Poor sound quality in RetroArch 1.3.0

[NormalNomad]

If I launch a game (N64, SNES, GBA, SMS) from within RetroArch the sounds is scratchy/broken. If I launch the same game directly from the emulator (snes9x, mGBA, Fusion) the sound is fine. I just updated RetroArch to version 1.3.0, although it does the same thing in version 1.2.2 Any ideas?

[SentaiBrad]

Check your audio settings, because I don't get crackling audio. I did in LaunchBox when the controller option was ticked, but everything crackled not just RetroArch. Turning it off saved my ears. In RA go to the second column, then go down to audio and match it to mine. Like I said I don't get crackling audio, so maybe your settings are off? If you set an Audio DPS Plugin too turn that off. https://i.imgur.com/YkukBFP.png

[Drybonz]

Check your settings under drivers > audio as well, and make sure you have it on dsound, or whatever the best choice is for your system.

[SentaiBrad]

Actually, it should be xaudio which I believe is the default. If that is causing crackling then change that too.

[NormalNomad]

I matched all my settings and still got cracking. The 'Audio Driver' is set to xaudio and the 'Audio Resampler Driver' is set to sinc. I explored the 'Sound Settings' in snes9x (v1.53) and it has an option to modify the audio input rate (currently set to 31900). When I hover my cursor over a text box appears and says: "For each 'input rate' samples generated by the SNES, 'Playback rate' samples will be produced. If you experience crackling you can try lowering this setting." I don't get any crackling in Snex9x. Could this be something I could/should change in RetroArch?

[SentaiBrad]

You can try 41000 but this is more or less the quality of the sound. The reason why the SNES number is lower is because it is a lot older technology and there are limits. You can raise that number for SNES, but it would sound different. Just know the lower you tell that number to be the lower the quality of the sound will be, but 41k and 48k are still a bit similar.

[Drybonz]

You might want to try the audio sync enable option in the Retroarch audio options also.

[dov_EL]

WAIT !!! Download only X86 version . Not X86 X64 is BAD . Try PLS

[SentaiBrad]

No, the 64bit version is not bad. It runs just fine. The main difference has nothing to do with audio but how much RAM and CPU it can utilize. The 64bit version can't be run on a 32bit OS, which is why the 32bit version exists.

[Jason Carr]

Still might be worth trying both 32-bit and 64-bit to see if it happens to solve the issue. Retroarch's stability hasn't exactly been the greatest as of late; it is possible that one might work better than the other.

[Apoc]

Hi there, I too was having this same problem and I turned off "Hard GPU Sync" under video and then everything worked 100%. Hope this helps!

[NormalNomad]

I tried everything recommended, and played around with every audio setting I could and nothing has worked. I think I will stick with the standalone emulators (not sure if that is what they are called) outside of RetroArch for now. Thanks for the help.

[SentaiBrad]

Damn, I'm sorry nothing has worked so far. I do think RetroArch is better for uniformity and an all-in-one package but if your sound doesn't want to work right I do not blame you at all.

[Denus]

On 2/10/2016 at 6:39 PM, Apoc said:

Hi there, I too was having this same problem and I turned off "Hard GPU Sync" under video and then everything worked 100%. Hope this helps!

That worked for me too!
It's recommended to switch this on, but in my case, it's ruining the sound during large intros like Megaman X5 or 6 on the PSX (Intel NUC i5 & HD6000).
Now, it's smooth. Thanks for sharing this...

Edited January 1, 2017 by Denus

[SentaiBrad]

Try updating to the latest nightly (new Stable should be soon, but the nightlies are fairly stable too considering), and updating cores. Sometimes updates can help fix problems too. I am unsure if this problem is fixed by updating, but it's worth a shot, it's a fairly easy process.

[Lordmonkus]

Before disabling Hard Gpu Sync try bumping up the Hard Gpu Sync Frames to 1 or 2.

Also check the Frame Delay setting and make sure that isn't set too high if it is set to anything higher than 0.

[Denus]

Just did what you said, and.... it's working great with Hard Gpu Sync On.
Such a little detail, Hard Gpu Sync Frames from 0 to 1, but that made all the difference.
I've tested it with the intro of Megaman 5X (which is my reference to test this), and it's just fine!


Edit: Still a few sound issues sometimes, so I changed Hard Gpu Sync Frames to 2, and reduced the Frame Delay from 1 to 0, and now it's clean!

Edited January 2, 2017 by Denus

[Lordmonkus]

Yeah, setting it to 1 just gives a little more headroom to the CPU. 0 is perfect sync and is ideal but 1 is better than turning off Hard GPU Sync.

[Lordmonkus]

1 hour ago, Denus said:

Edit: Still a few sound issues sometimes, so I changed Hard Gpu Sync Frames to 2, and reduced the Frame Delay from 1 to 0, and now it's clean!

What happens if you set frame delay to 0 and hard gpu sync frames to 1 ?

Also are you using any shaders at all ?

[Denus]

The Frame Delay was already at 0, I've set the Hard GPU Sync Frames back to 1, working great.
So the Frame Delay at 1 was my issue then?

And yes, I'm using the shader crt-easymode.cg (not the best one I agree...)