Improve your sound and Enable Noise cancellation in Ubuntu

Table of Content

There is a hidden feature in Ubuntu which will allow you to enable noise cancellation and enhance quality of your online conversations. Here is a short tutorial on how to do it.

Create a backup

First, backup of the important stuff.

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sudo cp /etc/pulse/default.pa /etc/pulse/default.pa.bak

Edit your configuration file

Now edit default.pa file manually by entering following

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sudo vi /etc/pulse/default.pa

Now, at the end of the file add following configuration

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load-module module-echo-cancel source_name=noechosource sink_name=noechosink
set-default-source noechosource
set-default-sink noechosink

Warning

You will also get noise cancellation on your output device, and sometimes your audio won’t work and you will not hear sound. You will have to manually switch to output device which has no noise cancellation enabled.

Restart your audio

Final step is to restart the audio daemon with

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pulseaudio -k

If you prefer, you can also reboot pc instead.

After you are done, next time you start using your microphone (skype call, youtube session…) head to

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Settings >> Sound >> Input

and change your input device to the one that has (echo cancelled) at the end of it. And thats all, you have echo cancellation enabled in Ubuntu.

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