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stefan

Member

Registered: 2013-03-22

Posts: 131

[solved] Noisy microphone

Hi,

I'd need some advice with setting up an external microphone [1], connected to the rear port of an older Asus M5A97 R2.0 mainboard [2].

I do not get usable recordings: My voice sounds very dull, very faint, and is overlaid by quite loud noise.

I observe this in `pavucontrol`, but also when killing pulseaudio and trying `arecord`.  In particular, I've tried the steps in the wiki [3], but to no avail.

Here's some diagnostics:

$ arecord -l
**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
card 0: SB [HDA ATI SB], device 0: ALC892 Analog [ALC892 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: SB [HDA ATI SB], device 2: ALC892 Alt Analog [ALC892 Alt Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

# lspci -v | sed -En '/Audio/,/^\s*$/p'
00:14.2 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA) (rev 40)
        Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 Motherboard
        Flags: bus master, slow devsel, latency 32, IRQ 16, NUMA node 0
        Memory at fe500000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
        Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2
        Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
        Kernel modules: snd_hda_intel

01:00.1 Audio device: NVIDIA Corporation GP106 High Definition Audio Controller (rev a1)
        Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. [MSI] Device 3283
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 52, NUMA node 0
        Memory at fe080000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
        Capabilities: [60] Power Management version 3
        Capabilities: [68] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
        Capabilities: [78] Express Endpoint, MSI 00
        Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
        Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
        Kernel modules: snd_hda_intel

# /sbin/lsmod | grep snd
snd_hda_intel          53248  3
snd_hda_codec_hdmi     73728  1
snd_hda_codec_realtek   143360  1
snd_hda_codec_generic    94208  1 snd_hda_codec_realtek
ledtrig_audio          16384  2 snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_hda_codec_realtek
snd_intel_nhlt         20480  1 snd_hda_intel
snd_hda_codec         159744  4 snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec_realtek
snd_hda_core          102400  5 snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_codec_realtek
snd_hwdep              16384  1 snd_hda_codec
snd_pcm               143360  4 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_core
snd_timer              40960  1 snd_pcm
snd                   110592  14 snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hwdep,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_timer,snd_pcm
soundcore              16384  1 snd

I've tried `arecord -f dat -D hw:0,0 -r $WHATEVER -d5 test.wav` with WHATEVER set to 8000, 48000 and 192000 (as suggested when calling it with 100000), but this value has absolutely no impact on the quality of the resulting recording.

I've tried to use only one channel (left, right) as was suggested on the internet somewhere, but apparently the loudness of voice and noise is the same on both channels.

When using `-D hw:0,2`, I get absolutely no recording.

I've used alsamixer to set "Capture" to 100.  While the recorded voice is already unusably faint at this level, it is even fainter when lowering this to 50 and holding the mic directly next to my mouth.

In all these tests, the "Rear Mic Boost" is 0, and changing would only increase noise (which is quite impressive by itself).

I get the same results with the front microphone port.

Desperate, I've also reloaded the snd-hda-intel module, using

# rmmod snd-hda-intel
# modprobe snd-hda-intel model=asus-g751

with model set to `auto`, `generic`, and also all the asus entries for `ALC892` listed in [4] (search for `892`), which produced no recordings.

The only other machine I can test on, would be a stone-old small laptop (that machine cost me 150$ in a New Zealand hardware store, 10 years ago), where `arecord -l` reports `card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC272X Analog [ALC272X Analog]`.  With its builtin microphone, there's some crackling, but other than that the sound quality is ok.  With my microphone plugged in, the noise level is very high too, although the recorded voice seems slightly (with an emphasis on slight) louder.  Using either microphone, the recording is on the left channel only.

Any suggestions what to try next?

Thanks
Stefan

[1]: https://trust.com/de/product/21674-prim … and-laptop
[2]: https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/M5A97_R20/
[3]: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pu … _recording
[4]: https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/v5.4/so … 6x-67x-892

Last edited by stefan (2020-11-25 21:36:44)

stefan

Member

Registered: 2013-03-22

Posts: 131

Re: [solved] Noisy microphone

Seems like there's not much one can expect from a microphone for 10€.  I did not expect sound quality to be stellar, but certainly not that bad.  I wonder whether anybody uses them, or if they are just bought to be thrown away?

https://dilbert.com/strip/2001-03-09

Anyways, I've got a new one.  I was hesitant to buy a USB microphone, suspecting driver problems and such.  So I've got the cheapest one in store, a “Blue Snowball iCE” for 65€ — not really cheap compared to my expectations.  The package clearly says: Windows, or Apple.  I've plugged it in, dmesg reported

...
[Wed Nov 25 22:14:27 2020] usb 4-2.2: new full-speed USB device number 38 using xhci_hcd
[Wed Nov 25 22:14:28 2020] usb 4-2.2: New USB device found, idVendor=0d8c, idProduct=0005, bcdDevice= 1.00
[Wed Nov 25 22:14:28 2020] usb 4-2.2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[Wed Nov 25 22:14:28 2020] usb 4-2.2: Product: Blue Snowball 
[Wed Nov 25 22:14:28 2020] usb 4-2.2: Manufacturer: BLUE MICROPHONE
[Wed Nov 25 22:14:28 2020] usb 4-2.2: SerialNumber: SUGA_2020/08/10_02386
[Wed Nov 25 22:14:28 2020] hid-generic 0003:0D8C:0005.0026: No inputs registered, leaving
[Wed Nov 25 22:14:28 2020] hid-generic 0003:0D8C:0005.0026: hidraw3: USB HID v1.11 Device [BLUE MICROPHONE Blue Snowball ] on usb-0000:05:00.0-2.2/input2

and it showed up in my `pavucontrol`.  Sound quality is stellar, compared to what I expected.  At an arm lengh away, it is more than enough for Jitsi or similar.  If I get really close, sound's even better.

Only thing that bothers me: The thing does not have an off switch (seems to not be in the budget at 65€), you must physically unplug the USB Mini-B plug from its back to turn it off. Maybe get a longer USB cable, and try to find one with a switch?

I still wonder whether I should have gotten the cheap one running.  For the very occasional use, I find the price tag a bit high.

Last edited by stefan (2020-11-25 21:38:34)