Sound is crackling

[boshaus]

When playing games, the sound tends to crackle a lot. Its especially noticeable when doing things that make lots of sound like flipping through letters when making a name in Zelda. I've tried both v 1.6 and 1.7, updating my audio drivers (envy 24), trying different plugins, all to no avail. I'm on Vista 64bit. Anyone have any ideas what would cause this?

[Smiff_]

are you getting solid 60 VI/s speed?
enabling Fixed Audio Timing in 1.7 (core) should almost eliminate this.
so will sync audio (audio plugin, v1.6 or 1.7), but this has side effects so i don't recommend it.

[boshaus]

Fixed Audio Timing was checked by default under ROM settings. I also tried checking the sync audio box with no luck.

Here's a sample of my audio:

I'm getting a solid 60VI/s also.

[Smiff_]

hmm.. sounds like you've done the right things, so its something to do with your sound card i suspect.. not sure sorry, would like jabo's opinion on this. i'll point him to this thread.

anyone aware of any issues with envy24?

edit: envy24 is a via onboard chipset? do you have a PCI soundcard lying around you could try just to rule that out please?

[HatCat]

How does Nemu64's audio emulation engine work for you in testing crackling?

Nemu64 v0.8
http://www.emulator-zone.com/doc.php/n64/nemu64.html

Just extract the full archive, run NEMU64.EXE and start playing.

[SGi]

Originally Posted by boshaus

Fixed Audio Timing was checked by default under ROM settings. I also tried checking the sync audio box with no luck.

Here's a sample of my audio

I'm getting a solid 60VI/s also.

this crackling is normal even if you getting a perfect 60

it'll go away if you check the "sync game to audio" option

are you sure you checked that option for this game?

[boshaus]

Thanks, I appreciate the help everyone.

Originally Posted by Smiff_

edit: envy24 is a via onboard chipset? do you have a PCI soundcard lying around you could try just to rule that out please?

Yes, its onboard. Unfortunately its this stupid Shuttle PC that only has a PCIe 16x and pcie 1x so I have no other cards, but I"m guessing you're right and its this crappy onboard sound.

I might just have to stick to my real N64 till my next upgrade. I just like the high res of emulators

Originally Posted by Iconoclast

How does Nemu64's audio emulation engine work for you in testing crackling?

nemu64 crashes as soon as I select the ROM to be loaded.

Originally Posted by SGi

it'll go away if you check the "sync game to audio" option

are you sure you checked that option for this game?

Yeah, I've tried checking it both in the plugin settings, rom settings, both at the same time, and neither. Sounds exactly the same

[Jabo]

might be better to just try out Azimer's audio plugin to get a good comparison, truth be told I have no idea why the envy24 would have issues, sadly without hardware its hard to test anything of course

from a technical standpoint it sounds like either...

1. there is not enough data to feed to the sound engine
2. the sound driver is buggy and isnt notifying things fast enough

[HatCat]

^ If you haven't already.

Test the Force Old School Audio Sync option. The sound plugin can be configured in Project64 through Options, Configure Audio Plugin....

NGEmu hosts Azimer's Audio Plugin v0.56 WIP 2.
http://www.ngemu.com/plugins.php?cat=3&os=win32

And yeah Nemu64's pretty unstable with Windows Vista. If you extracted the EXE in an already existing folder with other emulators or plugins that could be the only reason why it crashed, but if you put it in its own folder it's their end.

[squall_leonhart]

Jabo, we NEED adjustable buffer lengths in your audio plugin :P many newer onboard chipsets require between 20 and 40ms to prevent crackling.