LinuxMusicians

Hello all,

I use Ubuntu Studio 20.04, and have done so for a year or so without any problems, but then I moved my hard-drive and soundcard to another computer, and after this I get a very distorted, crackling sound. Before the movement I could use JACK, but if I did afterwards I got no sound at all, so I had to use Pulseaudio. Later I became aware of Pipewire, and installed that, following first this guide:

https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-install- ... untu-linux

and later again (when it didn't stop the crackle), this almost identical guide:

https://askubuntu.com/questions/1339765 ... ect=1&lq=1

since it had an extra step, "masking" Pulseaudio (step 8 ), but still the crackling sound remained.

I've also tried with Ubuntu Studio 20.04 from a live-usb, but with that I get no sound at all, don't know why. After that I tried an old version (20.03) of Linux Mint, I have on the same hard drive, and this gives the same distortion as US 20.04. I also have AV Linux (AVL-MXE) on my hard drive, and contrary to US and Mint I can only get sound with JACK here, not with Pulseaudio, but actually here there is NO distortion. Of course thats good, but since US has more apps that I use in its repository than AV Linux has, I prefer US and wish I could get rid of this damned noise. Any suggestions?

PS. When I moved the hard-drive and soundcard to the other computer, I also installed another graphics card, but I guess that has no impack on the sound.

I have had issues in the past with low grade power supplies introducing noise in the sound card. It sounds like it could be possible in what you're describing. If I understand correctly, you had no problems prior to moving your sound card to a new motherboard and power supply. To me this would indicate and issue with motherboard or power supply. You could also check the capacitors on your motherboard to ensure they are not leaking, have lift, or show bulging or corrosion.

Could it be an issue with the audio drivers? I created a bootable flash drive of my Kubuntu 20.04 install which worked perfectly on the laptop it was copied from, but hardly worked at all on a different, newer laptop. In my case it seemed that the Intel audio drivers used for the older laptop didn't play well with the newer computer... even though they both used on-board Intel sound cards.

Very strange, because right now there is suddenly no distortion, and I have done nothing But this has happened a few times before, and everytime the distortion has come back sooner or later, without any apparant reason why it disappeared or why it came back. So I'll just have to wait and see.

Matt, I guess you're right that a low grade power supply maybe could explain it, especially if the coming and going of the distortion without any obvious reason is caused by some instability or lose connection in the power supply. The computer is old, 10-12 years, but in good condition. It's a Lenovo, and afaik it has been used in an office. It looks a new, also the motherboard and all its capacitors. But still the power supply (a LiteOn) could be low grade and perhaps the cause of the problems. I have no idea, but I attach a picture of it.

If that's the case, what's puzzles me is that it was only with Pulseaudio and Pipwire on Ubuntu the distortion appeared, and not with JACK on AV Linux, but of course, if the apperance of the distortion is totally random because of the power supply, it all makes sense.

Ryan, maybe you're right. I didn't update any audio driver when I moved the harddrive and soundcard to the Lenovo computer. Now I've just run the sudo apt-get install dkms command, but what to do after that I don't know. The guides I find on Google all say different things, very confusing :/ My soundcard is M-Audio Delta Audiophile 2496, a PCI card.

I don't see any bad caps in your picture. But that 264w max psu could max out power via pci on your gpu depending on your display manager or if your software is rendering via the GPU. Could just be pulling too many watts. Not honestly sure on this one. But the PSU is suspect to me.

Okay, how the GPU or display manager can be involved is beyond my knowlegde, but it sounds likely to me that the distortion (which is back again now ) is caused by the PSU, so I'll try to find a replacement for it. Also, just some minutes ago I tested the sound on AV Linux, and there too it is distorted now, both with JACK and Pulseaudio, so at least I'm certain now that it's totally random when it appears, which again indicate a hardware problem, like the PSU. Thanks very much for your help. I'll let you know about the result when I've replaced it.

Yes, hopefully it is as simple as upgrading the PSU. I was thinking the GPU may be involved depending on the power consumption as it will vary depending on the load it is under. Could not be a factor. But noise is usually from the power source or power management as in capacitors and components. The power you plug your system into Can also be a factor if your power lines are noisy or shared with high wattage devices that are not well insulated against noise. Can also be caused by using cheap audio cables. But I hope it's an easy fix with the PSU.

I've had distortion on equipment during my graduation project. My mentor simply changed some plugs from one wall outlet to another. And bam! Distortion gone. I felt very stupid then... Some equipment can distort each-other if they're on the same power line. Might be worth a try to determine if the distortion comes if you're putting the coffee machine on.

Mister Mint wrote: ↑Tue Feb 21, 2023 2:31 pm

Ryan, maybe you're right. I didn't update any audio driver when I moved the harddrive and soundcard to the Lenovo computer. Now I've just run the sudo apt-get install dkms command, but what to do after that I don't know. The guides I find on Google all say different things, very confusing :/ My soundcard is M-Audio Delta Audiophile 2496, a PCI card.

I never ended up solving my issue with the drivers, so unfortunately I can't be of more help. I only created the bootable flash drive as an experiment, to see if I could use my perfectly tuned distro on other computers. I gave up and moved to something else when I realized I couldn't.

Good luck finding a solution to your issue!

Thanks for your posts. The notifications I get were hijacked into my spam map, so I didn't see them.

