Playtime with Pulse Audio

[Archie]

I would have made a Veromix package for you, Just18 but I don't have 4.6.5 anymore.

But I'm happy to know you're a cheerful chappy with PulseAudio. 

[Just17]

I would have made a Veromix package for you, Just18 but I don't have 4.6.5 anymore.

But I'm happy to know you're a cheerful chappy with PulseAudio. 

Oh I find it easy to live without Veromix Archie, so no problem mate 

Indeed I am happy with PA ....  and most definitely with the GUI access to some of the functions.

One thing I hope to see soon is a recording app for KDE which uses PA.
Maybe something on the lines of what I posted earlier -- except of course with a 'proper' GUI etc . 
Something like that, coupled with the ability to mix sound streams could produce a Karaoke style experience .....  with a record function 

[Archie]

I would have made a Veromix package for you, Just18 but I don't have 4.6.5 anymore.

But I'm happy to know you're a cheerful chappy with PulseAudio. 

Oh I find it easy to live without Veromix Archie, so no problem mate 

Indeed I am happy with PA ....  and most definitely with the GUI access to some of the functions.

One thing I hope to see soon is a recording app for KDE which uses PA.
Maybe something on the lines of what I posted earlier -- except of course with a 'proper' GUI etc . 
Something like that, coupled with the ability to mix sound streams could produce a Karaoke style experience .....  with a record function 

That's a tall order, Just18 ... but if you can find one or two, do let me know and I always look forward to working with you.

[Just17]

I would have made a Veromix package for you, Just18 but I don't have 4.6.5 anymore.

But I'm happy to know you're a cheerful chappy with PulseAudio.  

Oh I find it easy to live without Veromix Archie, so no problem mate  

Indeed I am happy with PA ....  and most definitely with the GUI access to some of the functions.

One thing I hope to see soon is a recording app for KDE which uses PA.
Maybe something on the lines of what I posted earlier -- except of course with a 'proper' GUI etc .  
Something like that, coupled with the ability to mix sound streams could produce a Karaoke style experience .....  with a record function  

That's a tall order, Just18 ... but if you can find one or two, do let me know and I always look forward to working with you.

I haven't yet found anything .....  but will keep a look-out for something interesting

PA has mixing facilities and relative volumes for each input to the mixed audio channel. So to mix say a voice with a sound track is not difficult ......  and of course that mixed audio channel can easily be recorded.

I will hopefully come back to this topic in the future ......  if my interest is maintained  

For now I must investigate the PA Equalizer and see if we have the needed modules - we have one that appears to be what is needed as well as LADSPA integration.

So, I have some research to do  

This is an interesting read ......  dropped here so I don't lose the link 
http://pcplus.techradar.com/2012/02/15/build-a-virtual-studio-with-pulseaudio/

[Just17]

I came across this ... eventually ...  which appears to be a GUI for the PA Equaliser.

Any thoughts?

https://sites.google.com/site/nevion/projects/qpaeq

When using Veromix, the LADSPA effects are all available, but the above is the only PA equaliser GUI I have so far found.

We do appear to have the pulseaudio module-equalizer-sink  module which I believe is what is required for the equaliser to be enabled. It is not, I believe, loaded by default.

[Tony]

Very interesting read Just18, thanks. I just skimmed through but will try to read it properly soon.
I record (Music, Vocals, Phone conversations   ) using Audacity pretty regularly, and save to .Flac, which is great fun, to have lossless quality Audio's. Basically with Mic's, it's all fairly simple as you would know.
I can't run VLC, for some reason...but don't miss or need it.
Plus don't have Skype installed.

Actually convert Videos gleaned from the Net; mp4, flv, to .Avi to watch on TV via USB drives.
Plus all sorts of 'AV' stuff.

So yeh, will re-read through this with interest. Thanks.  

[Archie]

I came across this ... eventually ...  which appears to be a GUI for the PA Equaliser.

Any thoughts?

https://sites.google.com/site/nevion/projects/qpaeq

When using Veromix, the LADSPA effects are all available, but the above is the only PA equaliser GUI I have so far found.

