Arch Linux

tablestack

Member

Registered: 2009-04-14

Posts: 11

[SOLVED] ALSA volume drops when playing mp3s

A few days ago I installed Arch x86_64 from FTP/HTTP. Getting things up and running was easy thanks to good and thorough documentation on the wiki, and even stuff like accessing Windows shares and controlling my Windows boxes with remote desktop was trouble free.

I've run into a minor issue related to ALSA though. Whenever I start playing an mp3 file in Audacious or XMMS (tried both to see if it was program specific, it was not), the volume level of the ALSAmixer channel that Audacious/XMMS is using drops by 1%. For instance, if Audacious is using the PCM channel set to 6% volume it will drop to 5% when I start playing an mp3. The volume continues to drop by 1% for every playback start until the channel is completely muted.

This can get very annoying if I'm listening to music through headphones and have the volume slider near 0%, as it will constantly get muted after a few song changes. I tried Googling and searching the Arch forums and the wiki, but I couldn't find any instances of people having a similar problem. I'm a total Linux noob so it's more than likely that it's caused by user error, I just can't seem to figure out what. To make things even more confusing, the problem seems to come and go, although it is present most of the time. I haven't messed around with any ALSA-related settings, so most settings should be fairly vanilla.

For the time being I'm using OSS4 instead of ALSA, but if I can get the above mentioned problem fixed I'll switch back to ALSA. OSS4 works fair enough but it seems a little sluggish at times compared ALSA. Again, the sluggishness could be due to user screwups, I'm a noob.

Last edited by tablestack (2009-04-25 01:44:50)

brebs

Member

Registered: 2007-04-03

Posts: 3,742

Re: [SOLVED] ALSA volume drops when playing mp3s

I get this, with Creative Labs' XFiDrv_Linux_Public_US_1.00 drivers. I assume it's a problem with those drivers. Are you using an X-Fi soundcard?

A crummy workaround is to set the mixer device in Audacious' output plugin preferences to e.g. Line-in

tablestack

Member

Registered: 2009-04-14

Posts: 11

Re: [SOLVED] ALSA volume drops when playing mp3s

Yes, I'm using an X-Fi. Stupid of me to forget to mention that in the original post, particularly since the X-Fi Linux compatibility has been a little dodgy, at least from what I've read. I got my drivers here, from the AUR. Thanks for the workaround tip, I'll give it a shot right away.

If all else fails I think I'll get the SoundBlaster Live! 5.1 from my old computer, I suppose it has less driver quirks than the X-Fi. I must say I'm a little disappointed with Creative if this is their fault. The X-Fi line has been out for almost four years, and they still can't get their drivers right. I'll look elsewhere the next time I need a new dedicated soundcard.

EDIT: Your workaround stopped the bug from affecting the overall volume, thank god. I got the media keys on my keyboard working with xkeybinds, so I can stop depending on Audacious' Global Hotkeys plugin. I'll keep the X-Fi for now, but I'm never, ever going near Creative again unless they get their act together.

In closing, thanks for the quick and helpful reply. I'll mark the thread as solved, since your workaround covers up the symptoms of Creative's incompetence, and unless someone can magically fix their broken drivers there is nothing more to be said on the topic.

Last edited by tablestack (2009-04-25 01:44:05)