No Sound is Playing / Sound is Corrupted

5582 15 31 January 19th, 2023

MediaMonkey Sound is generated as follows:

  1. MediaMonkey locates the file.
  2. Audio file is decoded by input plug-in.
  3. Equalizer settings are applied.
  4. Other DSPs are applied.
  5. Volume Leveling is applied.
  6. Sound is output via the Output plug-in.

This article discusses issues that may occur at step 6; such output-related problems will typically just result in silence or audio corruption–the tracks are usually not greyed out and the problem will occur with all audio files/formats. If playback issues only occur with certain files, see Why is Music Greyed Out / Fails to Play?

If attempts to play all content result in silence or corruption (but files aren’t greyed out), the problem can be at any of steps 3-6; to diagnose the problem, first disable the equalizer & DSP plugins (via Tools > Options > Player > DSP Plugins), and Volume Leveling (via Play > Level Playback Volume). The problem could be caused by:

  1. Misconfiguration in MediaMonkey
    1. The player’s volume is set to zero. Verify that the MediaMonkey volume slider is set correctly (if you don’t see the Player, click View > Player). If the Player doesn’t feature a volume slider right click on the MediaMonkey tray icon in the Windows Taskbar tray (next to clock) and select Volume > 100%.
    2. The Player has been set to output to a different device (e.g. a UPnP player) that is set to low volume or is unavailable. To fix change the output device. On MediaMonkey 5 use Tools > Options > Streaming from the Main Menu to change Play To Internal Player. On MediaMonkey 4 and older use Tools > Options > Player from the Main Menu to set it to the MediaMonkey Player.
    3. MediaMonkey is set to use the incorrect Audio Device on your PC. Go to Tools > Options > Output Plug-ins from the Main Menu and select the enabled Output Plug-in and click Configure. Select the correct Audio Device on your PC (generally Primary Sound Driver/Default device will work).
  2. Windows Volume
    There are 2 volume settings in Windows that can mute MediaMonkey. Type App Volume in Windows Start to access these settings or right click on the Speaker Icon (next to clock in Windows Task Bar) > Open Volume Mixer > Adjust volume of MediaMonkey.
    1. The Windows Master Volume is set to 0.
    2. The MediaMonkey App Volume is set to 0 in Windows.
  3. Hardware/Driver issue
    Try playing audio via Windows Media Player, Groove, or any other application. If no sound plays and/or the sound is corrupted for all apps, it can be that:
    1. A physical volume control is set to 0.
    2. The headphone or speakers are disconnected.
    3. Windows is set to use the wrong Audio Device. Use Start > Settings > System > Sound to configure what output device Windows will use.
    4. There’s a problem with your sound driver (e.g. realtek), and it needs to be updated/re-installed. Check for driver downloads with the hardware provider.
  4. A problem with the output plug-in
    This can be related to underlying audio drivers and how the interact with your system. To fix this:
    1. If you recently performed an upgrade to your audio drivers, you may need to re-register them in MediaMonkey. Go to Tools > Options > Output Plug-ins from the Main Menu in MediaMonkey and select the enabled Output Plug-in and click Configure. Select the correct Audio Device on your PC (generally Primary Sound Driver will work).
    2. Try switching output plug-ins. Go to Tools > Options > Output Plug-ins from the Main Menu in MediaMonkey and change from WASAPI to DirectSound/WaveOut output or the other way around from DirectSound/WaveOut to WASAPI.
    3. If the DirectSound plugin yields static, you can try reconfiguring it. Go to Tools > Options > Output Plug-ins from the Main Menu, select the DirectSound plugin and click Configure. On the device tab, try either:
      • Disabling hardware acceleration
      • Switching from ‘Primary Sound Driver’ to the specific Audio Device on your PC.
    4. If the WASAPI plugin yields static and clicks, or no sound, try alternative configurations.
    5. If the above doesn’t work, you can try a number of alternative output plugins:
    6. If you experience playback distortion for files purchased from Amazon you’ll need to Analyze their Volume again as the Volume values may be incorrect. Re-analyze the volume, using Tools > Analyze Volume from the Main Menu, of the affected files. Make sure you disable the option ‘Only analyze files with unknown Leveling Adjustment’ under Tools > Options > Volume Leveling from the Main Menu.
  5. Only videos have no sound
    If there is no sound in videos make sure the correct Audio Device has been selected in the MediaMonkey Video Player Input Plugin under Tools > Options > Input Plug-ins from the Main Menu.

Applies to:

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