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Hi!
I have an really annoying audio issue, I hope there's a solution.
Background:
Being an insomniac I use my phone w. in-ear-plugs (Bose IE2) to listen to audiobooks and watching videos until I fall asleep.
I bought the Note for the big screen and the awesome hardware audio/video support, and just for trying something new, (I've been using iPhones since it's first release but felt like upgrading from an iPhone 4 to an iPhone 4s wasn't worth it) so the Note is my first Android phone.
The Problem:
When playing audiobooks, videos and music at low volumes it's like the phone ”auto-mutes” when the source audio have low volume or total silence. Then there's a click or a static and a very short delay when the audio returns. It's really annoying when listening to i.e. audiobook where it's much silence, like between sentences and sometimes words.
It doesn't appear when listening to more moderate volumes, just in the bottom 20% of the volume slider.
I've tried a bunch of different players... it's all the same. Doesn’t matter if its a local file or LAN.
Gingerbread 2.3.6 XBKK4, not rooted or anything.
Anyone know of a cure for my phone, or a good sleep-therapist....
I bought a Galaxy Note a month or so ago. I'm not sure if this happened before the ICS update or if it came with it as it's still all a bit new. I'm wondering if the following behaviour is a fault (hardware or otherwise), is a setting that I can alter or if it "just is".
I use the Note a lot to play music especially at night as I'm going to sleep, when I have the Note on either the quietest volume setting or something close to it. I have noticed that when the volume level is low on quiet passages in the music it drops out altogether. This is quite noticable as any background hiss (on older recordings) drops to silent then comes back in again as the music approaches a louder passage. It does the same on video.
It can be quite annoying and very distracting. If I turn the volume up (past about half way on quieter, older recordings) the problem vanishes completly so it looks like an issue with the pre-amp or DAC?
I have tried different audio players and different headphones with no change. I have also tried playing music without headphones (using the in-built speaker) and think that does it also, although it's harder to tell.
The wierd thing is googling around I can't find anyone reporting the same problem, which makes me think I possibly have a fault. Any ideas? Could someone else with a Note on ICS try the same thing and report their findings?
Test is: find somewhere very quiet. Play some quiet music on the Note and turn the volume right down until it is barely audible with the earphone pressed in. Try different pieces of music and see if the sound drops out on quieter passages - for me, it does.
StarFishUK said:
I bought a Galaxy Note a month or so ago. I'm not sure if this happened before the ICS update or if it came with it as it's still all a bit new. I'm wondering if the following behaviour is a fault (hardware or otherwise), is a setting that I can alter or if it "just is".
I use the Note a lot to play music especially at night as I'm going to sleep, when I have the Note on either the quietest volume setting or something close to it. I have noticed that when the volume level is low on quiet passages in the music it drops out altogether. This is quite noticable as any background hiss (on older recordings) drops to silent then comes back in again as the music approaches a louder passage. It does the same on video.
It can be quite annoying and very distracting. If I turn the volume up (past about half way on quieter, older recordings) the problem vanishes completly so it looks like an issue with the pre-amp or DAC?
I have tried different audio players and different headphones with no change. I have also tried playing music without headphones (using the in-built speaker) and think that does it also, although it's harder to tell.
The wierd thing is googling around I can't find anyone reporting the same problem, which makes me think I possibly have a fault. Any ideas? Could someone else with a Note on ICS try the same thing and report their findings?
Test is: find somewhere very quiet. Play some quiet music on the Note and turn the volume right down until it is barely audible with the earphone pressed in. Try different pieces of music and see if the sound drops out on quieter passages - for me, it does.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I found this happening on a fade out of a song (Bjork - Play Dead). On volume 1 the sound would cut out much earlier than on volume 2. It sounds like a classic noise reduction technique kicking in - designed to reduce hiss.
Not much pop music is mixed like this any more I don't think. You'd certainly notice it more on Classical music where the dynamic range is far greater than Pop.
krypton_the_slayer said:
I found this happening on a fade out of a song (Bjork - Play Dead). On volume 1 the sound would cut out much earlier than on volume 2. It sounds like a classic noise reduction technique kicking in - designed to reduce hiss.
