro)]

The master volume at 100 %

[Miroslav Hadzhiev (xtigyro)]

The PCM volume at 100 %

[Miroslav Hadzhiev (xtigyro)]

So in order both - the master and the PCM volume - not to set the dB gain over 0 dB, the master has to be max at 89 %, and the PCM volume has to be max at 56 %.

[Miroslav Hadzhiev (xtigyro)]

However, under Windows 7 the sound is much louder when the volume indicator is at 100 % and there is no distortion.

[Miroslav Hadzhiev (xtigyro)]

I can confirm that the bug exists under 13.10 "Saucy Salamander".

[Raymond (superquad-vortex2)]

http://cgit.freedesktop.org/pulseaudio/pulseaudio/plain/src/tests/volume-test.c

[Miroslav Hadzhiev (xtigyro)]

what is it? :))

[Miroslav Hadzhiev (xtigyro)]

Could you be more talkative because I don't have much time and as far as our communication goes it is not obvious often what do you want me to do :)

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Thank you for reporting this bug to Ubuntu.
Ubuntu 13.04 (raring) reached end-of-life on January 27, 2014.

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

We appreciate that this bug may be old and you might not be interested in discussing it any more. But if you are then please upgrade to the latest Ubuntu version and re-test.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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