We do appear to have the pulseaudio module-equalizer-sink  module which I believe is what is required for the equaliser to be enabled. It is not, I believe, loaded by default.

I had a quick look at it yesterday. Was it just one python script? Didn't get the time to play with it though ... so was it good for you? 

[Just17]

I failed 

Look forward to hearing from you 

[Just17]

Very interesting read Just18, thanks. I just skimmed through but will try to read it properly soon.
I record (Music, Vocals, Phone conversations   ) using Audacity pretty regularly, and save to .Flac, which is great fun, to have lossless quality Audio's. Basically with Mic's, it's all fairly simple as you would know.
I can't run VLC, for some reason...but don't miss or need it.
Plus don't have Skype installed.

Actually convert Videos gleaned from the Net; mp4, flv, to .Avi to watch on TV via USB drives.
Plus all sorts of 'AV' stuff.

So yeh, will re-read through this with interest. Thanks.  

Hi,
       If you get the urge you might try the recording app I posted earlier.
I would like to hear what your experience was.

Glad this stuff is of interest to you 

[Just17]

One of the most troublesome things with audio has been the random way that the sound devices are listed ......  whereas the user might expect the internal sound card to be the main device before any set up is done, it is often the case that a sound device of a video card is listed before the internal audio, and when a user plays some audio nothing is heard from the speakers.
In PA this listing (as I call it) is done it seems by the module-device-manager.

I was reading this blog piece today, and noticed that this problem was raised by a comment .....  and I was delighted to see that the point is well taken and will likely be addressed very soon. I do not know when that very soon might be ....  maybe it is already done. The response is dated Feb. 2010!!!!!!    I quote the relevant comment and response below.

All I can say is that the problem still seems to be present -- based on the number of posts about no sound.
It is also possible of course, that something else is causing those problems.
The blog is at
http://colin.guthr.ie/2010/02/this-is-the-route-to-hell/

The details in the blog are a little 'deep' but worth wading through, IMO.

You are doing an impressive work in PulseAudio, thanks!
I have a little question about module-device-manager. Is there any way to set the priority of each device in the startup script, or in a system wide configuration? Maybe I missed something, but I looked for it a few months ago when I installed Mandriva 2010.0 and found nothing.
This is my scenario, using Mandriva 2010.0 and KDE: I have two sinks, one for the soundcard in the motherboard, and another for the HDMI output in my graphic card. The highest priority device should be the soundcard. However, when I create a new user account and check the device list in Phonon settings GUI I see that the HDMI output is at the top. I have to explicitly move the soundcard device over the HDMI device to get sound.
Of course I don’t create users too often and doing that initial configuration isn’t a big deal, but when using xguest session (which uses a fresh user account every time it is started) it becomes a bit annoying. So, can the priority for each device be set in somewhere like /etc/pulse/default.pa? Thanks for the information.
( REPLY )
Colin
February 15th, 2010 - 19:09
That is almost certainly “my bad” with module-device-manager. I think I probably add all the sinks into an empty list in the order they are kept internally (which is random) rather than their internal computed priority (which is a set of hard coded rules as to which one is “best”, but will typically do a pretty good job and thus avoid the need for any manual tweakage) which should provide sensible defaults. I’ll make sure I look at this. Thanks for bringing it to my attention
(Of course you could still include the database file for module-device-manager in your /etc/skel if you really wanted a custom default, but it’s probably not worth it!)

[Just17]

Two items to report in this post.

PA Equaliser appears to be operational 


pactl load-module module-equalizer-sink


loads the equaliser module as expected, and presents an extra entry on the relevant tabs of PA Vol Ctrl called

FTT based equalizer on Built-in Audio Analogue Stereo

I have yet to play with this new option, but it appears to be a means of equalising the output volume level for the various different devices.
Much more to do to find out what exactly one can do with this.
Very happy to see it functioning 

****

This second part is a little more involved.
My built-in sound card is an nVidia MCP51 High Def Audio, which uses the  snd_hda_intel  driver.
The card has two MIC inputs and a Line input ....  but those are switched off for the moment.

It also has on the front of the PC, in addition to the front MIC input, a Headphone socket.

It is the headphone socket and speakers which I want to warble on about.