Not much pop music is mixed like this any more I don't think. You'd certainly notice it more on Classical music where the dynamic range is far greater than Pop.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Perfect - yes, that describes my problem. And yes, it is classical music where I find it most noticeable (especially older recordings which tend to be quieter with quite a bit of background hiss). I wonder if there is any way to diable the noise reduction...?
Appreciate your help. At least I now know I don't have a faulty device. Massive thanks.
By the way the best answer I have so far is to play on higher sound levels and use an set of headphones with an old style (non digital) volume control to bring the sound back down to a reasonable level at the earphonesd. Pretty poor solution really - had hoped for better from my lovely new Note.
+1 big problem for my...and now...not solutions...waiting...
I have this issue since Samsung replaced my mainboard. It happens on stock ICS and CM9. I haven't tried Gingerbread.
Could this be a hardware problem?
Is there any fix to this yet, this is exactly my problem, good tip about using an in-line headphone volume control though
The same bug. Please fix it somebody.
I too have this problem with my new Galaxy Note (ICS 4.0.4). I'd be interested to hear from any Note users that *do not* have this problem when playing back audio at low volumes. If you don't notice the audio completely dropping out, please list what version of Android you're running. Thanks!
I guess we need some more experimentation to see if it's a hardware or software issue (or both).
naytheet said:
I too have this problem with my new Galaxy Note (ICS 4.0.4). I'd be interested to hear from any Note users that *do not* have this problem when playing back audio at low volumes. If you don't notice the audio completely dropping out, please list what version of Android you're running. Thanks!
I guess we need some more experimentation to see if it's a hardware or software issue (or both).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
I am quite sure this is a software bug. When my note was using gingerbread, it was OK. It started to behave this wasy after the (official) ICS upgrade. Some of my friends are using unofficial ROMs (4.0.3 or 4.0.4) and it is ok - I tested it. So my conclusion is that samsung put some software trying to reduce noise in low audio volume, but it's not working as it should be...
More people are stumbling upon this noise gate problem:
http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=35861
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1717425
I experience it on ICS and also on CM9, only with headphones plugged in (not when listening to music via bluetooth on the Sony MW600).
It does not occur on Gingerbread, but I don't like to use that ROM as a daily driver...
Can anyone confirm if there are custom ROMS that do not have this behavior?
Or is there maybe some way to replace the ICS media playback service with the GB one?
Well, all ICS-based custom ROMs I've tried suffer the same irritating behavior.
And it also turns out that GB has the same kind of noise gate, but the threshold seems to be a lot lower and therefore it doesn't kick in that often.
But I've just installed a CM10 nightly, and that seems to solve the issue.
my 2 cents
I can confirm, that I have similar problem.
I have the problems only when watching movies. the sound just cuts off when the character stops speaking, so it cuts off the background sound.
I tried different kernels, ROM´s... same problems on GB, ICS, CM9...
I have a hillBilly solution that works for me! When ever the sound cutting starts, I just change the volume for one level. The cutting will off course repeat... but it's indeed better than listen to the clipping...
For black clipping I use highest brightness and film screen mode. It does the trick for me...
But it just pisses me of when I realize that I have the phone with ****ty screen, sound and bricking danger...
wtf sammy... i just cant belive that i paid 540 eur for this, its sad
DonLaDroid
please delete....
double post....
This is bugging me too.
Would this be something controlled by the kernel?
---------- Post added 1st September 2012 at 12:40 AM ---------- Previous post was 31st August 2012 at 11:48 PM ----------
Also being discussed at http://code.google.com/p/android/is...s Owner Summary Stars&groupby=&sort=&id=35861
Please, can anyone using a non Touchwiz ICS or JB Rom tell us if this is happening for them?
burtcom said:
This is bugging me too.
Would this be something controlled by the kernel?
