diff --git a/sound/soc/meson/axg-tdm-formatter.c b/sound/soc/meson/axg-tdm-formatter.c
index 9883dc777f630..63333a2b0a9c3 100644
--- a/sound/soc/meson/axg-tdm-formatter.c
+++ b/sound/soc/meson/axg-tdm-formatter.c
@@ -30,27 +30,32 @@ int axg_tdm_formatter_set_channel_masks(struct regmap *map,
 					struct axg_tdm_stream *ts,
 					unsigned int offset)
 {
-	unsigned int val, ch = ts->channels;
-	unsigned long mask;
-	int i, j;
+	unsigned int ch = ts->channels;
+	u32 val[AXG_TDM_NUM_LANES];
+	int i, j, k;
+
+	/*
+	 * We need to mimick the slot distribution used by the HW to keep the
+	 * channel placement consistent regardless of the number of channel
+	 * in the stream. This is why the odd algorithm below is used.
+	 */
+	memset(val, 0, sizeof(*val) * AXG_TDM_NUM_LANES);
 
 	/*
 	 * Distribute the channels of the stream over the available slots
-	 * of each TDM lane
+	 * of each TDM lane. We need to go over the 32 slots ...
 	 */
-	for (i = 0; i < AXG_TDM_NUM_LANES; i++) {
-		val = 0;
-		mask = ts->mask[i];
-
-		for (j = find_first_bit(&mask, 32);
-		     (j < 32) && ch;
-		     j = find_next_bit(&mask, 32, j + 1)) {
-			val |= 1 << j;
-			ch -= 1;
+	for (i = 0; (i < 32) && ch; i += 2) {
+		/* ... of all the lanes ... */
+		for (j = 0; j < AXG_TDM_NUM_LANES; j++) {
+			/* ... then distribute the channels in pairs */
+			for (k = 0; k < 2; k++) {
+				if ((BIT(i + k) & ts->mask[j]) && ch) {
+					val[j] |= BIT(i + k);
+					ch -= 1;
+				}
+			}
 		}
-
-		regmap_write(map, offset, val);
-		offset += regmap_get_reg_stride(map);
 	}
 
 	/*
@@ -63,6 +68,11 @@ int axg_tdm_formatter_set_channel_masks(struct regmap *map,
 		return -EINVAL;
 	}
 
+	for (i = 0; i < AXG_TDM_NUM_LANES; i++) {
+		regmap_write(map, offset, val[i]);
+		offset += regmap_get_reg_stride(map);
+	}
+
 	return 0;
 }
 EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(axg_tdm_formatter_set_channel_masks);