Bad Sound Quality


Okay I'm not getting noise I'm getting the sound it's just clipped/garbled but it's recognizeable.

Other news... I sucessfully got my imic to work! And the sound was A Okay! The only thing is I restarted and now I can't get it to be recognized anymore... :(

I can't get anything to be recognized through USB now... bummer...

Restarted multiple times... nothing... going to try shutdown and then turn on. Pandora is USB 2.0 right? imic is usb 2.0 right? shouldn't need a hub right?

I'm going to reflash...

Oh by the way... this post is what helped me get it working.

Plugged hub into mac... works fine... imic through hub works fine... Do i have bad usb now too?
 
EvilDragon said:
x68000 said:
^mine has the same output problems regardless what it feed through (speakers, earphones, cans etc)
Click to expand...

That's a completeley different thing. That's ALSA doing buffer underruns when CPU Usage is too high (which happens with MAME, for example).
That's something that needs to be fixed with software.

The other problem we were talking about here is that sometimes (or almost always on some units) the sound initialization seems to fail and only noise comes out.
IF a game runs, it runs fine - and if the noise appears, it stays like that.
Click to expand...
That makes sense as pausing seems to allow the buffer to catch up and things run ok for a while.

There has been some ALSA related talk in this thread. Hope everyone is clear as to what their problem is related to.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
iI will check this thread later my sound seems to be wonky as well, a lot of static and my volume weel does not work properly there is a slight difference in completly up and completly down but its hardy noticible.
 
Maybe it would be an idea to check the sound issues with a minimal os with sound drivers and mp3blaster from commandline.
Then you could tell if it is software related.
 
Wish I knew how... I got the imic working and the sound is perfect through that.
 
I'm not sure if its related but my problem with sound is that its too quiet when playing a movie or mp3's. This was disappointing because I read reviews that said the sound was pretty loud. The movie (momento B) ) is so quiet that I can't understand the dialogue without using headphones (or holding the pandora 2 inches from my face :p). At first I just figured that was as loud as it gets but after comparing it to my friend's pandora I could tell right away that my max volume was quieter than his. I've played with all the mixer settings I could find. I was thinking I had a hardware problem but when I played snes for the first time I noticed that the max volume in game is much louder than playing movies or music. I don't seem to hear any distortion so my problem could be completely unrelated...
 
MonkeyChops said:
I'm not sure if its related but my problem with sound is that its too quiet when playing a movie or mp3's. This was disappointing because I read reviews that said the sound was pretty loud. The movie (momento B) ) is so quiet that I can't understand the dialogue without using headphones (or holding the pandora 2 inches from my face :p ). At first I just figured that was as loud as it gets but after comparing it to my friend's pandora I could tell right away that my max volume was quieter than his. I've played with all the mixer settings I could find. I was thinking I had a hardware problem but when I played snes for the first time I noticed that the max volume in game is much louder than playing movies or music. I don't seem to hear any distortion so my problem could be completely unrelated...
Click to expand...

Did you try the same movie on his Pandora?
 
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yes, that was what I used for the test, also its not just the movies but the mps's that are quiet as well. Gonna try some other emulators today and see how the volume is in them. I know psx and snes were plenty loud.
 
Just throwing this idea out there for what it's worth. It may be totally stupid.

Can someone write a program that plays a test tone or sample on the Pandora and uses the built in microphone to work out if it's below acceptable volume levels when the potentiometer is set first at the lowest (which should equal silence for most I guess) and the highest? It can also take into account the mixer levels and possibly have a crack at analysing the cause of popping / crackling sound by playing different frequencies of tone and various bitrates.
Kind of like the self set-up for home amplifiers, but also good for diagnosis (especially if it can report back to base with a collection of recordings from various people's machines).

M.
 
I was wondering the same thing. seems like a good idea to me. However Notaz is going to be getting a Pandora with a sound problem soon so its probably best to see what he comes up with first. (reference link)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I'm just praying mine isn't hardware. Does anyone else have this problem and it has never been OK? I know some people say this happens only some of the times, but Mine is all the time. And it seems to only effect low pitched frequencies.

