Fix Audio Distortion on Internal Mic on Linux

I am writing this article since I had this issue on pretty much every linux installation. This will only work if you’re using pulseaudio for sound on Linux.

The general advice I found was editing every analog-input*.conf file in /usr/share/pulseaudio/alsa-mixer/paths/, however only changing analog-input-internal-mic.conf worked for me, since I only experienced the issue with the internal mic.

In the analog-input-internal-mic.conf change:

  • Under [Element Capture] set volume to zero
  • Under [Element Internal Mic Boost] set volume to zero.
  • Under [Element Int Mic Boost] set volume to zero.
  • Under [Element Mic Boost] set volume to zero.

Restart pulseaudio by calling:

systemctl --user restart pulseaudio

Source: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/PulseAudio/Troubleshooting#Microphone_distorted_due_to_automatic_adjustment:%7E:text=Under%20%5BElement%20Internal%20Mic%20Boost%5D%20set,Mic%20Boost%5D%20set%20volume%20to%20zero

Enjoy your clean Linux microphone experience :)