+++ This bug was initially created as a clone of Bug #514784 +++ Description of problem: If you change the balance all the way left, or all the way right, it seems to adversely affect the sound quality - you hear a deformed version of the sound. (It's not the speakers, cause right now the sound is playing slowly - must be sampling/rate conversion induced rather than a speaker problem). Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): pulseaudio-0.9.15-14.fc11.i586 How reproducible: May need much twiddling of balance left and right to reproduce. Steps to Reproduce: 1. Play sound 2. Change balance 3. Adjust volume 4. Return to step 2, and do this several times, including with balance set to extremes. Actual results: After twiddling many times in order to gather data for this bug, the sound became distorted. Expected results: I expect changing balance to not cause my music to be passed through some weird transformation process. :)
Which tool do you use to change the balance?
It was the standard GNOME volume settings tool.
Whcih one? The "advanced" one we ship or gnome-volume-control?
What the normal one is that you get when you when right click the volume icon and open the volume settings window - I think that's gnome-volume-control.
Hmm, could you please reproduce this issue and then paste the output of "pacmd ls" here while you are having these problems?
On the machine where I was having this issue (with NVidia audio), I'm having problems now where I get no sound at all. I removed Pulseaudio to see what ALSA sound on its own was like, and after re-installing all the pulseaudio rpms, I no longer get sound. On another machine, an old slow laptop, if I try replicate this bug there then it seems PA gets wedged (or so busy it seems wedged) before I can replicate. I suspect this isn't completely PAs fault, but rather that gnome-volume-control hasn't responded well to me wiggling the slider and is 'lagged' - still reacting to a long queue of slider movement events - and so keeping PA very busy. Here's 'pacmd ls' on the original NVidia box that had the distortion issue, but which now doesn't play any sound at all. There's an mplayer connected, playing an MP3. There seems to be a sink corresponding to a local ALSA PCI device. The monitor for that sink is showing lots of activity. ALSA volumes are all bumped up. The physical config of the machine (i.e. speakers, electrical volume settings) has not changed over the uninstall/re-install cycle. [paul@stoner ~] (master*+)$ pacmd ls Welcome to PulseAudio! Use "help" for usage information. >>> Memory blocks currently allocated: 93, size: 474.6 KiB. Memory blocks allocated during the whole lifetime: 81475, size: 143.2 MiB. Memory blocks imported from other processes: 92, size: 410.7 KiB. Memory blocks exported to other processes: 0, size: 0 B. Total sample cache size: 0 B. Default sample spec: s16le 2ch 44100Hz Default channel map: front-left,front-right Default sink name: alsa_output.pci_10de_371_sound_card_0 Default source name: alsa_input.pci_10de_371_sound_card_0 Memory blocks of type POOL: 1 allocated/52650 accumulated. Memory blocks of type POOL_EXTERNAL: 0 allocated/7420 accumulated. Memory blocks of type APPENDED: 0 allocated/0 accumulated. Memory blocks of type USER: 0 allocated/0 accumulated. Memory blocks of type FIXED: 0 allocated/23720 accumulated. Memory blocks of type IMPORTED: 92 allocated/5105 accumulated. 22 module(s) loaded. index: 0 name: <module-device-restore> argument: <> used: -1 load once: yes properties: module.author = "Lennart Poettering" module.description = "Automatically restore the volume/mute state of devices" module.version = "0.9.15" index: 1 name: <module-stream-restore> argument: <> used: -1 load once: yes properties: module.author = "Lennart Poettering" module.description = "Automatically restore the volume/mute/device state of streams" module.version = "0.9.15" index: 2 name: <module-card-restore> argument: <> used: -1 load once: yes properties: module.author = "Lennart Poettering" module.description = "Automatically restore profile of cards" module.version = "0.9.15" index: 3 name: <module-augment-properties> argument: <> used: -1 load once: yes properties: module.author = "Lennart Poettering" module.description = "Augment the property sets of streams with additional static information" module.version = "0.9.15" index: 4 name: <module-alsa-card> argument: <device_id=0 name=pci_10de_371_sound_card_0 card_name=alsa_card.pci_10de_371_sound_card_0 tsched=1> used: 1 load once: no properties: module.author = "Lennart Poettering" module.description = "ALSA Card" module.version = "0.9.15" index: 5 name: <module-hal-detect> argument: <> used: -1 load once: yes properties: module.author = "Shahms King" module.description = "Detect available audio hardware and load matching drivers" module.version = "0.9.15" index: 6 name: <module-bluetooth-discover> argument: <> used: -1 load once: yes properties: module.author = "Joao Paulo Rechi Vita" module.description = "Detect available bluetooth audio devices and load bluetooth audio drivers" module.version = "0.9.15" index: 7 name: <module-esound-protocol-unix> argument: <> used: -1 load once: no properties: module.author = "Lennart Poettering" module.description = "ESOUND protocol (UNIX sockets)" module.version = "0.9.15" index: 8 name: <module-native-protocol-unix> argument: <> used: -1 load once: no properties: module.author = "Lennart Poettering" module.description = "Native protocol (UNIX sockets)" module.version = "0.9.15" index: 10 name: <module-native-protocol-tcp> argument: <> used: -1 load once: no properties: module.author = "Lennart Poettering" module.description = "Native protocol (TCP sockets)" module.version = "0.9.15" index: 11 name: <module-esound-protocol-tcp> argument: <> used: -1 load once: no properties: module.author = "Lennart Poettering" module.description = "ESOUND protocol (TCP sockets)" module.version = "0.9.15" index: 12 name: <module-zeroconf-discover> argument: <> used: -1 load once: yes properties: module.author = "Lennart Poettering" module.description = "mDNS/DNS-SD Service Discovery" module.version = "0.9.15" index: 13 name: <module-gconf> argument: <> used: -1 load once: yes properties: module.author = "Lennart Poettering" module.description = "GConf Adapter" module.version = "0.9.15" index: 14 name: <module-default-device-restore> argument: <> used: -1 load once: yes properties: module.author = "Lennart Poettering" module.description = "Automatically restore the default sink and source" module.version = "0.9.15" index: 15 name: <module-rescue-streams> argument: <> used: -1 load once: yes properties: module.author = "Lennart Poettering" module.description = "When a sink/source is removed, try to move their streams to the default sink/source" module.version = "0.9.15" index: 16 name: <module-always-sink> argument: <> used: -1 load once: yes properties: module.author = "Colin Guthrie" module.description = "Always keeps at least one sink loaded even if it's a null one" module.version = "0.9.15" index: 17 name: <module-suspend-on-idle> argument: <> used: -1 load once: yes properties: module.author = "Lennart Poettering" module.description = "When a sink/source is idle for too long, suspend it" module.version = "0.9.15" index: 18 name: <module-console-kit> argument: <> used: -1 load once: yes properties: module.author = "Lennart Poettering" module.description = "Create a client for each ConsoleKit session of this user" module.version = "0.9.15" index: 19 name: <module-position-event-sounds> argument: <> used: -1 load once: yes properties: module.author = "Lennart Poettering" module.description = "Position event sounds between L and R depending on the position on screen of the widget triggering them." module.version = "0.9.15" index: 20 name: <module-cork-music-on-phone> argument: <> used: -1 load once: yes properties: module.author = "Lennart Poettering" module.description = "Mute or cork music while a phone stream exists" module.version = "0.9.15" index: 24 name: <module-raop-discover> argument: <> used: -1 load once: yes properties: module.author = "Colin Guthrie" module.description = "mDNS/DNS-SD Service Discovery of RAOP devices" module.version = "0.9.15" index: 25 name: <module-cli-protocol-unix> argument: <> used: -1 load once: no properties: module.author = "Lennart Poettering" module.description = "Command line interface protocol (UNIX sockets)" module.version = "0.9.15" 1 sink(s) available. * index: 0 name: <alsa_output.pci_10de_371_sound_card_0> driver: <module-alsa-card.c> flags: HARDWARE HW_MUTE_CTRL DECIBEL_VOLUME LATENCY FLAT_VOLUME DYNAMIC_LATENCY state: RUNNING volume: 0: 93% 1: 94% 0: -6.00 dB 1: -4.87 dB balance 0.01 base volume: 100% 0.00 dB volume steps: 65537 muted: no current latency: 14.98 ms max request: 3 KiB max rewind: 344 KiB monitor source: 0 sample spec: s16le 2ch 44100Hz channel map: front-left,front-right Stereo used by: 1 linked by: 1 configured latency: 23.22 ms; range is 2.00 .. 1999.82 ms card: 0 <alsa_card.pci_10de_371_sound_card_0> module: 4 properties: alsa.resolution_bits = "16" alsa.mixer_element = "IEC958" device.api = "alsa" device.class = "sound" alsa.class = "generic" alsa.subclass = "generic-mix" alsa.name = "ALC883 Digital" alsa.id = "ALC883 Digital" alsa.subdevice = "0" alsa.subdevice_name = "subdevice #0" alsa.device = "1" alsa.card = "0" alsa.card_name = "HDA NVidia" alsa.long_card_name = "HDA NVidia at 0xa0000000 irq 16" alsa.driver_name = "snd_hda_intel" device.bus = "pci" device.vendor.id = "10de" device.vendor.name = "nVidia Corporation" device.product.id = "0371" device.product.name = "MCP55 High Definition Audio" device.form_factor = "internal" device.bus_path = "/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:06.1/sound/card0" hal.udi = "/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/pci_10de_371_sound_card_0" hal.product = "HDA NVidia Sound Card" hal.card_id = "HDA NVidia" device.string = "iec958:0" device.buffering.buffer_size = "352768" device.buffering.fragment_size = "176384" device.access_mode = "mmap+timer" device.profile.name = "iec958-stereo" device.profile.description = "Digital Stereo (IEC958)" device.description = "Internal Audio" device.icon_name = "audio-card-pci" 2 source(s) available. index: 0 name: <alsa_output.pci_10de_371_sound_card_0.monitor> driver: <module-alsa-card.c> flags: DECIBEL_VOLUME LATENCY DYNAMIC_LATENCY state: IDLE volume: 0: 100% 1: 100% 0: 0.00 dB 1: 0.00 dB balance 0.00 base volume: 100% 0.00 dB volume steps: 65537 muted: no current latency: 0.00 ms max rewind: 344 KiB sample spec: s16le 2ch 44100Hz channel map: front-left,front-right Stereo used by: 0 linked by: 0 configured latency: 1999.82 ms; range is 2.00 .. 1999.82 ms monitor_of: 0 card: 0 <alsa_card.pci_10de_371_sound_card_0> module: 4 properties: device.description = "Monitor of Internal Audio" device.class = "monitor" alsa.card = "0" alsa.card_name = "HDA NVidia" alsa.long_card_name = "HDA NVidia at 0xa0000000 irq 16" alsa.driver_name = "snd_hda_intel" device.bus = "pci" device.vendor.id = "10de" device.vendor.name = "nVidia Corporation" device.product.id = "0371" device.product.name = "MCP55 High Definition Audio" device.form_factor = "internal" device.bus_path = "/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:06.1/sound/card0" hal.udi = "/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/pci_10de_371_sound_card_0" hal.product = "HDA NVidia Sound Card" hal.card_id = "HDA NVidia" device.string = "0" device.icon_name = "audio-card-pci" * index: 1 name: <alsa_input.pci_10de_371_sound_card_0> driver: <module-alsa-card.c> flags: HARDWARE HW_MUTE_CTRL HW_VOLUME_CTRL DECIBEL_VOLUME LATENCY DYNAMIC_LATENCY state: SUSPENDED volume: 0: 100% 1: 100% 0: 0.00 dB 1: 0.00 dB balance 0.00 base volume: 66% -30.00 dB volume steps: 65537 muted: no current latency: 0.00 ms max rewind: 0 KiB sample spec: s16le 2ch 44100Hz channel map: front-left,front-right Stereo used by: 0 linked by: 0 configured latency: 0.00 ms; range is 0.50 .. 