OSS sound sounds strange

markg85 · 2009-08-30 16:03:47

Hi,

I first had ALSA installed on my pc. Sound was working just fine but i wanted to test mixing sound without pulseaudio so you naturally end up with OSS. And after reading this huge article i was temped to try it anyway: http://insanecoding.blogspot.com/2009/0 … sorry.html

So i installed it like the wiki says: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/OSS
And i turned alsa off like the wiky says (appending a "!" before soundcore and alsa in the daemon list

At first the sound from osstest sounds just fine but when looking closer it seems the sound has little ticks in it.. like there is a decibel boost setting active somewhere.. You can hear this a lot better when you put the "front" in ossxmix to max. the front in the third row from the bottom then the front setting in the middle. When i put that same setting at roughly 50% the effect seems gone but that requires me to raise the speaker volume and as soon as i do that the annoying chopping sound effect is back.

Now here is a screenshot of the settings i have now (made a "nice" red circle around the above mentioned front config)

And here are soume outputs that might be interesting.

lsmod | grep oss

[mark@Mark-Arch ~]$ lsmod | grep oss
oss_usb 124532 1
oss_hdaudio 147844 1
osscore 549156 4 oss_usb,oss_hdaudio
usbcore 179504 5 oss_usb,usbhid,uhci_hcd,ehci_hcd
[mark@Mark-Arch ~]$

ossinfo

[mark@Mark-Arch ~]$ ossinfo
Version info: OSS 4.1 (b 1052b/200905261644) (0x00040100) GPL
Platform: Linux/x86_64 2.6.30-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Mon Aug 17 16:06:45 CEST 2009 (Mark-Arch)
Number of audio devices: 8
Number of audio engines: 12
Number of mixer devices: 1

Device objects
0: osscore0 OSS core services
1: oss_hdaudio0 Intel HD Audio interrupts=497245 (525797)
HD Audio controller Intel HD Audio
Vendor ID 0x8086293e
Subvendor ID 0x1043829f
Codec 0: ALC883 (0x10ec0883/0x1043829f)
2: oss_usb0 USB audio core services

Mixer devices
0: High Definition Audio ALC883 (Mixer 0 of device object 1)
Audio devices
HD Audio play front /dev/oss/oss_hdaudio0/pcm0 (device index 0)
HD Audio play rear /dev/oss/oss_hdaudio0/pcm1 (device index 1)
HD Audio play center/LFE /dev/oss/oss_hdaudio0/pcm2 (device index 2)
HD Audio play side /dev/oss/oss_hdaudio0/pcm3 (device index 3)
HD Audio play pcm4 /dev/oss/oss_hdaudio0/pcm4 (device index 4)
HD Audio play spdif-out /dev/oss/oss_hdaudio0/spdout0 (device index 5)
HD Audio rec mix /dev/oss/oss_hdaudio0/pcmin0 (device index 6)
HD Audio rec mix /dev/oss/oss_hdaudio0/pcmin1 (device index 7)
/dev/dsp -> /dev/oss/oss_hdaudio0/pcm0
/dev/dsp_in -> /dev/oss/oss_hdaudio0/pcm0
/dev/dsp_out -> /dev/oss/oss_hdaudio0/pcm0
/dev/dsp_ac3 -> /dev/oss/oss_hdaudio0/spdout0
/dev/dsp_mmap -> /dev/oss/oss_hdaudio0/pcm0
/dev/dsp_multich -> /dev/oss/oss_hdaudio0/pcm0
[mark@Mark-Arch ~]$