I have never actually used either of those front panel connections until today, because I was using a USB wireless headset with MIC so had no need of them.

So today I got hold of a $5 wired headset with boom MIC to test. The MIC tests went OK, but not the headphone tests. In the following part I attempt to describe what I met with. I will try to make it clear .....  but I am not really sure myself about some things .....  anyway here goes .....

**
I am using pavucontrol to view what is happening and to try to control the streams and devices.


Starting with the Headphones chosen as output port (Output tab of PA Vol Ctrl)

 I issue the command

pacmd list-sinks

The relevant output is at the very bottom of the info

<snip>
       ports:
                analog-output: Analogue Output (priority 9900, available: unknown)
                        properties:

                analog-output-headphones: Headphones (priority 9000, available: unknown)
                        properties:

        active port: <analog-output-headphones>

*Note the active port is 'headphones'

Now I change the Output Devices port to Analogue Output port and run the same command again

        ports:
                analog-output: Analogue Output (priority 9900, available: unknown)
                        properties:

                analog-output-headphones: Headphones (priority 9000, available: unknown)
                        properties:

        active port: <analog-output>

As can be seen the output port changes to the speakers.

So I believe PA is doing its job .....  changing the active port for the sound stream, from headphones to speakers and back again, as required.

Unfortunately although PA appears to do its job in directing the sound stream to either
speakers or headphones, the result is anything but satisfactory.
The sound stream goes to both!!! 

Further ....   although there are two - apparently - separate settings for the volume on headphones and speakers on the output tab, it seems that because the sound stream is going to both, the volume set on either is also applied to the other ....... this seems to be a side effect of the main problem.

if I choose the headphones and set a volume level, that volume level is also applied to the sound stream going to the speakers ......
if I choose the headphones and set a volume level, that volume level is applied to the sound stream going to the headphones.

It appears I can set different volumes for both, but whichever port is chosen, the preset volume level for that port is applied to the sound stream going to both.

All of that seems to me to be a result of the failure of the system to direct the sound stream to only one port and not both.

Even if speakers or headphone could be individually muted that would suffice for most situation.
I cannot do that from pavucontrol either.

The sound stream is going to both ports regardless what PA is telling Alsa 

The installed Alsa system is Ver 1.0.25 ......  but because I never tried before I have no idea if this worked on previous versions.

So, I tried Alsa to see if it 'sees' the headphones as a separate port and here is what I got when looking for a list of 'PCM' devices ...

Code: [Select]

[user@XPS ~]$ aplay -L
null
    Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
pulse
    PulseAudio Sound Server
default
    Default ALSA Output (currently PulseAudio Sound Server)
sysdefault:CARD=NVidia
    HDA NVidia, ALC1200 Analog
    Default Audio Device
front:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
    HDA NVidia, ALC1200 Analog
    Front speakers
surround40:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
    HDA NVidia, ALC1200 Analog
    4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
    HDA NVidia, ALC1200 Analog
    4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
    HDA NVidia, ALC1200 Analog
    5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
    HDA NVidia, ALC1200 Analog
    5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
    HDA NVidia, ALC1200 Analog
    7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers

I see nothing about a headphone port .......  in fact any port numbers .....  another track to follow it seems ...... 


So I had a look at the list of 'devices' ....

Code: [Select]

[user@XPS ~]$ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 0: ALC1200 Analog [ALC1200 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 3: ALC1200 Digital [ALC1200 Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

So, it appears to me, at this time, that the Alsa driver is at fault.
PA recognises the presence of a Headphone socket; sees that it has a separate port to the speakers; and apparently sends the sound stream to the correct port ........  but Alsa does not deal with it properly.
In fact PA seems to indicate that there is something amiss

<snip>
       ports:
                analog-output: Analogue Output (priority 9900, available: unknown)
                        properties:

                analog-output-headphones: Headphones (priority 9000, available: unknown)
                        properties:

....  that is of course conjecture on my part based only on what I have reported above ......  a lot more investigation is required to be sure of anything ..... 

More investigation is needed to try to determine what is causing the problem and then hopefully what might be a 'fix'.

[Just17]

The Good News!

