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Topic: Popping & Crackling In foobar2000 Only, No Other Program Affected (Read 5272 times) previous topic - next topic
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Popping & Crackling In foobar2000 Only, No Other Program Affected

Hello everyone,

I have used foobar2000 for over 10 years, but for the last few months I've lived with popping and crackling during playback in foobar2000 only.

No other programs have playback problems. I use PotPlayer sometimes when I get fed up of foobar2000's bad playback.

In January 2021 I did a complete clean installation of Windows 10 20H2. Popping and crackling is still present in foobar2000.

Popping and crackling is present in playback of both FLAC and MP3 files.

My Sennheiser IE80 earphones are plugged dirrectly into the back of my ASUS Strix Z270E motherboard. When no sound is playing, there is total silence (no interference or background noise).

When plugging my earphones into my computer monitor/screen or my microphone's speaker port, I don't hear any more popping and crackling in foobar2000, but the monitor has a lot of background hiss, and the microphone's speaker port is to monitor voice, so I hear all the noise it's picking up as well.

Things I've Tried To Fix This:
  • Used foobar2000 on completely default settings
  • Increasing buffer length
  • Installing and using the WASAPI plugin
  • Changing the bit and sample rates in the audio device's properties to the same values as the tracks, e.g. 16bit, 44,100Hz
  • Checked that the popping and crackling isn't in the audio tracks themselves. By replaying the same tracks over and over, the pops and crackles appear in different places every time.
  • Restarting the computer sometimes fixes the popping and crackling problem in foobar2000 for a short while.

I'm hoping someone here will be able to help me troubleshoot, since I've run out of tests and ideas.

Re: Popping & Crackling In foobar2000 Only, No Other Program Affected

Reply #1 –
Do you have any faulty components?
Help | Online Troubleshooter

Do you have any active DSP?

You can try also safe mode.
https://www.reddit.com/r/foobar2000/comments/kwnhsi/how_to_start_foobar_in_safe_mode/

Re: Popping & Crackling In foobar2000 Only, No Other Program Affected

Reply #2 –
Thanks for the quick response.

I've tried foobar2000 in safe mode, but the following error showed if I tried to play a track:
"Unrecoverable playback error: Resampler produced sample rate of 44100 Hz instead of 48000 Hz"

Playback works when foobar2000 is started normally.

I'm not familiar with DSP, which I presume means digital signal processor. I've attached screenshots of my motherboard's audio system.

Currently I'm using PotPlayer to play music without issues until I can get foobar2000 to play without pops and crackles.

The popping/crackling in foobar2000 isn't obvious at first, but it's easy to hear during quieter music and can happen either every few seconds, or every minute or 2. Like I said, even after a clean installation of Windows and foobar2000, the problem still occurs.

Re: Popping & Crackling In foobar2000 Only, No Other Program Affected

Reply #3 –
I've managed to get foobar2000 to playback tracks in safe mode by changing my audio device's default bit and sample rate to 16bit 44,100Hz.

I will be listening to music in safe mode now to check for the problem.

Re: Popping & Crackling In foobar2000 Only, No Other Program Affected

Reply #4 –
DSP: File | Preferences | Playback | DSP Manager

Re: Popping & Crackling In foobar2000 Only, No Other Program Affected

Reply #6 –
After listening carefully to music in foobar2000 in safe mode, I can confirm that the pops and crackles are still present.


Quote from: grimes on
DSP: File | Preferences | Playback | DSP Manager

I have attached a screenshot of the DSP Manager settings in foobar2000.



Quote from: Rollin on
Quote from: RainfallWithin on
Installing and using the WASAPI plugin
There are two different wasapi output components: wasapi exclusive and wasapi shared. Try both.

The one I downloaded was the "WASAPI output support" plugin, which you called WASAPI exclusive. I will try the "WASAPI shared output" plugin now.