1999.82 ms card: 0 <alsa_card.pci_10de_371_sound_card_0> module: 4 properties: alsa.resolution_bits = "16" alsa.mixer_element = "Capture" device.api = "alsa" device.class = "sound" alsa.class = "generic" alsa.subclass = "generic-mix" alsa.name = "ALC883 Analog" alsa.id = "ALC883 Analog" alsa.subdevice = "0" alsa.subdevice_name = "subdevice #0" alsa.device = "0" alsa.card = "0" alsa.card_name = "HDA NVidia" alsa.long_card_name = "HDA NVidia at 0xa0000000 irq 16" alsa.driver_name = "snd_hda_intel" device.bus = "pci" device.vendor.id = "10de" device.vendor.name = "nVidia Corporation" device.product.id = "0371" device.product.name = "MCP55 High Definition Audio" device.form_factor = "internal" device.bus_path = "/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:06.1/sound/card0" hal.udi = "/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/pci_10de_371_sound_card_0" hal.product = "HDA NVidia Sound Card" hal.card_id = "HDA NVidia" device.string = "front:0" device.buffering.buffer_size = "352768" device.buffering.fragment_size = "176384" device.access_mode = "mmap+timer" device.profile.name = "analog-stereo" device.profile.description = "Analog Stereo" device.description = "Internal Audio" device.icon_name = "audio-card-pci" 7 client(s) logged in. index: 0 driver: <module-console-kit.c> owner module: 18 properties: application.name = "ConsoleKit Session /org/freedesktop/ConsoleKit/Session18" console-kit.session = "/org/freedesktop/ConsoleKit/Session18" index: 1 driver: <protocol-native.c> owner module: 8 properties: application.name = "GNOME Volume Control" native-protocol.peer = "UNIX socket client" native-protocol.version = "15" application.id = "org.gnome.VolumeControl" application.icon_name = "multimedia-volume-control" application.version = "2.26.1" application.process.id = "4889" application.process.user = "paul" application.process.host = "stoner.jakma.org" application.process.binary = "gnome-settings-daemon" window.x11.display = ":0.0" application.language = "en_GB.UTF-8" application.process.machine_id = "e3c6fb95e544bc9c4b496c574a27dbc0" application.process.session_id = "e3c6fb95e544bc9c4b496c574a27dbc0-1251976557.341699-1317536319" index: 3 driver: <protocol-native.c> owner module: 8 properties: application.name = "GNOME Volume Control" native-protocol.peer = "UNIX socket client" native-protocol.version = "15" application.id = "org.gnome.VolumeControl" application.icon_name = "multimedia-volume-control" application.version = "2.27.90.fix" application.process.id = "4997" application.process.user = "paul" application.process.host = "stoner.jakma.org" application.process.binary = "gnome-volume-control-applet" window.x11.display = ":0.0" application.language = "en_GB.UTF-8" application.process.machine_id = "e3c6fb95e544bc9c4b496c574a27dbc0" application.process.session_id = "e3c6fb95e544bc9c4b496c574a27dbc0-1251976557.341699-1317536319" index: 4 driver: <protocol-native.c> owner module: 8 properties: application.name = "libcanberra" native-protocol.peer = "UNIX socket client" native-protocol.version = "15" application.process.id = "4896" application.process.user = "paul" application.process.host = "stoner.jakma.org" application.process.binary = "metacity" window.x11.display = ":0.0" application.language = "en_GB.UTF-8" application.process.machine_id = "e3c6fb95e544bc9c4b496c574a27dbc0" application.process.session_id = "e3c6fb95e544bc9c4b496c574a27dbc0-1251976557.341699-1317536319" index: 13 driver: <protocol-native.c> owner module: 8 properties: application.name = "PulseAudio Manager" native-protocol.peer = "UNIX socket client" native-protocol.version = "15" application.process.id = "6132" application.process.user = "paul" application.process.host = "stoner.jakma.org" application.process.binary = "paman" window.x11.display = ":0.0" application.language = "en_GB.UTF-8" application.process.machine_id = "e3c6fb95e544bc9c4b496c574a27dbc0" application.process.session_id = "e3c6fb95e544bc9c4b496c574a27dbc0-1251976557.341699-1317536319" application.icon_name = "audio-card" index: 15 driver: <protocol-native.c> owner module: 8 properties: application.name = "ALSA plug-in [mplayer]" native-protocol.peer = "UNIX socket client" native-protocol.version = "15" application.process.id = "6258" application.process.user = "paul" application.process.host = "stoner.jakma.org" application.process.binary = "mplayer" application.language = "C" window.x11.display = ":0.0" application.process.machine_id = "e3c6fb95e544bc9c4b496c574a27dbc0" application.process.session_id = "e3c6fb95e544bc9c4b496c574a27dbc0-1251976557.341699-1317536319" index: 16 driver: <cli.c> owner