Distorted sound from External USB Sound Card

[gigabz666]

Having been stupid and screwing the onboard sound card, I bought an external USB sound card as a replacement. I plugged it in and booted up and found it was detected automatically. I made it the defualt sound card using asoundconf and tested it. The sound that came out was horribly distorted, as though the treble was too high. It reminds me of a compression tube sound from a guitar, or the top of a flanger sound.

I booted into Windows and after installing the drivers, the sound card works perfectly. No distortion at all, and works as it should. So I've done lots of searching but not been very successful and so I'm here hoping someone can point me in the right direction. Is it drivers not being fully compatible? Something to do with the kernel? Should I jump back to 8.04. I bought this card as I read that people had it working in Linux and Ubuntu.

Some info, I don't know if it will help.

lsusb
Bus 002 Device 005: ID 187c:0511
Bus 002 Device 004: ID 0424:2504 Standard Microsystems Corp. USB 2.0 Hub
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 0424:2502 Standard Microsystems Corp.
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0d8c:0102 C-Media Electronics, Inc. CM106 Like Sound Device (This is the sound card)
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 1: default [USB Sound Device    ], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
 Subdevices: 0/1
 Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

I've now turned off the onboard sound card which is why it doesn't show. I thought it would help with the distortion problem, but no help at all.

If you need more info, let me know. Any help would be appreciated.

[gigabz666]

Re: Distorted sound from External USB Sound Card

Ok, the lack of replies is a little worrying.

I installed Kubuntu 8.04 to see if maybe the older kernel would help. I'm now getting normal sound out of Audacious and Amarok, but audio from Kaffeine is the same as before, horribly distorted. I'm also getting nothing out of VLC or firefox so youtube videos have no sound.

I'm confused and need help.

[gigabz666]

Re: Distorted sound from External USB Sound Card

Ok, I'm back to 8.10, sound is normal in Audacious and Amarok, but distorted like before in any video players and firefox. A weird thing I found was that an mp3 file played in Audacious that works fine has the weird distortion when played in mplayer. So obviously there must be some sort of difference between the way the sound card is being utilised. I just don't know what it is.

Please, any help.

[Guest]

Re: Distorted sound from External USB Sound Card

I have the same problem, however I am on debian, didn't have time to check on my ubuntu installation.

I found out if setting vlc manually to 44100 Hz that the distortion goes away. Also using aplay I can play without distortion. It seems something from alsa is reported wrong or not evaluated right by the players. Maybe it is possible to configure alsa so, that it only reports 44100 Hz?

Best,
Ulno

[gigabz666]

Re: Distorted sound from External USB Sound Card

Awesome, that worked for me. The videos which had the horrible distortion now sound fine after changing it to 44100Hz in VLC. You're right, now it's just working out how to force ALSA to output at that frequency for all programs.

[Guest]

Re: Distorted sound from External USB Sound Card

I am currently messing around with my asoundrc - the documentation on alsa concerning this is pretty hard. I am not sure, but maybe we should move our discussion there?

I have this line (only this) in my asoundrc:
pcm.axpc surround51:default

Compare aplay -L for the device you want to use instead of surround51:default

You can also try pcm.!axpc to make this your default output.

If I select axpc in my programs now as output the sound works fine (even in surround). Only my recording does not work.

Cheers,
Uli