Sound recording problems

richardrosa · August 4, 2020, 11:26am

Greetings All

I am trying to utilize AUDACITY to capture input from the Line-In connection of the computer.
Unfortunately, this has been an exercise in futility.

Problem 1:
In spite of the fact that the PulseAudio Volume Control shows a ‘monitor’,
I have been unable to get the output to include what is coming in to the Line-In plug.

Problem 2:
The adjustment of the ‘input’ level using PulseAudio Volume Control behaves in a weird manner.
Increasing the volume slightly results in an almost instant indication of the signal going to maximum.
Returning the signal to ‘silence’ takes about a minute for the meter to respond: It seems to be doing it in small steps…

Problem 3:
When I attempt to record what is coming in on the Line-In plug using AUDACITY,
the recording is made with some sort of strange compression: 1 minute of sound results in 1 second of recorded media.
If I disconnect the plug into the line-in, or select the Mic-in (not connected), AUDACITY will record at a normal rate,
although there is no sound to record…

If PulseAudio is disabled using setup-pulseaduio --disable, AUDACITY can record normally.
I can even monitor the input (using ALSAMIXER).
However, any attempts to play what was recorded (or any other audio file) returns an error message about the ALSA host being down.
No media files can be played until PulseAudio is enabled again.
A reboot also appears to be needed to make --disable or --enable take affect.

I’ve even tried a clean install WITHOUT PulseAudio, but I still get the message:

‘ALSA error:snd_pcm_open failed:Host is down’*
when attempting to play any media unless PulseAudio is installed and enabled.

It would be nice to eliminate PulseAudio altogether, but there appears to be some additional magic that is needed to do so.

Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated

Suse level is 15.2. Hardware:AMD Ryzen/Asus X370 Prime Motherboard.

Richard Rosa




>pactl stat
Currently in use: 16 blocks containing 88.0 KiB bytes total.
Allocated during whole lifetime: 1757 blocks containing 3.0 MiB bytes total.
Sample cache size: 0 B

>pactl info
Server String: /run/user/1000/pulse/native
Library Protocol Version: 33
Server Protocol Version: 33
Is Local: yes
Client Index: 7
Tile Size: 65472

Server Name: pulseaudio
Server Version: 13.0-rebootstrapped
Default Sample Specification: s16le 2ch 44100Hz
Default Channel Map: front-left,front-right
Default Sink: alsa_output.pci-0000_0d_00.3.analog-stereo
Default Source: alsa_input.pci-0000_0d_00.3.analog-stereo
Cookie: 4473:92fe

>pactl list short
0       module-device-restore
1       module-stream-restore
2       module-card-restore
3       module-augment-properties
4       module-switch-on-port-available
5       module-udev-detect
6       module-alsa-card        device_id="0" name="pci-0000_0a_00.1" card_name="alsa_card.pci-0000_0a_00.1" namereg_fail=false tsched=yes fixed_latency_range=no ignore_dB=no deferred_volume=yes use_ucm=yes avoid_resampling=no card_properties="module-udev-detect.discovered=1"
7       module-alsa-card        device_id="1" name="pci-0000_0d_00.3" card_name="alsa_card.pci-0000_0d_00.3" namereg_fail=false tsched=yes fixed_latency_range=no ignore_dB=no deferred_volume=yes use_ucm=yes avoid_resampling=no card_properties="module-udev-detect.discovered=1"
8       module-esound-protocol-unix
9       module-native-protocol-unix
10      module-gsettings
11      module-zeroconf-discover
12      module-default-device-restore
13      module-rescue-streams
14      module-always-sink
15      module-intended-roles
16      module-suspend-on-idle
17      module-console-kit
18      module-systemd-login
19      module-position-event-sounds
20      module-role-cork
21      module-filter-heuristics
22      module-filter-apply
0       alsa_output.pci-0000_0d_00.3.analog-stereo      module-alsa-card.c      s16le 2ch 44100Hz       IDLE
0       alsa_output.pci-0000_0d_00.3.analog-stereo.monitor      module-alsa-card.c      s16le 2ch 44100Hz       RUNNING
1       alsa_input.pci-0000_0d_00.3.analog-stereo       module-alsa-card.c      s16le 2ch 44100Hz       RUNNING
0       0       4       protocol-native.c       float32le 1ch 25Hz
1       1       4       protocol-native.c       float32le 1ch 25Hz
2       0       5       protocol-native.c       float32le 1ch 25Hz
3       1       5       protocol-native.c       float32le 1ch 25Hz
0       module-systemd-login.c  (null)
1       protocol-native.c       pavucontrol
2       protocol-native.c       palemoon
3       protocol-native.c       plasmashell
4       protocol-native.c       pavucontrol
5       protocol-native.c       pavucontrol
9       protocol-native.c       pactl
0       alsa_card.pci-0000_0a_00.1      module-alsa-card.c
1       alsa_card.pci-0000_0d_00.3      module-alsa-card.c