ossmix

[mark@Mark-Arch ~]$ ossmix
Selected mixer 0/High Definition Audio ALC883
Known controls are:
jack.green.mode <front|rear|center/LFE|side|pcm4|input> (currently front)
jack.green [<leftvol>:<rightvol>] (currently 29.9:29.9 dB)
jack.green.mute ON|OFF (currently OFF)
jack.black.mode <front|rear|center/LFE|side|pcm4|input> (currently center/LFE)
jack.black [<leftvol>:<rightvol>] (currently 29.9:29.9 dB)
jack.black.mute ON|OFF (currently OFF)
jack.orange.mode <front|rear|center/LFE|side|pcm4|input> (currently rear)
jack.orange [<leftvol>:<rightvol>] (currently 29.9:29.9 dB)
jack.orange.mute ON|OFF (currently OFF)
jack.gray.mode <front|rear|center/LFE|side|pcm4|input> (currently pcm4)
jack.gray [<leftvol>:<rightvol>] (currently 29.9:29.9 dB)
jack.gray.mute ON|OFF (currently OFF)
jack.pink.mode <front|rear|center/LFE|side|pcm4|input> (currently front)
jack.pink [<leftvol>:<rightvol>] (currently 29.9:29.9 dB)
jack.pink.mute ON|OFF (currently OFF)
jack.fp-pink.mode <front|rear|center/LFE|side|pcm4|input> (currently front)
jack.fp-pink [<leftvol>:<rightvol>] (currently 29.9:29.9 dB)
jack.fp-pink.mute ON|OFF (currently OFF)
jack.blue.mode <front|rear|center/LFE|side|pcm4|input> (currently input)
jack.blue [<leftvol>:<rightvol>] (currently 29.9:29.9 dB)
jack.blue.mute ON|OFF (currently OFF)
jack.fp-green.mode <front|rear|center/LFE|side|pcm4|input> (currently front)
jack.fp-green [<leftvol>:<rightvol>] (currently 29.9:29.9 dB)
jack.fp-green.mute ON|OFF (currently OFF)
record.mix.mute.mic1 ON|OFF (currently OFF)
record.mix.mute.fp-mic1 ON|OFF (currently OFF)
record.mix.mute.linein1 ON|OFF (currently OFF)
record.mix.mute.fp-headphone1 ON|OFF (currently OFF)
record.mix.mute.green1 ON|OFF (currently OFF)
record.mix.mute.black1 ON|OFF (currently OFF)
record.mix.mute.orange1 ON|OFF (currently OFF)
record.mix.mute.gray1 ON|OFF (currently OFF)
record.mix.mute.input-mix1 ON|OFF (currently OFF)
record.mix1 [<leftvol>:<rightvol>] (currently 34.4:34.4 dB)
record.mix.mute.mic2 ON|OFF (currently OFF)
record.mix.mute.fp-mic2 ON|OFF (currently OFF)
record.mix.mute.linein2 ON|OFF (currently OFF)
record.mix.mute.fp-headphone2 ON|OFF (currently OFF)
record.mix.mute.green2 ON|OFF (currently OFF)
record.mix.mute.black2 ON|OFF (currently OFF)
record.mix.mute.orange2 ON|OFF (currently OFF)
record.mix.mute.gray2 ON|OFF (currently OFF)
record.mix.mute.input-mix2 ON|OFF (currently OFF)
record.mix2 [<leftvol>:<rightvol>] (currently 38.9:38.9 dB)
misc.mic [<leftvol>:<rightvol>] (currently 38.9:38.9 dB)
misc.fp-mic [<leftvol>:<rightvol>] (currently 38.9:38.9 dB)
misc.linein [<leftvol>:<rightvol>] (currently 38.9:38.9 dB)
misc.fp-headphone [<leftvol>:<rightvol>] (currently 38.9:38.9 dB)
misc.green [<leftvol>:<rightvol>] (currently 38.9:38.9 dB)
misc.black [<leftvol>:<rightvol>] (currently 38.9:38.9 dB)
misc.orange [<leftvol>:<rightvol>] (currently 38.9:38.9 dB)
misc.gray [<leftvol>:<rightvol>] (currently 38.9:38.9 dB)
misc.input-mix <mic|fp-mic|linein> (currently mic)
misc.front-mute ON|OFF (currently OFF)
misc.input-mix-mute1 ON|OFF (currently OFF)
misc.front1 [<leftvol>:<rightvol>] (currently 37.4:37.4 dB)
misc.front2 <front|input-mix> (currently front)
misc.rear-mute ON|OFF (currently OFF)
misc.input-mix-mute2 ON|OFF (currently OFF)
misc.rear1 [<leftvol>:<rightvol>] (currently 38.9:38.9 dB)
misc.rear2 <rear|input-mix> (currently rear)
misc.center/lfe-mute ON|OFF (currently OFF)
misc.input-mix-mute3 ON|OFF (currently OFF)
misc.center/lfe1 [<leftvol>:<rightvol>] (currently 37.4:37.4 dB)
misc.center/lfe2 <center/LFE|input-mix> (currently center/LFE)
misc.side-mute ON|OFF (currently OFF)
misc.input-mix-mute4 ON|OFF (currently OFF)
misc.side1 [<leftvol>:<rightvol>] (currently 38.9:38.9 dB)
misc.side2 <side|input-mix> (currently side)
misc.pcm4-mute ON|OFF (currently OFF)
misc.input-mix-mute5 ON|OFF (currently OFF)
misc.pcm41 [<leftvol>:<rightvol>] (currently 38.9:38.9 dB)
misc.pcm42 <pcm4|input-mix> (currently pcm4)
vmix0-enable ON|OFF (currently ON)
vmix0-rate <decimal value> (currently 48000) (Read-only)
vmix0-channels <Stereo|Multich> (currently Stereo)
vmix0-src <Fast|Low|Medium|High|High+|Production|OFF> (currently Fast)
vmix0-outvol <monovol> (currently 24.8 dB)
vmix0-invol <monovol> (currently 25.0 dB)
vmix0.pcm8 [<leftvol>:<rightvol>] (currently 25.0:25.0 dB)
vmix0.pcm9 [<leftvol>:<rightvol>] (currently 25.0:25.0 dB)
vmix0.pcm10 [<leftvol>:<rightvol>] (currently 25.0:25.0 dB)
vmix0.pcm11 [<leftvol>:<rightvol>] (currently 25.0:25.0 dB)
[mark@Mark-Arch ~]$