---------- Post added 1st September 2012 at 12:40 AM ---------- Previous post was 31st August 2012 at 11:48 PM ----------
Also being discussed at http://code.google.com/p/android/is...s Owner Summary Stars&groupby=&sort=&id=35861
Please, can anyone using a non Touchwiz ICS or JB Rom tell us if this is happening for them?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just flashed latest PA, and its till there!
Im not an expert! Does anyone remember a background noise reduction option while making a call in GB??
I cant find it in ICS or PA. I think that this background noise redustion system is causing the cutting. It must be somehow connected.... im not an dev or anything but my gut tells me that this could be!
anyone?
Take care
DonLaDroid
OK all, let's figure out what ROMs don't have this problem, and start bugging the Devs to try to fix it on the others :laugh:
Well, I just noticed that the sound cut-off is also back on the unofficial 08/31 build of CM10. It was much less noticeable on the 08/28 build. :crying:
The difference between the two builds is a huge decrease in sound volume: build 08/28 was much louder than the latest one. Maybe the noise gate simply doesn't kick in so soon when the system volume is cranked up. You basically get the same effect when turning up the volume completely and turn it down with an inline analog control - as suggested by StarFishUK in post #3.
So my question would be what makes the volume louder on 08/28?
And how can I get that 'cranked up volume' on newer CM10 builds or preferably on ICS roms? Any ideas?
By the way, I totally agree with your 2 cents DonLaDroid. I never had this much trouble with my old Dell Streak...
Haven't noticed this myself (CM10), but i've noticed something incredible annoying in CM builds, and that's when i'm listening to music with headsets and i'm increasing the volume, it seems that it's "missing" a couple of steps. So when i'm increasing the volume it'll go from 5 to 8 in one step, and not 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,
It should be: 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8
But it is: 0,1,2,3,4,5,8
How to test this problem. ..
Go to a quiet room.
Set audio level to one (one click up from silence)
Play some music with soft passages.
For me, the sound shuts off during quiet audio for speaker and wired headset. Note that this isn't simply an absence of sound. The sound turns off then suddenly starts again in the middle of a louder passage.
Bluetooth doesn't have the problem.
A gentleman on one of the Kernel threads believes this may be a hardware issue. The sound clips to cover noise from the speaker.
All, it seems that this is a "feature" of our phone. We will need to contact Samsung for the word on if this is a hardware issue or of it can be fixed via software. Right now it seems this happens in all ROMs, Touchwiz or AOSP.
Workaround is to use Bluetooth or a wired headset with an analog volume control.
Hi guys,
since my Nexus 4 days I am always facing the same issue of massive sound distortions while listening to music. The same holds true for my Nexus 7 (2013) and bow the nexus 6.
When playing music (e.g. Via Spotify or poweramp) the music stutters including horrible sounds similar to a broken venyl as soon as I put a little bit of load on the cpu. While on my Nexus 4 the problem was also there when the screen was of or even during phone calls the latter is fine on the n6.
I have tried all kind of kernels, schedulers and governors, but i can't make this go away at all.
It's weird that I have the same problem on all my Nexus devices. Since I do not read about others having this issue I guess I must do something wrong.
Does anyone have an idea?
Merry Christmas ?!
Dabarr said:
Hi guys,
since my Nexus 4 days I am always facing the same issue of massive sound distortions while listening to music. The same holds true for my Nexus 7 (2013) and bow the nexus 6.
When playing music (e.g. Via Spotify or poweramp) the music stutters including horrible sounds similar to a broken venyl as soon as I put a little bit of load on the cpu. While on my Nexus 4 the problem was also there when the screen was of or even during phone calls the latter is fine on the n6.
I have tried all kind of kernels, schedulers and governors, but i can't make this go away at all.
It's weird that I have the same problem on all my Nexus devices. Since I do not read about others having this issue I guess I must do something wrong.
Does anyone have an idea?
Merry Christmas ?!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Turn your EQ down or master volume down.
Or try flashing the zip for stock volume on your N6 i made a few days back - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=57678105&postcount=77
Hi. Thanks for your help. I tried to follow your advice, but unfortunately it didn't help. It's not related at to my volume at all. Also I didn't tinker with EQ etc. all.
