Digitakt II USB Class Compliant audio in Linux

frekvencia · 2024-04-30T18:35:37.673Z

As with all the other Digi boxes, it seems that the Digitakt II is no exception and class compliant audio doesn’t work on Linux.

I get distorted audio when I play something back from my computer. Recording the Digitakt II itself seems to work fine, just like with the other Digi boxes.

avantronica · 2024-05-01T07:38:27.683Z

Do the samples you audition align with the DT audio format, iirc 16bit 48k ?
Otherwise you could potentially be hearing poor sample rate conversion from the host device.

frekvencia · 2024-05-01T08:13:45.196Z

This is how I tested. I get the same distorted sound as with my other Digi boxes. The same command produces a clean sine wave on my speakers.

~ speaker-test -Dhw:2,0 -tsin -c2 -r48000 -FS32_LE

dr_laemmerbein · 2024-05-01T08:26:17.718Z

I never had problems in Linux with my Elektrons. Are you using pipewire? If not, go for it

It’s possible that the sample rate of your system is set to something else than 48kHz which would explain the problems.

frekvencia · 2024-05-01T08:36:49.581Z

I am using PipeWire. It was working at some point (years ago). PipeWire itself would be using ALSA to actually access the device so by testing with `speaker-test´ I basically removed as many middle man as possible.

Just out of curiosity, can you try running that command? Do you get a nice and clean sine wave?

DG2 · 2024-05-01T08:40:40.326Z

As @frekvencia said, this is a problem that affect all the boxes but depends on the USB port and hub and the other devices that are connected to it.

Slightly disappointing to see that this is still an issue.

Link some other threads for reference.

Analog Heat and capturing audio on Linux Analog Heat

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Syntakt & Linux Syntakt

Similar issue with Model:Cycle and the various linux distros I have tried under pipewire. Looks like a driver/kernel issue with the DACs used in Elektron boxes. Works perfectly under Windows.

Analog Heat +FX Class Compliant mode Analog Heat

Some observations: my lsusb output only has root_hubs the interface order is alway correct, yet the sound remains bad some USB ports do have better sound as in slightly faster (maybe 1.5x instead of 2.7x) even went through a BIOS upgrade, no help changed power management and legacy USB support BIOS options disabled the autoclock option of the kernel driver tried the delayed_register kernel driver option, nothing it my case but it might help you Regarding the latter, this option helps dealing…

frekvencia · 2024-10-31T07:57:15.908Z

This is still an issue even with the Digitone II on the latest firmware.

frekvencia · 2024-11-01T22:14:33.566Z

DG2:

this is a problem that affect all the boxes but depends on the USB port and hub and the other devices that are connected to it.

I wonder if this is actually the case. The same computer where my Elektron boxes produce distorted audio on Linux work fine on Windows. I would guess that if it is really a bandwidth issue then it should affect Windows too - right?

DG2 · 2024-11-02T05:56:29.539Z

Don’t remember exactly what I did but probably that word “bandwidth” is very misleading.

What I meant is that looked like not all the needed USB packets were being sent or received, causing the audio artifacts. This only happens on Linux and depends on the USB port and the other devices connected to it.

I’ll try to take another look at this.