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#1 2023-07-27 17:07:03

Miuzore
Member
Registered: 2022-10-14
Posts: 30

Bad mic quality, constant static/buzzing noise only on Linux

This is a problem I had since I started to use Arch around 2 years ago - no matter what microphone I use (Corsair HS50, KBEAR KS2 are the two I own), the quality of the input seems to be significantly worse than on Windows 10.

One of the issues I've been able to pinpoint that could be causing the drop in quality is the constant static/buzzing noise that's constantly present - even when I physically unplug the microphone and/or the headset. To combat it, I always used Easyeffects noise cancellation, but it causes some audio output issues for me during heavy loads (for instance, in Guild Wars 2 when loading a new area, audio would start heavily crackling), and it reduces my audio input quality, which is why I'm trying to find the root cause. I can record the noise if needed.

So far, I've tried to set the "snd_hda_intel" power_save parameter to 0, play around with the recording channels on alsamixer to see if muting something would fix it, or if the issue comes from L or R channel, changing the default.clock.rate and default.clock.allowed-rates in pipewire configuration to 44100, changing resample.quality setting from 4 to 10, disabling suspend in wireplumber config - nothing I found online worked.

Here's some info about my install, I'd be happy to provide anything else that's needed:

pacman -Q | grep pipewire output:

lib32-libpipewire 1:0.3.75-1
lib32-pipewire 1:0.3.75-1
libpipewire 1:0.3.75-2
pipewire 1:0.3.75-2
pipewire-alsa 1:0.3.75-2
pipewire-audio 1:0.3.75-2
pipewire-jack 1:0.3.75-2
pipewire-pulse 1:0.3.75-2

pacman -Q | grep wireplumber output:

libwireplumber 0.4.14-1
wireplumber 0.4.14-1

amixer output:

Simple mixer control 'Master',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 65536
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 65536 [100%] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 65536 [100%] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Capture',0
  Capabilities: cvolume cswitch cswitch-joined
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 65536
  Front Left: Capture 65536 [100%] [on]
  Front Right: Capture 65536 [100%] [on]

amixer -c1 output:

Simple mixer control 'Master',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Limits: Playback 0 - 64
  Mono: Playback 41 [64%] [-23.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Headphone',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 64
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 64 [100%] [0.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 64 [100%] [0.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'PCM',0
  Capabilities: pvolume
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 255
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 251 [98%] [-0.80dB]
  Front Right: Playback 251 [98%] [-0.80dB]
Simple mixer control 'Front',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 64
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 64 [100%] [0.00dB] [off]
  Front Right: Playback 64 [100%] [0.00dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Front Mic',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [-34.50dB] [off]
  Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [-34.50dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Front Mic Boost',0
  Capabilities: volume
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: 0 - 3
  Front Left: 0 [0%] [0.00dB]
  Front Right: 0 [0%] [0.00dB]
Simple mixer control 'Surround',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 64
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [-64.00dB] [off]
  Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [-64.00dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Center',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Limits: Playback 0 - 64
  Mono: Playback 0 [0%] [-64.00dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'LFE',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Limits: Playback 0 - 64
  Mono: Playback 0 [0%] [-64.00dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Line',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [-34.50dB] [off]
  Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [-34.50dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Line Boost',0
  Capabilities: volume
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: 0 - 3
  Front Left: 0 [0%] [0.00dB]
  Front Right: 0 [0%] [0.00dB]
Simple mixer control 'Capture',0
  Capabilities: cvolume cswitch
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 46
  Front Left: Capture 46 [100%] [30.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Capture 46 [100%] [30.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Capture',1
  Capabilities: cvolume cswitch
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 46
  Front Left: Capture 0 [0%] [-16.00dB] [off]
  Front Right: Capture 0 [0%] [-16.00dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Auto-Mute Mode',0
  Capabilities: enum
  Items: 'Disabled' 'Enabled'
  Item0: 'Enabled'
Simple mixer control 'Channel Mode',0
  Capabilities: enum
  Items: '2ch' '4ch' '6ch'
  Item0: '2ch'
Simple mixer control 'Input Source',0
  Capabilities: cenum
  Items: 'Front Mic' 'Rear Mic' 'Line'
  Item0: 'Front Mic'
Simple mixer control 'Input Source',1
  Capabilities: cenum
  Items: 'Front Mic' 'Rear Mic' 'Line'
  Item0: 'Front Mic'
Simple mixer control 'Loopback Mixing',0
  Capabilities: enum
  Items: 'Disabled' 'Enabled'
  Item0: 'Disabled'
Simple mixer control 'Rear Mic',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [-34.50dB] [off]
  Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [-34.50dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Rear Mic Boost',0
  Capabilities: volume
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: 0 - 3
  Front Left: 0 [0%] [0.00dB]
  Front Right: 0 [0%] [0.00dB]

Any help would be appreciated.

Last edited by Miuzore (2023-07-27 17:25:16)

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