Re: Popping & Crackling In foobar2000 Only, No Other Program Affected

Reply #7 –
When using the "WASAPI shared output" plugin, the sound still pops and crackles.

Re: Popping & Crackling In foobar2000 Only, No Other Program Affected

Reply #8 –
Is your onboard soundcard the only one? Two soundcards can result in resource conflicts.
Do you still think, foobar2000 is the reason for your problems?
You can install a fresh portable version of foobar2000 beside your old installation.
Goto File | Preferences | Media Library | Music folders and add the path to some tracks.

Re: Popping & Crackling In foobar2000 Only, No Other Program Affected

Reply #9 –
Quote from: grimes on
Is your onboard soundcard the only one? Two soundcards can result in resource conflicts.
I only have 1 audio controller, which is the motherboard's onboard audio.


Quote from: grimes on
Do you still think, foobar2000 is the reason for your problems?

I don't know if foobar2000 is causing this problem. Since it's the program in which I notice the problem I thought it was logical to look into its configuration first.


Quote from: grimes on
You can install a fresh portable version of foobar2000 beside your old installation.
Goto File | Preferences | Media Library | Music folders and add the path to some tracks.

I have followed your instructions and tested, but the popping and crackling remains present in foobar2000 portable.

Keep in mind that my current installation of foobar2000 was only installed on 2021-01-28 (barely 2 weeks ago) on a clean installation of Windows, and I used it with default settings until the day of my first post when I tried to solve the problem.


What makes the problem difficult to test is that the popping and crackling can appear for a short period whilst playing music, but then disappear completely and the playback is perfect. This situation has just happened right now.

Re: Popping & Crackling In foobar2000 Only, No Other Program Affected

Reply #10 –
Quote from: RainfallWithin on
I only have 1 audio controller, which is the motherboard's onboard audio.
Have you (re-)installed audio drivers from the motherboard manufacturer?

I would suspect drivers first. Using default Windows drivers might not be optimized for that hardware, who knows. Second I would check what background processes are running in Task Manager. Perhaps one of them is creating CPU spikes increasing the power draw. (Just throwing ideas out here)

Doing a Google search "ASUS Strix Z270E audio popping" reveals a lot of similar hardware issues. (For one person it was loose connectors inside the case).

Best of luck tracking it down. I'm not entirely sure this is foobar related, as grimes hinted. Even so, one other thing to note, as of foobar 1.6 it uses WASAPI for default output. You could try a portable install of old versions (1.5 series) that still use DirectSound as default output. (A long shot)

Cheers

Re: Popping & Crackling In foobar2000 Only, No Other Program Affected

Reply #11 –
During the last 6 months I have found the cause of the popping and crackling during playback in foobar2000. I have waited about 3 months before posting an explanation and solution here, so I can be sure the solution is consistent.

The problem is due to the built-in audio system on the ASUS Strix Z270E motherboard. Some of ASUS's newer motherboards with the same built-in audio system also have the same problem.

A post by MoKiChU on the ASUS ROG forums explains why the popping and crackling audio problem is happening.
Quote
...according to my research, when the audio chipset starts in an idle state (no sound played) it goes into D3 Hot mode and when on Sleep, Hybernation or Fast Startup it goes into D3 Cold mode, and the popping problem occurs when from the out of this D3 mode (Hot or Cold) to D0 mode, and at this time, there is surely a conflict with something else, and these are side effects of what's called a "Suprise Wake-Up" (for more information: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/kernel/surprise-wake-up).
Link to the explanation and a registry tweak you can try: https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?97220-Maximus-X-Audio-Popping/page26#:~:text=when%20the%20audio%20chipset%20starts%20in%20an%20idle%20state

The solution I am using for this problem is to disable Fast Startup in Windows, and not put my computer to sleep. Since doing this, all audio problems have stopped.

This solution may be inconvenient to some people, so for them I suggest checking the link to the explanation and trying the registry tweak.

Thank you to the people here who responded to help me.