[gentoo-user] [OT] GMail calling has an echo in Linux, but not Windows

[gentoo-user] [OT] GMail calling has an echo in Linux, but not Windows

[Jason Weisberger]

Using either Chromium or Firefox plus google-talkplugin in GMail has
an echo when placing a call.  Noise cancellation doesn't seem to work
at all.  There is a setting in GMail for turning Noise Cancellation
either on or off, but it doesn't seem to do a darn thing.  Anybody
else run into this issue?  Is there a piece of software I'm missing on
my system to enable the cancellation?

Thanks!

Jason Weisberger

-- 
Jason Weisberger
jbdubbs@gmail.com

Re: [gentoo-user] [OT] GMail calling has an echo in Linux, but not Windows

[Michael Mol]

On Sun, Dec 18, 2011 at 11:52 AM, Jason Weisberger <jbdubbs@gmail.com> wrote:
> Using either Chromium or Firefox plus google-talkplugin in GMail has
> an echo when placing a call.  Noise cancellation doesn't seem to work
> at all.  There is a setting in GMail for turning Noise Cancellation
> either on or off, but it doesn't seem to do a darn thing.  Anybody
> else run into this issue?  Is there a piece of software I'm missing on
> my system to enable the cancellation?

Any chance your sound card supports looping its output back around as
a monitor capture device?

-- 
:wq

Re: [gentoo-user] [OT] GMail calling has an echo in Linux, but not Windows

[Jason Weisberger]

> Any chance your sound card supports looping its output back around as
> a monitor capture device?

I haven't the slightest clue.  I have a SB X-Fi Gamer.  The other
piece of information I forgot to leave out was that I'm using a
separate
USB microphone, however I figured noise cancellation was done on the
ALSA or Pulseaudio level, so which driver(s) are being used for the
cards should be irrelevant.  However, I could be wrong.


-- 
Jason Weisberger
jbdubbs@gmail.com

[gentoo-user] Re: [OT] GMail calling has an echo in Linux, but not Windows

[walt]

On 12/18/2011 08:52 AM, Jason Weisberger wrote:

> Using either Chromium or Firefox plus google-talkplugin in GMail has
> an echo when placing a call.

How are you listening to the audio?  Headphones, speakers, telephone?

The only way I've used googletalk is to have it call my home phone
before dialing the other person, which works amazingly well.

I've never tried using a microphone and speakers, though I've used
Skype that way a few times without difficulty.

[gentoo-user] Re: [OT] GMail calling has an echo in Linux, but not Windows

[Nikos Chantziaras]

On 12/18/2011 06:52 PM, Jason Weisberger wrote:
> Using either Chromium or Firefox plus google-talkplugin in GMail has
> an echo when placing a call.

Can you hear yourself through the speakers when talking into the 
microphone?  If yes, that means you need to disable the loopback in 
alsamixer.



> Noise cancellation doesn't seem to work
> at all.

Noise cancellation doesn't have anything to do with that.  You're 
thinking of echo cancellation.

[gentoo-user] Re: [OT] GMail calling has an echo in Linux, but not Windows

[Jason Weisberger]

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> How are you listening to the audio?  Headphones, speakers, telephone?

I'm using speakers and an external usb microphone at the moment.  As I
said, this same setup works perfectly in Windows 7.  I'm sure that if I
were to connect a headset the issue would go away, but that still doesn't
explain the problem.  I have also tried the home phone thing, and while i
think it's neat, I find it a bit pointless for me, I'm using Google Talk to
save minutes on my cell phone plan.

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[gentoo-user] Re: [OT] GMail calling has an echo in Linux, but not Windows

[Jason Weisberger]

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> Can you hear yourself through the speakers when talking into the
microphone?  If yes, that means you need to disable the loopback in
alsamixer.
>
>
>
>
>> Noise cancellation doesn't seem to work
>> at all.
>
>
> Noise cancellation doesn't have anything to do with that.  You're
thinking of echo cancellation.

I'm sorry you are correct, I meant to say echo cancellation as in the
subject.

I cannot hear myself, the person on the other end can hear themselves.

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[gentoo-user] Re: [OT] GMail calling has an echo in Linux, but not Windows

[Nikos Chantziaras]

On 12/18/2011 09:21 PM, Jason Weisberger wrote:
>  > Can you hear yourself through the speakers when talking into the
> microphone?  If yes, that means you need to disable the loopback in
> alsamixer.
>
> I cannot hear myself, the person on the other end can hear themselves.

Still looks like loopback is active.  Try to find a slider called 
"Capture" in alsamixer and mute it.  There might also be a setting 
called "input" which can be set to i2c, i2s, mix, etc.  Play with these. 
  I had the same problem with a Soundblaster Live 24-bit, and the 
problem was that it was set "mix", which is a setting that allows you to 
record whatever is currently playing.  It's a good thing to have, but as 
you can imagine, screws with voice communications, because you're 
recording not only your own voice, but also the voice of the other 
person and sending it back right to them.

It's also possible to set this in KMix, but I don't know if you're using 
KDE.

