Audacity playback at 5x speed

[RAaudacity]

Good to know, but then why does Default show up as an option in the Audacity playback menu along w/ Pulse?

Let me rephrase my comment:
On a standard Ubuntu installation, the default playback device is PulseAudio. On other systems it may be different.

Where does it feed sound to? Where does the sound come out?

Well, it comes out of my speakers

and how are the speakers connected to the computer?
I'm trying to work out if Pulse is using the HDA Nvidia device, the USB device, or something else.

Do you have PulseAudio Volume Control (pavucontrol) installed?

I use an RCA cable to tap the green outlet from the audio on the desktop's mobo and run it into an amplifier w/ the red and white plugs.

I have PulseAudio Volume Control installed. When I'm recording w/ Audacity, on Pulse's Recording tab "monitor of built in analog stereo" has to be selected to get streaming audio recorded.

I don't think there's anything unusal in my setup - a standard fairly recent standard mobo, no sound card, just onboard mobo audio, and a run of the mill Ubuntu 15.10 o/s.

I've recorded a lot of audio w/ Ub 14.04 and some w/ this 15.10, but I've also had to deal w/ a number of problems under both o/s'.

[Gale Andrews]

Changed to: Exec=env UBUNTU_MENUPROXY=0 PULSE_LATENCY_MSEC=30 audacity %F

With the change, playback doesn't run at 5x, it just quickly stops dead.

"30" isn't prescriptive. You could perhaps try a slightly higher number than 30.


Gale

[RAaudacity]

Changed to: Exec=env UBUNTU_MENUPROXY=0 PULSE_LATENCY_MSEC=30 audacity %F

With the change, playback doesn't run at 5x, it just quickly stops dead.

"30" isn't prescriptive. You could perhaps try a slightly higher number than 30.
Gale

I tried several numbers, higher and lower from "30", and I tried changing %F to %U as I saw recommended in a post - no luck.

[Gale Andrews]

OK, so it's just a playback rate problem.
What is set as the "playback device" in the device toolbar and what other options are there?

Playback has 7 options:
4 of them refer to HDA Nvidia (vid card sound) which run at apparently correct speed, but don't result in sound coming through.
1 of them is a USB sound card I use for the mic, which runs at apparently correct speed, but no sound comes through.
1 of them is Pulse, which plays at 5x, and does feed sound.
1 of them is Default, which plays at 5x, and does feed sound.

From what you wrote, you don't have any audio device showing which would correspond to the motherboard audio out you are connecting your amplifier to. Please connect your USB sound card then post or attach Help > Audio Device Info... top right of Audacity.

Also tell us what audio device you have selected on the "Output Devices" tab of pavucontrol.


Gale

[RAaudacity]

OK, so it's just a playback rate problem.
What is set as the "playback device" in the device toolbar and what other options are there?

Playback has 7 options:
4 of them refer to HDA Nvidia (vid card sound) which run at apparently correct speed, but don't result in sound coming through.
1 of them is a USB sound card I use for the mic, which runs at apparently correct speed, but no sound comes through.
1 of them is Pulse, which plays at 5x, and does feed sound.
1 of them is Default, which plays at 5x, and does feed sound.

From what you wrote, you don't have any audio device showing which would correspond to the motherboard audio out you are connecting your amplifier to. Please connect your USB sound card then post or attach Help > Audio Device Info... top right of Audacity.

[] tell us what audio device you have selected on the "Output Devices" tab of pavucontrol.
Gale

That Pulse Output Devices tab shows:
Built-in audio device analog stereo, port is Line Out (plugged in) - that should be my mobo sound

USB sound card is plugged in, and here's what's in "Help > Audio Device Info."

