Grating crackle/static occasionally shows up in playback

[cdikrunn84]

Your list does not contain a pulse device, so was that list from when you still had OpenSUSE?

Ubuntu Studio uses PulseAudio, so see http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Linux_Issues#pulse.

You have never stated clearly what the USB device is (make and model number). Are you getting crackle on that, the built-in device, or both?


Gale

Yes, the list was when I had OpenSuSE installed for up to a couple of weeks.

I will also go to the link that you have provided in your reply.

[EDIT: I went to the link, and did go to it a few days back, after seeing another thread about this situation with Ubuntu-based distros. I did the suggestions mentioned in the link that you provided. I had also changed the Output Device to "HDA NVidia: ALC888 Analog (hw:0,0)." By the way, I currently have "ALSA" selected as Audio Host, and also currently have a choice of "OSS." I believe "OSS" was not listed when I had OpenSuSE installed, though.]

About listing USB devices, what command(s) shall I type when opening up a Terminal type of program?
Or, where would the make and model number be mentioned on or in the USB devices?
I have two front USB ports, and (I believe) as many as about six in the back.
The crackle, though, I believe is probably not from a USB device, since the speakers that I currently have hooked up, for some time now, are connected to an output jack on the back of the computer.

[Gale Andrews]

I will also go to the link that you have provided in your reply.

[EDIT: I went to the link, and did go to it a few days back, after seeing another thread about this situation with Ubuntu-based distros. I did the suggestions mentioned in the link that you provided. I had also changed the Output Device to "HDA NVidia: ALC888 Analog (hw:0,0)." By the way, I currently have "ALSA" selected as Audio Host, and also currently have a choice of "OSS." I believe "OSS" was not listed when I had OpenSuSE installed, though.

Audacity's support for OSS is untested. I would not use it unless it happens to solve your crackle problems.

About listing USB devices, what command(s) shall I type when opening up a Terminal type of program?

Type the following (the first character is l for "lady"):

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lsusb -v

Or you can see a simple listing of hardware and driver details including audio with:

Code: Select all

inxi -Fx

If you don't have inxi, type:

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sudo apt-get install inxi

and follow the prompts.

Or, where would the make and model number be mentioned on or in the USB devices?

Most likely on the device, or on the box or manual that came with it. But what is it in general terms? A USB cassette deck? USB turntable? USB mic with headphone port? USB headset with integral mic?

The crackle, though, I believe is probably not from a USB device, since the speakers that I currently have hooked up, for some time now, are connected to an output jack on the back of the computer.

So you don't want to use whatever this USB device is for playback, but want to use the speakers you mentioned? Does the crackle go away if you remove the USB device? I am guessing it might not.

What are the make and model number of the speakers? Have you tried connecting other speakers or headphones, to be sure the problem is not the speakers?

Do you have only that one audio output?


Gale

[cdikrunn84]

Type the following (the first character is l for "lady"):

Code: Select all

lsusb -v

Or you can see a simple listing of hardware and driver details including audio with:

Code: Select all

inxi -Fx

If you don't have inxi, type:

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install inxi

and follow the prompts.

Regarding the "lsusb" command, how do I write the information that shows up into a text file? The amount of information is so lengthy, that some of the earlier text disappears whenever I run this in a shell program.

However, the "inxi" text is much shorter, so I can paste that information here:

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System:    Host: john-TF520-A2 Kernel: 3.19.0-33-lowlatency x86_64 (64 bit, gcc: 4.8.2) 
           Desktop: Xfce 4.11.8 (Gtk 2.24.23) Distro: Ubuntu 14.04 trusty
Machine:   Mobo: TAR model: TF520-A2 version: 1.0 Bios: Phoenix version: 6.00 PG date: 05/18/2007
CPU:       Dual core AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ (-MCP-) cache: 1024 KB flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 svm) bmips: 4018.64 
           Clock Speeds: 1: 1000.00 MHz 2: 1000.00 MHz
Graphics:  Card: NVIDIA G86 [GeForce 8400 GS] bus-ID: 04:00.0 
           X.Org: 1.17.1 drivers: nouveau (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: [email protected] 
           GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on NV86 GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 10.5.9 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio:     Card-1: NVIDIA MCP65 High Definition Audio driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:07.0 
           Card-2: Texas Instruments PCM2900 Audio Codec driver: USB Audio usb-ID: 002-003 
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture ver: k3.19.0-33-lowlatency
Network:   Card: Realtek RTL-8110SC/8169SC Gigabit Ethernet driver: r8169 ver: 2.3LK-NAPI port: cc00 bus-ID: 01:09.0
           IF: eth0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: 00:e0:4d:2f:9e:27
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 1000.2GB (76.4% used) 1: id: /dev/sda model: ST1000DM003 size: 1000.2GB 
Partition: ID: / size: 25G used: 15G (61%) fs: btrfs ID: /home size: 888G used: 698G (83%) fs: ext4 
           ID: swap-1 size: 5.25GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap 
RAID:      No RAID devices detected - /proc/mdstat and md_mod kernel raid module present
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 18.0C mobo: N/A gpu: 54.0 
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A 
Info:      Processes: 267 Uptime: 11 min Memory: 790.6/2000.0MB Runlevel: 2 Gcc sys: 4.8.4 
           Client: Shell (bash 4.3.11) inxi: 1.9.17 

Most likely on the device, or on the box or manual that came with it. But what is it in general terms? A USB cassette deck? USB turntable? USB mic with headphone port? USB headset with integral mic?

