Audio crackling at ranom interval with "Application Audio Capture"

dan.cormack

New Member
Just want to add I've been having this same issue for several months now. I believe it started happening after upgrading to an AMD cpu. After about an hour-ish into stream the audio goes crackly with no indication to me or anything. Strangely it's only my game audio. Mic and spotify seem to be unaffected as far as I can tell, but I'm only aware of it happening when someone in chat points it out. Usually an alt-tab or two will fix it, but I keep checking back here for fixes and keeping my fingers crossed each time OBS updates that it'll fix it.
Interesting. I also have an AMD CPU (AMD 7950X3D). I use process lasso and give OBS high priority. I also run it as admin and write to an NVMe SSD. Would be interesting if this was an AMD related issue.
 

Mobes

New Member
I had this issue before on my old setup but after upgrading to a new PC, it hasn't showed its head yet, even after a OBS session for 2-3 hours.

The main difference are:
Intel 6th gen to Intel 13th gen (and new motherboard etc etc)
More ram then before, changing to newer DDR standard.
Windows 10 to Windows 11.
It's possible sample rate settings has changed with audio devices & OBS, since I installed Windows from scratch.

I reckon this is really broad information, but I reckon it'd be useful to document regardless.
 

MapleStank

New Member
TLDR: Try changing the Sample Rate & Bit Depth in the Windows Sound control Panel to a lower setting. Windows usually defaults to something like "2 channel, 24 bit, 48000 Hz (Studio Quality)", the frequency being 48000 Hz. Changed mine to 44100 Hz and haven't had an audio issue since.

As of May, I have a similar setup to @Mundayy and @dan.cormack - AMD 7950X3D, Asus X670E, DDR5 64GB RAM, 2x Samsung NVMe SSDs, RTX 4080, Win 11, stock settings with no overclocks. Previously, I had an Intel i7-7700K system with DDR4, GTX 1080 and wired USB headphones, with the default sound settings I never ran into this issue. However, with my new AMD PC build, games like Red Dead Online, Cyberpunk 2077 and Jedi: Survivor would all kick in with this audio issue after a few minutes of play.

I'm not 100% certain but I think it has something to do with the timing frequency of the audio device you're using for playback. In my case, I'm using the Corsair Virtuoso XT wireless headset. It defaulted to the 48000 Hz frequency I mentioned above. I singled out software updates, drivers and third-party utilities to ensure it wasn't something else being introduced to my machine.

For my setup, I use iCUE software to manage the mouse, keyboard and headphones. Having iCUE installed or not made no difference here, even with the default headphone drivers Windows fetches this problem was still happening. Finally, I made these changes in Windows 11 to fix the issue for my setup:
- Close OBS
- Open Windows Settings > System > Sound
- Scroll down to the Advanced section and choose "More Sound Settings"
- Find your default playback device on the list (green circle with white checkmark) double-click it to open properties.
- On the Advanced tab, note the current setting listed under "Default Format". Use the drop-down to see what other options are available, switch to another 24-bit frequency with a lower value. Press Apply & OK.
- (OPTIONAL) Check to see if you need to make any changes for the default communications device as well, if it's not also the default device. (green circle, white telephone) If it's not shown, your default device is also the default communications device.
- (OPTIONAL) You may want to change the default setting for Windows communication detection, which can lower the volume of your other applications while on voice calls. To modify this, switch to the Communications tab and choose the "Do nothing" option.
- Re-open OBS, try your game again to see if the audio issues continue.

Good luck!
 

Suslik V

Active Member
The data corruption happens before* the process_audio_balancing() called:

With balance shifted to R channel (balance applied in the Advanced Audio Properties) at "crackling" part of the track I see this:
obs Application Audio Capture (BETA) with panning to R bug_#8064.png
both the audio test signal (1kHz sine) and the "crackling" were reduced by similar amount on the L channel (L is top in the screenshot)

Edit *of course if there is no some magnificent random multiplier that applies somewhere later and only to the Application Audio Capture (BETA)...
 