I also did a clean flash with stock kernel and just tried spotify. Same thing happened.
This is really weird since it's affecting all my Nexus devices and no one else seems to have that problem though.
Dabarr said:
Hi. Thanks for your help. I tried to follow your advice, but unfortunately it didn't help. It's not related at to my volume at all. Also I didn't tinker with EQ etc. all.
I also did a clean flash with stock kernel and just tried spotify. Same thing happened.
This is really weird since it's affecting all my Nexus devices and no one else seems to have that problem though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is it your headphones?
What music? Is it the same files across devices? That'd where I would start. If it's any and all music then who knows.. What app are you using....?
If it's persistent across multiple devices, the problem is most likely either your headphones or the quality of your music files. You could test this by listening to an album you have in both the format you have now and a higher quality (like FLAC) and see if there is a difference. Also, if you are editing your mixer_path's and/or using a sound modification, lower standard audio will have some distortion sounds depending on how high you set the numbers.
My setup is:
RHA 10TI Hi-fi NR earbuds
High quality music files (FLAC, etc. nothing below 320 if in lossy format)
HP and RX's set to 30 and 94, respectively
Hope this helps you out.
Hey guys, thank's for all your answers and I'm sorry for my late response. I am using spotify as my daily music app. But the problem also occurs on YouTube or regular mp3s using poweramp with different quality files. It can't be the headphones actually, because i have the same distortions when using the phone speakers. I haven't tried flac files though.
I am still somewhat clueless about that. I was thinking about a rma of the n6 but then why would it be the same problem on all 3 devices. Hmpf.
Thanks very much for your help!
I have the same problems with my phone no matter what app I use and when I'm on the phone to where no one can hear me. I rma mines this week and it was overnight shipping label from Motorola. So they will have my device this Friday 2/15. They told me I will receive a new phone in return. To be honest I didnt have this problem until I updated to 5.0.1
Hmm, I really do not want to do a rma though. What I have realized is that YouTube Videos also freeze for a milisecond as well as soon as the sound distortion 'kicks' in. Seems as this really is related to the cpu not bring able to handle the 'load'.
I flashed Euphoria rom http://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-6/development/rom-euphoria-os-beta-0-3-t2954615 and now problem is gone. No distortion sound anymore.
Hey guys,
Love my new S6, because of memory limitations, I'm using spotify more than the music player. I noticed that when I listen to music, the volume keeps changing by itself (but remains at the same "number" that I set), I believe it's an EQ problem due to the voice/instrument equalizer function that keeps adjusting one VS the other. I was able to downgrade the amazon appstore still has version 2.6.0.813 and it's better (but not perfect yet, I hope they fix this bug in the next spotify update, just wanted to share in case you though you were going crazy (as I did).
See http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s6/help/volume-changing-playing-music-t3089066
Solution
Just found the solution, please close topic
https://community.spotify.com/t5/He...-Distorted-playback-sound-levels/td-p/1028205
Disabling Nuplayer does not work
solution from the previous post does not work, I and others tested it and spotify volume is still messed up with Nuplayer disabled, downgrading seems to be the only solution as of now, sorry for the confusion
Remix22 said:
Hey guys,
Love my new S6, because of memory limitations, I'm using spotify more than the music player. I noticed that when I listen to music, the volume keeps changing by itself (but remains at the same "number" that I set), I believe it's an EQ problem due to the voice/instrument equalizer function that keeps adjusting one VS the other. I was able to downgrade the amazon appstore still has version 2.6.0.813 and it's better (but not perfect yet, I hope they fix this bug in the next spotify update, just wanted to share in case you though you were going crazy (as I did).
