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Jamulus Audio Issue

Lizzie
2020-09-25
2020-10-17
  • Lizzie

    Lizzie - 2020-09-25

    I have been trying to use Jamulus and am finding that I have an issue with the audio wherein I will be able to hear for a few seconds and then it will cut out completely. I have tried regular troubleshooting and things like restarting/updating my computer, checking network settings, and uninstalling and reinstalling the app without success. Has anyone experienced this and been able to find a solution??

     
    • Gilgongo

      Gilgongo - 2020-09-25

      Hi Lizzie,

      I think this has been reported in some form before but I don't know if there's a common solution. Can you provide some more detail about your setup? What OS are you running, what ISP are you with and how are you connnecting to Jamulus generally?

       
      • Lizzie

        Lizzie - 2020-09-25

        Hi!

        I'm running macOS catalina version 10.15.7 and I'm connected via wifi with shaw internet

         
        • Gilgongo

          Gilgongo - 2020-09-25

          OK. It's reccommended to always use Ethernet rather than wifi so can you try that an see if it makes a diference? BTW this post seems possibly related... https://sourceforge.net/p/llcon/discussion/software/thread/c434995f43/#863f

           
          • Lizzie

            Lizzie - 2020-09-25

            I don't have the ability to connect via ethernet at the moment :(

             
            • Gilgongo

              Gilgongo - 2020-09-26

              Hard to know what the cause might be, but other things to check are whether thwere's another program on your machine that's interfering in some way, either using bandwidth (although that would typcially produce intermitten sound issues), or grabbing the input. What is your input BTW? A mic, audio interface?

               
  • Dennis

    Dennis - 2020-09-26

    I'm running a private server on a cloud and while the program works fine for the most part, the only way that I can get the lowest latency is if I check "enable small network buffers". which unfortunately make my audio sound robotic and jittery. My question is, "if I were to upgrade my server package (i.e. more memory, or faster processor speed, or larger hard drive, ect) would that help to reduce the latency and or improve the audio in general and specifically concerning the small network buffers?

     
    • Gilgongo

      Gilgongo - 2020-09-26

      Hi Dennis - hard to say. Small network buffers setting is only used if the sound card buffer delay is smaller than 128 samples (so you might want to check that). The smaller the network buffers, the lower the audio latency. But at the same time the network load increases and the probability of audio dropouts also increases. So it may depend a bit on your available bandwith at the client (and maybe server) end. If you go to fast.com and run a speed test, what does it sayd for both download and upload (use the "show more info" button)?

       
      • Dennis

        Dennis - 2020-09-26

        Hi Gilgongo,

        I went to Fast.com and I also used my Speedtest app by Ookla and the
        results were very different so I'm not quite sure what to tell you.
        Fast.com says that my download speed is 320 mbps and my upload speed is
        40 mbps where my Speedtest app says my download speed is 729 mbps and my
        upload is 38 mbps.

        While I assume the Speedtest app is more acccurate, I'm hoping that even
        if the Fast.com numbers are correct they are still good enough to
        provide enough bandwidth to avoid the audio dropouts that you mentioned.
        I was thinking more along the lines that perhaps if the cloud server was
        faster or had more memory that perhaps it would process the audio
        information better and the sound would be better. Can you tell me what
        are the optimal specs for a cloud server running the Jamulus server
        software. (the OS is Ubuntu 18.04 - w/low latency kernel)

        Sincerely,

        Dennis

        ------ Original Message ------
        From: "Gilgongo" gilgongojones@users.sourceforge.net
        To: "[llcon:discussion]"
        software@discussion.llcon.p.re.sourceforge.net
        Sent: 9/26/2020 4:30:11 AM
        Subject: [llcon:discussion] Re: Jamulus Audio Issue

        Hi Dennis - hard to say. Small network buffers setting is only used if
        the sound card buffer delay is smaller than 128 samples (so you might
        want to check that). The smaller the network buffers, the lower the
        audio latency. But at the same time the network load increases and the
        probability of audio dropouts also increases. So it may depend a bit on
        your available bandwith at the client (and maybe server) end. If you go
        to fast.com and run a speed test, what does it sayd for both download
        and upload (use the "show more info" button)?


        Jamulus Audio Issue
        https://sourceforge.net/p/llcon/discussion/software/thread/3a9cae4dfe/?limit=100#dbd1/a53a


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        • Gilgongo

          Gilgongo - 2020-09-27

          Once network bandwith has been ruled out as the issue (although in some cases the problem can be buffer bloat even with lots of bandwidth, in which case you need a better router, but that's extreme so we'll park that!), as Don notes, there are various other paths to narrow down the problem. Other things to try include: do you get the same issues on public servers (if so, it's not the server)? Do you get the same issues if you try using Jamulus OS on the PC? (if not it's probably a software/driver issue).

           
  • DonC

    DonC - 2020-09-26

    Note that the network speed is only one of the things that can cause communications problems.
    Your network speed looks to be fine, but that says little about the network jitter, that is when packets don't arrive regularly spaced. When that happens it is necesary to run bigger buffers to cover up the dropouts caused by the jitter.
    As the ethernet does not guarantee transmission times even if they are sent regularly spaced, they may be arriving out of order, for example.
    If you can temporarily bump up your cloud plan to a faster processor and/or better netowrk attachment, that might be the quickest way to see if there is a difference.
    You must also take into account the possibility that maybe the problem is the nework connection quality of your client, and not at all the server.
    Do other users on your server have the same sound quality issues?
    I hope this helps,
    Don

     
  • Tom Fazekas

    Tom Fazekas - 2020-10-17

    I was suffering from dropouts of 2 to 5 seconds occurring at roughly 20-second intervals. These occurred regardless of the server, network traffic, buffer sizes, or any other settings. Even connecting as the only client to a server on the same box would have regular dropouts.

    I recalled that the dropouts started when I created a new Windows account just for Jamulus use. The new account was identical to the others except, by default, it did not have administrator rights. When I made the account an admin, the dropouts went away.

     
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