Code: Select all

==================
Default recording device number: 9
Default playback device number: 9
==============================
Device ID: 0
Device name: HDA ATI SB: ALC662 rev3 Analog (hw:0,0)
Host name: ALSA
Recording channels: 2
Playback channels: 0
Low Recording Latency: 0.008707
Low Playback Latency: -1.000000
High Recording Latency: 0.034830
High Playback Latency: -1.000000
Supported Rates:
==============================
Device ID: 1
Device name: HDA ATI SB: ALC662 rev3 Alt Analog (hw:0,2)
Host name: ALSA
Recording channels: 2
Playback channels: 0
Low Recording Latency: 0.008707
Low Playback Latency: -1.000000
High Recording Latency: 0.034830
High Playback Latency: -1.000000
Supported Rates:
==============================
Device ID: 2
Device name: USB Audio Device: - (hw:1,0)
Host name: ALSA
Recording channels: 1
Playback channels: 2
Low Recording Latency: 0.008707
Low Playback Latency: 0.008707
High Recording Latency: 0.034830
High Playback Latency: 0.034830
Supported Rates:
==============================
Device ID: 3
Device name: HDA NVidia: HDMI 0 (hw:2,3)
Host name: ALSA
Recording channels: 0
Playback channels: 8
Low Recording Latency: -1.000000
Low Playback Latency: 0.008707
High Recording Latency: -1.000000
High Playback Latency: 0.034830
Supported Rates:
    32000
    44100
    48000
    88200
    96000
    176400
    192000
==============================
Device ID: 4
Device name: HDA NVidia: HDMI 0 (hw:2,7)
Host name: ALSA
Recording channels: 0
Playback channels: 8
Low Recording Latency: -1.000000
Low Playback Latency: 0.008707
High Recording Latency: -1.000000
High Playback Latency: 0.034830
Supported Rates:
    32000
    44100
    48000
    88200
    96000
    176400
    192000
==============================
Device ID: 5
Device name: HDA NVidia: HDMI 0 (hw:2,8)
Host name: ALSA
Recording channels: 0
Playback channels: 8
Low Recording Latency: -1.000000
Low Playback Latency: 0.008707
High Recording Latency: -1.000000
High Playback Latency: 0.034830
Supported Rates:
    32000
    44100
    48000
    88200
    96000
    176400
    192000
==============================
Device ID: 6
Device name: HDA NVidia: HDMI 0 (hw:2,9)
Host name: ALSA
Recording channels: 0
Playback channels: 8
Low Recording Latency: -1.000000
Low Playback Latency: 0.008707
High Recording Latency: -1.000000
High Playback Latency: 0.034830
Supported Rates:
    32000
    44100
    48000
    88200
    96000
    176400
    192000
==============================
Device ID: 7
Device name: sysdefault
Host name: ALSA
Recording channels: 128
Playback channels: 0
Low Recording Latency: 0.021333
Low Playback Latency: -1.000000
High Recording Latency: 0.021333
High Playback Latency: -1.000000
Supported Rates:
==============================
Device ID: 8
Device name: pulse
Host name: ALSA
Recording channels: 32
Playback channels: 32
Low Recording Latency: 0.008707
Low Playback Latency: 0.008707
High Recording Latency: 0.034830
High Playback Latency: 0.034830
Supported Rates:
    8000
    9600
    11025
    12000
    15000
    16000
    22050
    24000
    32000
    44100
    48000
    88200
    96000
    176400
    192000
==============================
Device ID: 9
Device name: default
Host name: ALSA
Recording channels: 32
Playback channels: 32
Low Recording Latency: 0.008707
Low Playback Latency: 0.008707
High Recording Latency: 0.034830
High Playback Latency: 0.034830
Supported Rates:
    8000
    9600
    11025
    12000
    15000
    16000
    22050
    24000
    32000
    44100
    48000
    88200
    96000
    176400
    192000
==============================
Selected recording device: 9 - default
Selected playback device: 9 - default
Supported Rates:
    8000
    9600
    11025
    12000
    15000
    16000
    22050
    24000
    32000
    44100
    48000
    88200
    96000
    176400
    192000
==============================
Available mixers:
==============================
Available recording sources:
0 - Front Mic:0
1 - Rear Mic:0
2 - Line:0
3 - Front Mic:1
4 - Rear Mic:1
5 - Line:1
==============================
Available playback volumes:
0 - Master:0
1 - PCM:0
2 - Front:0
3 - Front Mic:0
4 - Front Mic Boost:0
5 - Surround:0
6 - Center:0
7 - LFE:0
8 - Line:0
9 - Line Boost:0
10 - Rear Mic:0
11 - Rear Mic Boost:0
==============================
Recording volume is native
Playback volume is native

[Gale Andrews]

That Pulse Output Devices tab shows:
Built-in audio device analog stereo, port is Line Out (plugged in) - that should be my mobo sound

USB sound card is plugged in, and here's what's in "Help > Audio Device Info."

Again, you don't have an (hw: 0,x) analogue playback device listed there. If you did you could have selected it and bypassed pulse.

Have you attempted to configure the sound on this computer in any unusual ways? Supposing you connect your speakers to "USB Audio Device: - (hw:1,0)" and select that as playback device in Audacity. Does the recorded sound skip at 5x when you play it then?


Gale

[RAaudacity]

That Pulse Output Devices tab shows:
Built-in audio device analog stereo, port is Line Out (plugged in) - that should be my mobo sound

USB sound card is plugged in, and here's what's in "Help > Audio Device Info."

Again, you don't have an (hw: 0,x) analogue playback device listed there. If you did you could have selected it and bypassed pulse.

Have you attempted to configure the sound on this computer in any unusual ways? Supposing you connect your speakers to "USB Audio Device: - (hw:1,0)" and select that as playback device in Audacity. Does the recorded sound skip at 5x when you play it then?
Gale

I can record on either pulse line, then play back at 1x speed through the USB sound card, but I'd prefer using a normal approach through the mobo audio, otherwise I'm switching plugs around whenever I want to use Audacity to record something, and the cheap USB audio card I'm using is going to be lower quality than the mobo audio.

I am waiting on a sound card to be delivered, but there's no guarantee that it will be compatible w/ Ubuntu 15.10.

One thing I haven't mentioned, is that when I'm trying to use it, Audacity frequently goes gray (in Ubuntu) and stops doing anything, and I have to force a quit. There's something bugged up here, and I wish there was a way to solve it.

[Gale Andrews]

the cheap USB audio card I'm using is going to be lower quality than the mobo audio.

You know how the computer was built, but older motherboard audio was often inferior even to cheapest possible USB audio.

I am waiting on a sound card to be delivered, but there's no guarantee that it will be compatible w/ Ubuntu 15.10.

The Ubuntu forums should have advised you on possible compatibility issues.

They might also be able to help you with ALSA configuration files so you could access the motherboard audio without going through pulse.

when I'm trying to use it, Audacity frequently goes gray (in Ubuntu) and stops doing anything, and I have to force a quit.

If you mean when playing, or when holding down transport buttons too long, that is the same pulse/Audacity issue that causes the intermittent rapid playback.


Gale