Audacity Forum

I am trying out the latest beta version and when I try to playback anything the sound is badly distorted. It sounds like the gain and or volume has been turned full on but it hasn't and it still sounds distorted when the gain is turned down low.

I'm on windows XP service pack 3, my sound card is Creative SB X-Fi audio 8400. I installed the latest driver earlier today but it made no difference, although I see that there hasn't been an newer update since August 2008. I've tried changing the preferences in Audacity to different settings to no avail. Creative include an audio console with the software that lets me change some of the sound cards setting and switching them around makes no difference either.

I do have the stable version of Audacity installed and that works fine. Could that be the problem, having both installs on the computer?

I'd really love to be able to use the beta so hope someone can help me. Thanks.

Is this when playing back, or when playing back while recording? If the latter, make sure the track and project rate (bottom left of Audacity) are the same. Use Tracks > Resample if not.

Have you set the Audacity project rate to match with the sample rate in the soundcard, and is that rate natively supported by the card? Help > Audio Device Info in Audacity should give you the rates the card claims to support.

It isn't likely to be a 1.2/1.3 conflict, but you can initialise Audacity 1.3 settings so that 1.2 settings are disregarded.





Gale

Pat1 wrote:Could that be the problem, having both installs on the computer?

No, that should not be a problem. Keep both versions on your computer for now, it may help us to locate the problem.

Do you get the problem with all files, or is it just certain audio files/recordings that cause the problem?

Try playing this file in one version, then the other - what happens?

Is this when playing back, or when playing back while recording? If the latter, make sure the track and project rate (bottom left of Audacity) are the same. Use Tracks > Resample if not.

Have you set the Audacity project rate to match with the sample rate in the soundcard, and is that rate natively supported by the card? Help > Audio Device Info in Audacity should give you the rates the card claims to support.

Hi Gale,

The distortion occurs with playback of these file types, aup, mp3, wav. I haven't tried recording and playback at the same time.
Yes, the sample rate is the same, below are the Audio Device Info details.


Default capture device number: 1
Default playback device number: 3
==============================
Device ID: 0
Device name: MME: Microsoft Sound Mapper - Input
Input channels: 2
Output channels: 0
Low Input Latency: 0.200000
Low Output Latency: 0.200000
High Input Latency: 0.400000
High Output Latency: 0.400000
Supported Rates:
==============================
Device ID: 1
Device name: MME: SB X-Fi Audio [8400]
Input channels: 2
Output channels: 0
Low Input Latency: 0.200000
Low Output Latency: 0.200000
High Input Latency: 0.400000
High Output Latency: 0.400000
Supported Rates:
==============================
Device ID: 2
Device name: MME: Microsoft Sound Mapper - Output
Input channels: 0
Output channels: 2
Low Input Latency: 0.200000
Low Output Latency: 0.200000
High Input Latency: 0.400000
High Output Latency: 0.400000
Supported Rates:
8000
9600
11025
12000
15000
16000
22050
24000
32000
44100
48000
88200
96000
192000
==============================
Device ID: 3
Device name: MME: SB X-Fi Audio [8400]
Input channels: 0
Output channels: 2
Low Input Latency: 0.200000
Low Output Latency: 0.200000
High Input Latency: 0.400000
High Output Latency: 0.400000
Supported Rates:
8000
9600
11025
12000
15000
16000
22050
24000
32000
44100
48000
88200
96000
192000
==============================
Device ID: 4
Device name: Windows DirectSound: Primary Sound Capture Driver
Input channels: 2
Output channels: 0
Low Input Latency: 0.000000
Low Output Latency: 0.000000
High Input Latency: 0.000000
High Output Latency: 0.000000
Supported Rates:
==============================
Device ID: 5
Device name: Windows DirectSound: SB X-Fi Audio [8400]
Input channels: 2
Output channels: 0
Low Input Latency: 0.000000
Low Output Latency: 0.000000
High Input Latency: 0.000000
High Output Latency: 0.000000
Supported Rates:
==============================
Device ID: 6
Device name: Windows DirectSound: Primary Sound Driver
Input channels: 0
Output channels: 2
Low Input Latency: 0.000000
Low Output Latency: 0.000000
High Input Latency: 0.000000
High Output Latency: 0.000000
Supported Rates:
8000
9600
11025
12000
15000
16000
22050
24000
32000
44100
48000
88200
96000
192000
==============================
Device ID: 7
Device name: Windows DirectSound: SB X-Fi Audio [8400]
Input channels: 0
Output channels: 2
Low Input Latency: 0.000000
Low Output Latency: 0.000000
High Input Latency: 0.000000
High Output Latency: 0.000000
Supported Rates:
8000
9600
11025
12000
15000
16000
22050
24000
32000
44100
48000
88200
96000
192000
==============================
Selected capture device: 1 - MME: SB X-Fi Audio [8400]
Selected playback device: 3 - MME: SB X-Fi Audio [8400]
Supported Rates:
8000
9600
11025
12000
15000
16000
22050
24000
32000
44100
48000
88200
96000
192000
==============================
Available mixers:
==============================
Available capture sources:
0 - Microphone
1 - Auxiliary
2 - Line-In
3 - MIDI Synth
4 - Digital-In
5 - "What U Hear"
6 - Wave
==============================
Available playback volumes:
0 - Wave
1 - CD Player
2 - Microphone
3 - Auxiliary
4 - Line-In
5 - MIDI Synth
6 - Digital-In
7 - Wave
==============================
Capture volume is native
Playback volume is native

Do you get the problem with all files, or is it just certain audio files/recordings that cause the problem?

Try playing this file in one version, then the other - what happens?

piano.mp3

Hi Steven,
The files I've tried to playback are aup, wav and mp3. None of them were recorded in the current beta version.
The mp3 plays fine in Audacity 1.2 and is totally distorted in v.1.3.12.

I've just tried changing the inputs, when using Windows Direct Sound: Primary Sound Driver and Windows Direct Sound: SB X-Fi Audio [8400] the sound is a bit less distorted, enough to hear there is actually music playing.

Pat1 wrote:I've just tried changing the inputs, when using Windows Direct Sound: Primary Sound Driver and Windows Direct Sound: SB X-Fi Audio [8400] the sound is a bit less distorted, enough to hear there is actually music playing.

Have you initialised the Audacity settings as suggested? If not, do that (exit Audacity, remove all the content of audacity.cfg except "NewPrefsInitialized=1" at the top and restart Audacity). Then we know there can be no conflict/confusion in the audacity.cfg settings file.

The .cfg will now have set the project rate to 44100 Hz. Generate > Tone and click OK to produce a default sine tone at 0.8 amplitude. Is that distorted?

If so, set the "Host" back to Windows DirectSound (that was my next suggestion) and the playback device to "SB X-Fi Audio [8400]". Now, can you set SB to playback at 44100 Hz?



Gale

Hi Gale,

As per your suggestions, I've initialised the settings, generated the tone, etc., and Audacity now works perfectly.

Thank you very much for your (and Steven's) help, I really appreciate it.

Cheers,
Pat