External USB microphone stuck at 192000

[kyle_1974]

Hi

I am just sorting out a friends very old laptop and have managed to get Mint 20.2 and IDJC (latest build) working and streaming his radio show on it.

When assembling everything I had my HyperX mic to test the sound with default settings (44100 etc in JACK which is required to use IDJC). Just as I am about to do the final testing, I decided to use a fairly cheap 40 pounds standard USB microphone but this time - it is recognised in JACK but I am getting lots of crackling and pops and Xrun errors. I am slowly learning things and looked at the sample rate and in the information screen when JACK is running, it's saying the sample rate is 192000 and yet in the settings it's definitely set to 44100khz.

Is there anything I can do to change this? What could be causing it? I have made a recording and played it back in Audacity without JACK running so I happy that the hardware is not defective.

Thank you in advance for any information or help.

EDIT: Have I posted this in the wrong section? Is there a better place I should I have posted it?

[milo]

That's weird. What settings manager are you using for jack? Qjackctl? Some other jack config? Text editor on config files?

[kyle_1974]

That's weird. What settings manager are you using for jack? Qjackctl? Some other jack config? Text editor on config files?

Hi Milo

Thanks for replying - yes I use Qjackctl - the strange thing is now I do seem to have got it recognised as 44100 now but still not working in JACK/IDJC. I can hear and record things in Audacity to test. My HyperX one still works as expected so perhaps it is just a quirk of this other USB mic? I only got it this year though. I mean the laptop IS very old but everything is being recognised and music is streaming and playing out to my radio server so I am kind of stuck - all I can think of is buying a new microphone for the presenter maybe?

[milo]

Do you have another USB audio device plugged in? Maybe that's the problem. JACK doesn't always behave well with more than one device active.

[kyle_1974]

Nope, just that microphone, I don’t even have the mouse connected at the moment, relying on the touchpad

Edit> Is there anything I can run in terminal to share the output of here?

[milo]

I'm not sure what else to do for troubleshooting. Hopefully someone smarter than me will chime in. If the microphone works just fine in Audacity then it's probably not a hardware issue. Unless maybe you used a different USB port for that particular test. Make sure you try the mic in every port.

[kyle_1974]

Thanks Milo - I think I will just have to put it down to the microphone, I am just sorting another laptop out and touch wood that seems to be doing ok...

EDIT: Yup, on the second laptop, exactly the same, my HyperX works perfectly (well, one xrun error in hour) but this other USB microphone will just not play nice A Yakomon model... only a cheap thing

[Linuxmusician01]

[...]
... USB microphone but this time - it is recognised in JACK but I am getting lots of crackling and pops and Xrun errors. [...] sample rate and in the information screen when JACK is running, it's saying the sample rate is 192000 and yet in the settings it's definitely set to 44100khz.
[...]

Unfortunately I ain't no Jack expert either. But could you try to start Jack from the command line? That may give more info that you can post here between code tags. Try to start Jack like this (if your sound card is number 0, it's number 1 if you have two of 'm):

Code: Select all

jackd -d alsa --device hw:0

That'll probably start Jack in 48 kHz mode but that's easy to fix later. Then look if there's a message about the microphone when you do the same as before.

You say that you have a USB microphone. I've never seen such a thing. The microphones that I use and that I can find in audio equipment shops have a jack plug or XLR. I'm beginning to get a sneakin' suspicion that your mic is a "sound card" (or: "audio interface") and a mic in one. And you generally can only use one sound card at the time. Do you know the brand and type of the mic? Do you have a manufacturer website where we can see what it is?

They say that the Behringer XM8500 is almost as good as a classic Shure and it's only 17 Euro. But it has an XLR plug. So you'll also need a external USB audio device then. You can also try to connect the T.Bone (Thomanns own brand) that has a jack plug with a jack to mini-jack converter to the internal sound card. Or buy a cheap mic with a mini jack that is meant for computer use, but they usually have bad audio quality.

Good luck!

[Linuxmusician01]

P.S. To determine if the mic actually is an audio device, could you post the output of:

Code: Select all

cat /proc/asound/cards

Preferably once with- and once without your USB mic in the computer.

[kyle_1974]

Thanks for the reply linuxmusician01.

I think that USB mics are fairly commonplace now in terms of things like gaming and combined headsets/mics etc and for Twitch streaming? I should add that for my personal broadcast set up I always use xlr mics and interfaces/mixers but I am making the best of what I have to hand for the other presenters with not much money if I am being honest! The mini jack idea was ruled out for that reason.

My HyperX (which amazingly I won in a competition) is a USB one and the reviews always peg it as excellent so I am happy using that for testing but it is quite a bit of money so I didn't want to be giving that away - I probably sound really mean now However, it does work straight off on both these machines I have been building so that leads me to think it is this cheaper mic.

