Laptop has sound but not Ardour6

[wholesome]

I’m completely new to Ardour. My mp3 file plays fine independent of Ardour, but after dragging it into a track, it “looks” like it’s playing but there’s no sound. The virtual piano doesn’t make any noise either. It’s not recording anything either.

Master-bus output looks like the settings in image from a similar thread here:

No sound problems

Hi, I need your help please, I installed ardour 6.5 on ubuntu studio and I’m not getting any sound out or in, I tried to record but nothing gets recorded and I imported files and when I played them I didn’t get any sound, I used ardour 5 before and is used to be fine.

Audio Midi setup is:
Audio System: ALSA
Output device: HDA Nvidia
Midi system: Alsa raw devices

Running Ubuntu 22 LTC.

Log shows some warnings and one error:
“2023-01-27T15:59:52 [ERROR]: bad transition, current state = Stopped/WaitingForButler/Forwards event = LocateDone”

alsamixer command shows all 4 s/pdif as “00” for HDA NVidia. I don’t really know what this means or how to modify if it needs to be.

/// adevices.sh

Part I: ALSA
Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version k5.15.0-58-generic.

Card 0 (NVidia):

• Playback Device 3 (HDMI 0):

  • Subdevice 0 (hw:NVidia,3,0):
    used by: ArdourGUI (PID 43395)
    access: MMAP_INTERLEAVED
    format: S32_LE
    subformat: STD
    channels: 8
    rate: 44100 (44100/1)
    period_size: 1024
    buffer_size: 2048

• Playback Device 7 (HDMI 1):

  • Subdevice 0 (hw:NVidia,7,0):
    closed

///

Any thoughts? Thank you.

[x42 (Robin Gareus)]

@wholesome

Card 0 (NVidia):

• Playback Device 3 (HDMI 0):

Do you play sound via you Display/Screen ? That is very unusual.

I think you want to select a different soundcard. What is the complete output of adevices.sh?

[wholesome]

Thanks for responding. Sorry I’ve been away from computer.

“Do you play sound via you Display/Screen?”

I’m not sure what you mean by that. I’m not using headphones, if that’s what you mean. I click on an mp3, the “videos” software opens up and I can hear it just fine.

“Select a different soundcard”

It’s a brand new Dell lap top. So I assume that soundcard would be compatible, no? Select how?

Now when I try to start Ardour I get the following warning, and Ardour closes down.
“The audio/MIDI engine has stopped running unexpectedly.
Something is probably wrong with your audio/MIDI device settings.”

full adevices.sh without Ardour being open, if that helps…

========================================
Part I: ALSA
Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version k5.15.0-58-generic.

Card 0 (NVidia):

• Playback Device 3 (HDMI 0):

  • Subdevice 0 (hw:NVidia,3,0):
    closed

• Playback Device 7 (HDMI 1):

  • Subdevice 0 (hw:NVidia,7,0):
    closed

• Playback Device 8 (HDMI 2):

  • Subdevice 0 (hw:NVidia,8,0):
    closed

• Playback Device 9 (HDMI 3):

  • Subdevice 0 (hw:NVidia,9,0):
    closed

Card 1 (sofhdadsp):

• Playback Device 0:

  • Subdevice 0 (hw:sofhdadsp,0,0):
    closed

• Playback Device 1:

  • Subdevice 0 (hw:sofhdadsp,1,0):
    closed

• Playback Device 3:

  • Subdevice 0 (hw:sofhdadsp,3,0):
    closed

• Playback Device 4:

  • Subdevice 0 (hw:sofhdadsp,4,0):
    closed

• Playback Device 5:

  • Subdevice 0 (hw:sofhdadsp,5,0):
    closed

• Recording Device 0:

  • Subdevice 0 (hw:sofhdadsp,0,0):
    closed

• Recording Device 1:

  • Subdevice 0 (hw:sofhdadsp,1,0):
    closed

• Recording Device 6:

  • Subdevice 0 (hw:sofhdadsp,6,0):
    closed

• Recording Device 7:

  • Subdevice 0 (hw:sofhdadsp,7,0):
    closed
    //////////////////////////////////////

[ccaudle (Chris)]

@wholesome

“Do you play sound via you Display/Screen?”

I’m not sure what you mean by that.

The sound interface you had selected was the HDMI audio output of the NVidia video adapter. That would typically be used when connecting the laptop to an external monitor with built in speakers, a TV, a surround sound processor in a home theater, etc.

@wholesome

It’s a brand new Dell lap top. So I assume that soundcard would be compatible, no? Select how?

In the Audio/MIDI setup window you can pull down the box with the audio device name if you have more than one audio device and select which one to use.

The second device in your laptop is listed as “Card 1 (sofhdadsp)” and is likely the chipset audio which drives the laptop speakers and headphone jack. Try using the device instead of the NVidia HDMI output.