I tried test5 64bit on the same hardware and although PA continues to show both headphones and speaker output on its Output Devices tab, there is now auto-sensing of the plugged in headphones!

What this means in my situation is that regardless of choice on the PA tab, the sound goes to the speakers .....  until the headphones are plugged, when it goes to the headphones ONLY.

That is a big improvement .....  I can now have headphones only, immediately they are plugged in.

In addition .....  there can now be two separate volumes set in PA Output Devices ....  one for headphones and the other for speakers; so switching from one to the other *should* mean that the correct volume is pre-selected for both.

Unfortunately that change in PA is not automatic (yet?)
I have to change the output on the PA tab from Headphones to Analogue Output (speakers) to get the correct volume setting when withdrawing the headphones and going back to speakers and vice versa.

So although the sound stream changes device the volume level does not change with it.
I would like to see that implemented ....  maybe in a future version of PA?

(It might also be achievable by other means ... )

This is a great improvement .....  I wonder if it will come to the 32 bit also ....  will continue to check every now and again and will post if I notice it.




Of course being the tinkerer that I am, I would much prefer complete manual control over those sound streams ....  so that I could direct the sound to either Headphones or Speakers ...  or both ...  with individual volume controls.
No doubt most people will be very happy with the auto-sensing and redirection of the sound stream on a plug/unplug event.

EDIT:
           I had a look at the situation with the 32 bit install, and found a means to enable the switching of the sound stream on insert and unplug of the headphones.
All I can say is that it works here on this hardware .....  to work on your hardware might require different options, but the principle should be the same.
 This is not of course related to PulseAudio, but I include it here for info as the function invaded my thread 

My audio codec is said to be an ACL1200
My machine is a Dell desktop.

I edited (as root) the file

/etc/modprobe.conf

by adding the following line to it, and ensuring the file ended with a blank line after the entry.

options snd-hda-intel model=6stack-dell


I then rebooted.

That was it.

Links for reference

http://www.mjmwired.net/kernel/Documentation/sound/alsa/ALSA-Configuration.txt

http://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/sound/alsa/HD-Audio-Models.txt

http://ubuntu-fr.org/audio_intel_hda

http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Intel-HDA_sound_problems

[Archie]

The Good News!

I tried test5 64bit on the same hardware and although PA continues to show both headphones and speaker output on its Output Devices tab, there is now auto-sensing of the plugged in headphones!

What this means in my situation is that regardless of choice on the PA tab, the sound goes to the speakers .....  until the headphones are plugged, when it goes to the headphones ONLY.

That is a big improvement .....  I can now have headphones only, immediately they are plugged in.

In addition .....  there can now be two separate volumes set in PA Output Devices ....  one for headphones and the other for speakers; so switching from one to the other *should* mean that the correct volume is pre-selected for both.

Unfortunately that change in PA is not automatic (yet?)
I have to change the output on the PA tab from Headphones to Analogue Output (speakers) to get the correct volume setting when withdrawing the headphones and going back to speakers and vice versa.

So although the sound stream changes device the volume level does not change with it.
I would like to see that implemented ....  maybe in a future version of PA?

(It might also be achievable by other means ... )

This is a great improvement .....  I wonder if it will come to the 32 bit also ....  will continue to check every now and again and will post if I notice it.




Of course being the tinkerer that I am, I would much prefer complete manual control over those sound streams ....  so that I could direct the sound to either Headphones or Speakers ...  or both ...  with individual volume controls.
No doubt most people will be very happy with the auto-sensing and redirection of the sound stream on a plug/unplug event.

Definitely good news. Was this on vanilla test05 or did you update?

Unless we miss out on a critical package then I don't see why this improvement won't be ported to 32-bit.



You happy, we happy!

[Just17]

It had to be updated Archie to bring in the PulseAudio stuff ...  I did it from the test section because all the packages were not in the main section when I installed PA. I took nothing else that I recall from test.

I might test to see if this works on the Live session using the test5 ISO ...

....  just checked running live test5 ISO from USB .......

Yep!  All good!  Plug/Unplug headphone sensing works   

[Archie]

Excellent. Kudos to pinoc (and the Bacon Brigade) for the exemplary job! But wait ... there's more surprises on the way.