Sound is distorted sometimes

[kolya]

Binary package hint: pulseaudio

  When I'm listening to rythmbox sometimes sound becomes distorted. Sometimes it is distorted when I unpause playback, but if I pause and unpause once more it becomes fine again.

  I found pretty good way to reproduce though:
1) Have rythmbox playing.
2) Open video file in totem
3) Close totem
4) repeat 2-3

  Always, when totem opens/closes I hear a small dropout in music. But sometimes along with dropout distortion begins. And distortion finishes when I open/close totem again. I.e. I open totem - just dropout, I close totem - distortion begins, I open totem again - distortion disappears.
  Distortion doesn't appear 100% of the time, but pretty often. Dropout can be heard always.

  This problem appeared after upgrade to Natty. Before this update I never heard any distortion on this laptop.

Here is an alsa debug output when I start totem and distortion begins:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I: client.c: Created 19 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
D: protocol-native.c: Protocol version: remote 16, local 16
I: protocol-native.c: Got credentials: uid=1000 gid=1000 success=1
D: protocol-native.c: SHM possible: yes
D: protocol-native.c: Negotiated SHM: yes
D: module-augment-properties.c: Looking for .desktop file for totem
I: client.c: Freed 19 "Видеопроигрыватель Totem"
I: protocol-native.c: Connection died.
I: client.c: Created 20 "Native client (UNIX socket client)"
D: protocol-native.c: Protocol version: remote 16, local 16
I: protocol-native.c: Got credentials: uid=1000 gid=1000 success=1
D: protocol-native.c: SHM possible: yes
D: protocol-native.c: Negotiated SHM: yes
D: module-augment-properties.c: Looking for .desktop file for totem
I: module-stream-restore.c: Restoring volume for sink input sink-input-by-media-role:video.
I: module-stream-restore.c: Restoring mute state for sink input sink-input-by-media-role:video.
D: module-suspend-on-idle.c: Sink alsa_output.default becomes busy.
D: memblockq.c: memblockq requested: maxlength=33554432, tlength=0, base=8, prebuf=0, minreq=1 maxrewind=0
D: memblockq.c: memblockq sanitized: maxlength=33554432, tlength=33554432, base=8, prebuf=0, minreq=8 maxrewind=0
I: sink-input.c: Created input 8 "Playback Stream" on alsa_output.default with sample spec s32le 2ch 48000Hz and channel map front-left,front-right
I: sink-input.c: media.name = "Playback Stream"
I: sink-input.c: application.name = "Видеопроигрыватель Totem"
I: sink-input.c: native-protocol.peer = "UNIX socket client"
I: sink-input.c: native-protocol.version = "16"
I: sink-input.c: media.role = "video"
I: sink-input.c: application.process.id = "29881"
I: sink-input.c: application.process.user = "kolya"
I: sink-input.c: application.process.host = "kolya-laptop"
I: sink-input.c: application.process.binary = "totem"
I: sink-input.c: application.icon_name = "totem"
I: sink-input.c: window.x11.display = ":0.0"
I: sink-input.c: application.language = "ru_RU.UTF-8"
I: sink-input.c: application.process.machine_id = "3e9af0d0cb0c30aa9ae927604bde08d5"
I: sink-input.c: application.process.session_id = "3e9af0d0cb0c30aa9ae927604bde08d5-1304615509.920354-630699833"
I: sink-input.c: module-stream-restore.id = "sink-input-by-media-role:video"
I: protocol-native.c: Requested tlength=200.00 ms, minreq=10.00 ms
D: protocol-native.c: Adjust latency mode enabled, configuring sink latency to half of overall latency.
D: memblockq.c: memblockq requested: maxlength=4194304, tlength=42240, base=8, prebuf=0, minreq=3840 maxrewind=0
D: memblockq.c: memblockq sanitized: maxlength=4194304, tlength=42240, base=8, prebuf=0, minreq=3840 maxrewind=0
I: protocol-native.c: Final latency 200.00 ms = 90.00 ms + 2*10.00 ms + 90.00 ms
D: alsa-sink.c: Latency set to 90.00ms
D: alsa-sink.c: hwbuf_unused=96512
D: alsa-sink.c: setting avail_min=15425
D: protocol-native.c: Requesting rewind due to end of underrun.
D: protocol-native.c: Requesting rewind due to end of underrun.
D: protocol-native.c: Requesting rewind due to end of underrun.
D: protocol-native.c: Requesting rewind due to end of underrun.
D: protocol-native.c: Requesting rewind due to end of underrun.
D: protocol-native.c: Requesting rewind due to end of underrun.
D: protocol-native.c: Requesting rewind due to end of underrun.
D: sink-input.c: Requesting rewind due to uncorking
D: alsa-sink.c: Requested to rewind 131072 bytes.
D: module-suspend-on-idle.c: Sink alsa_output.default becomes busy.
D: alsa-sink.c: Limited to 32352 bytes.
D: alsa-sink.c: before: 4044
D: alsa-sink.c: after: 4044
D: alsa-sink.c: Rewound 32352 bytes.
D: sink.c: Processing rewind...
D: sink-input.c: Have to rewind 32352 bytes on render memblockq.
D: source.c: Processing rewind...
D: protocol-native.c: Requesting rewind due to end of underrun.
D: alsa-sink.c: Requested to rewind 131072 bytes.
D: alsa-sink.c: Limited to 32128 bytes.
D: alsa-sink.c: before: 4016
D: alsa-sink.c: after: 4016
D: alsa-sink.c: Rewound 32128 bytes.
D: sink.c: Processing rewind...
D: sink-input.c: Have to rewind 32128 bytes on render memblockq.
D: sink-input.c: Have to rewind 32128 bytes on render memblockq.
D: source.c: Processing rewind...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 I'll be happy to provide any information I can to help resolve this issue.
Thanks.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
Package: pulseaudio 1:0.9.22+stable-queue-24-g67d18-0ubuntu3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.38-8.42-generic-pae 2.6.38.2
Uname: Linux 2.6.38-8-generic-pae i686
AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.23.
Architecture: i386
ArecordDevices:
 **** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
 card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: STAC92xx Analog [STAC92xx Analog]
   Subdevices: 1/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: kolya 22806 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p: kolya 22806 F...m pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/timer: kolya 22806 f.... pulseaudio
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'Intel'/'HDA Intel at 0xefffc000 irq 45'
   Mixer name : 'SigmaTel STAC9200'
   Components : 'HDA:83847690,102801bd,00102201 HDA:14f12bfa,14f100c3,00090000'
   Controls : 12
   Simple ctrls : 7
Date: Fri May 6 22:50:44 2011
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release i386 (20100429)
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=ru_RU:en
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=ru_RU.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: pulseaudio
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to natty on 2011-04-30 (6 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 06/13/2007
dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.bios.version: A17
dmi.board.name: 0XD720
dmi.board.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.chassis.type: 8
dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvrA17:bd06/13/2007:svnDellInc.:pnMM061:pvr:rvnDellInc.:rn0XD720:rvr:cvnDellInc.:ct8:cvr:
dmi.product.name: MM061
dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Inc.
mtime.conffile..etc.pulse.default.pa: 2011-05-06T12:21:54.526814