See http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s6/help/volume-changing-playing-music-t3089066
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
actually, I've noticed this problem with Google Play music as well.. I'm not using the equalizer.. for no apparent reason, at some points in certain songs, the volume will inexplicably lower, never quite recovering.. weird
same here. thought i was going deaf bc i had the volume up to 80%
Is it happening with your stock music player? I disabled Nuplayer and spotify is still misbehaving but the Samsung player works fine. I didn't find a Samsung user forum to report the problem but will look more into it.
old version works
Using S6 Edge, had this problem myself with spotify - can confirm using the previous version of spotify fixes the problem.
Agree there's points where it stoll changes volume ever so slightly but definatley a big improvement.
Can't post link to download due to new user restrictions.
Thanks to OP for posting his findings. Big help.
Peace.
I have been going back and forth with Spotify support for weeks on this issue, and it's been escalated to a Tier 2 person who I've been working with for almost a week now. Specifically, my problem is that the sound on any given song will vary throughout the song...it will start at whatever volume I have it set at, then suddenly get about 25% quieter for about 10-20 seconds, then go back up to original volume. This happens in almost a cyclical fashion my entire time listening to Spotify on my phone...whether it be through headphones, phone speak, or a bluetooth speaker. Spotify support even gave me another test account to try, which this issue also happen in on my phone....and they logged into my account on their end and done extensive listening tests, but are not able to replicate on their end. They had me try everything...clearing cache, trying with volume normalization ON, then trying with it OFF, WiFi only, data only, listening to cached music with no data turned on, re-installing, rebooting, updating, deleting all Spotify files/folders from the file manager, listening with corded headphones, bluetooth headphones, phone speaker, bluetooth speaker, etc. They really feel at this point that it's the Samsung Galaxy S6 that doesnt play nicely with Spotify, but they cannot figure out why. I'm still troubleshooting with them but so far no solution, only a ton of things ruled out as culprits. =(
This is a few days old but do you have sound alive enabled?
Sent from my SM-G920T using Tapatalk
Just wondering if anybody else has experienced this. For me, specifically when playing Dissidia FF: Opera Omnia and one other game that I tried once but can't recall... When playing, sometimes the bottom speaker will not play sound at all or sound will play in "crackles" (as in, the game sound plays in crackle-length spurts). I can't find any particular cause for it, and messing with settings has done nothing.
Doesn't happen to me with watching videos, listening to music, or playing other games. But I'm wondering if it's somehow still something on my end, or if other people have experienced this. It doesn't happen constantly (sometimes the sound is just fine), but I'd say... Maybe 60% of my time spent playing, this issue occurs.
This is indeed a known software issue on MR2 seemingly to do with low volume. Does briefly increasing and decreasing the volume make the problem go away for a while?
Hmm... Initially I had thought I tried that thoroughly enough. But I figured out a way to make the issue more repeatable, and I tried turning up the volume well past the halfway point (which is usually overkill on this phone... lol). Turns out the sound does indeed kick back in when the volume is put above halfway or so. Sorry, I didn't realize it had to go that high to realize what's going on.
It's still weird that it only seems to happen in this one game I play (and that one other random one). All my other games, music, and videos have no issues. Well, here's hoping they eventually fix it... lol.
Gamesoul Master said:
Hmm... Initially I had thought I tried that thoroughly enough. But I figured out a way to make the issue more repeatable, and I tried turning up the volume well past the halfway point (which is usually overkill on this phone... lol). Turns out the sound does indeed kick back in when the volume is put above halfway or so. Sorry, I didn't realize it had to go that high to realize what's going on.
It's still weird that it only seems to happen in this one game I play (and that one other random one). All my other games, music, and videos have no issues. Well, here's hoping they eventually fix it... lol.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had the same issue playing Clash Royale and Final Fantasy 7. Like you, turning it up to about 60% "fixed" the crackling. But it would return again eventually when I turned the volume back down. I ended up returning the phone because the Microsoft Store is an amazing place with 30 day returns. I love the phone so it sucks, but that issue is a real deal breaker. Once they get it fixed I'll look into getting another. On a side note; I did contact Razer support through twitter and they were going to send me an RMA. Had to go through the whole song and dance of "Did you try a hard reboot" and "Did you do a factory reset". If you decide to do an RMA and they say no let me know.
Nevermind