Advanced Linux Sound Architecture

Thanks for answering.

My problem is the second one you described.
When i disable both capture channels the output isn't going to the input
channel, but the microphone doesn't work either.
Also i try to use it in Mumble, maybe i have to choose the correct input
channel? I left "Default ALSA Card" for both input and output, but i can
select other channels.

When testing i discovered that whatever i do, if the capture channel is
enabled the problem will happen, even when muting the front mic channel.
What does that mean?

On Sat, 28 Aug 2010, Warren Dumortier wrote:

> When testing i discovered that whatever i do, if the capture channel is
> enabled the problem will happen, even when muting the front mic channel.
> What does that mean?

No idea. Does it do that in all programs?
Do
arecord -f cd >/tmp/rec&
aplay (some .wav file)
play it for a few sec
^C

killall arecord
aplay /tmp/rec
Can you hear the file you played inthat recorded file?

(unplug your speakers for the aplay part, and then plig them back in for hte
second aplay)

Thanks for your help even if we didn't find the solution.
I had liked to know why there are capture channels anyways? On my laptop and
my other PC for example there aren't, there is only Mic and Mic Boost that
must be enabled to get it working, why?

Thanks for asnwering.
First of all it's true that some part of the output may get into the input
with such audio chips, but now the problem is that it's too much.
On Windows this is also the case, but it's not a problem as you almost do
not hear it, however on Linux there's more like a 100% output that goes to
input.
So it can only be a software problem even if the hardware isn't the best, if
it works very well on Windows and not on Linux, i suppose the problem comes
from the drivers.

And i don't want to buy an audio card as my chip works very well on Windows,
i would simply like to have it running very well on Linux too... ;)

I have certainly never heard of a audio card that fed 100% of its output to
its input. It reallly makes me suspect a configuratin problem, b ut have no
idea what. Sorry.

On Sun, 29 Aug 2010, Warren Dumortier wrote:

> Thanks for asnwering.
> First of all it's true that some part of the output may get into the input
> with such audio chips, but now the problem is that it's too much.
> On Windows this is also the case, but it's not a problem as you almost do
> not hear it, however on Linux there's more like a 100% output that goes to
> input.
> So it can only be a software problem even if the hardware isn't the best, if
> it works very well on Windows and not on Linux, i suppose the problem comes
> from the drivers.
>
> And i don't want to buy an audio card as my chip works very well on Windows,
> i would simply like to have it running very well on Linux too... ;)
>

-- 
William G. Unruh   |  Canadian Institute for|     Tel: +1(604)822-3273
Physics&Astronomy  |     Advanced Research  |     Fax: +1(604)822-5324
UBC, Vancouver,BC  |   Program in Cosmology |     unruh@...
Canada V6T 1Z1     |      and Gravity       |  http://www.theory.physics.ubc.ca/

I understand that buying a real card is the easiest solution, but i don't
want to do it.
Also some time ago it was running almost with no problems, the issue existed
but it was minor, now it got worse, maybe an updated ALSA package caused it.
If you would ask me it is certainly some kind of regression as two months
ago i had no problems on Ubuntu Lucid, i will figure out if there have been
updates.

And what i meant by the audio card that fed 100%, in fact i mean that my
sound volume is exactly the same volume as the recording volume.

On Sun, 29 Aug 2010, Warren Dumortier wrote:

> I understand that buying a real card is the easiest solution, but i don't
> want to do it.Also some time ago it was running almost with no problems, the
> issue existed but it was minor, now it got worse, maybe an updated ALSA
> package caused it.
> If you would ask me it is certainly some kind of regression as two months
> ago i had no problems on Ubuntu Lucid, i will figure out if there have been
> updates.
> 
> And what i meant by the audio card that fed 100%, in fact i mean that my
> sound volume is exactly the same volume as the recording volume.

Try to play with hda-analyzer and see to http://www.alsa-project.org how 
you can check issues with the snd-hda-intel driver.

 					Jaroslav

-----
Jaroslav Kysela <perex@...>
Linux Kernel Sound Maintainer
ALSA Project, Red Hat, Inc.

Maybe I've totally missed what the problem is here, but it appears
this is a common problem/misunderstanding. If that is not the case,
then sorry for oversimplifying your issue.

