Linux Mint and Rode Podcaster Pro

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Jimbo-D
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Re: Linux Mint and Rode Podcaster Pro

Post by Jimbo-D »

Thank you for this. I was having the same issue but was able to get the Rodecaster working with this fix. However, the record levels are really low, even though I've got all the inputs peaked. Any suggestions in that regard?
MrEen wrote: Thu Aug 13, 2020 7:41 pm Hi kylerickards,

Chances are all you needed to do was change the profile for your device. The built-in sound settings are possibly not capable of this, so I always recommend the use of PulseAudio Volume Control. There you should see the device on the Configuration tab, where you can set the appropriate Profile. Once that is properly set, everything else should be just as you're used to.

We obviously can't know for sure, without being able to test at this point, but someone else had an issue with an external mixer recently that was perfectly fixed this way.
kylerickards
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Re: Linux Mint and Rode Podcaster Pro

Post by kylerickards »

Jimbo-D wrote: Tue Apr 20, 2021 9:05 am Thank you for this. I was having the same issue but was able to get the Rodecaster working with this fix. However, the record levels are really low, even though I've got all the inputs peaked. Any suggestions in that regard?
MrEen wrote: Thu Aug 13, 2020 7:41 pm Hi kylerickards,

Chances are all you needed to do was change the profile for your device. The built-in sound settings are possibly not capable of this, so I always recommend the use of PulseAudio Volume Control. There you should see the device on the Configuration tab, where you can set the appropriate Profile. Once that is properly set, everything else should be just as you're used to.

We obviously can't know for sure, without being able to test at this point, but someone else had an issue with an external mixer recently that was perfectly fixed this way.
Hi Jim

What are the levels like just on the Rode meters and recording just to the SD card?
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Peter Linu
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Re: Linux Mint and Rode Podcaster Pro

Post by Peter Linu »

Hey Mr. Een,
I'm planning on getting a Rode Podcaster Pro before the end of the year. Kindly file away the fix for using the Rode with Mint Cinnamon and I'll contact you at the appropriate time.
Cheers,
Peter
Cinnamon 21.3 Thinkcentre M920Q + 2 Thinkpad T440p (modded) + Lenovo Y50-70 (all have VBs) + 2 PC NAS drives w XFCE21.2 + Win7 Starter-32bit on ASUS Atom (2011) [and a few others]
Jimbo-D
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Re: Linux Mint and Rode Podcaster Pro

Post by Jimbo-D »

The levels on the Rodecaster & the recording on the SD card align with the levels on the sliders - which is to say normal.

But even when I max the sliders and the levels on Audacity, the sine wave and recording on Audacity is barely audible.

[/quote]

Hi Jim

What are the levels like just on the Rode meters and recording just to the SD card?
[/quote]
kylerickards
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Re: Linux Mint and Rode Podcaster Pro

Post by kylerickards »

Jimbo-D wrote: Thu Apr 22, 2021 10:04 am The levels on the Rodecaster & the recording on the SD card align with the levels on the sliders - which is to say normal.

But even when I max the sliders and the levels on Audacity, the sine wave and recording on Audacity is barely audible.
Hi Jim

What are the levels like just on the Rode meters and recording just to the SD card?
[/quote]
[/quote]

Almost got the Rode set up as it was so should be able to report back with settings tomorrow.

Out of interest, something I have noticed and probably off topic for this discussion - if I am watching a DVD through the PC/Mint/VLC, I have decent speakers and it does sound loud and through my headphones as well. However, if I watch the same DVD through the same PC but going through windows, I have to say I can push the volumes much higher (not that I would be happy watching it like that - I just find it interesting)
Jimbo-D
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Re: Linux Mint and Rode Podcaster Pro

Post by Jimbo-D »

Solved the problem by increasing the gain on the RCP.

I have a new problem though.

I can't play through clips from the computer while its recording on Audacity.

Is there anyway I could speak with a programmer to describe the problem?
otacke
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Re: Linux Mint and Rode Podcaster Pro

Post by otacke »

Hi all!

Sorry to jump into this discussion, but it seems to be one of the most active discussions on the Rodecaster Pro on Linux - and I hope we can figure out my problem.

