Hello all!

I've got some sounds issues that I cannot seem to resolve. First off, my sound is perfect in KDE. MP3's & .wav files all play fine, as does streaming audio. However, I'm not very fond of KDE, and I've found myself using Gnome more and more often. Unfortunately, my sound when playing .wav files is awful. All of the "event" sounds that Gnome tries to play come out SERIOUSLY garbled. Oddly enough, other sounds like streaming audio or MP3's sound good.

I've been working on this one for a few days now, and I'm stumped. I think it has something to do with the sound server. Apparently Gnome uses EsounD, while KDE uses ArtS. I'm sure I have some ALSA drivers as well as OSS, but I don't understand quite how these are all supposed to relate to each other. Just for kicks and giggles, here's the output of my lsmod:

bash-2.05a# lsmod
Module Size Used by Not tainted
tdfx 36408 1
pcmcia_core 40896 0
ide-scsi 7456 0
tulip 37184 1
snd-pcm-oss 36292 0
snd-mixer-oss 9180 1 [snd-pcm-oss]
snd-via686 6700 1
snd-pcm 52864 0 [snd-pcm-oss snd-via686]
snd-timer 9928 0 [snd-pcm]
snd-ac97-codec 23428 0 [snd-via686]
snd-mpu401-uart 2480 0 [snd-via686]
snd-rawmidi 11648 0 [snd-mpu401-uart]
snd-seq-device 3600 0 [snd-rawmidi]
snd 23436 0 [snd-pcm-oss snd-mixer-oss snd-via686 snd-pcm snd-timer snd-ac97-codec snd-mpu401-uart snd-rawmidi snd-seq-device]
soundcore 3236 3 [snd]
printer 5632 0 (unused)
usb-uhci 20708 0 (unused)
usbcore 48000 0 [printer usb-uhci]
agpgart 29824 0 (unused)

Anyone have any advice? Thanks in advance!

--Akshun J

Well, after even MORE reading, I've still gotten nowhere on this deal. Anyone have ANY suggestions?
Thanks in advance!!!

--Akshun J

Well, I tried installing the latest Esound version. This did not help, though.
I have tweaked the settings for 8-bit sound, and that cleaned it up a SMIDGE, but it is still mostly garbled junk.
Help?

Anybody?

--Akshun J

From reviewing your posts and your mods that are loaded you are using the alsa sound drivers. Are you running the latest version? If you are able to play 16 bit sounds OK and not 8 bit then I would suspect the asla drivers. Perhaps there is a compile option or something that would make a difference. Have you reviewed the alsa web site for any information?

Thanks for the reply. Yes, I am using the Alsa drivers. I have been to the website, and I installed the latest drivers according to their exact instructions.

Also, I can't play 16-bit .wav files any better than 8-bit.

I did notice an error message when I exited Gnome the last time. It told me that I was using a version of Gmix that was compiled with a more recent version of OSS than I have installed. I was also reading that ALSA tries to emulate OSS for some applications. Perhaps getting rid of OSS would be the solution. Maybe they are competing somehow?

In any case, I'm going to try that out. I'll post my successes or failures...

--Akshun J

More news from the world of Slackware Linux sound!

I don't have any OSS drivers to destroy! Great, right? AND, here's the kick in the pants:

If I use the Alsa player from the terminal command line in Gnome, IT PLAYS MY .WAV FILES LIKE A CHAMP! I am utterly clueless as to why this is so.
Now I'm figuring that the problem has GOT to be with Esound. I went back to the site where I found the new version of Esound, and spiced up my esound.conf with some commands I found there, but to no avail. Then I shut Gmix the hell off, and kept it from loading when I boot X. Still no luck when I unmute alsamixer. Same garbled nonsense.

Question to anyone who can answer:

Why am I able to play MP3's? Shouldn't they also be garbled?

--Akshun J

I have the EXACT same problem and its a pain in the nuts. MP3s and video sounds work purrrfectly, but no event sounds or anything (all crackley)!!!!

Hey, i've also noticed I can't play MIDIs, do you have this problem too? Why oh WHY!?!