Crackle/Static From Discord Voice Channels (Desktop App)

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gozen
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Feb 26, 2018 3:42 pm

Crackle/Static From Discord Voice Channels (Desktop App)

Post by gozen »

Hello.

Since 2017 I have been using Voicemeeter and the virtual audio cables for Discord audio routing and streaming purposes.

As of late, I have been noticing intermittent crackle/static when I am connected into a Discord voice channel. This crackle/static only seems to happen when someone else in a voice channel is speaking, and only lasts for 1 second or less, however the sound is still noticeable. The crackle/static sound also happens when a Discord music bot, such as Rythm, joins a Discord voice channel and is playing music in said channel. Throughout the song being played I will occasionally here the crackle/static sound every now and then. Just because a person is speaking in a Discord voice channel doesn't mean I heard the crackle/static each time they talk or say something. As far as I can tell, it just seems to happen randomly/intermittently and doesn't seem to be correlated to any actual user.

I can't say when I noticed this happening originally, but I think it has been going on for several months now. I don't recall this ever being an issue back originally when I started using Voicemeeter.

I do not hear this crackle/static sound with other things such as my desktop audio, my microphone (which I also sometimes route through the Hi-Fi virtual audio cable), or my browser (which I also have routing through a different virtual audio cable).

I do have 2 separate PCs here that both contain completely unique hardware from one another, yet the both exhibit the same audio issues when I am listening in a Discord voice channel.

I have tried changing settings such at latency and buffer, but alas had no luck with troubleshooting my issue. I do have my sample rate (SR) set to 48000 Hz across all of my devices. I have also tried changing my device for A1. I have also done complete uninstalls and re-installs of all Voicemeeter software but the issues still persists.

Here are some images of settings from each PC. I can include more if requested.
PC1 - https://imgur.com/a/scFfWa6
PC2 - https://imgur.com/a/kCLg300

I am currently running Windows 10 Professional 64-bit version 1909 on both computers at this time.

TL;DR - With Voicemeeter I hear an intermittent/random crackle/static noise when connected into a Discord voice channel and someone else is speaking or a bot is playing music. I do not have audio issues with other programs.

[Edit] I was just doing some additional testing and I logged into Discord directly on the web via discord.com. In my test I was using Mozilla Firefox, which I also have routed through Virtual Audio Cable A. During this test, with a song playing in a Discord voice channel, I had no audio issues. Normally I would just continue to use Discord in the browser, however there is functionality that I cannot use in the browser version versus the full desktop version of Discord. To me, it seems like there is something in the desktop version of Discord that doesn't seem to want to play "nice" with Voicemeeter and the Virtual Audio Cables.

I did another test where I had the Discord app use virtual audio cable B as the output source, like I had been doing. This time though I wasn't running any version of Voicemeeter and instead made virtual audio cable B my default Windows playback source. I then went into the sound settings and the recording tab to select cable B, then wen to the listen tab and chose "listen to this device" and chose my default audio playback device. While I was able to hear the audio on the Discord desktop app, it still presented the crackle/static sounds intermittently. So even after eliminating the Voicemeeter app itself and just using a virtual audio cable, my issue still persisted.
EnjoyRC
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Sep 03, 2020 11:18 am

Re: Crackle/Static From Discord Voice Channels (Desktop App)

Post by EnjoyRC »

Last night during a Voice Chat in Discord with my son, he was telling me how much Crackle there was in my voice.
Once I changed Discord to get input directly from my Mic, all was perfect.
Please advise.

I'm using a Razer Seiren X USB Microphone.
Into VoiceMeeter Banana Hardware Input 2.
Routed out B1 only. B1 is dedicated to audio I send to chat applications. (Discord, TEAMS, etc...)
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Vincent Burel
Site Admin
Posts: 2008
Joined: Sun Jan 17, 2010 12:01 pm

Re: Crackle/Static From Discord Voice Channels (Desktop App)

Post by Vincent Burel »

you may start by reading this wellknown topics

Voicemeeter or Audio problem after WIN10 update:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=442

Voicemeeter and Statics, Stuttering, Crackling sound:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=451
EnjoyRC
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Sep 03, 2020 11:18 am

Re: Crackle/Static From Discord Voice Channels (Desktop App)

Post by EnjoyRC »

Thank you for the links.
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