I don't currently use any USB devices for sound output, although I did use such speakers previously. They are still in perfect working shape, though, but at some point, I had some difficulty configuring the computer and certain programs to make it come out of those speakers, so I eventually bought some that connect to a more conventional audio output jack in the back of the computer.

By the way, I currently have a USB turntable connected to the computer, and sometimes a webcam.

So you don't want to use whatever this USB device is for playback, but want to use the speakers you mentioned? Does the crackle go away if you remove the USB device? I am guessing it might not.

What are the make and model number of the speakers? Have you tried connecting other speakers or headphones, to be sure the problem is not the speakers?

Do you have only that one audio output?
Gale

I can also connect speakers to a USB port, although I don't have any connected there right now.

I doubt that the speakers are the problem, especially since the ones that I am currently using are rather new. I also have not tried headphones at this point. That's something I could do. But I was guessing that it depends on what distro that I am using, and the sound card itself. So far, I haven't received any of that crackle noise since switching from OpenSuSE to Ubuntu Studio. I have experience a freeze once so far, and, whenever certain programs run, such as VLC, the output device would switch to "default," usually making Audacity playback run less smoothly.

I bought these rather new speakers online through Best Buy early this fall. So far, I am happy with them. The link to them at Best Buy is here:
http://tinyurl.com/ounp6fr

[Gale Andrews]

Regarding the "lsusb" command, how do I write the information that shows up into a text file? The amount of information is so lengthy, that some of the earlier text disappears whenever I run this in a shell program.

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lsusb > lsusb.txt

Gale

[cdikrunn84]

Regarding the "lsusb" command, how do I write the information that shows up into a text file? The amount of information is so lengthy, that some of the earlier text disappears whenever I run this in a shell program.

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lsusb > lsusb.txt

Gale

I created the text file as you instructed. Without the "-v" switch, though, there is a lot less information. Therefore, I can easily post it here:

Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 004: ID 046d:c52b Logitech, Inc. Unifying Receiver
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 08bb:2900 Texas Instruments PCM2900 Audio Codec
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 056a:0302 Wacom Co., Ltd
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

Is it possible to also write the command results of "lsusb -v" into a text file? I get lots more text with the "-v" switch used. I attempted this with that switch included, by typing:

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lsusb -v lsusb-v.txt

...but it said "Couldn't open device, some information will be missing" five times.

Eventually, though, I was able to create such a text file with more detailed information, typing something like this:

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cat >> lsusb -v lsusb-v.txt

The resulting text is included here as an attachment.

The odd thing, though, is that this idea only works occasionally.

I have tried the former idea again, but this time, I noticed that it did work, but it still said "Couldn't open device, some information will be missing" five times. It also did not say, "lsusb -v" in the beginning of the resulted text.

[Gale Andrews]

Is it possible to also write the command results of "lsusb -v" into a text file?

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lsusb -v  | tee lsusb-v.txt

which gives you a file and screen output.


Gale

[cdikrunn84]

Is it possible to also write the command results of "lsusb -v" into a text file?

Code: Select all

lsusb -v  | tee lsusb-v.txt

which gives you a file and screen output.


Gale

Yes, it works quite well. Thanks.

[Gale Andrews]

So far, I haven't received any of that crackle noise since switching from OpenSuSE to Ubuntu Studio. I have experience a freeze once so far, and, whenever certain programs run, such as VLC, the output device would switch to "default," usually making Audacity playback run less smoothly.

Where would the output device switch to default, in Audacity? I don't think that should happen, if Audacity was already set to the (hw:0,0) device.

But if you want to use (or have open) multiple audio applications at once, you should use the pulse device for Audacity playback.

Gale

[cdikrunn84]

So far, I haven't received any of that crackle noise since switching from OpenSuSE to Ubuntu Studio. I have experience a freeze once so far, and, whenever certain programs run, such as VLC, the output device would switch to "default," usually making Audacity playback run less smoothly.

Where would the output device switch to default, in Audacity? I don't think that should happen, if Audacity was already set to the (hw:0,0) device.

But if you want to use (or have open) multiple audio applications at once, you should use the pulse device for Audacity playback.

Gale

I just tried out playing something in Audacity using "pulse," but somehow, the playback is not very smooth. What shall I configure to remedy this situation?

[Gale Andrews]

So far, I haven't received any of that crackle noise since switching from OpenSuSE to Ubuntu Studio. I have experience a freeze once so far, and, whenever certain programs run, such as VLC, the output device would switch to "default," usually making Audacity playback run less smoothly.

Where would the output device switch to default, in Audacity? I don't think that should happen, if Audacity was already set to the (hw:0,0) device.

But if you want to use (or have open) multiple audio applications at once, you should use the pulse device for Audacity playback.

Gale

I just tried out playing something in Audacity using "pulse," but somehow, the playback is not very smooth. What shall I configure to remedy this situation?

You can play around with these settings: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Linux_Issues#pulse.

Gale