Hello there, I just moved from Alpha to beta using the new installer (Ubuntu package).

The development pace of the (new?) team is really amazing, please keep on the good job!

As for the release itself, being also a Mac user, I am fully at home with the new interface, and like it a lot, one thing however was below expectations: audio.
It was one of the strongest points of this new 1.4 series, even better than the mac or win counterparts.
This time however, the mic-audio level seems too low.
People can hear me OK but only at very low volume.
I noticed the same the other way around with a friend that has upgraded and called me.

I have tried to fiddle with the audio settings but to no effect so far.

Is it just me and my friend or somebody else is being affected by this issue?

Any suggestions?

/P

Hi,
Tried 1.4 beta and I'm having the same problem under Kubuntu Feisty. Mic output is insufficient, no matter how I change my settings under Skype options or adjust my Kmix settings (ALSA). I went back to the previous Skype version and my mic was fine again, with the exception of that cliicking sound, which people at the other end seem to experience from Linux users. In general, except for the low mic volume problem, sounds seemed much smoother and less broken under the beta, when I tried the Skype test call service to test the mic volume.

I understand there are some things that can be tried under Windows, like deleting .xml files and altering config files, but I have no clues as to how to do this under Linux, since I am a newbie.

Any fixes would be appreciated. Thanks.

garystewart

Athlon64 3000+ Socket 754
MSI K8T Neo FISR
1GB PC 3200 RAM
MSI GeForce 6600GT
Onboard Via 8237 Sound
Kubuntu 7.04

i was having the exact same issue with the alpha, but the beta seems to have fixed the problem. make sure skype is set to default or your correct sound device. also make sure you are not running skype through aoss or anything like that. and if you had a custom ~/.asoundrc / asoundrc before; try using skype without using the custom configuration, worked for me that way.

Question guys:

In the cases of low mic, are you talking to people with older skype versions or the same or equivalent (3.2 windows, 2.6 mac)?
How's quality to the SkypeOut lines?

Hi Kurrier,
None of your suggestions seems to apply. I am running ALSA, no special sound driver or configuration, Finally, I have tried three variations of settings for each sound category for the Via chip, Default device does not allow for any sounds at all. I have tried various other combinations of three choices for the via and only one of those works at all.

The beta was one of the first progs installed after I reinstalled Feisty. So there is really no customization of anything right now. I have no clues as to how to fix the problem.

Here, sound quality has gone back to the crappy, garbled sound that plagued the old OSS-based early version. Yuck! Also, it keeps on complaining about the audio device being busy. Hello? This is an ALSA-based system. The device can be shared, unlike on OSS, so why can't Skype learn how to share it?

And the Debian package still misses its Debian menu entry.

Hi -- if you have explicitly set a device in the configuration, be noted that this overrides dmix settings (so you can end up with dreaded audio device busy issues). I recommend sticking to the default device for now.

The problems are with ALSA's dmix implementation (which became embedded in 1.0.11) and how multiple devices are accessed. Hopefully we'll be able to do a workaround in the client in the future (or ALSA may improve itself in the meantime ).

Sorry about that,
Andy.

What is your alsa version?

(Kernel alsa driver version: cat /proc/asound/version
Alsa library version: depending on your distro, query package name and version for either alsa-lib or libasound2)

I had the same problem as the author of the first post. I upgraded to the latest version of Skype for Linux, but my girlfriend still had the old version. When she upgraded to the 1.4.xxx all worked again...

Just an update to my opening post to this thread.

Enabling the mic boost (+20db) from the Gnome Audio preferences, was the solution.

Everything back to normal, smooth operation again.

@Berkus
arthur@ubuntu-hp:~$ cat /proc/asound/version
Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.14rc1 (Tue Jan 09 09:56:17 2007 UTC).
libasound2 version 1.0.13 on Ubuntu Feisty

Hope this can help somebody else with the same issues.

/P

Hey that worked, thanks! My other skype user was using Windows 2.5 and once she upgraded to 3.2 the bad call quality went away! Thanks!

I'm getting very choppy audio, to the point that I'm in audible to landline users. Mic settings are identical to before the upgrade and it seems (not tested extensively enough) that sound is still OK in verion 1.3 - I have that installed via a .DEB file and the 1.4 dynamic extracted to a separate directory.
Even the Skype test call sounds bad - the recorded voice of the echo123 contact is choppy in v1.4

Hi Berkus,
I purged the beta, reinstalled 3.5 then purged and reinstalled the beta, and got the same results. Has nothing to do with mic boost. Strangely, the skype test recording reveals the volume is really soft, as before.
Here is my Alsa version:
Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.14rc1 (Tue Jan 09 09:56:17 2007 UTC).

In reading the posts, I must admit that the only others I have tried the new version with have older Windows versions of Skype. On my Windows machines I had audio problems with some of the ver. 3 builds until the last 3.2 builds. Now all is well with Windows. My friends had the same problems and were happy with the older verisions so they have stuck with them. I will try to convince them to update their Windows versions to the latest and try again.

Let you know the results.
Thanks

Hi there,
i was just upgrading to Skype Version
1.4.0.74
on Debian Lenny

my mic is now quieter.
any solution so far? ...
if you need some more infos ... let me know

thanks
Bearman

I had the same problem on ubuntu. The solution is to boost your mic by +20db from audio mixer (KMix in KDE or Gnome audio) I hope this bug will be fixed after skype 1.4 release.

doenst work for me ...
if i disable the Mic Boost my skypepartner hears nothing ...

i have a C-Media PCI CMI8738

any sugestions from skype team?

I think:

Many times skype sound problems are caused by worse alsa mixer settings.

Debt are probable the hardware manufacturers.
My suggestion: Purchase tested hardware.

Sometimes the input devices are not correctly listed by alsa therefore is it not possible to set the right volume for the device.

This is not a problem of skype.

This is a alsa problem caused by bad co-operation with hardware manufacturers.

And it is not a solve to made workarounds for every device.

The Skype developer haves to develop Skype, and not to made workarounds for bad ALSA support caused by bad co-operation with hardware manufacturers.

What we can do?

Test you device with:

arecord and aplay and set you mixer to the right values.
use for this alsamixer (push F1 for help)

And if is not possible to set the right value:

Here is ALSA bugtracking system:
https://bugtrack.alsa-project.org/alsa-bug/login_page.php

or contact the hardware manufacturer

Just so you don't all rush to bug ALSA people:

There is currently NO mixer controls in Linux Skype. This means - audio engine can not at this moment adjust volume correction, so microphone levels may and most probably will be weird.
If possible - adjust them by using mixer program, raising Mic volume and enabling mic boost where applicable.

I'm working on implementing this functionality currently, stay tuned.

Thank Berkus,
thanks for Your efforts.

Try to use the mic boost function. Usually that solves the problem temporarily.

deltatux