[kolya (mar-kolya)]

Is there any other information I could provide in order to help to resole the problem?
It is very difficult to listen to the music when it distorts when somebody from my skype contact list enters or exists network.
Looks like quite major problem to me, and definitely introduced by Natty.

[Ori Avtalion (salty-horse)]

I also have the same problem on amd64.

Sometimes when pausing a totem video, all audio playing on the system will sound distorted.
Restarting pulseaudio fixes it.

[kolya (mar-kolya)]

Looks like that in my case the cause of the issue was an attempt to make pulseaudio control PCM volume instead if it's weird way to control both master and PCM volume.
I had 'load-module module-alsa-sink control=PCM' in default.pa for this and removing it seems to solve the problem (although now I have weird behaving volume controls again).

[zzarko (zzarko-gmail)]

This bug may be same as mine (I'm not sure, see https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pulseaudio/+bug/796262). If it is the same, you could use my brute-force solution to deal with it until better solution is found.

[kolya (mar-kolya)]

The distinctive 'feature' of my problem was that distortion appeared one some other application tried to play sound (e.g. skype when somebody logs in) along with another. And at some cases distortion could become 'permanent', i.e. be heard even when skype finished playing its sound. And as I've posted in comment #4 it looks like it was configuration issue and now sound is ok.

[BoD (bod-c)]

I realize this bug is old but I can confirm it's still happening to me (Ubuntu 12.10 running on a MacBook Pro).
Restarting pulseaudio (pulseaudio -k) fixes the issue... until the next time it happens :)
A little annoying, but I guess it must be hard to fix do to the 'random' nature of it...

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Thank you for reporting this bug to Ubuntu.
Ubuntu 11.04 (natty) reached end-of-life on October 28, 2012.

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.]