BG1-2 and maybe Unreal, any other problem titles? I'd put it down to title specific DirectSound bugs or the cards' crappy EAX implementation if it remains so limited, at this point.
wrote:BG1-2 and maybe Unreal, any other problem titles? I'd put it down to title specific DirectSound bugs or the cards' crappy EAX implementation if it remains so limited, at this point.
Right now known are:
- BG1
- BG2
- Icewind Dale
- HOMM III
- Quake
- and (most importantly?) sound test in dxdiag
Another finding from today: I recorded the output from the card via line-in with an old mp3 player (96Kbps/44.1KHz, this is unfortunately max) and the statics were gone. I think they have been removed during mp3 encoding with this relatively low bitrate.
Ok, I got them! Here are samples for you to experience yourself how it sounds:
1. Quake Demo1: http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?file_id= … 472879519679807
Notice statics during explosions - very evident
2. Baldur's Gate 2: http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?file_id= … 516804469822061
Notice very subtle statics when characters are walking around Irenicus' dungeon.
Both files are raw, uncompressed output recorded (44.1khz, S16_LE) via audio cable with my main PC.
This is exactly how it sounds on my retro machine (minus the constant, background noise because of the recording setup).
I'll look into it and see what I can find. I'm not entirely sure what might be causing the problem since you've said it doesn't do this on other cards, only the Vortex 2's.
And I'll try to get more audio recordings from various sound cards.
Powerchess intro shows what the crackle is even on modern sound cards.
I tried Quake and other games like Half-Life and they also have the low quality samples crackle, it's just how they sound. I thought something was wrong but this is just the nature of high quality sound cards, you hear exactly what the samples sound like. Usually there are low quality Samplerate converters in other soundcards which impose a low-pass aliasing filter and it chops off the crackle which is present in the upper frequencies. The Samplerate converters in the Vortex 2 are top notch, so what the games have is what you hear.
My onboard sounds like this, my Razer Barracuda 8788 sounds like this, the Santa Cruz and the Vortex 2's all sound the same. If you have a soundcard which "doesn't" have the crackle, it indicates there is some low-pass filtering going on and the card has poor Samplerate converters in them.
@ZanQuance: It's very easy to verify your theory: i'll put another sound card (for example SB Audigy) and then compare audio samples recorder by me with actual, livw sound from both games (BG2, Quake). They either both have to crackle or both be clean to make your theory true.
Stay tuned!
You can do a raw wave test which has no crackle on a modern PC and transfer it to Win98, then test the playback of the Wave and you shouldn't hear any crackling.
You also make the assumption that the Audigy2 works perfect with all games under Win98, so just keep that in mind in case it doesn't.
I can definitely hear the crackling in BG2, not so much in Quake, that's a game I've played to death and I'm pretty sure that's just how it's meant to sound. But, there does seem to be something wrong in BG2 and I think it's especially audible in the left channel (?). It seems to only occur when you're walking around, have you tried leaving the characters idle or perhaps opening up your inventory and playing around in there to see if it happens there as well? It seems way too obvious to me once you crank the volume up a bit, so you may indeed be experiencing some sort of issue here.
I repeated now both tests with another card (SB Audigy 2ZS) and here are the recordings:
1. Quake Demo1: http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?file_id= … 569099322559156
2. Baldur's Gate 2: http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?file_id= … 424447717257794
I'd say the both sound OK, the problem discussed here does not occur.
@ZanQuance: I played the old recordings (recorded output of AU8830) using the new card and still could clearly hear the cracklings.
There appears to be an issue with your BG2 recording. I just can't get it to play any audio.
If you look at the original quake wav in Audacity and the new one, and listen to them side by side you will hear and notice a clear difference between the two.
The Audigy is performing a low-pass filter on the signal cutting out the high frequencies where the crackles are present in the original Quake sounds.
You hear the crackle on the Vortex 2's because it's giving you the raw data and not performing any low-pass filtering.
I don't believe there is anything wrong with your Vortex 2 cards.
wrote:There appears to be an issue with your BG2 recording. I just can't get it to play any audio.
Sorry. Here is a new link: http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?file_id= … 424447717257794
wrote:If you look at the original quake wav in Audacity and the new one, and listen to them side by side you will hear and notice a clear difference between the two.
Please take a look at the other recording (BG2). Do you see the same thing with these recordings?
wrote:The Audigy is performing a low-pass filter on the signal cutting out the high frequencies where the crackles are present in the original Quake sounds.
Are you sure about this?
wrote:You hear the crackle on the Vortex 2's because it's giving you the raw data and not performing any low-pass filtering.
I don't believe there is anything wrong with your Vortex 2 cards.
Does this mean that nobody plays Quake with Aureal Vortex cards because it sounds like shit? I just can't believe this is how it's supposed to sound.
Yeah, there's definitely something wrong with BG2 here in your Aureal Vortex 2 sound recordings. I'm not quite sure its the same issue in Quake, I think ZanQuance might be onto something with the low-pass filter.
Half way down this article it shows the low-pass filter the Audigy2 applies.
I replicated the issue on my machine and am tracing down where the crackles are actually spawning from. It occurs most often with 8-bit 11kHz audio samples. I also have cracking on my other soundcards, but I want to know the actual cause as the crackles are randomly placed and not consistent with the wav being played.
I had these crackles too, but thought my card was defective. Chipset was Intel i845gv and i865.
Drivers and card were the same. I heard strange crackling/blubbering sounds.
Retro-Gamer 😀 ...on different machines
wrote:I had these crackles too, but thought my card was defective. Chipset was Intel i845gv and i865.
Drivers and card were the same. I heard strange crackling/blubbering sounds.
Well, did you manage to fix the problem?
no, I went back to ess-solo1.
Retro-Gamer 😀 ...on different machines
I think I found something...
The "crackling" problem disappears when I reduce "Audio playback" -> "Hardware acceleration" level from "Full acceleration" down to "Standard" (usually), "Basic" or "Emulation only" (always).
1. Is this a know source of this kind of problems?
2. Is this a valid solution?
3. Do I miss a lot not having hardware acceleration level set to "Full"?