You should more closely investigate your alsamixer(1) options. Many
consumer soundcards have the ability to capture from a "mix" source
which allows you to mix CD player, AUX/Video sound, system PCM sounds,
Microphone sounds together and record that, or route the mixer output
to your soundsystem. Typically you might use this in a VoIP-chat
program to feed the microphone input directly for capture and
transmission, while separately having a "mix" consisting of your own
voice (so you can hear yourself talk while wearing a headset) and the
caller's voice for playback into your headset.  If through
configuration error, you end up capturing this "mix" source, or if
there's "bleed through" from the headphones back to the microphone
then the person on the other side will end up hearing an annoying
delayed feedback of their own voice. (of course,If you're using
speakers then your microphone input or VoIP software would need to
have some special "feedback elimination" capability to prevent the
caller's voice from from feeding back to the microphone input....)

Note the "Stereo Mixer" option (from amixer(1)):
Simple mixer control 'Input Source',0
  Capabilities: cenum
  Items: 'Stereo Mixer' 'Mic' 'Front Mic' 'Line' 'CD'
  Item0: 'Front Mic'

So be sure your capture source is set to just "microphone" and not
"mixer" sources.

Consider that in alsamixer(1) there is both a capture (F3-screen) and
playback (F4-screen) source for the microphone input.

This is the "microphone monitor" setting that would mix the microphone
back into what you hear:

Simple mixer control 'Mic',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [-34.50dB] [off]
  Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [-34.50dB] [off]

Whereas this is the capture input that must also be set for "Input
Source" as "microphone" or "front mic" and not "stereo mixer":

Simple mixer control 'Capture',0
  Capabilities: cvolume cswitch penum
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 31
  Front Left: Capture 31 [100%] [30.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Capture 31 [100%] [30.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Capture',1
  Capabilities: cvolume cswitch penum
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 31
  Front Left: Capture 31 [100%] [30.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Capture 31 [100%] [30.00dB] [on]


Niels
http://nielsmayer.com

Simple mixer control 'Master',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined penum
  Playback channels: Mono
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono: Playback 27 [87%] [-6.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Headphone',0
  Capabilities: pswitch penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback [on]
  Front Right: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'PCM',0
  Capabilities: pvolume penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 255
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 255 [100%] [0.00dB]
  Front Right: Playback 255 [100%] [0.00dB]
Simple mixer control 'Front',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 31 [100%] [0.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 31 [100%] [0.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Front Mic',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [-34.50dB] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [-34.50dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Front Mic Boost',0
  Capabilities: volume penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: 0 - 3
  Front Left: 0 [0%]
  Front Right: 0 [0%]
Simple mixer control 'Surround',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [-46.50dB] [off]
  Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [-46.50dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Center',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined penum
  Playback channels: Mono
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono: Playback 0 [0%] [-46.50dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'LFE',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined penum
  Playback channels: Mono
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono: Playback 0 [0%] [-46.50dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Side',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [-46.50dB] [off]
  Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [-46.50dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Line',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [-34.50dB] [off]
  Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [-34.50dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Mic',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [-34.50dB] [off]
  Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [-34.50dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Mic Boost',0
  Capabilities: volume penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: 0 - 3
  Front Left: 0 [0%]
  Front Right: 0 [0%]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958',0
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined penum
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 Default PCM',0
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined penum
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'Beep',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [-34.50dB] [off]
  Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [-34.50dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Capture',0
  Capabilities: cvolume cswitch penum
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 31
  Front Left: Capture 25 [81%] [21.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Capture 25 [81%] [21.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Capture',1
  Capabilities: cvolume cswitch penum
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 31
  Front Left: Capture 0 [0%] [-16.50dB] [off]
  Front Right: Capture 0 [0%] [-16.50dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Digital',0
  Capabilities: cvolume penum
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 120
  Front Left: Capture 0 [0%] [-30.00dB]
  Front Right: Capture 0 [0%] [-30.00dB]
Simple mixer control 'Input Source',0
  Capabilities: cenum
  Items: 'Mic' 'Front Mic' 'Line'
  Item0: 'Front Mic'
Simple mixer control 'Input Source',1
  Capabilities: cenum
  Items: 'Mic' 'Front Mic' 'Line'
  Item0: 'Front Mic'

I've been testing again and found some interresting fact.
When i only plug-in my microphone it works as it should even if music is
being played, but whenever i plug-in speakers, then the problem occurs.
This lets me thing again it's a software related issue, but i don't know
why...