I got a Rodecaster Pro with firmware 2.1.1 and I am not running Mint, but Ubuntu - yet I assume this should not make a huge difference. I am on kernel 5.8.18, so it already contains a patch for the Rodecaster Pro that will set a fixed sample rate of 48000 Hz (please see https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/ke ... =v5.8#n412). I can see "parse_audio_format_rates_v2v3(): unable to retrieve number of sample rates: set it to a predefined value (clock 1)." when I run dmesg -w. That seems to be okay.

The device is recognized perfectly, and the microphone of my headset is working flawlessly. The only thing that keeps me puzzled is the audio output. I can hear something, but audio from my linux device is played extremely slow and media players are reducing the speed as if they were trying to compensate for some setting - sound played from the Rodecaster's sound bank is fine. I tried using USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 - no difference. I wonder if setting the fixed sample rate might be the culprit?

Now that's where my knowledge of what I might tweak or try out ends. I'd be very grateful if someone possibly found some time to help me figure out what the problem might be and how it can be solved.
otacke
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Re: Linux Mint and Rode Podcaster Pro

Post by otacke »

Just documenting my next steps.

Not sure why I didn't try that before: I hooked up the Rodecaster Pro to my Laptop that's also running Ubuntu 20.04 with kernel 5.8.18. Everything is working well there, plug-and-play. I guess I will have to find out what the difference between the two computers might be.

Could another audio card cause something like this? Not sure why it would, but that's what comes to my mind being different. The motherboard has some Intel based native audio capabilities, there's some audio options (HDMI) via an NVIDIA graphics cards, and I also have an extra Sound Blaster card. There's also a video capture card, but it doesn't have audio capabilities.

Before I remove those cards, I'll create a bootable Ubuntu pen drive and see if the Rodecaster Pro runs with a clean slate.
otacke
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Re: Linux Mint and Rode Podcaster Pro

Post by otacke »

Just documenting my next steps ...

Seems to be something very low-level. I ran a clean Ubuntu 21.04 from a pen drive and had exactly the same problem :-/
otacke
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Re: Linux Mint and Rode Podcaster Pro

Post by otacke »

Just documenting my next steps ...

Another observation that leads me to believe it's a low-level issue (hardware): I killed pulseaudio and played a sample via aplay - and still have the slow/distorted audio (with wrong sample rate/bit rate?) while it's fine on my laptop with essentially the same software setup and when running a fresh Ubuntu from a pen drive.
otacke
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Re: Linux Mint and Rode Podcaster Pro

Post by otacke »

Just documenting my further steps ...

I have stripped all cards incl. the graphics card that can output audio via HDMI from my computer. I then ran Ubuntu 21.04 from a pen drive: Still distorted sound.

I have then run a couple of logging/info commands on my desktop (with distorted audio) and on my laptop (where audio is fine). First comparison: What dmesg is logging when plugging in the Rodecaster Pro:

desktop
[ 1584.269734] usb 1-4: new high-speed USB device number 7 using xhci_hcd
[ 1584.516203] usb 1-4: New USB device found, idVendor=19f7, idProduct=0011, bcdDevice= 2.11
[ 1584.516208] usb 1-4: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[ 1584.516210] usb 1-4: Product: RODECaster Pro
[ 1584.516212] usb 1-4: Manufacturer: RODE Microphones
[ 1584.516213] usb 1-4: SerialNumber: 00000000001A
[ 1584.538745] hid-generic 0003:19F7:0011.0007: hiddev3,hidraw6: USB HID v1.10 Device [RODE Microphones RODECaster Pro] on usb-0000:16:00.0-4/input0
[ 1584.553970] usb 1-4: parse_audio_format_rates_v2v3(): unable to retrieve number of sample rates: set it to a predefined value (clock 1).
[ 1584.580768] usb 1-4: parse_audio_format_rates_v2v3(): unable to retrieve number of sample rates: set it to a predefined value (clock 1).