I have replaced the PSU with another now, but the noise is the same. However, the PSU is almost identical to the first one (different names but same company, I think, and same max power, 264w), so of course, the only thing I've ruled out by this replacement is the possibility that the noise was due to some damage in the first PSU. I guess it's still likely that it's a capacity problem and has to do with the GPU, although I don't quite understand how. Is there a way to check if that's the case? For instance, to check if the software is rendering via the GPU?

As for the power outlet and line, I use a wall outlet with nothing else connected, and no other devices connected nearby, and I've also tried with another line, and another wall outlet, but the noise survives it all

If one distro gives you working audio, but another distro on the same hardware doesn't, then the problem is software setup (not your power supply). My first suspicion is to check if your audio card is introducing the distortion due to resampling. Do the following test:

1) Boot AVLinux.
2) Play some audio to confirm no distortion.
3) Run QJackCtl, and click the Setup button. Write down the settings here under Parameters, especially the sample rate. Then click Cancel to close the window.
4) Click the Stop button.
5) Click the Setup button again. Change sample rate. If it was 44100, then change it to 48000. If it was 48000, then change it to 44100.
6) Click the Ok button to close the window.
7) Click the Start button.
8) Play some audio. Do you hear the distortion now?

If you do, then the problem is resampling. In a nutshell, you have a cheesy audio interface that doesn't directly support certain sample rates, and instead performs a rather cheesy processing on the audio to convert it to a rate that is supported. This cheesy processing is causing the distortion.

You therefore need to setup Ubuntu Studio to use the same audio settings as AVLinux does.

My soundcard is M-Audio Delta Audiophile 2496, a PCI card.

Just a heads up. PCI is pretty much obsolete. Today's computers have a PCI express bus which, while it allows plugging PCI cards into it, isn't the same hardware standard. PCI express handles PCI cards via a "translation layer" that can often degrade the card's performance compared to its performance in a PCI bus. I don't believe this is the cause of the distortion. But I just want to warn you that, if your new computer is PCI express, your 2496 may not perform as well as in your old computer.

j_e_f_f_g wrote: ↑Thu Mar 16, 2023 8:55 pm

My soundcard is M-Audio Delta Audiophile 2496, a PCI card.

Just a heads up. PCI is pretty much obsolete. Today's computers have a PCI express bus which, while it allows plugging PCI cards into it, isn't the same hardware standard. PCI express handles PCI cards via a "translation layer" that can often degrade the card's performance compared to its performance in a PCI bus. I don't believe this is the cause of the distortion. But I just want to warn you that, if your new computer is PCI express, your 2496 may not perform as well as in your old computer.

I have the same card. They were released about 25 years ago and still going strong. I think they prefer 48kHz.
I was recording guitar yesterday - 48kHz, 128/2, monitoring through headphones and it worked perfectly. Checking the slot info suggests it is a PCI slot on a PCI Express bus.

sudo dmidecode -t slot |grep -A 4 -B 5 "In Use"
...
Handle 0x001D, DMI type 9, 17 bytes
System Slot Information
        Designation: J6B1
        Type: x1 PCI Express
        Current Usage: In Use
        Length: Short
        ID: 1
        Characteristics:
                3.3 V is provided
 ...

It has 4 slots the same with different designations. No non-Express slots shown. Mobo is 7 years old.
Just replying to say I agree, probably not the cause of distortion.

Mister Mint wrote: ↑Thu Mar 16, 2023 4:33 pm

[...]

As for the power outlet and line, I use a wall outlet with nothing else connected, and no other devices connected nearby, and I've also tried with another line, and another wall outlet, but the noise survives it all

Bummer! But that was worth a try because it's so easy. Good luck troubleshooting!

j_e_f_f_g wrote: ↑Thu Mar 16, 2023 8:46 pm

If one distro gives you working audio, but another distro on the same hardware doesn't, then the problem is software setup (not your power supply). [...]

Ooops. My bad. Didn't realize the distortion was gone w/ another distro

jeefg, I did the test, but whether the rate is 44100 or 48000 makes no difference. However, I wrote in an earlier post (viewtopic.php?p=153285&sid=1a2e2843c2a8 ... 6d#p153285) that the noise also now appearred with AV Linux + JACK: That made me conclude that the noise was totally random, but when I listen several times now there's no noise with AVL + JACK (only with AVL + Pulseaudio), so maybe I was wrong in that post.

BTW, with AVL + JACK I only get sound in one channel / speaker now, don't know why

Afaics, the Qjackctl setup in the two distros are the same, except that the periods / buffer is 3 in AVL, and 2 in Ubuntu Studio, but changing it to 3 in US makes no difference with the noise.

About the PCI sound card, indeed my computer has a PCI express bus, but how to check if that's the cause of the problem I don't know, and as you both say I guess it isn't.

sudo dmidecode -t slot |grep -A 4 -B 5 "In Use"

Handle 0x0010, DMI type 9, 17 bytes
System Slot Information
	Designation: J6B2
	Type: x16 PCI Express
	Current Usage: In Use
	Length: Long
	ID: 1
	Characteristics:
		3.3 V is provided
--

Handle 0x0013, DMI type 9, 17 bytes
System Slot Information
	Designation: J7B1
	Type: 32-bit PCI
	Current Usage: In Use
	Length: Long
	ID: 34
	Characteristics:
		3.3 V is provided