Distorted browser audio

[skibum505]

]I have recently experienced problems with distorted web audio. Happens in both Firefox and Opera. Music seems mostly OK but talking is distorted and bolume is low. Music files such as mp3 files play OK.
Output from inxi

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System:
  Host: gary-XPS-Mint Kernel: 4.15.0-55-generic x86_64 bits: 64 
  compiler: gcc v: 7.4.0 Desktop: Cinnamon 4.0.10 
  Distro: Linux Mint 19.1 Tessa base: Ubuntu 18.04 bionic 
Machine:
  Type: Desktop System: Dell product: XPS 8900 v: N/A 
  serial: <root required> 
  Mobo: Dell model: 0XJ8C4 v: A00 serial: <root required> 
  UEFI [Legacy]: Dell v: 2.2.1 date: 12/10/2017 
CPU:
  Topology: Quad Core model: Intel Core i7-6700 bits: 64 type: MT MCP 
  arch: Skylake-S rev: 3 L2 cache: 8192 KiB 
  flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 54528 
  Speed: 900 MHz min/max: 800/4000 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1149 2: 1353 
  3: 1131 4: 1255 5: 1628 6: 1220 7: 1435 8: 1355 
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GP107 [GeForce GTX 1050 Ti] driver: nvidia v: 390.116 
  bus ID: 01:00.0 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.19.6 driver: nvidia 
  unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,nouveau,vesa resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz 
  OpenGL: renderer: GeForce GTX 1050 Ti/PCIe/SSE2 v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 390.116 
  direct render: Yes 
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel 100 Series/C230 Series Family HD Audio 
  vendor: Dell Sunrise Point-H driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel 
  bus ID: 00:1f.3 
  Device-2: NVIDIA GP107GL High Definition Audio driver: snd_hda_intel 
  v: kernel bus ID: 01:00.1 
  Sound Server: ALSA v: k4.15.0-55-generic 
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Ethernet I219-V vendor: Dell driver: e1000e v: 3.2.6-k 
  port: f000 bus ID: 00:1f.6 
  IF: enp0s31f6 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full 
  mac: 18:66:da:12:2f:98 
  Device-2: Intel Wireless 3165 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel port: e000 
  bus ID: 02:00.0 
  IF: wlp2s0 state: down mac: ac:2b:6e:1e:0e:c9 
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 2.27 TiB used: 1.05 TiB (46.2%) 
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Western Digital model: WD10EZEX-00RKKA0 
  size: 931.51 GiB 
  ID-2: /dev/sdb vendor: Samsung model: HD154UI size: 1.36 TiB 
RAID:
  Hardware-1: Intel SATA Controller [RAID mode] driver: ahci v: 3.0 
  bus ID: 00:17.0 
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 1.33 TiB used: 354.13 GiB (26.1%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/dm-0 
  ID-2: swap-1 size: 15.94 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/dm-1 
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 51.0 C mobo: 29.8 C gpu: nvidia temp: 32 C 
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A gpu: nvidia fan: 30% 
Info:
  Processes: 287 Uptime: 1h 08m Memory: 15.60 GiB used: 3.59 GiB (23.0%) 
  Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 7.4.0 Shell: bash v: 4.4.20 
  inxi: 3.0.27 

Sorry if I don't know how to use the code blocks...

[Schultz]

skibum505 wrote:
Sorry if I don't know how to use the code blocks...

Use the button the arrow is pointing at next time.

Untitled.jpg (10.33 KiB) Viewed 3600 times

[MrEen]

I've never heard of an issue quite like that.

My first guess would be to delete the files in /home/YourUserName/.config/pulse then run pulseaudio -k in the terminal. Restart the browser and test.

[skibum505]

I tried resetting pulseaudio. No success

I am now thinking this is a hardware problem. I tried running from a live Ubuntu USB, same issue. And while music files seem to work, video files such as MP4s have the same problem - music plays but verbal is distorted.

From the hardware list it seems I have two audio sources, one on the graphics card and one on the MB. But I am not sure which one is in use. Is there a way to switch to the other one? Or maybe I need a sound card?

[MrEen]

The graphics card audio is for HDMI. If you were playing sound to a monitor that is connected via HDMI, then that's the card you'd want. Otherwise, you want the built-in card.

I'm not sure if you might be missing a codec, and I'm not the one that can help much if that's the case, but hopefully someone will jump in on that front.

Otherwise see if this helps: click on the link under my post and try 1 then 3 from the section Bad Sound Fix Tips. If 1 works, stop there. If it doesn't, undo that change before proceeding to 3. If 3 also doesn't work, undo that change then try re-installing the sound base this way:

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apt remove --purge alsa-base
apt install alsa-base
sudo alsa force-reload

Good luck.

[skibum505]

OK I tried the fixes on the link.

It seems that the distortion is better. But there is still a mismatch between the volume of music and that of talking when playing .m4v videos. (Music much louder.)

Incidentally I got error messages in the terminal when editing the files you suggested but the editor opened and seemed to work normally. For example

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  xed admin:///etc/default/speech-dispatcher

** (xed:5618): WARNING **: 14:30:59.243: The specified location is not mounted

(xed:5618): Gdk-CRITICAL **: 14:30:59.278: gdk_window_get_window_type: assertion 'GDK_IS_WINDOW (window)' failed

And thanks for your help

[MrEen]

The warnings can be ignored. Thanks for reminding me about that so I can add a note about that to the page.

Have you tried multiple files of the same type to ensure it's not just a few badly done files? See if this helps the issue: apt install ubuntu-restricted-extras and just in case, apt install mint-meta-codecs then try playing one you've been having issues with.

[skibum505]

It's not the files, I have watched then before (some on this one, some on another system)

The codecs did not help.

I will be gone for a week and so I won't be able to work on this for a while, but if you have any other suggestions I won't ignore them.

[MrEen]

The only thing I can think of is to try playing them in VLC or SMPlayer and see if the problems manifest themselves there as well.

I'll ping phd21 who has a lot more experience with this kind of thing that I do.

I stole this quote from another thread

Hopefully by the time you return we'll have some better answers for you.

[halregen]

I've never heard of an issue quite like that.

My first guess would be to delete the files in /home/YourUserName/.config/pulse then run pulseaudio -k in the terminal. Restart the browser and test.

That worked in my case. My audio speech on youtube & vlc was distorted. Thanks for the fix.

[trytip]

i'm starting to dislike mint or cinnamon or uefi or ubuntu. i now see why so many users open threads about no sound or bad sound. quite many times i need to pulseaudio -k or open sound settings to switch between sinks and only then sound kicks in. it will work ok until an update or a scheduled systemd startup service mangle the sound again at boot.
go sick and tired of it all and put pulseaudio -k in my startup applications

[halregen]

I am having to do this command so much it is tiring

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paulseaudio -k

. I just started to watch a video, that I got engrossed in then the sound gets more and more distorted after starting fine. Has this been reported as a bug?

[dnawand]

I've never heard of an issue quite like that.

My first guess would be to delete the files in /home/YourUserName/.config/pulse then run pulseaudio -k in the terminal. Restart the browser and test.

This worked for me. Thanks.