[SOLVED] Bad distortion in all Mint types

[rado84]

I'm not sure the topic is for here but I don't see where else to post it.

In all Mints (18 included) there's bad sound distortion even at the lowest volume level of all mp3 files for both PulseAudio and ALSA. If the song has a lot of bass, it's the worst. While with all types of Ubuntu 18 (KDE, XF, etc.) there's absolutely no distortion. In Mint there isn't distortion only for online radios. I'm hoping that this post would reach the developers and they fix this for Mint 19. Idk what drivers or mp3 codecs Ubuntu uses but apparently they're better than Mint's.

[Flemur]

Idk what drivers or mp3 codecs Ubuntu uses but apparently they're better than Mint's.

I'm approximately 99% certain they're the same drivers.
Have you checked for volume > 100% somewhere along the complicated audio "line"? (pavucontrol and/or alsamixer).

[rado84]

I tried everything I could think of, checked all the settings, I even asked for help more experienced users than me and no matter what I do the distortion is there. I even changed players. The only player with the least distortion (but still has it) is VLC. All others - Amarok, Clementine, Audacious, etc., they all distort the sound.

[MrEen]

Don't know if you tried this. In alsamixer, try lowering the PCM level a little bit and see if that reduces the distortion.

[trytip]

go to .config/pulse/ folder and delete everything in there except presets folder then run pulseaudio -k in terminal wait about 5 seconds to regenerate new sound cookies and test your audio again

[rado84]

Thanks for the suggestions, guys, but I think I figured it out, after hours of reading and digging through Google. After installing libasound2-plugins-extra all distortions disappeared like with a magic wand. So imo the problem is solved and this topic could remain for the next guy who encounters this problem.

Now we can only hope they include this file by default in Mint 19.

[Hoser Rob]

Have you installed mint-meta-codecs? Because as of Mint 18 the nonfree codecs aren't installed by default and Mint has a reputation for not needing 3rd party codecs which is no longer true. I can't seem to find a list of modules in that package but I strongly suspect libasound2-plugins-extra is there.

[Moem]

So imo the problem is solved and this topic could remain for the next guy who encounters this problem.

Excellent... now please help that next guy or gal by marking the topic as SOLVED. My signature explains how. Thanks!

[rado84]

Have you installed mint-meta-codecs? Because as of Mint 18 the nonfree codecs aren't installed by default and Mint has a reputation for not needing 3rd party codecs which is no longer true. I can't seem to find a list of modules in that package but I strongly suspect libasound2-plugins-extra is there.

Idk what you mean. During the installation I chose "install 3rd party software". If that meta codec package is a 3rd party software, then I guess I did.

[Hoser Rob]

Have you installed mint-meta-codecs? Because as of Mint 18 the nonfree codecs aren't installed by default and Mint has a reputation for not needing 3rd party codecs which is no longer true. I can't seem to find a list of modules in that package but I strongly suspect libasound2-plugins-extra is there.

Idk what you mean. During the installation I chose "install 3rd party software". If that meta codec package is a 3rd party software, then I guess I did.

You can check easily. Go into Synaptic and search, or the terminal and enter:

Code: Select all

apt-cache policy mint-meta-codecs

Whcih is how I usually do it. It;s faster and also says if the package is in the repos.

[rado84]

The meta package is installed, indeed. Since I haven't done this manually, it must have come together with the "3rd party drivers" I chose before I began the installation process of Mint.