[SOLVED] Garbled sound in Skype with particular microphone

2mac · 2014-03-08 01:45:13

I've been using my Turtle Beach headset painlessly with Skype and Arch for months. Yesterday, a friend told me that he couldn't understand a word I was saying over voice chat, so I performed a test call, and my sound input was being sent in double speed with very poor quality.

I tested with some other applications (Mumble and recordMyDesktop), and the sound came through just fine. Today, I did another test call, and switched to my laptop's built-in mic, and there was no sound problem.

I use PulseAudio and ALSA to manage my sound. This mic and Skype have played nice up until just recently, and I can't put my finger on what could be going wrong. It's only this application with this particular input device.

Any ideas?

Last edited by 2mac (2014-03-11 22:43:22)

eaglexro · 2014-03-10 11:05:05

Not sure what the problem is yet, just wanted to give a "me too" post so you know that you're not alone.

The headset I'm having problems with is a Microsoft LifeChat LX-2000.

EDIT: Let's try and get to the cause of the issue.

I've tried a regular microphone on the line-in port in my soundcard, that works ok.

So I'm guessing it's USB driver related? Is your headset on a USB port or does it use the mic/line-ic port on your PC?

I've also tried plugging it into USB2 instead of USB3, same thing.

Last edited by eaglexro (2014-03-10 11:16:05)

2mac · 2014-03-10 17:14:26

The headset is USB, but can use an optional analog output (but input must be USB).

I was able to "fix" the issue by starting a call, switching to my laptop mic, then switching right back (using pavucontrol).

This is, understandably, very annoying, but it's a nice temp fix while I'm in limbo.

EDIT:

I have read the Skype article on the wiki about the "Monster/growl" problem, and its fix did not work. I have alsoread the Skype section of the PulseAudio article to find no solutions.

Last edited by 2mac (2014-03-10 17:20:20)

R00KIE · 2014-03-10 18:01:08

Removing "PULSE_LATENCY_MSEC=30" from /usr/bin/skype seems to make it work fine for me with an usb headset.

eaglexro · 2014-03-10 18:14:33

R00KIE wrote:

Removing "PULSE_LATENCY_MSEC=30" from /usr/bin/skype seems to make it work fine for me with an usb headset.

Awesome, that fixed it for me too.

Thanks a bunch!

R00KIE · 2014-03-10 19:34:21

Reported in the bug tracker https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/39313

2mac · 2014-03-11 22:43:07

That absolutely solves the problem. Thank you!

I guess I never thought to look there, since I figured /usr/bin/skype would be a binary.

Last edited by 2mac (2014-03-11 22:44:07)

blamed · 2014-06-02 18:33:34

Well, I have the same exact problem, I have usb mic, which is working just fine everywhere, except in skype.
BUT, I do not have "PULSE_LATENCY_MSEC=30" line in /usr/bin/skype... so.. well. What is my options?)

V1del · 2014-06-03 13:05:31

@blamed Add the PULSE_LATENCY_MSEC=30 or 60 then, this fix is highly situational and dependant on your hardware/skype, that's why it has been toyed with and ultimately removed from the packages, it depends on what hardware you have, some don't need the PULSE_LATENCY_MSEC others need its value to be 30 and others need it to be 60 (I belong to the latter).

blamed · 2014-06-03 16:28:59

Well, thank you) I tried PULSE_LATENCY_MSEC=30 before and the sound become even worse. But PULSE_LATENCY_MSEC=60 did it.

Arch Linux

#1 2014-03-08 01:45:13

[SOLVED] Garbled sound in Skype with particular microphone

#2 2014-03-10 11:05:05

Re: [SOLVED] Garbled sound in Skype with particular microphone

#3 2014-03-10 17:14:26

Re: [SOLVED] Garbled sound in Skype with particular microphone

#4 2014-03-10 18:01:08

Re: [SOLVED] Garbled sound in Skype with particular microphone

#5 2014-03-10 18:14:33

Re: [SOLVED] Garbled sound in Skype with particular microphone

#6 2014-03-10 19:34:21

Re: [SOLVED] Garbled sound in Skype with particular microphone

#7 2014-03-11 22:43:07

Re: [SOLVED] Garbled sound in Skype with particular microphone

#8 2014-06-02 18:33:34

Re: [SOLVED] Garbled sound in Skype with particular microphone

#9 2014-06-03 13:05:31

Re: [SOLVED] Garbled sound in Skype with particular microphone

#10 2014-06-03 16:28:59

Re: [SOLVED] Garbled sound in Skype with particular microphone

Board footer