Thanks for answering, i keep testing solutions and your propositions and
it's getting me sick...
Would using a USB headset fix the problem?

On Mon, Aug 30, 2010 at 1:08 AM, Warren Dumortier <nwarrenfl@...> wrote:
> I've been testing again and found some interresting fact.
> When i only plug-in my microphone it works as it should even if music is
> being played, but whenever i plug-in speakers, then the problem occurs.
> This lets me thing again it's a software related issue, but i don't know
> why...

Again, perhaps I'm oversimplifying... but if you plugin speakers then
your microphone is probably able to pickup their output, or a
reflection of it, and transmit it back.

On Mon, Aug 30, 2010 at 6:25 AM, Warren Dumortier <nwarrenfl@...> wrote:
> Thanks for answering, i keep testing solutions and your propositions and
> it's getting me sick...
> Would using a USB headset fix the problem?

Yes. For $10-$30.00 you can probably find a headset that does standard
usb sound and would work easily and reliably. I've used "Logitech
ClearChat Comfort USB"
(http://www.google.com/products/catalog?cid=3844041679359977382 ) for
a few years with skype and for other purposes and it's been solid. The
volume control on the cord controls the headset volume directly
through kmix, putting up a nice volume-bar just like you'd see in
Windows (I use KDE desktop, kmix provides the volume control widget on
the taskbar). And it has a microphone cutoff switch on the same
control, with a red led that flashes when it's muted.

I assume you want to get google talk running?

After plugging in such a Headset and logging in to the desktop, follow
my instructions about "wrappering" GoogleTalkPlugin  as a script that
sets special ALSA environment vars then calls GoogleTalkPlugin-bin.
This enables the headset to be accessed directly via the plugin's
auxiliary program, leaving your standard "default" device available
for browser/flash/java to use via dmix, pulseaudio, etc:
http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.linux.audio.users/67117

It is working very well, IMHO. There is some clicking and low-level
noise audible on the landline receiving the call from google-voice,
and the landline caller also noticed some echo of their own voice
despite the low potential for sound bleed-through from the headphone
to microphone. I've recorded this and did hear the clicking and noise,
which doesn't emanate from the headset->USB->ALSA part, leaving me to
think there might be some issues with GoogleTalkPlugin or the google
network. Either that, or they've taken that the standard level of
"switching noise" sometimes heard on long distance phone calls is
acceptable call quality level for their system. Given the cost -- free
-- and the fact that it gives me free calls throughout the continental
US, I'm not complaining....

However if the call quality is so bad that you do want to complain,
this may be the best place:
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/chat/label?lid=18819d87e4369fa5

-- Niels.
http://nielsmayer.com

Before closing this topic i would like to ask if buying a USB sound card is
a good solution?
Would you recommend a USB sound card or simply a USB headset?

On Thu, 2 Sep 2010, Warren Dumortier wrote:

> Before closing this topic i would like to ask if buying a USB sound card is
> a good solution?
> Would you recommend a USB sound card or simply a USB headset?

If what you want is a headset (ie a microphone and ear pice3 to do things like
skype,) buy a headset. If you want a general purpose sound card buy that. I
have a USB MAUDIO transit which is vvery basic ( and has only line in, no
additional amplification for microphone) but has good performance. It is
probably not best for skyping.


>

-- 
William G. Unruh   |  Canadian Institute for|     Tel: +1(604)822-3273
Physics&Astronomy  |     Advanced Research  |     Fax: +1(604)822-5324
UBC, Vancouver,BC  |   Program in Cosmology |     unruh@...
Canada V6T 1Z1     |      and Gravity       |  http://www.theory.physics.ubc.ca/

I think this might be the problem:
http://lists.linuxaudio.org/pipermail/linux-audio-user/2010-September/072350.html

If you have a multichannel capture, then GoogleTalkPlugin, talking to
alsa default input through a dsnoop, will end up capturing from all
channels, not just the microphone. If some of those are playback or
mixer capture channels, then then callers voice will be recaptured and
sent back to them. This is exactly what I was able to replicate using
the digital mixer on an ice1712-based card -- the digital mixer,
capture11,capture12 -- ends up being captured by the VoIP program and
sent back to the caller.

