# Wake word or stop while audio playing
**URL:** https://community.openconversational.ai/t/wake-word-or-stop-while-audio-playing/4788
**Category:** This category is being retired - Support
**Created:** [October 10, 2018, 2:15pm UTC](https://community.openconversational.ai/t/wake-word-or-stop-while-audio-playing/4788 "2018-10-10T14:15:15Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@jberger](https://community.openconversational.ai/u/jberger)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2018, 2:15pm UTC](https://community.openconversational.ai/t/wake-word-or-stop-while-audio-playing/4788/1 "2018-10-10T14:15:15Z")
Using both the NPR news skill and an audio playing skill that I am writing (perhaps others, but two seemed enough to report), I find that while the audio is playing, mycroft does not appear to be able to listen for its wake word nor able to respond to stop. Watching on the cli I don’t even see it trying. However while on the cli I can type “stop” or I can hit the top button, so clearly it is still able to respond if stop were recognized.
Is there some fundamental or programmatic limitation here? Is the audio simply masking the microphone enough to prevent it hearing?
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### Author:  [@jberger](https://community.openconversational.ai/u/jberger)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2018, 2:32pm UTC](https://community.openconversational.ai/t/wake-word-or-stop-while-audio-playing/4788/2 "2018-10-10T14:32:51Z")
Reading the [spotify skill](https://github.com/forslund/spotify-skill/blob/75283d82f9fe9af1fc51ef5426049c675e56ab09/ __init__.py#L362) it seems that they pause on the recognizer starting. That implied to me that the regular mechanism is indeed at play. I tried again yelling directly into the mycroft and to my surprise it noticed me! So the problem indeed seems to be the speaker masking the microphone.
Given that the author of the spotify skill has taken this approach I guess this is the Best We Have Now ™? Are there plans for something better or do other people have other suggestions?
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### Author:  [@j1nx](https://community.openconversational.ai/u/j1nx)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2018, 4:35pm UTC](https://community.openconversational.ai/t/wake-word-or-stop-while-audio-playing/4788/3 "2018-10-10T16:35:41Z")
What you are looking for is called Acoustic Echo Cancellation (AEC)
Search the different channel for it to get up to speed.
Recap: not easy for the mark1
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### Author:  [@jberger](https://community.openconversational.ai/u/jberger)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2018, 4:58pm UTC](https://community.openconversational.ai/t/wake-word-or-stop-while-audio-playing/4788/4 "2018-10-10T16:58:47Z")
Ah yes, thanks. As ever, it is hard to know what to search for when you don’t know what it is called. For future readers, a relevant discussion seems to be at [https://github.com/MycroftAI/mycroft-core/issues/57](https://github.com/MycroftAI/mycroft-core/issues/57) and links therein.
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### Author:  [@j1nx](https://community.openconversational.ai/u/j1nx)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2018, 6:04pm UTC](https://community.openconversational.ai/t/wake-word-or-stop-while-audio-playing/4788/5 "2018-10-10T18:04:37Z")
Indeed, once you know what to search for it all comes to you.
In this case, if you know how to fix it, that could be 1000 bucks.😂
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### Author:  [@KathyReid](https://community.openconversational.ai/u/KathyReid)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2018, 11:45am UTC](https://community.openconversational.ai/t/wake-word-or-stop-while-audio-playing/4788/6 "2018-10-12T11:45:29Z")
Hi there @jberger, great question.
The key limitation here, as @j1nx has highlighted, is audio echo cancellation. While Mycroft can “listen” for the Wake Word while music is playing, Mycroft cannot currently do echo cancellation, meaning he also “hears” the music that is playing while listening to the Wake Word. Sometimes this _may_ work, but often it does not.
This is why the Spotify Skill has a “ducking” option, to “duck” the audio.
We have a very large bounty on BountySource that deals with this specific issue;
> **[$1,000 Bounty on MycroftAI/mycroft-core](https://www.bountysource.com/issues/56160402-bounty-implement-noise-cancellation-on-rpi-3-based-hardware-devices-mark-1-and-picroft)**
>
> MycroftAI/mycroft-core
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### Author:  [@KathyReid](https://community.openconversational.ai/u/KathyReid)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2018, 11:46am UTC](https://community.openconversational.ai/t/wake-word-or-stop-while-audio-playing/4788/7 "2018-10-12T11:46:56Z")
Hi there @jberger, great question.
The key limitation here, as @j1nx has highlighted, is audio echo cancellation. While Mycroft can “listen” for the Wake Word while music is playing, Mycroft cannot currently do echo cancellation, meaning he also “hears” the music that is playing while listening to the Wake Word. Sometimes this _may_ work, but often it does not.
This is why the Spotify Skill has a “ducking” option, to “duck” the audio.
We have a very large bounty on BountySource that deals with this specific issue;
> **[$1,000 Bounty on MycroftAI/mycroft-core](https://www.bountysource.com/issues/56160402-bounty-implement-noise-cancellation-on-rpi-3-based-hardware-devices-mark-1-and-picroft)**
>
> MycroftAI/mycroft-core