frequent popping/crackling with pipewire

ledbettj · 2021-01-24 17:20:37

I recently installed pipewire and pipewire-pulse and removed pulseaudio and I've been noticing lots of popping and crackling, even with nothing going on on the machine, just spotify, firefox, etc.

Logs for pipewire say:

Jan 24 12:15:33 argus pipewire[1219]: (spotify-113) client too slow! rate:64/48000 pos:1731154816 status:triggered
Jan 24 12:15:33 argus pipewire[1219]: (PulseAudio Volume Control-87) client too slow! rate:64/48000 pos:1731154816 status:triggered
Jan 24 12:15:33 argus pipewire[1219]: (speech-dispatcher-dummy-74) client too slow! rate:64/48000 pos:1731154816 status:triggered
Jan 24 12:15:33 argus pipewire[1219]: 3 events suppressed
Jan 24 12:15:30 argus pipewire[1219]: (alsa_output.pci-0000:2d:00.3.analog-stereo-48) client missed 1 wakeups
Jan 24 12:15:30 argus pipewire[1219]: (PulseAudio Volume Control-77) client missed 1 wakeups
Jan 24 12:15:30 argus pipewire[1219]: (PulseAudio Volume Control-106) client missed 1 wakeups
Jan 24 12:15:30 argus pipewire[1219]: (PulseAudio Volume Control-77) client too slow! rate:64/48000 pos:1731027328 status:triggered
Jan 24 12:15:30 argus pipewire[1219]: (PulseAudio Volume Control-106) client too slow! rate:64/48000 pos:1731027328 status:triggered
Jan 24 12:15:30 argus pipewire[1219]: 20 events suppressed
Jan 24 12:15:26 argus pipewire[1219]: loop 0x561018f68bf0: failed to read timer fd 18: Resource temporarily unavailable
Jan 24 12:15:25 argus pipewire[1219]: (spotify-113) client too slow! rate:64/48000 pos:1730783040 status:triggered
Jan 24 12:15:25 argus pipewire[1219]: (PulseAudio Volume Control-87) client too slow! rate:64/48000 pos:1730783040 status:triggered
Jan 24 12:15:25 argus pipewire[1219]: (speech-dispatcher-dummy-74) client too slow! rate:64/48000 pos:1730783040 status:triggered
Jan 24 12:15:25 argus pipewire[1219]: 28 events suppressed
Jan 24 12:15:23 argus pipewire[1219]: (PulseAudio Volume Control-77) client missed 1 wakeups
Jan 24 12:15:23 argus pipewire[1219]: (PulseAudio Volume Control-106) client missed 1 wakeups
Jan 24 12:15:23 argus pipewire[1219]: (PulseAudio Volume Control-77) client too slow! rate:64/48000 pos:1730686336 status:triggered
Jan 24 12:15:23 argus pipewire[1219]: (PulseAudio Volume Control-106) client too slow! rate:64/48000 pos:1730686336 status:triggered

And so on; I can see using

pw-top

that the popping corresponds to these errors in these processes.

Do I need to adjust the audio buffer size or something to get playback that doesn't pop? Or is pipewire just not ready for audio yet and I should go back to pulse? My pipewire.conf has the default, commented out settings:

    #default.clock.quantum =		1024
    #default.clock.min-quantum =	32
    #default.clock.max-quantum =	8192

sinatosk · 2021-01-25 17:14:43

I just tried pipewire first time today since pulseeffects 5.0.0 was released on arch which now requires pipewire.

I too has crackling/popping but also very large delays.

default.clock.quantum = 32
default.clock.min-quantum = 32
default.clock.max-quantum = 768

delays are gone now but crackling/popping still there but massively reduced

Last edited by sinatosk (2021-01-25 19:02:31)

xr4zz · 2021-01-25 18:40:06

I recently switched to pipewire as well for the same reasons sinatosk mentioned.

I changed my pipewire.conf like sinatosk suggested and the crackling and delays are gone for me.

petternett · 2021-01-26 14:46:32

Hi, I also have this issue. It's fine on my laptop speakers, but when connecting a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2, the crackling sounds are terrible.

sinatosk wrote:

default.clock.quantum = 32
default.clock.min-quantum = 32
default.clock.max-quantum = 768

Just tried this, and now there's no audio output at all, and music players seem to play songs much slower than usual (one second taking five).

I ran

pw-cli i 0

and got:

        id: 0
        permissions: rwxm
        type: PipeWire:Interface:Core/3
        cookie: 671024961
        user-name: "petter"
        host-name: "petternett"
        version: "0.3.20"
        name: "pipewire-0"
*       properties:
*               core.name = "pipewire-0"
*               context.profile.modules = "none"
*               core.daemon = "true"
*               link.max-buffers = "16"
*               default.clock.quantum = "32"
*               default.clock.min-quantum = "32"
*               default.clock.max-quantum = "768"
*               default.clock.rate = "48000"
*               default.video.width = "640"
*               default.video.height = "480"
*               default.video.rate.num = "25"
*               default.video.rate.denom = "1"
*               mem.allow-mlock = "true"
*               cpu.max-align = "32"
*               object.id = "0"

Any ideas?

sinatosk · 2021-01-26 15:04:20

I'm assuming you set it in "/etc/pipewire/pipewire.conf"?

Maybe your machine not powerful enough. The lower the numbers, the more demanding

Try higher numbers

petternett · 2021-01-26 15:15:18

sinatosk wrote:

I'm assuming you set it in "/etc/pipewire/pipewire.conf"?
Maybe your machine not powerful enough. The lower the numbers, the more demanding
Try higher numbers

This was definitely the problem, I set it to

default.clock.quantum = "2048"
default.clock.min-quantum = "1024"
default.clock.max-quantum = "4096"

I don't know if these are "correct" numbers in accordance to audio standards, but it works flawlessly for me.

Thanks!

Edit: My laptop is running an i5-6300U @ 2.40GHz

Last edited by petternett (2021-01-26 15:18:25)

sinatosk · 2021-01-26 15:17:00

on my laptop I originally used which has ryzen 5 3500U

default.clock.quantum = 256
default.clock.min-quantum = 256
default.clock.max-quantum = 768

then changed it too

default.clock.quantum = 32
default.clock.min-quantum = 32
default.clock.max-quantum = 768

and desktop which has a ryzen 9 3950X

default.clock.quantum = 32
default.clock.min-quantum = 32
default.clock.max-quantum = 32

Last edited by sinatosk (2021-01-26 15:18:25)

the8x13b · 2022-02-12 21:59:46

Just wanted to say lowering the clock fixed Bluetooth SBC and SBC-XQ codecs for me. These Pipewire configs fixed an annoying issue. Thanks

Arch Linux

#1 2021-01-24 17:20:37

frequent popping/crackling with pipewire

#2 2021-01-25 17:14:43

Re: frequent popping/crackling with pipewire

#3 2021-01-25 18:40:06

Re: frequent popping/crackling with pipewire

#4 2021-01-26 14:46:32

Re: frequent popping/crackling with pipewire

#5 2021-01-26 15:04:20

Re: frequent popping/crackling with pipewire

#6 2021-01-26 15:15:18

Re: frequent popping/crackling with pipewire

#7 2021-01-26 15:17:00

Re: frequent popping/crackling with pipewire

#8 2022-02-12 21:59:46

Re: frequent popping/crackling with pipewire

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