module: 25 properties: application.name = "UNIX socket client" 1 card(s) available. index: 0 name: <alsa_card.pci_10de_371_sound_card_0> driver: <module-alsa-card.c> owner module: 4 properties: alsa.card = "0" alsa.card_name = "HDA NVidia" alsa.long_card_name = "HDA NVidia at 0xa0000000 irq 16" alsa.driver_name = "snd_hda_intel" device.bus = "pci" device.vendor.id = "10de" device.vendor.name = "nVidia Corporation" device.product.id = "0371" device.product.name = "MCP55 High Definition Audio" device.form_factor = "internal" device.bus_path = "/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:06.1/sound/card0" hal.udi = "/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/pci_10de_371_sound_card_0" hal.product = "HDA NVidia Sound Card" hal.card_id = "HDA NVidia" device.string = "0" device.description = "Internal Audio" device.icon_name = "audio-card-pci" profiles: output-iec958-stereo+input-analog-stereo: Output Digital Stereo (IEC958) + Input Analog Stereo (priority 80510) output-iec958-stereo+input-iec958-stereo: Output Digital Stereo (IEC958) + Input Digital Stereo (IEC958) (priority 80505) output-iec958-stereo: Output Digital Stereo (IEC958) (priority 50500) input-analog-stereo: Input Analog Stereo (priority 30010) input-iec958-stereo: Input Digital Stereo (IEC958) (priority 30005) off: Off (priority 0) active profile: <output-iec958-stereo+input-analog-stereo> sinks: alsa_output.pci_10de_371_sound_card_0/#0: Internal Audio sources: alsa_output.pci_10de_371_sound_card_0.monitor/#0: Monitor of Internal Audio alsa_input.pci_10de_371_sound_card_0/#1: Internal Audio 1 sink input(s) available. index: 6 driver: <protocol-native.c> flags: state: RUNNING sink: 0 <alsa_output.pci_10de_371_sound_card_0> volume: 0: 93% 1: 94% 0: -6.00 dB 1: -4.87 dB balance 0.01 muted: no current latency: 354.04 ms requested latency: 23.22 ms sample spec: s16le 2ch 44100Hz channel map: front-left,front-right Stereo resample method: (null) module: 8 client: 15 <ALSA plug-in [mplayer]> properties: media.name = "ALSA Playback" application.name = "ALSA plug-in [mplayer]" native-protocol.peer = "UNIX socket client" native-protocol.version = "15" application.process.id = "6258" application.process.user = "paul" application.process.host = "stoner.jakma.org" application.process.binary = "mplayer" application.language = "C" window.x11.display = ":0.0" application.process.machine_id = "e3c6fb95e544bc9c4b496c574a27dbc0" application.process.session_id = "e3c6fb95e544bc9c4b496c574a27dbc0-1251976557.341699-1317536319" module-stream-restore.id = "sink-input-by-application-name:ALSA plug-in [mplayer]" 0 source outputs(s) available. 0 cache entrie(s) available.
For whatever weird reason I had to rmmod/modprobe snd_hda_intel in order for Pulseaudio to work again (NVidia MCP55, mplayer -ao alsa worked fine). I can no longer replicate this bug with: rpm -q pulseaudio gnome-media; uname -r pulseaudio-0.9.15-14.fc11.i586 gnome-media-2.27.90.fix-1.fc11.i586 2.6.29.4-167.fc11.i686.PAE Thanks!
Aha, it's happening again.. I am playing MP3s in rhythmbox and if I twiddle the balance slider in the standard GNOME volume preferences to either extreme it distorts. I am attaching output of 'pacmd ls' as well as a recording of the sound I hear, while I slide the balance to the extreme and back.
Created attachment 365561 [details] pacmd ls while problem is occuring
Created attachment 365569 [details] Recording of the distortion heard as balance is varied from extreme to centre a few times
This instance of the problem is with following installed: # rpm -q pulseaudio gnome-media kernel pulseaudio-0.9.15-17.fc11.i586 gnome-media-2.27.90.fix-1.fc11.i586 kernel-2.6.30.8-64.fc11.i586
Urg, wrong kernel. Running version is: 2.6.30.5-32.fc11.i686.PAE
*** Bug 523736 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Hmm, I can make it go away here by disabling the SIMD logic (by setting PULSE_NO_SIMD=1 as env var when running PA). Weird stuff.
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Still present in pulseaudio-0.9.21-5.fc12.i686. It seems to require the mixing of audio from 2 or more clients.
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