john_hudson · August 4, 2020, 10:57pm

Problem 1: Unless there is some input to Line 1, Pulseaudio will not show it. If you want to monitor what is on Line 1, do it in Audacity.
Problem 2: Possibly you need to set “flat-volumes = no” in daemon.conf which may be in .config/pulse/ in your /home directory or /etc/pulse/. [Though /etc/pulse/daemon.conf.d/60-disable_flat_volumes.conf is supposed to do this, it did not seem to work; so I added daemon.conf (suitably edited) to .config/pulse/ and it seems to have done the trick.]
Problem 3: sorry, cannot offer any sugestion for this.

richardrosa · August 7, 2020, 6:35pm

The problems I am facing are definitely due to PulseAudio.
I suspect that Pulse is unhappy about something in the Motherboard Sound hardware (ASUS with Realtek S1220A).
Removing Pulse allows me to make recordings with no problem. However, once Pulse is removed,
there does not appear to be any way to direct a number of applications to send output through ALSA.
Some apps (such as Audacious) provide the the ability to specify the output device.
However, others (such as Chrome) appear to only output to whatever default is set (Pulse).

I have spent the better part of the week (excluding the 24 hours without power)
trying to find the way to utilize sound WITHOUT pulse.
I have tried numerous incantations offered from various web sites,
but none seem to break the spell.
Suse appears to have firmly wedged PulseAudio between Alsa and my speakers…

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to utilize the sound system WITHOUT PulseAudio?

Richard Rosa

john_hudson · August 7, 2020, 10:46pm

This recent article (https://linuxhint.com/guide_linux_audio/) suggests that you can do away with PulseAudio if you want and rely on ALSA and OSS. Presumably, ALSA will then become the default.

deano_ferrari · August 8, 2020, 12:28am

I’m no audio guru, but I wonder if JACK might be employed to help here…
https://jackaudio.org/faq/pulseaudio_and_jack.html
https://forums.opensuse.org/showthread.php/522377-Pulseaudio-with-Jack-server
https://forum.manjaro.org/t/how-to-replace-pulseaudio-with-jack-jack-and-pulseaudio-together-as-friend/2086

jolinewolfgram · August 9, 2020, 11:12am

Recorded a podcast track in GarageBand but can’t hear anything when you play it back? Follow the steps below to troubleshoot and hopefully fix the problem.

http://digitalwriting101.net/wp-content/uploads/mac-finding-system-preferences.png

**click on sound **

http://digitalwriting101.net/wp-content/uploads/mac-system-preferences-sound.png

Also make sure the input volume is high enough. Start talking and adjust the volume so that blue oblong “dots” that appear as you talk extend around three quarters of the way across the bar of “dots.”

Open the Preferences from the GarageBand menu and click the Audio tab.
Make sure each drop-down is set to System Settings (so that GarageBand will always use whatever you’ve set as your system default.) https://garagebandpc.com/

[FONT=microsoft sans serif]It sounds like you have completed some great isolation and troubleshooting steps as well. I know you have checked the input in GarageBand, but I would suggest first checking the input in System Preferences. Please use the attached article to navigate to the sound input for your computer and verifying that it is working there. If the issue continues, please let me know.

[FONT=arial black]I still haven’t reinstalled Garage Band, as I wanted to get my podcast done before the end of the month. I exported the cast as it was to an external hard drive, along with small mp3’s I had been about to add in (like my jingle) then went to another computer in the house, and recreated the podcast from those mp3’s. I was able to add in the introductory audio recording on that other computer and complete my podcast.[/FONT][/FONT]

oldcpu · August 11, 2020, 6:37am

As a ‘work around’ rather than totally disabling pulse audio, did you try launching audacity (only) with pulse audio disabled only for that app (audacity)?

i.e. something like:

pasuspender -- audacity

I don’t know if that would work, but as a ‘work around’ its worth a shot. Ultimately thou, you need to sort out why audacity is not recording for you. I suspect a pulse audio misconfiguration somewhere.

Liam8090 · June 8, 2021, 11:20am

Your voice recordings are too bassy (proximity effect)
You can hear too lots ambient sound in your recordings
Your mic simply isn’t accurate enough
You get bassy rumbles due to vibrations from the ground or your desk
Your respiration is distractingly loud in voice recordings
Your audio sounds distorted and unclear
You have occasional ‘pops’ in your audio and ‘ess’ sounds are very harsh (plosives and sibilance)
Your video audio is bleeding into your voice over recordings
Outdoor recordings are doubtful due to plenty of wind noise
Sound is bleeding between microphones in your multi-mic setup

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