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Topic: Distorted audio playback during in-game voice chat in Team Fortress 2 (Read 2987 times) previous topic - next topic
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Distorted audio playback during in-game voice chat in Team Fortress 2

I realize this is a bit specific, but I'm at my wit's end figuring out the cause of this issue. While in a game of Team Fortress 2, I can play music through foobar without problems. All audio formats and all or no DSPs playback audio with no problem. But, if I enable broadcasting voice chat in-game and then play music through foobar, foobar plays strange distorted audio that seems sped up. Simply stopping the playback, then starting it again, will cause the audio to return to normal playback; however it will distort again when playing another song after a short period of not playing audio.

Here is a recorded sample:

Code: [Select]
What Foobar is supposed to output:
http://vocaroo.com/i/s06tQCr6lQqI

What Foobar actually outputs, while TF2 is broadcasting voice chat in-game.:
http://vocaroo.com/i/s18NeJ19NZca


I have foobar outputting audio to virtual audio cable, and have VAC as my default recording source which TF2 uses.

Some key observations:
  • Only the initial playback of a song exhibits distortion like this
  • Stopping the audio and immediately playing it again will stop the distortion
  • The distortion will return after stopping an audio file, and playing another after a short amount of time
  • All sound formats are affected, even including emulated nintendo/sega spc files
  • Foobar only displays this distortion while voice broadcasting is on in TF2
  • All Foobar components are updated, and the issue persists even with a stock install of Foobar with no components

I DJ in time-critical settings and I can't rely on Foobar to playback correctly leaving me to often covering up mistakes because I end up broadcasting distorted noise. I am suspicious that VAC may be the culprit, but I'm unsure how to investigate further. Does anyone have any idea what could be causing the issue, and what I can do to have reliable playback?

Distorted audio playback during in-game voice chat in Team Fortress 2

Reply #1 –
I figured it out. Though I'm not sure why, Virtual Audio Cable (4.13.0.5811 Full) would speed up and distort audio output under certain conditions. The solution was to use another virtual audio device; I went with VB-CABLE and I have had no issues so far with Foobar. This thread can be pruned as the issue was ultimately not a Foobar issue, though it may be helpful to others in the future as there is little to no information regarding this issue on the net.