How to quick-and-dirty-fix audio under Ubuntu Linux, for example Ubuntu 16.04: In case you get problems. This helped me: 1. Close firefox and all other applications that might use audio. 2. commandline: pulseaudio -k 3. commandline: pulseaudio -k 4. commandline: pulseaudio -k 5. then very fast start PA. 6. commandline: alsamixer 7. volume up 8. m for unmute in case of mute 9. Go back to 1. in case PA makes no audio in menu. 10. wait or write in commandline: pulseaudio -D 11. start discord, firefox or whatever 12. enjoy.
Under Ubuntu 18.10, pulseaudio -k does not help long enough, as pulseaudio seems to be spawned faster. autospawn = no will also not help. You need to do prevent systemd(?) to start it: Running following commands in a user shell will help to disable pulseaudio temporarily: systemctl --user stop pulseaudio.socket systemctl --user stop pulseaudio.service PA uses ALSA directly and is not able to use pulseaudio or the pulseaudio's virtual alsa device. Or the alsalibs used by PA are not chosing the right ALSA-device. whatever. Have fun.
Works fine for me under PulseAudio on Kubuntu 18.04. I guess you are doing something differently than I am? I tried both the Steam and non-Steam version. What do you see under pavucontrol?
ARGH SHAME ON ME ...----- I muted PA somewhen in past and forgot about it - muting then is persistent.... -- sure killing pulsaudio is a "solution"... nevermind.... some admin better delete this entire thread ...