Edit: I've had a breakthrough! :D

I found this on the internet
Code: 
To Test Audio-Out Interface, Playback the recorded Audio
[root@beagleboard mmc]# aplay -t wav -c 2 -r 44100 -f S16_LE -v k
Audio should be heard on Speakers, Following output is expected on console
Playing WAVE 'k' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 44100 Hz, Stereo
Plug PCM: Hardware PCM card 0 'TWL4030' device 0 subdevice 0
Its setup is:
  stream       : PLAYBACK
  access       : RW_INTERLEAVED
  format       : S16_LE
  subformat    : STD
  channels     : 2
  rate         : 44100
  exact rate   : 44100 (44100/1)
  msbits       : 16
  buffer_size  : 32768
  period_size  : 2048
  period_time  : 46439
  tick_time    : 7812
  tstamp_mode  : NONE
  period_step  : 1
  sleep_min    : 0
  avail_min    : 2048
  xfer_align   : 2048
  start_threshold  : 32768
  stop_threshold   : 32768
  silence_threshold: 0
  silence_size : 0
  boundary     : 1073741824

Now this was a diagnostics for the beagle board. I tried setting my asound profile as closely as I could to this and my audio is near perfect! Just a slight barely noticeable crackle here and there!
Thank God! I'm gonna tweak it some more. Maybe some other people will have luck with these settings?

Edit: Okay now I think I'm were some other people are. I'm playing picodrive and sometimes during the game the audio goes bad again... but if I go to the emu menu and resume the game the audio is fine again... with a slight light crackle...
 
HackModford said:
I'm just praying mine isn't hardware. Does anyone else have this problem and it has never been OK? I know some people say this happens only some of the times, but Mine is all the time. And it seems to only effect low pitched frequencies.

Edit: I've had a breakthrough! :D

I found this on the internet
Code: 
To Test Audio-Out Interface, Playback the recorded Audio
[root@beagleboard mmc]# aplay -t wav -c 2 -r 44100 -f S16_LE -v k
Audio should be heard on Speakers, Following output is expected on console
Playing WAVE 'k' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 44100 Hz, Stereo
Plug PCM: Hardware PCM card 0 'TWL4030' device 0 subdevice 0
Its setup is:
  stream       : PLAYBACK
  access       : RW_INTERLEAVED
  format       : S16_LE
  subformat    : STD
  channels     : 2
  rate         : 44100
  exact rate   : 44100 (44100/1)
  msbits       : 16
  buffer_size  : 32768
  period_size  : 2048
  period_time  : 46439
  tick_time    : 7812
  tstamp_mode  : NONE
  period_step  : 1
  sleep_min    : 0
  avail_min    : 2048
  xfer_align   : 2048
  start_threshold  : 32768
  stop_threshold   : 32768
  silence_threshold: 0
  silence_size : 0
  boundary     : 1073741824

Now this was a diagnostics for the beagle board. I tried setting my asound profile as closely as I could to this and my audio is near perfect! Just a slight barely noticeable crackle here and there!
Thank God! I'm gonna tweak it some more. Maybe some other people will have luck with these settings?

Edit: Okay now I think I'm were some other people are. I'm playing picodrive and sometimes during the game the audio goes bad again... but if I go to the emu menu and resume the game the audio is fine again... with a slight light crackle...
Click to expand...

Congrats! ^_^

-God Ginrai
 
Last edited by a moderator:
HackModford said:
I'm just praying mine isn't hardware. Does anyone else have this problem and it has never been OK? I know some people say this happens only some of the times, but Mine is all the time. And it seems to only effect low pitched frequencies.

Edit: I've had a breakthrough! :D

I found this on the internet
Code: 
To Test Audio-Out Interface, Playback the recorded Audio
[root@beagleboard mmc]# aplay -t wav -c 2 -r 44100 -f S16_LE -v k
Audio should be heard on Speakers, Following output is expected on console
Playing WAVE 'k' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 44100 Hz, Stereo
Plug PCM: Hardware PCM card 0 'TWL4030' device 0 subdevice 0
Its setup is:
  stream       : PLAYBACK
  access       : RW_INTERLEAVED
  format       : S16_LE
  subformat    : STD
  channels     : 2
  rate         : 44100
  exact rate   : 44100 (44100/1)
  msbits       : 16
  buffer_size  : 32768
  period_size  : 2048
  period_time  : 46439
  tick_time    : 7812
  tstamp_mode  : NONE
  period_step  : 1
  sleep_min    : 0
  avail_min    : 2048
  xfer_align   : 2048
  start_threshold  : 32768
  stop_threshold   : 32768
  silence_threshold: 0
  silence_size : 0
  boundary     : 1073741824

Now this was a diagnostics for the beagle board. I tried setting my asound profile as closely as I could to this and my audio is near perfect! Just a slight barely noticeable crackle here and there!
Thank God! I'm gonna tweak it some more. Maybe some other people will have luck with these settings?

Edit: Okay now I think I'm were some other people are. I'm playing picodrive and sometimes during the game the audio goes bad again... but if I go to the emu menu and resume the game the audio is fine again... with a slight light crackle...
Click to expand...

Could you post your asound profile? I wanna take a look at that and include that for a new hotfix if it solves the problem for most of the guys.

