Bad sound on almost all games

CaptainJei · Post by **CaptainJei** » Fri Aug 03, 2018 5:53 am

Since some snapshot between stable versions 1.9 to 2.0 I started getting bad sound on most games, and this continued onto stable version 2.0 and up to the current snapshot.

Basically, sound skips frequently and is moderately distorted. This applies to digital sound, Ad-lib emulation, and MT32 emulation. The only games it seems to not be affecting are AGI games.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Or could this be a bug?

CaptainJei · Post by **CaptainJei** » Fri Aug 03, 2018 5:59 am

By the way, I tried out a variety of games on different engines, including multiple Lucasarts and Sierra games, Beneath a Steel Sky, Blue Force, Kyrandia 2, and Myst.

Post by **criezy** » Fri Aug 03, 2018 6:59 am

On what system are you using ScummVM? Windows?

You could try to change the audio buffer size to see if it helps. See http://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php/User_ ... escription

CaptainJei · Post by **CaptainJei** » Fri Aug 03, 2018 7:32 am

I'm using the Windows32 snapshot.

I tried changing the audio buffer to every setting mentioned on that page, but the sounds still sounded distorted and crackly. On some of the higher settings, there was a regular sound drop-out in addition.

CaptainJei · Post by **CaptainJei** » Fri Aug 03, 2018 7:33 am

Also, I tried this on both my internal sound card, and on a USB sound device, with similar results.

CaptainJei · Post by **CaptainJei** » Fri Aug 03, 2018 7:34 am

If I switch back to stable version 1.8.1, everything sounds good again.

filipetolhuizen · Post by **filipetolhuizen** » Sun Aug 05, 2018 4:26 am

Try using an older version of SDL2, previous than 2.0.6.

CaptainJei · Post by **CaptainJei** » Sun Aug 05, 2018 6:50 am

filipetolhuizen wrote:Try using an older version of SDL2, previous than 2.0.6.

I'll try it, but could you please tell me how I could go about doing that? Thanks!

CaptainJei · Post by **CaptainJei** » Thu Aug 16, 2018 12:04 am

Is this something I should post a bug ticket about, or is it more like a personal problem?

Raziel · Post by **Raziel** » Sun Mar 31, 2019 2:38 pm

Since switching to SDL2 i also got frequent audio dropouts on both digital and MIDI.

Thanks to this thread and thanks to @criezy for the link i increased the audio buffer from 1024 (the setting ScummVM uses) to 4096 (my systems default).

I still have a question though, the linked page tells me that

The default value is calculated based on output sampling frequency to keep audio latency below 45ms. (since 2.0)

I'm probbaly the only one, but wouldn't it be better to not be so strict?
I mean, i increased the value by a factor 4 and don't hear any problems on sound output, but it cured the dropouts.
I have yet to test with 2048, but since 4096 is my system's default and it works, i think i leave it as that.

What would be the worst if latency is set too high?
Would music/sound/MIDI lag?
Would that even be audible?

Thanks

Bad sound on almost all games

Bad sound on almost all games

Re: Bad sound on almost all games