laptop
[ 122.098370] usb 2-2: new high-speed USB device number 4 using xhci_hcd
[ 122.246967] usb 2-2: New USB device found, idVendor=19f7, idProduct=0011, bcdDevice= 2.11
[ 122.246973] usb 2-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[ 122.246976] usb 2-2: Product: RODECaster Pro
[ 122.246979] usb 2-2: Manufacturer: RODE Microphones
[ 122.246982] usb 2-2: SerialNumber: 00000000001A
[ 122.285806] hid: raw HID events driver (C) Jiri Kosina
[ 122.301802] usb 2-2: parse_audio_format_rates_v2v3(): unable to retrieve number of sample rates: set it to a predefined value (clock 1).
[ 122.303041] usb 2-2: parse_audio_format_rates_v2v3(): unable to retrieve number of sample rates: set it to a predefined value (clock 1).
[ 122.304413] usbcore: registered new interface driver snd-usb-audio
[ 122.307003] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbhid
[ 122.307005] usbhid: USB HID core driver
[ 122.348391] hid-generic 0003:19F7:0011.0001: hiddev0,hidraw0: USB HID v1.10 Device [RODE Microphones RODECaster Pro] on usb-0000:00:14.0-2/input0

So, as far as I can tell, some driver for HID events is taking over on my laptop that leads to registering a new interface driver - and that seems to do the job. I'll now try to find out what that is and how I can get the same result on my desktop.
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Peter Linu
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Re: Linux Mint and Rode Podcaster Pro

Post by Peter Linu »

It's ridiculous that we, the customer/potential customer need to do this research. I sent an email to Rode saying that I wouldn't be buying a 'Caster UNTIL and UNLESS they provided Linux support. They have been compliant on other issues.
Cinnamon 21.3 Thinkcentre M920Q + 2 Thinkpad T440p (modded) + Lenovo Y50-70 (all have VBs) + 2 PC NAS drives w XFCE21.2 + Win7 Starter-32bit on ASUS Atom (2011) [and a few others]
otacke
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Re: Linux Mint and Rode Podcaster Pro

Post by otacke »

Peter Linu wrote: Sun May 02, 2021 5:39 pm It's ridiculous that we, the customer/potential customer need to do this research. I sent an email to Rode saying that I wouldn't be buying a 'Caster UNTIL and UNLESS they provided Linux support. They have been compliant on other issues.
I guess the number of Linux users who might get a Rodecaster is is still too small. It's business. But if nobody asks, then nothing happens, so thanks for raising your voice.

I have been some more digging meanwhile. I can run

Code: Select all

 
aplay -f S32_LE -c 2 -r 48000 -D hw:x ~/sample.wav
where x is the number if the Rodecaster "card". It's passing the sample just as it needs to be for the Rodecaster directly to without any further processing as far as I understand - playing fine on the laptop, but still distorted on the desktop. That's why I assume it's not ALSA, but somewhere beneath that. I'll have to learn what that is, some usb-snd thingy probably, and see if I can find out more.
kylerickards
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Re: Linux Mint and Rode Podcaster Pro

Post by kylerickards »

I have been in touch a few times with Rode and they have been more than helpful and I think they have an eye on the fact that there seems to be a growing fan base for this unit...
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Peter Linu
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Re: Linux Mint and Rode Podcaster Pro

Post by Peter Linu »

If they are so concerned, why doesn't yours work flawlessly?
As was said before; it's a business decision.
Cinnamon 21.3 Thinkcentre M920Q + 2 Thinkpad T440p (modded) + Lenovo Y50-70 (all have VBs) + 2 PC NAS drives w XFCE21.2 + Win7 Starter-32bit on ASUS Atom (2011) [and a few others]
otacke
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Re: Linux Mint and Rode Podcaster Pro

Post by otacke »

Meanwhile I have filed a bug report at https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...r/+bug/1927255.
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Peter Linu
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Re: Linux Mint and Rode Podcaster Pro

Post by Peter Linu »

Hiyall,
I don't know why I didn't think of this before...
Add Win10 (won't work with Win7) to an Oracle VirtualBox.
Dadaaah!
Cinnamon 21.3 Thinkcentre M920Q + 2 Thinkpad T440p (modded) + Lenovo Y50-70 (all have VBs) + 2 PC NAS drives w XFCE21.2 + Win7 Starter-32bit on ASUS Atom (2011) [and a few others]
pfeiferj
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Re: Linux Mint and Rode Podcaster Pro

Post by pfeiferj »

This sounds very similar to the issue I faced over [here][ https://forum.level1techs.com/t/rodecas ... out/170601]. I fixed the issue by using a pcie usb card. It seems there's some kind of bad interaction between an amd chipset usb port and the rodecaster pro so using a pcie card bypasses the amd usb chipset.
otacke
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Re: Linux Mint and Rode Podcaster Pro

Post by otacke »

I can confirm that using a non-AMD based USB chipset fixed my issue, too.
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