The laptops both have onboard sound built in so I have output set to the soundcard and the input to be the microphone - does that make sense? There's no way round that as otherwise if both are set to USB mic you wouldn't hear the music for the DJ and if are both are set to onboard sound then the DJ can't present. I'd still need to set the input to USB if I was using my mixer as that's USB with an XLR mic going into it for the DJ/Presenter. It definitely all works as I have been doing my show here for 7 years and the HyperX works - it's just this one microphone that is giving me the hassle.


This is what the two jackd commands give me for hw:0 and hw:1 (onboard sound and usb mic)

Code: Select all

jackd -d alsa --device hw:0
jackdmp 1.9.12
Copyright 2001-2005 Paul Davis and others.
Copyright 2004-2016 Grame.
Copyright 2016-2017 Filipe Coelho.
jackdmp comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY
This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it
under certain conditions; see the file COPYING for details
Cannot create RT messagebuffer thread: Operation not permitted (1)
Retrying messagebuffer thread without RT scheduling
Messagebuffer not realtime; consider enabling RT scheduling for user
no message buffer overruns
Cannot create RT messagebuffer thread: Operation not permitted (1)
Retrying messagebuffer thread without RT scheduling
Messagebuffer not realtime; consider enabling RT scheduling for user
no message buffer overruns
Cannot create RT messagebuffer thread: Operation not permitted (1)
Retrying messagebuffer thread without RT scheduling
Messagebuffer not realtime; consider enabling RT scheduling for user
no message buffer overruns
JACK server starting in realtime mode with priority 10
self-connect-mode is "Don't restrict self connect requests"
Cannot lock down 82280346 byte memory area (Cannot allocate memory)
audio_reservation_init
Acquire audio card Audio0
creating alsa driver ... hw:0|hw:0|1024|2|48000|0|0|nomon|swmeter|-|32bit
configuring for 48000Hz, period = 1024 frames (21.3 ms), buffer = 2 periods
ALSA: final selected sample format for capture: 32bit integer little-endian
ALSA: use 2 periods for capture
ALSA: final selected sample format for playback: 32bit integer little-endian
ALSA: use 2 periods for playback
Cannot use real-time scheduling (RR/10)(1: Operation not permitted)
AcquireSelfRealTime error

Code: Select all

jackd -d alsa --device hw:1
jackdmp 1.9.12
Copyright 2001-2005 Paul Davis and others.
Copyright 2004-2016 Grame.
Copyright 2016-2017 Filipe Coelho.
jackdmp comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY
This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it
under certain conditions; see the file COPYING for details
Cannot create RT messagebuffer thread: Operation not permitted (1)
Retrying messagebuffer thread without RT scheduling
Messagebuffer not realtime; consider enabling RT scheduling for user
no message buffer overruns
Cannot create RT messagebuffer thread: Operation not permitted (1)
Retrying messagebuffer thread without RT scheduling
Messagebuffer not realtime; consider enabling RT scheduling for user
no message buffer overruns
Cannot create RT messagebuffer thread: Operation not permitted (1)
Retrying messagebuffer thread without RT scheduling
Messagebuffer not realtime; consider enabling RT scheduling for user
no message buffer overruns
JACK server starting in realtime mode with priority 10
self-connect-mode is "Don't restrict self connect requests"
Cannot lock down 82280346 byte memory area (Cannot allocate memory)
audio_reservation_init
Acquire audio card Audio1
creating alsa driver ... hw:1|hw:1|1024|2|48000|0|0|nomon|swmeter|-|32bit
ALSA: Cannot open PCM device alsa_pcm for playback. Falling back to capture-only mode
configuring for 48000Hz, period = 1024 frames (21.3 ms), buffer = 2 periods
ALSA: final selected sample format for capture: 24bit little-endian in 3bytes format
ALSA: use 2 periods for capture
Cannot use real-time scheduling (RR/10)(1: Operation not permitted)
AcquireSelfRealTime error

This is what lsusb shows me - the mic has Yakomon printed on it and is a podcast mic - to be honest for all this, I am tempted to bin and let the presenters just buy their own USB one or use an XLR/interface for the time this is taking.

Code: Select all

 Bus 005 Device 002: ID 0a67:ffff Medeli Electronics Co., Ltd USB LCS AUDIO

I should say (lastly) the microphone does work with no issues in Windows and does work with no issues in Mint when just recording in Audacity - so there seems to be some issue with JACK - which is the pain because I cannot use IDJC without JACK.

Thank you for looking at this.

[Linuxmusician01]

[...]
The laptops both have onboard sound built in so I have output set to the soundcard and the input to be the microphone - does that make sense? There's no way round that as otherwise if both are set to USB mic you wouldn't hear the music for the DJ and if are both are set to onboard sound then the DJ can't present.[...]
This is what the two jackd commands give me for hw:0 and hw:1 (onboard sound and usb mic)\
[...]

