Skype

A VOIP application. It is part of the standard ISG.EE distribution and available on managed Linux Workstations.

Problems

Your own voice sounds distorted/slow to others

Thats because Skype fails to initialize the microphone properly. As a workaround define a capture device with correct values.

Add these lines to your ~/.asoundrc or create a new one containing:

pcm.skypedsnoop {
   type dsnoop
   ipc_key 1133
   slave {
      # "Magic" buffer values to get skype audio to work
      # If these are not set, opening /dev/dsp succeeds but no sound
      # will be heard. According to the ALSA developers this is due
      # to skype abusing the OSS API.
      pcm "hw:0,0"
      period_size 256
      periods 16
      buffer_size 16384
   }
   bindings {
      0 0
   }
}

Note the line 'pcm "hw:0,0"' defines the sound card and its component to use. It should work of the box, but if you wish to choose a different sound card, adjust that line according to your system. Too see what sound devices are available you can use the aplay -l command.

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC888 Analog [ALC888 Analog]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 1: ALC888 Digital [ALC888 Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

which is translated like that: 'hw:card,device'. Lets say e.g. you'd like to use the [ALC888 Digital] input you'd specify: 'hw:0,1'.

RESTART Skype

Otherwise the newly defined microphone capture device would not be found. Use the device skypedsnooped for microphone and don't let skype fiddle with the mixer.

"Apply" your new settings and try the "Skype Call Testing Service" before calling others.