alsa buzzing

[bitwarrior]

I have an on-board via sound AC'97 and since via hasnt released drivers for the kernel of knoppix 3.2 so i installed ALSA (thanks to the other posts on this site) but now CD's sound perfect and MP3's and wavs have some crazy buzzing noise in the speakers, my startup sound is messed when i log into root, XMMS is buzzing and the MP3 player in limewire is doing the same buzzing. the card works fine in XP, which i dual boot here is a portion of my lspci

00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 50)
Subsystem: VIA Technologies, Inc.: Unknown device a003
Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 5
I/O ports at e000 [size=256]
Capabilities: [c0] Power Management version 2

i cant seem to find help elsewhere so thanks in advance for any help!

[paradocs]

Hello bitwarrior,

Sorry, this is not an answer. I have the
same problem. My 00:11.5 listing is the
same. I was so happy to finally get ALSA
on the new KNOPPIX release and hear
sound. Certain mp3 and wav compression
rates cause very sever static. I was about
to buy a "real sound card" although I hate
to use my one slot in my ITX box for that.

I run KNOPPIX from CD with no hard drive
and a USB 2 CDRW.

So please, if you encounter an answer elsewhere
post it here.

Best Wishes
paradocs

[Loper]

I have an on-board VIA sound AC'97 and since VIA hasn't released drivers for the kernel of knoppix 3.2 so i installed ALSA... but now CD's sound perfect and MP3's and wavs have some crazy buzzing noise in the speakers...

I think it has to do with the way that interrupts are handled under Linux, and also how much capacitor bypassing is on the board (even on-board discrete sound chips are affected by this second factor to some extent). Be aware that AC '97 sound (a now-7-year-old standard, note) is ENTIRELY handled by the CPU -- the chipset only provides the interface circuitry. This is a failing of AC '97, not Linux -- remember that MS helped design that standard, and that your system (even a fast one) takes a tremendous performance hit as a result of sucking up CPU cycles. Even a cheap OEM SoundBlaster Live! card will both sound better AND improve performance. CD sound is basically just passed through, so it's not affected.

[paradocs]

Darn, I should have known that everything on one
board was too good to be true. Do you have other
suggestions for upper-end soundcards that will
work with KNOPPIX linux? Would mutliple
channels ( 4 tracks ) be supported?

I have a USB Tascam sound and midi
contoler for my PC but I doubt that I can get
linux dirvers for that.

Thanks for your help.
paradocs

[Loper]

...Do you have other suggestions for upper-end soundcards that will
work with KNOPPIX linux? Would mutliple channels (4 tracks) be supported?

My choice would be cards based on the VIA (formerly IC Ensemble) Envy24 series of chips, which are available from several manufacturers. Cards manufactured by M-Audio (formerly MidiMan) seem to be getting a lot of attention, start at less than $100, and seem to be well-supported by ALSA (at least according to the compatibility matrix; wonderful thing, Google). There are also pro versions available, something that can't be said for the Audigy series as far as I know -- besides, only the Audigy 2 is true 24-bit. You can see a useful (and detailed) review of the low-end M-Audio card (7.1 output) at http://www.tech-report.com/reviews/2...v/index.x?pg=1

[bitwarrior]

ok,i guess i will get one of those Audigy 2's and some cheap surround speakers. thanks for the help

[paradocs]

EXTRA EXTRA READ THE SOLUTION

cafFIEND as posed a solution to stop the buzzing.
I works!
I was days for messing with a sound card but now
my onboard sound is plenty good.

See the post

The Official AC97VIA Onboard Sound Problem Thread Thingie

Sorry I did not clip the link but a search on some of the above
should work.

Best Wishes
paradocs

[Stephen]

Sorry I did not clip the link but a search on some of the above
should work.

Best Wishes
paradocs

here