You have two sound cards. One is inside your laptop, the other is inside the USB microphone. That's why you have hw:0 as well as hw:1. No computer (Win, Apple or Linux) likes to use two soundcards at the same time.

You want to use the on-board card and the mic IN together with (Line) OUT of said card. No problem. But then you'll physically have to connect a mic to the IN of your computer's on board sound card. That's unfortunately impossible with a USB mic.

To make a long story short: I'm afraid you'll have to buy another microphone unless the USB mic also has audio out (like a headphone/mic combo used for computer gaming)... Sorry man.

[merlyn]

Code: Select all

...
Cannot lock down 82280346 byte memory area (Cannot allocate memory)
...
Cannot use real-time scheduling (RR/10)(1: Operation not permitted)
...

Those messages are a bit of a problem. That would suggest to me your user is not in the audio group, or the limits for the audio group are not configured correctly. When a standard distro is set up for audio it's a good idea to run realtimeconfigquickscan to check everything is set up well.

https://github.com/raboof/realtimeconfigquickscan

[kyle_1974]

Thanks Merlyn. I had forgotten to do the configscan which I have now rectified and which I used to do as a matter of course.

Linuxmusician01 - Thanks for looking at this - I totally get what you're saying but I don't understand it (well I do but...)

Both laptops do work as I would expect them to work, or like them to work when using a USB mic which is not this particular Yakoman model.

My HyperX works for example, although I I understand that I could plug headphones into the HyperX - I have not needed to do that - it just works as I would expect it to - I do get that in that situation the JACK input/output could both be set to HyperX with headphones plugged into the physical mic. I would however need to ensure that no sound is going to the inbuilt PC speakers as I would not want that sound picked up by the mic and looping. This could of course be a moot point because the broadcaster who is not me would not be using my HyperX.

Out of interest I have just plugged tried each of my USB Behringer mixers into each of the laptops as well as way of a test. So the sound output is going to headphones (from the laptop) and my xlr mic is going into the mixer which then goes via USB cable into the PC and that is working as I've just sat trying it (hence my quietness for the past hour or so).

I have been doing my shows for 6/7 years with this kind of set up, i.e., headphones into PC headphone socket and mixer or mic via the USB connection into laptop or desktop - so I am just curious why this one particular microphone is not playing as I would expect it based on the years I have been doing it.

[merlyn]

The received wisdom is that you're doing it the 'wrong' way. I can't understand why you want to do it this way -- one interface for input and one for output, but you do so ...

If I understand correctly you have a different input and output selected in QjackCtl > Settings > Advanced ?

That's only supposed to be used when you have a sync between the two interfaces like word clock or s/pdif, but anyway ...

A more reliable (but far from perfect) solution is to run JACK on one interface (both input and output) and use alsa_in or alsa_out for the other interface. Fiddly to set up, but it comes pre-configured in Ubuntu Studio, where USB interfaces are added to JACK when they're plugged in.

[kyle_1974]

The received wisdom is that you're doing it the 'wrong' way. I can't understand why you want to do it this way -- one interface for input and one for output, but you do so ...

If I understand correctly you have a different input and output selected in QjackCtl > Settings > Advanced ?

That's only supposed to be used when you have a sync between the two interfaces like word clock or s/pdif, but anyway ...

A more reliable (but far from perfect) solution is to run JACK on one interface (both input and output) and use alsa_in or alsa_out for the other interface. Fiddly to set up, but it comes pre-configured in Ubuntu Studio, where USB interfaces are added to JACK when they're plugged in.

The second line is right Merlyn.

So to explain a bit more - and I sort of ended up like this originally because I didn't realise this wasn't the way I was supposed to do it when I started out with IDJC all those years ago.

This is going to sound horrific to anyone who works with sound but here goes.

I plugged my headphones into the PC so I could hear the music going out, jingles etc - the output I was broadcasting. For my microphone and being new to all this way of doing it years back I thought it would be as simple as plugging my USB microphone (or USB mixer) into the PC, selecting the input appropriately in JACK and then selecting "In the mix" in IDJC. This allowed me to hear myself in my headphones, without any delay or latency issues, in real time. This was important to me so if I was too quiet or too loud I could adjust my voice on the fly or adjust my bed music on the fly if it was drowning me out or it was too quiet. Going back years on here there's probably a thread where others were shocked this was working this way simply for the fact it shouldn't - but er, it does. And even in this iteration, the setup I am used to is working with the HyperX just not with this Yakomon microphone. I don't really want to spend over a 100/140 quid buying another HyperX as much as I love my co presenters!

EDIT: I would happily never touch JACK again for the rest of my days - the only reason I come across it is for IDJC which I am dependent on