Niels
http://nielsmayer.com

Hi.

Sorry if this is not a popular suggestion on this forum...

I had 'similar' issues as you - in my case not being able to record my
soundcards output - due to a lack of mixer settings on my Nvidia Nforce card
that used hda-intel alsa module.

It was pretty annoying as all my old desktops - which have 'worse'
soundcards all have the ability to use the mixer to record its own
output....

In the end I discovered the snd-aloop module - this coupled with jack2 and a
realtime kernel (in arch linux) has sorted out ALL recording issues.

I know your not having the exact same issue as me but perhaps the jack route
will sort your issues too?

Once you have the alsa -> jack bridge working pretty much most modern Linux
sound apps work without any tweaking..

p.s sorry if this is completely meaningless to your issue.

Cheers

On 4 September 2010 02:00, Niels Mayer <nielsmayer@...> wrote:

> I think this might be the problem:
>
> http://lists.linuxaudio.org/pipermail/linux-audio-user/2010-September/072350.html
>
> If you have a multichannel capture, then GoogleTalkPlugin, talking to
> alsa default input through a dsnoop, will end up capturing from all
> channels, not just the microphone. If some of those are playback or
> mixer capture channels, then then callers voice will be recaptured and
> sent back to them. This is exactly what I was able to replicate using
> the digital mixer on an ice1712-based card -- the digital mixer,
> capture11,capture12 -- ends up being captured by the VoIP program and
> sent back to the caller.
>
> Niels
> http://nielsmayer.com
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> This SF.net Dev2Dev email is sponsored by:
>
> Show off your parallel programming skills.
> Enter the Intel(R) Threading Challenge 2010.
> http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-thread-sfd
> _______________________________________________
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> Alsa-user@...
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/alsa-user
>

Well this was false hope!

Recently i put my money in a USB card like proposed, here is it's info from
KInfoCenter:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Aureon Dual USB


  Classe

0

((Defined at Interface level))

Sous-classe

0

Protocole

0

Version USB

1.01

ID du fabricant

0xccd

(TerraTec Electronic GmbH)

ID du produit

0x77

(Aureon Dual USB)

Révision

0.00

Vitesse

12 Mbit/s

Canaux

0

Taille maximale des paquets

64

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

However it didn't fix the issue at all, i still have the same problem, the
card is recognized without problems but the problem persist even if i mute
everything on my onboard card...
Also in Mumble the problem is present and i choosed the right channels of
the card, so is this problem still not related to ALSA?

What is the channel for the mic input of the USB card, to be sure?
Here is my amixer output:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Simple mixer control 'Master',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined penum
  Playback channels: Mono
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono: Playback 0 [0%] [-46.50dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Headphone',0
  Capabilities: pswitch penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback [on]
  Front Right: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'PCM',0
  Capabilities: pvolume penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 255
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [-51.00dB]
  Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [-51.00dB]
Simple mixer control 'Front',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [-46.50dB] [off]
  Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [-46.50dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Front Mic',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [-34.50dB] [off]
  Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [-34.50dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Front Mic Boost',0
  Capabilities: volume penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: 0 - 3
  Front Left: 0 [0%]
  Front Right: 0 [0%]
Simple mixer control 'Surround',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [-46.50dB] [off]
  Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [-46.50dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Center',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined penum
  Playback channels: Mono
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono: Playback 0 [0%] [-46.50dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'LFE',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined penum
  Playback channels: Mono
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono: Playback 0 [0%] [-46.50dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Side',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [-46.50dB] [off]
  Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [-46.50dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Line',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [-34.50dB] [off]
  Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [-34.50dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Mic',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [-34.50dB] [off]
  Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [-34.50dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Mic Boost',0
  Capabilities: volume penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: 0 - 3
  Front Left: 0 [0%]
  Front Right: 0 [0%]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958',0
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined penum
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 Default PCM',0
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined penum
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'Beep',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [-34.50dB] [off]
  Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [-34.50dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Capture',0
  Capabilities: cvolume cswitch penum
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 31
  Front Left: Capture 0 [0%] [-16.50dB] [off]
  Front Right: Capture 0 [0%] [-16.50dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Capture',1
  Capabilities: cvolume cswitch penum
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 31
  Front Left: Capture 0 [0%] [-16.50dB] [off]
  Front Right: Capture 0 [0%] [-16.50dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Digital',0
  Capabilities: cvolume penum
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 120
  Front Left: Capture 0 [0%] [-30.00dB]
  Front Right: Capture 0 [0%] [-30.00dB]
Simple mixer control 'Input Source',0
  Capabilities: cenum
  Items: 'Mic' 'Front Mic' 'Line'
  Item0: 'Line'
Simple mixer control 'Input Source',1
  Capabilities: cenum
  Items: 'Mic' 'Front Mic' 'Line'
  Item0: 'Line'

