Voicemeeter and Statics, Stuttering, Crackling sound & Choppy audio

[HOWIEC]

I've been experiencing pops/crackling when using VM Banana for a few years now with 2 completely different high-end PCs that were well-optimized (e.g. low DPC latency, rock-solid stable overclocks - p95 FMA AVX).
Just to be clear, there is no issue when audio is output directly to the sound device (i.e. when not going thru VM and then to an output device like A1).

I've tried using different output devices and different driver modes (WDM, KS, ASIO), various buffers including max 7168 samples, 48 or 96 kHz matched everywhere, etc.

This occurs even on a fresh install without doing any OS optimizations and using latest drivers (tested with different versions too), BIOS, etc.

Also tried setting voicemeeterpro.exe and audiodg.exe affinities to separate, dedicated P-cores to no avail.

Not sure what else I can do.

Old PC main specs:
9700k
Asus Maximus X Hero WiFi
Onboard Realtek S1220
32GB DDR4 3500 CL14
RTX 3090 Strix OC
970 EVO 1TB
960 EVO 1TB
Win 11 Pro

Current PC main specs:
12900k AIO cooled
MSI Unify-X
Onboard Realtek USB ALC4080 or Audeze Mobius USB
32GB DDR5 6000 CL34
RTX 3090
SN850 2TB x2
Win 11 Pro build 22000.469

Any help is much appreciated.

[Vincent Burel]

assuming you have the latest voicemeeter version installed.
there is cases where Windows/PC configuration is unable to manage audio correctly.
most of the time audio crack come from:
- Audio stack corruption (windows being unable to re-install non-pnp audio driver it can bring chaos in audio scheme).
- Conflict with other driver (especially video driver).

if you cannot solve your problem, i invite you to send audio log to Microsoft by using the Matthew van Eerde's guide:
https://matthewvaneerde.wordpress.com/2 ... ioned-way/

[HOWIEC]

Yeah, I've always stayed up-to-date with the latest Voicemeeter version, currently 2.0.6.2.

I'll see if I can open up a ticket with Microsoft.

I would not be surprised at all that they changed something that caused this because I had previously used Voicemeeter for a long time without issues.

[xRYANx555]

I would like to revisit my issue with the constant audio crashes in Voicemeeter Potato. I am still dealing with this issue. Every few minutes the audio crashes and the audio turns robotic. I have to restart the audio engine. Sometimes this helps for a few seconds, sometimes minutes. Sometimes the PC will do ok for longer periods without problems.
I have gone through all of the articles on the forums about this and tried everything that I could find to try to fix the problem.
All of my sample rates are set to 48000 Hz. I am using WDM. I tried MME but I have problems with people not being able to hear me on some of my apps with it, and it has an even worse lag issue from my microphone than WDM already does (that's another issue that isn't solved).
I changed out every piece of hardware there is in my PC trying to fix this issue: power supply, motherboard, CPU and GPU. The RAM passes diagnostics. I tried a different microphone. I reinstalled Windows from scratch. I have spent literally thousands trying to make one piece of software (Voicemeeter Potato) work.
Attached is my System Settings panel from the program for reference.

Voicemeeter System Settings - Resized.jpg (29.56 KiB) Viewed 64828 times

[Vincent Burel]

assuming you tried to use MME or KS interface with your wireless headphone (tried 1024 sample buffer size too).
maybe the problem is simply your wireless device (not enough stable to drive the main audio stream) and you should select a more regular physical device as output A1 instead (like audio device on motherboard).

REM: you may post a full resolution image.

[xRYANx555]

assuming you tried to use MME or KS interface with your wireless headphone (tried 1024 sample buffer size too).
maybe the problem is simply your wireless device (not enough stable to driver the main audio stream) and you should select a more regular physical device as output A1 instead (like audio device on motherboard).

REM: you may post a full resolution image.

For whatever reason, KS does not show up as an option for my microphone, so I don't use it because I would not be able to match it to my A1 output to my headphones. (Unless you think the mismatch would be acceptable?) The drivers issue is possible, I suppose. The software for the Blue Yeti is done by the Logitech G-Hub software. The software for my Arctis Wireless Pro headphones is the SteelSeries GG software. I am not sure I can forego the Logitech software simply because it controls my mouse, keyboard and speakers as well. If that software is the culprit, I would have to change out many peripherals to a different brand be rid of it. If it is the headphones software, I could possibly see if it runs without it.

I did indeed try increasing buffer sizes on both WDM and MME. That did not seem to help. Increasing them greatly seemed to sometimes cause more problems.

The motherboard has a built-in Realtech sound card, but it's not good. It has a hum in it at higher volume levels, which I assume is a result of being buried in with the motherboard and the power supply or maybe it is lacking good filtering circuits. I tried to use it instead of the USB audio route when I was trying to figure out a way around the microphone lag issue because I thought that I would be able to switch over everything to ASIO, but it doesn't work like that. It still shows up as WDM, MME, etc. for the Line In input and only the "speaker" A1 would give me an ASIO option. I had hooked up an XLR mic system and ran it to the Line In and was running the Line Out to my external headphones transmitter unit instead of using the USB. I don't think any of it helped with the crashing and robotic audio problem either.

I will try disabling as much control of the mic as I can by the Logitech software, and then if that doesn't help I will try the chop away at the headphones software and drivers and report back the results. I am of course open to any and all further suggestions! Thanks!

[Vincent Burel]

REM: built-in Realtech sound card is maybe not a high quality audio board but can be usually enough stable to driver the Voicemeeter main stream (output A1) - for general stability, it can be better to have a motherboard audio card as output A1 than a wireless or USB device (usually less stable for different technical reasons).

[xRYANx555]

Would a supplemental sound card added into my PCI expansion slot use the ASIO interface? There are some good ones on the market that might make a difference, but not if they won't allow me to use my mic input and the output through the ASIO interface instead of the others.

[xRYANx555]

I believe I found the software culprit that had been interfering with Voicemeeter, and I wanted to share that finding in case any other user runs into this.
I use the SteelSeries Arctis Pro Wireless headset. The software made for it is called "SteelSeries GG", where you can configure your headphones' settings and other things. Preventing that app from running seems to have stopped the crashing of the Voicemeeter engine.

[DominixTV]

Hello.
I was using Vbanna for quite long time, but recently (well hard to tell when that happen) I have weird kind of cracking sound issue.
Here is example of it:
https://youtu.be/beTxbqeSDsg
Hard for me to explain what exacly, but there are some kind of beeps, cracks when I talk, like static noise.
This is when I was using davinci resolve fairlight for recording audio for my video.
I've installed vcable, than banna, added mic, speakers and started record and sound is kind of ok at the beginning, but later it starting to sound like in this vid.
If I pick my mic (Ice Snowball) in davinci, without Vban, there is no issue like this at all so for me there is problem with vban, but i dont know really.
here are screenshots from davinci and vban, if anything else is needed, let me know
https://i.imgur.com/gFV2a5o.png
https://i.imgur.com/AuILXWx.png
https://i.imgur.com/8uEuVZI.png
https://i.imgur.com/XmheMOu.png