Crackling Output (but music files are not to blame!)

[duodsg]

Good evening, all-

Tracks that I have added to the library in the last month have exhibited a an awful cracking sound during quick changes in bass in the middle of particular songs. This is only plaguing my instrumental tracks, but not my regular music with lyrics (hip-hop, rock, etc).

At first I thought the tracks themselves could be the issue. So I went through and copied the suspected files onto my phone (I use it as my MP3 player) and played back the files. No problems, crackling, distortion, etc, so I knew it was my laptop. This is the weird part- for music files, it does NOT affect the sound output of anything I had on my computer up until a month or so ago. Talk about bizarre.

And then, incidentally, I played a video in MM, as well as VLC and TheKMPlayer, and the same exact thing was the result- crackling in the videos! Normally I'd think it was the latest round of files (again), but curiously enough, this affected ALL my video clips that I've had for years, which used to play back perfectly with no distortions. With TheKMPlayer I was able to enable some Quality/Noise Reduction options that removed these horrible cracks in the music, but of course, the music doesn't sound as good as it should. And I only use TheKMPlayer for videos.

So now I've determined that it's a system-wide issue affecting my audio codecs, drivers, or something equally shared by many applications for determining sound output. I reinstalled my sound card drivers just a few hours ago and restarted (they were already the latest version), but the problem persists.

In your experience, is there anything else I can reinstall/repair in my system that would correct an output issue like this? I know it's not restricted to MM, but it's absolutely the most pronounced in MM. I have tried to use different output plug-ins (DirectSound is default, but I also tried WASAPI and Wave Out) but the problem remains uncorrected regardless of the plug-in.

I know it's a complicated/weird issue, but I appreciate your patience and help!

[nohitter151]

The first thing to check would be your audio drivers for the sound card in your PC.

[duodsg]

As mentioned, I actually went through Device Manager and confirmed that I had the latest version of the sound card drivers. I went through and double checked just now, and they are still up to date. Last night I reinstalled them anyway, just to make sure, but the problem remained the same.

Any other ideas?

[BKKKPewsey]

If you have access to a usb sound card - plug that in and test again.
It could be an issue with either your soundcard hardware or the speakers.
Using headphones will test the latter.

[duodsg]

I do not have a USB soundcard, so I can't test the first suggestion.

I did, however, do a headphone/speaker test. I plugged my 5.1 receiver into my phone (I use a stereo jack to connect my laptop to it, so it's the exact same cable and plug) and the same exact "culprit" songs played perfectly, so I know it's not my speakers. I also plugged my headphones into the same jack I use to output to the receiver and the crackling occurs just the same. I also tested the other headphone jack, and the problem remains, so I know it is also not the cabling or a specific jack.

It's starting to look like a soundcard hardware issue, but again, I find it inexplicably weird that this only affects videos, and music files I've added to my library in the last month. Songs that were in MM before that play perfectly with no crackles. This includes music files that are nearly identical to the ones I added (which is possible because I have commercially-availble soundtracks, and then I have some "extended" versions of the same songs).

Again, thank you all for your continued insights and patience!

[BKKKPewsey]

Do use volume analysis? Just wondering if you may have turned off auto volume analysis by accident which effects the "new" music tracks.
What OS are you running?
I would also have a good look at your sound device parameters especially the enhancements and advanced tabs.
On Vista and above, in enhancements, you have a "Bass management" mode - try changing that.
If all else fails I would suggest a visit to Amazon and get a cheap usb sound card - they are always useful for a backup and cost peanuts.
(my son uses 1 on his lappie because his headphone jack is rather "temperamental" )

[duodsg]

Do use volume analysis? Just wondering if you may have turned off auto volume analysis by accident which effects the "new" music tracks.
What OS are you running?
I would also have a good look at your sound device parameters especially the enhancements and advanced tabs.
On Vista and above, in enhancements, you have a "Bass management" mode - try changing that.
If all else fails I would suggest a visit to Amazon and get a cheap usb sound card - they are always useful for a backup and cost peanuts.
(my son uses 1 on his lappie because his headphone jack is rather "temperamental" )

You, sir, are a gentleman and a scholar. I have MM set to automatically analyze the levels of incoming music tracks, but it seems that it didn't do it for this and a variety of tracks (including some older ones I just discovered). Now during playback, there are no issues. Wonderful! I would have NEVER expected it to be something related to volume leveling...but it is still curious that this happened in any AV program I used to play these files. Hmmm...

The question remains, however, why this is occurring with my videos. I don't suppose there is some way to level the volume of the videos through MM or some other program, is there?

(This seems tedious, if only because I have never had to do that with any video on my computer before).

Again, thank you! At least now I know what the issue is, and how to correct it for the music files.

[duodsg]

New info regarding this problem:

-I tried running the video files (FLV, MP4, etc) through Google's Picasa software (which I use to organize my photos and videos), and curiously enough, there is no sound distortion during playback. I will look into it, but it seems that Picasa uses a different protocol/its own codecs, etc to play back video files than other utilities like VLC, TheKMPlayer and MM.

[BKKKPewsey]

Picasa uses the codec's that are on your computer and. if you have Windows pc, the same as Windows Media Player.

[DavidGibson]

Brilliant, switching off volume levelling has fixed MM for me.

I'm running version 4.0.3.1476. Like to OP, the crackling only seems to have happened recently, and to new tracks.

I was getting so frustrated with the crackling I'd switched back to WMP for the last few days. Been listening a a load of long (20+ mins) ambient tracks, so any disturbance is very noticeable.

[duodsg]

I'm very happy to know that my thread was able to help someone other than myself

I suppose my other question is why exactly the volume leveling causes issues in the first place. I don't know enough about these output codecs and such to be able to understand the issue to begin with.

[Guest]

Turning off volume leveling also fixed my issues with massive crackle and distortion. Thanks.

[Lowlander]

If turning off volume leveling fixes the issue you most likely have a high dB value set under Tools > Options > Volume Leveling for Level playback volume to. Return it to 89dB and check if distortions in music are still present.