Hi there,
I recently got a new computer and installed Neon, but when I use my audio interface (Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 2nd) playback is distorted and noisy.
Playing audiofiles by VLC results in heavy stuttering of the playback.
I don't have any idea where to even begin. The Neon audiosettings are pretty basic, not much to experiment with.

Here's what I know:

• The internal soundcard works flawlessly
• The same interface worked perfectly with Neon on my previous computer.
• The problem does not appear when I boot Ubuntu Studio from USB (which uses jack as far as I know)
• Recording works fine, but I have to use headphones with the internal soundcard for playback when listening to the recording

So if anyone has an idea where to start, any suggestion is welcome.

neph wrote:Hi there,
I recently got a new computer and installed Neon, but when I use my audio interface (Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 2nd) playback is distorted and noisy.
Playing audiofiles by VLC results in heavy stuttering of the playback.
I don't have any idea where to even begin. The Neon audiosettings are pretty basic, not much to experiment with.

Here's what I know:

• The internal soundcard works flawlessly
• The same interface worked perfectly with Neon on my previous computer.
• The problem does not appear when I boot Ubuntu Studio from USB (which uses jack as far as I know)
• Recording works fine, but I have to use headphones with the internal soundcard for playback when listening to the recording

So if anyone has an idea where to start, any suggestion is welcome.

Ubuntu Studio uses the lowlatency kernel, iirc, and Jack, of course, but I am not sure if both those are running on the Live session, but I imagine that they both are.
You can try the lowlatency kernel -- it won't replace your existing one

Since it works on the other hardware, it might be worth looking at bios settings for USB, and maybe trying different ports? Was the old computer using the same kernel version you have now?

I don't have any experience with this type of hardware, but I can suggest looking for general Ubuntu 20.04 information regarding this audio interface. I am sure someone has used this there, and since Neon and Ubuntu Focal are identical in relation to this, I am hoping this can help you find a solution.

Ok thanks, you somehow set me on the right track and I found it.
Supposedly, the newest kernel somehow affects the default sample rate for PulseAudio.
Creating a ~/.config/pulse/daemon.conf and putting "default-sample-rate = 48000" in there solved the problem. Everything's running fine now.

Switching sample rates for the audio interface was my first thought when the problem occurred, but I couldn't find any way to do this in the audio settings.