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: [OT] GMail calling has an echo in Linux, but not Windows

[Michael Mol]

On Sun, Dec 18, 2011 at 2:43 PM, Nikos Chantziaras <realnc@arcor.de> wrote:
> On 12/18/2011 09:21 PM, Jason Weisberger wrote:
>>
>>  > Can you hear yourself through the speakers when talking into the
>> microphone?  If yes, that means you need to disable the loopback in
>> alsamixer.
>>
>> I cannot hear myself, the person on the other end can hear themselves.
>
>
> Still looks like loopback is active.  Try to find a slider called "Capture"
> in alsamixer and mute it.  There might also be a setting called "input"
> which can be set to i2c, i2s, mix, etc.  Play with these.  I had the same
> problem with a Soundblaster Live 24-bit, and the problem was that it was set
> "mix", which is a setting that allows you to record whatever is currently
> playing.  It's a good thing to have, but as you can imagine, screws with
> voice communications, because you're recording not only your own voice, but
> also the voice of the other person and sending it back right to them.
>
> It's also possible to set this in KMix, but I don't know if you're using
> KDE.

Another option is to use a small USB sound device. My headphones came
with one, for example. They can be really nice for reducing electrical
noise in the capture channel, too.

They also occasionally crop up where you might not expect them. I
picked up an HP 'travel' USB hub some time back, and was surprised to
discover it had a built-in NIC, mic input and stereo out.

-- 
:wq

[gentoo-user] Re: [OT] GMail calling has an echo in Linux, but not Windows

[Jason Weisberger]

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> Another option is to use a small USB sound device. My headphones came
> with one, for example. They can be really nice for reducing electrical
> noise in the capture channel, too.
>
> They also occasionally crop up where you might not expect them. I
> picked up an HP 'travel' USB hub some time back, and was surprised to
> discover it had a built-in NIC, mic input and stereo out.

Yeah, correct me if I'm wrong, but those usually have built in echo
cancellation.  Most usb speaker/mic combos do.  I believe I'm relying on
software in my case.

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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: [OT] GMail calling has an echo in Linux, but not Windows

[Jason Weisberger]

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> Still looks like loopback is active.  Try to find a slider called
"Capture" in alsamixer and mute it.  There might also be a setting called
"input" which can be set to i2c, i2s, mix, etc.  Play with these.  I had
the same problem with a Soundblaster Live 24-bit, and the problem was that
it was set "mix", which is a setting that allows you to record whatever is
currently playing.  It's a good thing to have, but as you can imagine,
screws with voice communications, because you're recording not only your
own voice, but also the voice of the other person and sending it back right
to them.
>
> It's also possible to set this in KMix, but I don't know if you're using
KDE.
>
Trying your suggestion.

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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: [OT] GMail calling has an echo in Linux, but not Windows

[Jason Weisberger]

>> Still looks like loopback is active.  Try to find a slider called
>> "Capture" in alsamixer and mute it.  There might also be a setting called
>> "input" which can be set to i2c, i2s, mix, etc.  Play with these.  I had the
>> same problem with a Soundblaster Live 24-bit, and the problem was that it
>> was set "mix", which is a setting that allows you to record whatever is
>> currently playing.  It's a good thing to have, but as you can imagine,
>> screws with voice communications, because you're recording not only your own
>> voice, but also the voice of the other person and sending it back right to
>> them.
>>
>> It's also possible to set this in KMix, but I don't know if you're using
>> KDE.
>>
> Trying your suggestion.

I took your suggestion and turned off all of the Capture settings on
the X-Fi, obviously I had to leave it on the USB mic to get audio
through.  Still having the issue.

My mixer settings for capture on the X-Fi are Master, PCM, Line-in,
Mic and S/PDIF-in.  Most of them had capture enabled, I disabled all
of them.  There doesn't appear to be an input setting.

The lone mixer setting for my USB mic (AK5370) is mic, which is set to
100% and LR Capture.

Everything seems pretty covered in there.

-- 
Jason Weisberger
jbdubbs@gmail.com

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: [OT] GMail calling has an echo in Linux, but not Windows

[Michael Mol]

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Mic is USB?

Set the mic on something like a rubber pad. Also, try wearing headphones,
see if that helps. It sounds like you're dealing with normal feedback
issues, and Windows' echo cancellation may simply be better than what
you've got set up.

ZZ
On Dec 18, 2011 5:05 PM, "Jason Weisberger" <jbdubbs@gmail.com> wrote:

> >> Still looks like loopback is active.  Try to find a slider called
> >> "Capture" in alsamixer and mute it.  There might also be a setting
> called
> >> "input" which can be set to i2c, i2s, mix, etc.  Play with these.  I
> had the
> >> same problem with a Soundblaster Live 24-bit, and the problem was that
> it
> >> was set "mix", which is a setting that allows you to record whatever is
> >> currently playing.  It's a good thing to have, but as you can imagine,
> >> screws with voice communications, because you're recording not only
> your own
> >> voice, but also the voice of the other person and sending it back right
> to
> >> them.
> >>
> >> It's also possible to set this in KMix, but I don't know if you're using
> >> KDE.
> >>
> > Trying your suggestion.
>
> I took your suggestion and turned off all of the Capture settings on
> the X-Fi, obviously I had to leave it on the USB mic to get audio
> through.  Still having the issue.
>
> My mixer settings for capture on the X-Fi are Master, PCM, Line-in,
> Mic and S/PDIF-in.  Most of them had capture enabled, I disabled all
> of them.  There doesn't appear to be an input setting.
>
> The lone mixer setting for my USB mic (AK5370) is mic, which is set to
> 100% and LR Capture.
>
> Everything seems pretty covered in there.
>
> --
> Jason Weisberger
> jbdubbs@gmail.com
>
>

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