Bug 82776 - Foreground Sound is Softer than Background Sound
Summary: Foreground Sound is Softer than Background Sound
Status: RESOLVED NOTABUG
Alias: None
Product: PulseAudio
Classification: Unclassified
Component: core (show other bugs)
Version: unspecified
Hardware: x86-64 (AMD64) Linux (All)
: medium critical
Assignee: pulseaudio-bugs
QA Contact: pulseaudio-bugs
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2014-08-18 16:48 UTC by KitchM
Modified: 2014-09-16 07:02 UTC (History)
1 user (show)

See Also:
i915 platform:
i915 features:


Attachments

Description KitchM 2014-08-18 16:48:48 UTC
When one is listening to a music video, the singer is overpowered by what appears to be the accompaning instruments or music.  I have heard that it is a confusion with the surround sound, but even with the turned off in my speaker sets (I've tried more than one), there is still a very imbalance sound processed thru the PulseAudio system.

Making matters worse is that there appears to be no setting for this problem, nor is there any combination of settings that will cause this to work correctly.

I am using Fedora 20 with a Creative sound card listed as:
product: 5880B [AudioPCI] [1274:5880]
vendor: Ensoniq [1274]
bus info: pci@0000:05:06.0
version: 02
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities:
	Power Management,
	bus mastering,
	PCI capabilities listing
configuration:
	driver: snd_ens1371
	latency: 32
	maxlatency: 128
	mingnt: 12
resources:
	irq: 16
	ioport: b000(size=64)

What other information can I give you for this?
Comment 1 David Henningsson 2014-09-02 09:36:13 UTC
PulseAudio usually does not do much "processing" that could cause these types of effects. Could you output the contents of "pactl list" while the music video is playing back, and can you verify that this is not a problem if you output directly to ALSA, bypassing PulseAudio?
Comment 2 KitchM 2014-09-02 14:20:22 UTC
How would one do that?
Comment 3 David Henningsson 2014-09-03 07:04:42 UTC
I'm not that familiar with fedora, but hopefully "speaker-test" is installed. If so, I'd try the speaker-test command:

speaker-test -D plughw:CARD -c 2 -t wav

speaker-test -D pulse -c 2 -t wav

The first plays back directly to ALSA, the second one through PulseAudio. You need to replace "CARD" in the first command with the card name, as you can look up in /proc/asound/cards (it's the name within brackets).

If you want to try more channels than stereo, you can modify "-c 2" to "-c 6" or whatever number of channels you want to test.
Comment 4 Raymond 2014-09-03 11:11:55 UTC
how did you connect the Jack of your sound blaster pci 128 ?

http://ask.creative.com/wwimages/audio_int/sblive/pci128_connectorsimage1.gif

post the output of alsa-info.sh
Comment 5 KitchM 2014-09-03 15:52:18 UTC
Thank you all for the input.

I ran the commands as requested.  Here are the results:

The first test played correctly.  When adding 6 channels, I heard only front left and front right.

The second test played correctly.  When adding 6 channels, I heard the fronts normally, and the center and rears softly.  Nothing else


The only connector utilized is the CD audio connector to the CD drive, and the only jack used is the green one to the stereo speaker set.

I saved the output of alsa-info.sh at:
"Your ALSA information is located at http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=cdeb353ad094a815696678f61b15d864b16ec172"

Please note the the built-in sound on the motherboard is disabled as defective.  I only use the added-in Sound Blaster card.

Thanks again.
Comment 6 Raymond 2014-09-04 01:36:28 UTC
you have enabled sigmatel 3d effect

Simple mixer control '3D Control - Switch',0
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control '3D Control Sigmatel - Depth',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Limits: Playback 0 - 3
  Mono: Playback 2 [67%]
Simple mixer control '3D Control Sigmatel - Rear Depth',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Limits: Playback 0 - 3
  Mono: Playback 2 [67%]



seem 5880b can copy front to rear


Simple mixer control 'AC97 2ch->4ch Copy',0
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'External Amplifier',0
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [off]


stac9708 also capable of copy front to rear


Simple mixer control 'Sigmatel 4-Speaker Stereo',0
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [off]


Simple mixer control 'Sigmatel Output Bias',0
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [off]


Simple mixer control 'Sigmatel Surround',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 28 [90%] [-4.50dB] [off]
  Front Right: Playback 28 [90%] [-4.50dB] [off]

sigmatel surround is front/rear fader
Comment 7 Raymond 2014-09-04 01:54:50 UTC
APLAY

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: AudioPCI [Ensoniq AudioPCI], device 0: ES1371/1 [ES1371 DAC2/ADC]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: AudioPCI [Ensoniq AudioPCI], device 1: ES1371/2 [ES1371 DAC1]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0




device 1 is rear device , you need to use surround40 for 4 channels


http://git.alsa-project.org/?p=alsa-lib.git;a=blob;f=src/conf/cards/ENS1371.conf;hb=HEAD
Comment 8 KitchM 2014-09-08 20:23:56 UTC
Thanks much for the responses.

However, I do not understand what I am to do to fix my problem.  Please clarify.

Thanks again.
Comment 9 Raymond 2014-09-09 00:34:33 UTC
use alsamixer to switch off 3D Sound

your sound blaster pci 128 support up to 4 channels

you can play audio through black jack using rear device

speaker-test  -D rear  -c2 -t wav

you can play audio through green jack using front device


speaker-test -D front -c 2 -t wav

speaker-test -D suuround40 -t wav
Comment 10 KitchM 2014-09-12 17:59:59 UTC
I muted all 3D options and now everything sounds much better.  I still can't understand how the 3D works to override the separate channels and put them into the front stereo channels.

In any case, thank you very much for the explanation and help.
Comment 11 David Henningsson 2014-09-16 07:02:19 UTC
Thanks for the feedback, I'll close this bug since your issue was resolved.


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