When pidgin plays a sound using ALSA method in about half of cases sounds has distortion (crackle). This can be worked around by switching from ALSA to Command method and using "aplay %s" command. 2.10.11 doesn't have this issue.
I believe this is related to the issue I'm having where pidgin-2.11.0 is adjusting the volume of the master channel. It doesn't matter if PulseAudio is running or not.
(In reply to Alan Jesser from comment #1) > I believe this is related to the issue I'm having where pidgin-2.11.0 is > adjusting the volume of the master channel. It doesn't matter if PulseAudio > is running or not. Just in case - I'm not using pulseaudio at all. It's not even installed. I don't have an Esd too. I suppose I've pure ALSA system, if some gnome/kde apps doesn't installed something specific to them as a dependency (I'm using fluxbox).
Please include emerge --info pidgin and any output when pidgin is run from a terminal
(In reply to NP-Hardass from comment #3) > Please include emerge --info pidgin and any output when pidgin is run from a > terminal There is no output to terminal. When pidgin is configured to use Command method instead of ALSA, then I got this in terminal when it starts (I suppose it's an output of aplay command): Playing WAVE '/usr/share/sounds/purple/receive.wav' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 22050 Hz, Stereo Playing WAVE '/usr/share/sounds/purple/receive.wav' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 22050 Hz, Stereo Playing WAVE '/usr/share/sounds/purple/receive.wav' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 22050 Hz, Stereo Playing WAVE '/usr/share/sounds/purple/receive.wav' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 22050 Hz, Stereo Playing WAVE '/usr/share/sounds/purple/receive.wav' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 22050 Hz, Stereo Playing WAVE '/usr/share/sounds/purple/alert.wav' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 22050 Hz, Mono When it configured to use ALSA method - there is no output to stdout/stderr at all, and no output in pidgin debug window when I play sound using pidgin "Preview" button in sounds preferences. Portage 2.2.28 (python 3.4.3-final-0, hardened/linux/amd64, gcc-4.9.3, glibc-2.22-r4, 4.4.8-hardened-r1 x86_64) ================================================================= System Settings ================================================================= System uname: Linux-4.4.8-hardened-r1-x86_64-Intel-R-_Core-TM-_i7-2600K_CPU_@_3.40GHz-with-gentoo-2.2 KiB Mem: 8133828 total, 1176992 free KiB Swap: 8388604 total, 8388604 free Timestamp of repository gentoo: Tue, 05 Jul 2016 18:45:01 +0000 sh bash 4.3_p42-r1 ld GNU ld (Gentoo 2.25.1 p1.1) 2.25.1 app-shells/bash: 4.3_p42-r1::gentoo dev-java/java-config: 2.2.0-r3::gentoo dev-lang/perl: 5.24.0-r1::gentoo dev-lang/python: 2.7.10-r1::gentoo, 3.4.3-r1::gentoo dev-util/cmake: 3.3.1-r1::gentoo dev-util/pkgconfig: 0.28-r2::gentoo sys-apps/baselayout: 2.2::gentoo sys-apps/openrc: 0.19.1::gentoo sys-apps/sandbox: 2.10-r1::gentoo sys-devel/autoconf: 2.13::gentoo, 2.69::gentoo sys-devel/automake: 1.11.6-r1::gentoo, 1.14.1::gentoo, 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condition tee tarpit sysrq steal rawnat logmark ipmark dhcpmac delude chaos account" USE_PYTHON="2.7" Unset: CC, CPPFLAGS, CTARGET, CXX, INSTALL_MASK, LC_ALL, PORTAGE_BUNZIP2_COMMAND, PORTAGE_COMPRESS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS_FLAGS ================================================================= Package Settings ================================================================= net-im/pidgin-2.11.0::gentoo was built with the following: USE="gnutls gstreamer gtk idn ncurses nls perl (pie) spell xscreensaver (-aqua) -dbus -debug -doc -eds -gadu -groupwise -meanwhile -mxit -networkmanager -prediction -python -sasl -silc -tcl -tk -zephyr -zeroconf" ABI_X86="64" PYTHON_SINGLE_TARGET="python2_7 -python3_3 -python3_4" PYTHON_TARGETS="python2_7 python3_4 -python3_3" CFLAGS="-march=native -O2 -pipe -fPIE -pie"
