It didn't make any difference using CoreAudio or external sound card on OSX before, and I doubt this is the issue now. What I really don't get is that this also happens using fout, which simply writes to file. So in principle it doesn't really go through the DAC at all.
But I don't know Linux well enough to tell if this can be related to ALSA or anything else, like the audio coding on the system. BTW, I was using fout with format option 8, 24-bit integers with a header, and default header type (wav).
Best, 
Andreas

On 25/06/2020, 09:58, "A discussion list for users of Csound on behalf of Peter P."  wrote:

    * Andreas Bergsland  [2020-06-25 09:37]:
    > Hi
    > I am puzzled by the fact that a .csd I wrote can run nicely on OSX, writing a file (with fout) without any distortion (max amp at ca.0.5), and then produce a severly distorted file when running the same .csd on a Linux system with ALSA.
    > Any ideas what might be causing this? Are there any settings I could check for the ALSA driver? Or could it be related to the playback of the soundfiles I use in the project?
    I think it is could be OS X which automatically limits its audio output
    before it is sent to the built in dac. Makes my students write
    computermusic that distorts on other computers than their latest
    expensive apple laptop. Try on OS X with an external interface, it
    should clip there as well or use a good VU meter to check levels
    pre-dac. On Linux, there are good and precise meters in the x42-plugins package.

    > BTW, the Linux system (Xubuntu LTS 18.04) produces distorted output for other apps as well.
    Well, do these apps output signals above 0dBFS (see "meters" above)?

    cheers, P

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you need to run this to a file (not fout) instead of DAC (-o filename) to test.

Prof. Victor Lazzarini
Maynooth University
Ireland

> On 25 Jun 2020, at 09:22, Andreas Bergsland  wrote:
> 
> *Warning*
> 
> This email originated from outside of Maynooth University's Mail System. Do not reply, click links or open attachments unless you recognise the sender and know the content is safe.
> 
> It didn't make any difference using CoreAudio or external sound card on OSX before, and I doubt this is the issue now. What I really don't get is that this also happens using fout, which simply writes to file. So in principle it doesn't really go through the DAC at all.
> But I don't know Linux well enough to tell if this can be related to ALSA or anything else, like the audio coding on the system. BTW, I was using fout with format option 8, 24-bit integers with a header, and default header type (wav).
> Best,
> Andreas
> 
> On 25/06/2020, 09:58, "A discussion list for users of Csound on behalf of Peter P."  wrote:
> 
>    * Andreas Bergsland  [2020-06-25 09:37]:
>> Hi
>> I am puzzled by the fact that a .csd I wrote can run nicely on OSX, writing a file (with fout) without any distortion (max amp at ca.0.5), and then produce a severly distorted file when running the same .csd on a Linux system with ALSA.
>> Any ideas what might be causing this? Are there any settings I could check for the ALSA driver? Or could it be related to the playback of the soundfiles I use in the project?
>    I think it is could be OS X which automatically limits its audio output
>    before it is sent to the built in dac. Makes my students write
>    computermusic that distorts on other computers than their latest
>    expensive apple laptop. Try on OS X with an external interface, it
>    should clip there as well or use a good VU meter to check levels
>    pre-dac. On Linux, there are good and precise meters in the x42-plugins package.
> 
>> BTW, the Linux system (Xubuntu LTS 18.04) produces distorted output for other apps as well.
>    Well, do these apps output signals above 0dBFS (see "meters" above)?
> 
>    cheers, P
> 
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