TL;DR: I can play and hear sounds with mpg123. Audacity appears to play its own files, but there’s no sound output. Would be grateful for any suggestions for how to fix or what to check. Thanks.
I’m using Audacity 3.2.4 with Debian Linux 12 “bookworm”, pipewire and wireplumber managing audio. Audacity settings are
Audio Host: ALSA
Recording device: pipewire
Playback device: pipewire
I recorded some music from firefox. Exported a portion of the Audacity project as a .mp3. I can play and hear the .mp3 using mpg123. Audacity appears to play the project - the cursor moves through the waveform display, and the playback meter bounces around. But there’s no sound.
While Audacity is playing the file, let’s look at pavucontrol. The Playback tab shows two items: (1) System Sounds and (2) Pipewire ALSA [audacity]: ALSA Playback, with the volume slider at 100%. The Output Devices tab shows just 1 item, Built-in Audio Analog Stereo, with the Port dropdown showing Speakers and volume set at 45%. The Configuration tab shows 2 items: (1) GM206 High Definition Audio Controller, with the Profile dropdown showing Off; and (2) Built-in Audio with the Profile dropdown showing Analog Stereo Output.
With mpg123 playing, here are the differences (from Audacity) seen in pavucontrol:
In the Playback tab, the 1st item (System Sounds) is the same. The 2nd item is now mpg123: via out123; the volume slider is still 100% but now there is a volume display under the volume slider than bounces around with the music.
In the Output Devices tab, it’s the same except there’s now a volume display that bounces around just like in the Playback tab.
The Configuration tab is unchanged.
The console command wpctl status shows 7 Clients when either Audacity or mpg123 is playing. With Audacity, one of them is 58. PipeWire ALSA [audacity]. With mpg123, that’s gone, replaced by 71. mpg123.
In the Audio section of the wpctl status output, there’s no difference until the Streams item. With mpg123 playing, it shows
(sorry, I can’t seem to display the indents shown in output.)
└─ Streams:
56. mpg123
68. output_FR > ALC298 Analog:playback_FR [active]
165. output_FL > ALC298 Analog:playback_FL [active]
66. PulseAudio Volume Control
52. input_FL < mpg123:output_FL [active]
67. monitor_FL
70. monitor_FR
71. input_FR < mpg123:output_FR [active]
156. PulseAudio Volume Control
61. monitor_FR
154. input_FL < ALC298 Analog:monitor_FL [active]
158. monitor_FL
162. input_FR < ALC298 Analog:monitor_FR [active]
and with Audacity playing, it is
└─ Streams:
56. PulseAudio Volume Control
58. input_FR < ALSA Playback:output_FR [active]
60. monitor_FL
68. input_FL < ALSA Playback:output_FL [active]
165. monitor_FR
70. PipeWire ALSA [audacity]
67. output_FL > ALC298 Analog:playback_FL [active]
71. output_FR > PulseAudio Volume Control:input_FR [active]
156. PulseAudio Volume Control
61. monitor_FR
154. input_FL < ALC298 Analog:monitor_FL [active]
158. monitor_FL
162. input_FR < ALC298 Analog:monitor_FR [active]
Checking the status of pipewire and wireplumber services with systemctl --user status pipe* and systemctl --user status wire* shows everything enabled & running (as you’d expect since mpg123 can play normally).