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I've been using Ubuntu 16.04 on a Lenovo ideapad Y410P for about a month and a half, and for the duration I've been having audio issues, despite to this day making sure I have installed all updates. I run a dual boot with Windows 10 and have no problems in Windows, so I'm pretty sure this is an Ubuntu or Linux issue.

Every once in a while-- I see no correlation in the times it happens-- my audio suddenly goes fuzzy & garbled with a slight echo. If I had to define it further I'd call it a swampy metallic sound. It is still possible to make out what sounds are playing, but they are very distorted. This problem sometimes will stop by itself-- I see no correlation in the times it stops-- or I can restart my computer.

The problem will exist both through the laptop speakers, and through any headphones I plug in.

The problem will exist across programs, including, but not limited to, Firefox and the 'Test' function in the System Settings' Sound tab.

Most of the time my audio is fine, I can go entire days without problems. But then I can spend hours suffering distorted audio.

Mehdi Charife
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JMcFar
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  • Open alsamixer in terminal session, chose your hw audio with and look if is enabled. Sometimes it causes these noises to your audio. – Redbob Aug 29 '17 at 17:10
  • @Redbob It started working again as I was reading your response (of course it did)

    If nothing else, your alsamixer note gives me something to play with next time it's happening. However, isn't currently activated.

     – JMcFar Aug 29 '17 at 17:35

10 Answers10

47

Now I'm sure it's this: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/speech-dispatcher/+bug/1736222

My workaround was to uninstall the speech-dispatcher package:

sudo apt remove speech-dispatcher

This also worked on Fedora (with dnf instead of apt).

Byte Commander
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lukoramu
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    thank you, been looking for the cause for more than one year, this did it

    opening a second tab in Firefox was triggering this some time, having a game and youtube open triggered it some time ... having FB in another tab with sound enabled triggered it most of the time

     – Emil Perhinschi Oct 19 '19 at 19:12
  • Thank you! I've been having this issue ever since I installed Ubuntu a month ago. I was almost on the verge of giving up and going back to Windows (literally just started a .iso image download 10 minutes ago) until I saw this answer. – WorldGov Dec 27 '21 at 17:58
  • I've been having this issue for ages! This bug should definitely be fixed as it affects important accessibility features. – TheKodeToad Feb 18 '22 at 18:18
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    Issue ceased immediately while the apt remove command was running! Thank you! – jl6 Apr 25 '22 at 17:02
  • Thank you so much! It's been driving me insane and Google has been poor at suggesting any answers... This issue happens on and off, the moment I uninstalled this package the issue disappeared. For those who want to keep the package, I've read that killall speech-dispatcher also "solves" the issue. – aggregate1166877 Feb 11 '24 at 04:41
14

I get symptoms similar to yours - scratchy sound. A possible fix is to restart pulseaudio. Open terminal and do the following:

$ pulseaudio --check
$ pulseaudio --k
$ pulseaudio --D
Joshua T
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    This worked for me, but the --D command failed on Ubuntu 20.04. So I had to use pulseaudio --start -v to make sure it was running. Not sure how to Daemonize it, though, because that command consistently fails. Also had to restart Spotify and Settings. It crashed them when trying to play after doing this. – mrClean Dec 04 '21 at 21:51
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    just the two (pulseaudio --check and pulseaudio --k) worked for me, will check to see if --start -v does anything, am considering adding it to my ~/bash_rc or something... – ntg Jan 10 '22 at 04:18
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    worked for me even though --D failed – WalksB Apr 24 '22 at 02:06
  • pulseaudio --k gives me E: [pulseaudio] main.c: Failed to kill daemon: No such process – Mehdi Charife Sep 13 '23 at 15:34
5

The audio issue continues to arise on the same laptop sporadically, however I can quickly fix it by using the terminal to run alsamixer. In alsamixer, press f6, then simply click on a master volume control. The audio immediately returns to normal.

JMcFar
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4

It happens to me also on Ubuntu 19.04, but ONLY when using firefox. When problem arises, I shut down firefox, mute, unmute, and sound from all programs goes back to normal again.

I used Google Chrome as a browser for a month or so, and in that month, didn't have any distortions. As soon as I went back to firefox, the problem started appearing again at least one time per day.

lukoramu
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4

This appears to be a bug in speech-dispatcher 0.9, fixed in 0.10.0; Ubuntu 20.04.3 still includes version 0.9.1-4

Apparently the default for AudioPulseMinLength is correct in the config file but was mistakenly set to 100 in the actual code. The solution is to edit /etc/speech-dispatcher/speechd.conf and uncomment the following line:

AudioPulseMinLength 1764

If this doesn't fix it immediately, you may have to pkill -f speech-dispatcher and allow it to automatically restart.

user10489
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  • Just adding a reference that this is indeed the fix.

    https://github.com/brailcom/speechd/issues/446#issuecomment-740828838

     – Tyler Holden Sep 14 '22 at 20:29
1

Ubuntu 19.10:

I had this weird sound issue too. Mainly YouTube, browser audio and other random applications would have a distorted effect when the speaker's Balance was set to the middle.

The only thing that solved it was this answer, which shows how to reinstall pulseaudio:

sudo alsa force-reload
sudo apt remove --purge alsa-base pulseaudio
sudo apt install alsa-base pulseaudio
# Somethings might have broken so reinstall ubuntu-desktop
sudo apt install ubuntu-desktop

Then reboot.

Mehdi Charife
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Ben Winding
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1

I discovered that FireFox was forking off some "speech-dispatcher" processes (via the Audio Mixer... dialog underneath the speaker icon on the top bar) and so I edited /etc/speech-dispatcher/speechd.conf and uncommented the line for DisableAutoSpawn

So far, so good!

SJF
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0

I've had an issue with my audio getting corrupted when using discord in the browser, and when logging out and back in.

I've found that a reliable solution for me, if ALSA is installed, is running the command:

$ alsactl restore

For me it clears out fuzzy/corrupted audio every time. I've also had the audio get corrupted in a way that the audio is just non-existant. The same command resolved that issue as well.

(Linux Mint - Bionic)

Ahab Devoid
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0

Well, my issue was fuzzy sound so loud that i cannot hear audio playing.

i did restart pipewire but problem reoccured without even suspending

i noticed it occured only when using the usb audio adapter

Anyway, the problem was caused by the pulseaudio volume control app being open in background, once closed, problem didnot re-occur...

haytham-med haytham
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0

I have been experiencing somewhat the same issues with my 17.10 install. There is an option in my sound menu to allow volume to go above 100%, which makes the sound garbled and incoherent, (but nowhere near as bad as you describe).

Since simply opening alsa seems to fix the problem, perhaps you should set your volume to <99%. Maybe alsa isn't playing nice with your sound card and is pushing too much through it at times.

Mehdi Charife
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J.Tho
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  • had similar issue: pulsaudio volume mixer allows to set volumes around 150%, for specific applications - so, way back I did so, for chromium, something was probably not loud enough... coming back, and playing a well mastered piece of music will let you down and question ubuntu, or better, yourself ;-) – benzkji Dec 13 '20 at 08:45