That was all the output i could think of.

I also tested playing a sound file in mplayer and totem. both have the exact same issue.

I also changed the gstreamer config (gstreamer-properties) to send sound (input and output) to oss.

Also if this works it's WAY easier to set it up then a alsa/pulseaudio setting. This is just pacman -S oss, adding it to rc.conf in the daemons and you're done! that's another reason why i want to give this a try.

Any help with getting this working normally would be awesome.

Thanx,
Mark.

evr · 2009-08-31 23:52:36

have you tried setting vmix0-src to something like Production and seeing if that helps your sound quality?

Gen2ly · 2009-09-01 01:06:06

If I have sound too high for a certain speaker, I'll get static. The OSS wiki says that this is normal as most devices don't produce perfect sound and just turn it down a bit and turning up vmix. Maybe this will help?

markg85 · 2009-09-02 18:49:29

forget this topic since it works: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/OSS that in the end got it working along with compiling the mecurial oss.
Feel free to close this one.

skottish · 2009-09-03 03:02:55

markg85 wrote:

forget this topic since it works: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/OSS that in the end got it working along with compiling the mecurial oss.
Feel free to close this one.

Just append [SOLVED] to the end of the title of the thread. You can change the title by editing the first post.

Arch Linux

#1 2009-08-30 16:03:47

OSS sound sounds strange

#2 2009-08-31 23:52:36

Re: OSS sound sounds strange

#3 2009-09-01 01:06:06

Re: OSS sound sounds strange

#4 2009-09-02 18:49:29

Re: OSS sound sounds strange

#5 2009-09-03 03:02:55

Re: OSS sound sounds strange

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