Odd noise when listening to Windows device Pulseaudio loopback in Manjaro

Simon-Pierre Brazeau

2/5/23, 5:16 PM

This is an odd and very specific issue, and I understand there might not be any simple solutions, but here is some context.

I play a lot of video games and I've been trying to use Linux all the time for a few years now, but some games are still not supported on Linux. To remedy this, I have a separate Windows machine for these games. The setup might seem a bit odd, but I have the Windows' audio output connected to the Linux's mic input so that all the sound passes through Manjaro. This saves me from having 2 microphones and having to manage 2 different Discord sessions.

The issue with this setup is there is a constant noise that is coming from the Pulseaudio loopback. Here is a diagram of the current setup:

audio setup

The Windows machine has its speaker output connected to the microphone input on the Linux machine. Pulseaudio has the loopback module loaded and the microphone input has its volume lowered so it is comfortable to listen to.

Here is a short recording of the noise that I keep hearing: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1L1_ZQwKbr5PPFote99wQJ--TDBOHsCCd/view?usp=sharing

There is a constant static noise that is only present when there is sound coming from the Windows machine. This noise can be heard on any output device on the Linux machine (speakers, wired or wireless headphones). If there are no sound coming from the Windows machine, the noise is not present.

I tried loading the module-echo-cancel module from the solution found on this forum, but to no avail. I also checked if it was a sample rate issue (as hinted at from this Arch wiki entry), but nothing either.

I checked on the Windows machine's audio output if I could hear the noise when plugging headphones directly in, but I could not hear it. I changed the cable multiple times to see if this was the issue, and nothing either. I also changed the audio interface on both machines (using a cheap USB adapter), and the issue was also present. I even went as far as testing another Windows machine. The noise was still there.

Does anyone have any idea as to what could be the issue? Is there a fix for this very specific problem?

0 + 0

sound

pulseaudio

microphone

alsa

chili555

2/5/23, 5:25 PM

Manjaro is not an official Ubuntu flavor and thus off-topic.

Organic Marble

2/5/23, 5:42 PM

You can ask on unix,stackexchange.com Too bad, it's an interesting question though clearly off topic here.

Elon Musk

I sit in a Tesla and translated this thread with Ai:

EN: Odd noise when listening to Windows device Pulseaudio loopback in Manjaro

TH: เสียงรบกวนแปลก ๆ เมื่อฟังอุปกรณ์ Windows Pulseaudio loopback ใน Manjaro

RO: Zgomot ciudat la ascultarea dispozitivului Windows Pulseaudio loopback în Manjaro

RU: Странный шум при прослушивании устройства Windows Pulseaudio loopback в Manjaro

VI: Tiếng ồn lạ khi nghe vòng lặp Pulseaudio của thiết bị Windows ở Manjaro

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