volume control causes high pitched distortion

[Colin Kelly]

Binary package hint: gnome-media

Using either the panel volume control or the master volume slider in gnome-volume-control (see attached screen shot) there is a high pitched distortion when playing sound. This distortion seems to disappear at ~5% intervals along these 2 slider controls.

In the attached image, note that the 100% mark is only about 2/3rds up on the slider, this may be a significant part of the problem.

To reproduce the problem, the hardware tab setting must be in one of the 5.1 modes, the stereo modes don't seem to have this problem.

Also, individual application sliders do not seem to have this effect. If I tune the master volume to a point with no distortion I can manipulate the app specific volume controls and not introduce distortion.

maybe helpful info:
~$ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC888 Analog [ALC888 Analog]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 1: ALC888 Digital [ALC888 Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

~$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 9.10
Release: 9.10

~$ apt-cache policy gnome-media
gnome-media:
  Installed: 2.28.1-0ubuntu1
  Candidate: 2.28.1-0ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 2.28.1-0ubuntu1 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com karmic/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

[anttin (anttin-gmail)]

I have distortion in 5.1 modes after upgrading from 9.04 to 9.10. The volume slider has some effect on it, but it doesn't disappear fully unless I use stereo mode. It happens with both HDA ALC1200 Analog and Creative X-Fi.

[Greg Copenhaver (greg-gcopenhaver)]

I can confirm that I'm have the same distortion problem when I try the Analog Stereo 5.1 and 4.1 surround sound settings. I haven't been able to get it to go away completely when adjusting the settings and volume, but those adjustments do determine how bad it is.

When listening to music in Rhythmbox, It also sounds like the volume of the right speakers is fluctuating up and down about once per second or less, regardless of the codec (I tried mp3, flac, and wma).

When watching an HD video in Totem Movie Player, it sounds like the audio is switching back and forth between the left and right speakers or like an echo.

I haven't noticed any of these problems when it is set to Analog Stereo Duplex

I just upgraded to Karmic today.

My surround sound worked great in Jaunty. Now it's completely useless.

$ lspci | grep audio
00:04.0 Multimedia audio controller: nVidia Corporation CK804 AC'97 Audio Controller (rev a2)

$ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: CK804 [NVidia CK804], device 0: Intel ICH [NVidia CK804]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: CK804 [NVidia CK804], device 2: Intel ICH - IEC958 [NVidia CK804 - IEC958]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

[Fabio Albieri (chareos)]

Same exact problem.
Hope for a quick fix, my ubuntu box is purely a mediacenter...

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

See: PULSE_NO_SIMD=1

[Xelis (xelis)]

Everything different from Analog Stereo Duplex and Analog Stereo Output option in Pulseaudio settings affects my system too.
High-pitched and distorted sound effects coming from speakers or headphones, especially audible when I click on the top panel button (eg. console launcher icon, firefox launcher icon, etc.).

My config:
ALC888 (snd_hda_intel) and Karmic 64 bit with official repository kernel.

[JayK (jakres)]

I am experiencing the same kind of distortion, if I don't select Analog Stereo Output/Duplex. Updated to Karmic a few hours ago and in Jaunty it worked all fine.

Doing speaker-test -c6 -tsine the distortion affects the two right channels and the LFE cannel most, but the others aren't completely clean. There is also some kind of regular click noise during the high-pitched distortion.
speaker-test -c6 -tsine -Dsurround51 emits clean sound (actually, front right and also rear left are still *slightly* distorted, but its the same as with Analog Stereo)

$ lspci | grep audio
00:06.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs CA0106 Soundblaster

$ aplay -l
**** Liste von PLAYBACK Geräten ****
Karte 0: CA0106 [CA0106], Gerät 0: ca0106 [CA0106]
  Untergeordnete Geräte: 1/1
  Untergeordnetes Gerät '0: subdevice #0
Karte 0: CA0106 [CA0106], Gerät 1: ca0106 [CA0106]
  Untergeordnete Geräte: 1/1
  Untergeordnetes Gerät '0: subdevice #0
Karte 0: CA0106 [CA0106], Gerät 2: ca0106 [CA0106]
  Untergeordnete Geräte: 1/1
  Untergeordnetes Gerät '0: subdevice #0
Karte 0: CA0106 [CA0106], Gerät 3: ca0106 [CA0106]
  Untergeordnete Geräte: 1/1
  Untergeordnetes Gerät '0: subdevice #0

[JayK (jakres)]

Hmm, just changed sound with alsamixer -Dhw:0 Master slider a bit and now the distortion disappered... it's now as clean as with speaker-test -Dsurround51.

Somebody on ubuntuforums.org wrote that you can reproduce the distortion if you touch the fade or subwoofer slider on the output tab in the sound preferences dialogue. I confirm this behaviour. If I move the sliders back into their original position, the noise disappears again.

forum post: http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=8290572&postcount=13

[Adrian Wilkins (adrian-wilkins)]

I find that if you drop the levels in alsamixer below 100% that it removes the high-frequency distortion.

I found that if I selected 7.1 output this also didn't affect me.. but only having 5.1 outputs I was missing sounds when they walked into the side channels :-)

[juan081 (juan081)]

Ubuntu 10.04.
I have distortion in 5.1 modes after upgrading from 9.04 to 9.10. and now with 10.04. f It happens with both HDA ALC1200, when under the volume of any channel distortion appears in the other, also by changing the volume of lfe also amending the master-