After all, you had the worst audio Pandora so far, if it nearly solves this completely for you, we're almost there!
 
Last edited:
EvilDragon said:
HackModford said:
I'm just praying mine isn't hardware. Does anyone else have this problem and it has never been OK? I know some people say this happens only some of the times, but Mine is all the time. And it seems to only effect low pitched frequencies.

Edit: I've had a breakthrough! :D

I found this on the internet
Code: 
To Test Audio-Out Interface, Playback the recorded Audio
[root@beagleboard mmc]# aplay -t wav -c 2 -r 44100 -f S16_LE -v k
Audio should be heard on Speakers, Following output is expected on console
Playing WAVE 'k' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 44100 Hz, Stereo
Plug PCM: Hardware PCM card 0 'TWL4030' device 0 subdevice 0
Its setup is:
  stream       : PLAYBACK
  access       : RW_INTERLEAVED
  format       : S16_LE
  subformat    : STD
  channels     : 2
  rate         : 44100
  exact rate   : 44100 (44100/1)
  msbits       : 16
  buffer_size  : 32768
  period_size  : 2048
  period_time  : 46439
  tick_time    : 7812
  tstamp_mode  : NONE
  period_step  : 1
  sleep_min    : 0
  avail_min    : 2048
  xfer_align   : 2048
  start_threshold  : 32768
  stop_threshold   : 32768
  silence_threshold: 0
  silence_size : 0
  boundary     : 1073741824

Now this was a diagnostics for the beagle board. I tried setting my asound profile as closely as I could to this and my audio is near perfect! Just a slight barely noticeable crackle here and there!
Thank God! I'm gonna tweak it some more. Maybe some other people will have luck with these settings?

Edit: Okay now I think I'm were some other people are. I'm playing picodrive and sometimes during the game the audio goes bad again... but if I go to the emu menu and resume the game the audio is fine again... with a slight light crackle...
Click to expand...

Could you post your asound profile? I wanna take a look at that and include that for a new hotfix if it solves the problem for most of the guys.

After all, you had the worst audio Pandora so far, if it nearly solves this completely for you, we're almost there!
Click to expand...

A Hotfix that changes the sound profile should be optional, IMHO. I know that those of us who have working sound wouldn't want to chance something that changes our sound set up. If you make it optional, anyone who runs into the problem can use the fix, and you don't chance messing up someone else's.

-God Ginrai
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Heres what I did
Code: 
pcm.dmixed {
    type dmix
    ipc_key 1234
    slave {

         pcm "hw:0"
         buffer_size 32768
         #periods 128
         period_size 2048
        
         period_time 46439
         buffer_time 0
         rate 44100


    }
}


pcm.softvol {
    type softvol
    slave {
          pcm      "dmixed"
    }
    control {
          name     "Master"
          card 0
    }
}

pcm.!default {
    type     plug
    slave.pcm   "softvol"
}

pcm.dsp0 {
    type plug
    slave {
          pcm "hw:0"
    }
}

ctl.dsp0 {
    type plug
    slave.pcm "hw:0"
}

ctl.mixer0 {
    type plug
    slave.pcm "hw:0"
}

Im gonna try copy/pasteing all those settings to see what happens too
 
Hi,

while waiting for a reply, I also tried some settings.

You can get them here:

http://www.openpandora.org/downloads/SoundFixBeta.pnd

You can switch between the new settings I created based on the info you posted before and the original ones with that PND.

Please let me know if this also works for you (backup your custom .asoundrc before using the program).

Use the PND like any other PND :)
 
I tried it and got the same results (maybe slightly worse?)

Sometimes audio can be horrible
Sometimes audio is bearable but not perfect...

Edit: Also putting those beagleboard settings into the config file didn't help anymore than what I've done. Seems to have been the buffer/period size that's made the difference (per Ed's suggestion) I don't know why these specific numbers help better than what Ed suggested but oh well...

Edit: I checked to see what Ed's PND did and it looks like it does what I was going to do if that makes sense :p
I think it actually makes it worse than what I have above.
 
I think sound is not getting re-set in between being opened by apps, and the buffer/sample rate settings, as well as audio h/w gain settings, are getting mixed up a bit by each individual app.

It would be good to know a list of apps that a) always work, B) sometimes work, and c) never work with perfect sound, and in the B) case, try to find out what prior app you are running which changes the condition from a) -> B) ..

Now that I got PandOricutron out of the way, I will focus on my Audio apps package for Pandora, and start testing it to find out whats going on ..
 
This sounds a lot like the common zsnes problem a lot of people (including me) have on their PCs... it's probably mostly what torpor said. Some programs force bad defaults and don't get set back to normal upon close (Though shouldn't the driver reset the parameters each time the device is opened?).
 
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