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Suslik V

Active Member
Who want to "test" MS native solution (there are rumors that Windows itself has "crackling" issue, so nothing to blame OBS for) can do next:

Main route:

Other route (simpler to use),
similar build of the MS native solution will be here (for about 30 days, as building artifact):
use this cmd file ("proc_capture.cmd"):
First row of the cmd file: specify app executable name to capture audio from.
Second row of the cmd file: specify destination folder for .wav recording (this is location of the ApplicationLoopback.exe itself).

Don't forget to save changes.

proc_capture.cmd should be placed next to the ApplicationLoopback.exe (i.e. in one folder, default location "c:\appac").

Recorded "Captured.wav" file will be overwritten without confirmation!!! So, rename it manually after record finished (if needed).

In short - this is small cmd line util from MS itself (about 50KiB) to record audio of any .exe process to .wav file (uncompressed). If there is "crackle" in the recorded .wav file from this util - feel free to write to MS support.
 

OnlyMeDarK

New Member
Hello to you all.
Ive been watching this forum for a while.

I run into the same problem once time back at least (half year back)

When i start up streaming on twitch, everything goes well.
When i ran up into OBS win-audio-capture - the audio start crackling and beeing on total catastrofic quality.
Even after that the same issue starts on Discord streams... simply everywhere.

Once i ask some guyz im my close range.. they told that the Windows made an update on win 10 where they put some audio differences (in gamemode scenerio) so the audio between AMD CPU and Windows got into problems.

The problem is.. even if i fully unninstall win-audio-capture - the problems still standing.. the reinstal of OBS with full reset did not work as same as reinstalling my entire PC..

Is there anything to do?
 

Suslik V

Active Member
@OnlyMeDarK make sure that the issue is caused by software and not by faulty jack. Then follow the steps (see above) mentioned on github pages. And sometimes virtual devices can solve the problem mentioned in this thread.
 

OnlyMeDarK

New Member

Suslik V - Ive made sure about a lot things, no worry - in some ways i got a basic solution what works on WIN 11 tho.

Its kind of basic solution for those, who got problem after using OBS plugin installed win-audio-capture.
1. Simply u have to unninstall the plugin from your system.
2. Next unninstall the both folders in OBS with Plugins
3. Nextly go to your folder where you have the installation of OBS and install it back so removed plugins gonna be reseted to deffault.
4. Got to your Control Panels - next device Manager - and unninstall all audio Sources (from microphone to headphones) as same as High definition audios and others.
5. Restart PC

+
For WIN 11 users
When your cumputer got restarted go to your Bios by using DELETE + F2 when your PC is starting up and go to boot manager and set it to OTHER os from WINDOWS BOOT

Hopefully it will help to you guyz as same as it helped me.
If you want to check it out im streaming without problems what so ever now on twitch/onlymedark​

 

Suslik V

Active Member
Latest info:
https://github.com/obsproject/obs-studio/issues/8064#issuecomment-1874021475 said:
MS has confirmed the bug (which is on their side) and a fix should come through a win update. We don't have more infos, and haven't been able to test the fix.
We have no idea either about the timeline but will keep people appraised, should we have more info.
so, keep your Windows up to date and at some point the issue will be fixed.
 

Redrum0171

New Member
I too am having this issue with nothing i do fixes it.
But the difference for me is I'm playing on console. I can't hear the static or whatever it is but my viewers can and they let me know. Happens at random times. When it happens i go into my Video Capture Source ( Capture Card) and deactivate and then activate immediately. That will fix it but will come back after about 30 minutes. I've changed capture cards, changed hdmi cables. Changed audio sources, you name it I have tried it.
 

ReuzzzueR

New Member
Have this issue. Begun when i came back to streaming in august, never had it before. I'll try just older version of OBS (30.0.2) which worked fine.
 
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