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Thu, Sep 9, 2010 at 2:39 PM, Warren Dumortier <nwarrenfl@...:
>
> However it didn't fix the issue at all, i still have the same problem, the
> card is recognized without problems but the problem persist even if i mute
> everything on my onboard card...
> Also in Mumble the problem is present and i choosed the right channels of
> the card, so is this problem still not related to ALSA?
>
> What is the channel for the mic input of the USB card, to be sure?
> Here is my amixer output
>

Perhaps the issue is a pulseaudio one, not ALSA?

 A few pulseaudio related fixes/hacks needed for GoogleTalkPlugin:

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/chat/thread?tid=10ffe01c3a4779f5&hl=en&fid=10ffe01c3a4779f500048faf0a748e82

//////// //////////// //////////// //////////// ////////////
/////////// //////////
Hi,

A few posts have been about microphones. In particular the auto level
adjust feature that google chat uses. Others, who have had issues with
the internal mic on their laptops/notebooks read on too....

This auto adjust CAN be tuned off.

My symptoms are the same as lintex i.e. for the internal mic to work
the left mic channel must be turned down to zero and the right channel
set to the desired level. Google talk however automatically adjusts
both channels to what it thinks is optimum and thus screws this up.

To see the mix channel settings use PulseAudio Volume control and go
to the input devices tab. PulseAudio Volume control is in the Linux
menus under the sound and video submenu (on Ubuntu anyway). You may
need to install the package pavucontrol to get this gui.

To turn off the auto adjust:

cd ~/.config/google-googletalkplugin    # get to google chat's directory
cp -p options options.bak        # make a backup before changing stuff !
gedit options                # edit the config file

now change one of the lines so that it reads as follows:

audio-flags=1

Now restart you machine and google chat will now longer auto-adjust!!!

Remember to go to PulseAudio volume control just to make sure the left
channel stays at 0

//////// //////////// //////////// //////////// ////////////
/////////// //////////

wd5gnr
9/6/10

I had crackly audio issues -- not bad but annoying. I realized I'd
made some changes to my pulseaudio configuration a long time ago.

If you are comfortable with sudo and a text editor you might try
experimenting:

Open /etc/pulse/daemon.conf.. Not sure which of these made the
difference. I was suing src-sinc-best-quality but I think even on my
quad core 3.8Ghz machine it was not doing me any favors. I also
adjusted the number of fragments and the fragment size. You won't find
the comments (lines with ;) in your file because I added them. But you
should find resample-method, default-fragments, and
default-fragment-ize-msec.

Here's the excerpt.

; choices in order from best to worst:
; src-sinc-best-quality, src-sinc-medium-quality, src-sinc-fastest,
speex-float-{10-0}, speex-fixed-{10-0}, ffmpeg, src-zero-order-hold,
src-linear, trivial
; default is speex-float-1
resample-method = src-sinc-fastest

And further down:
; default is 4 and 25
; was suggested to do 8 and 10
default-fragments = 32
default-fragment-size-msec = 25

Now my calls are GREAT quality!!!
--------------------------

//////// //////////// //////////// //////////// ////////////
/////////// //////////

Thanks for the response.

In fact i do not use PulseAudio at all, i use plain ALSA + KDE (Phonon).
Also i do not use Google Talk too, only Mumble.

When playing music you can clearly hear the music as Mumble plays what has
been recorded.