Audio popping issue

So since its over 20 Pages full of Ideas and Feedback around the Sound Poppoing Error i thinks it's time for an overview about tries and errors and possible fixes, who are overall, still not finally able to solve this error.

Here is the Error and how its comes to light

Here is a list, which more or less many user tried, with more or less, mostly less, sucess:

• Deactivate DirextX 11 and go back to DX9
• switch graphical adjustmenst (down, up etc.)
• Reinstall audio and gpu drivers
• install third party audio
• reinstall FFXIV
• check about CPU usage and adjust
• changing priority in CPU settings
• change from Logitech Wireless to cablespeaker
• changing equalizer mode in FFXIV to standard (and back)
• change sound mixer game output into dxmode
• change listening position in FFXIV to 100
• closing realtek audio manager
• enabling audio add-on as trial
• turn spatial on or off
• it returns after restart.
• switching GPU ^_° gives an "improvement"
• LINK config settings which adjusted into better
• borderless Window etc didnt help
• LINK Official Statement about the Soundbug
• some weird ticket with reinstall IE etc. whcih didnt helped at all
• changing the fps to 165 did make it better for 1 evening, and after restart it got worse again
• Go to control panel, hardware and sound, power options, and set your power plan to "Balanced" if it's set on "save power" (nope)

Well, i hope some of these will help you for a short time. As Elliah-Serahart pointed out here there might be a problem when FFXIV is starting /loading, so that resolves the restart - error back feature.

best of luck to all of you. Stay healthy

Hello fellow Audio-issues havers.
I mainly post as a bump to this thread, but also as a small vent. So if you're looking for a solution, I'm sorry I don't have one.

As you most likely have as well, I have tried every option I've found on the internet, and nothing has changed.
I've been silent and patient, because I know what a big undertaking this Expansion has been and I do not want to play that fact down, but I have to remain unbiased and remind myself: This is a product I have paid for, with a service fee I pay every month in order to use this service.

I am aware that we are being compensated for the huge queue times and disconnections happening, which is highly admirable, very nessecary even for many people, with the lenght it takes them to log in during the few hours they have available to play each night.
But I too have high queuetimes. I too have disconnection issues, and even had them about 2 weeks before EW EA, for no apparent reason. But now, even after braving the login and having a luckily stable connection for the evening, the game is basically still unplayable.

I can't level my classes, I can't progress the MSQ, I can at most put everything silent, watch youtube videos and craft, because the sound is unbearable if I even think about fighting something.
It's frustrating to know, that I've tried everything and have waited a full week since I was supposed to be able to enjoy the product I purchased and am currently paying for, and nothing has changed.
I've never had sound related issues before. Any other game, even more demanding ones, run perfectly fine on my computer.
It's sad to know there will not be additional compensation for this, since it doesn't affect everybody.

Again, many people had issues logging in and staying logged in recently, but at least when they were they had a great time. I am not, as you all aren't either I assume.
I just stopped playing again after a couple hours in which I thought I could try the MSQ again. But only 1 encounter with a single beast later I am tired. I am tired and sad that all I can do is play it silently or not at all.

We all agree that the music this game has is fantastic, even the small battle themes are recognizable and amazing. I want that to be my experience with this game, and this expansion. My first expansion I've been part of the live release.
Currently every encounter, every step forward in any direction of the game, I worry my sound will crack and pierce my ears. Once that happens my immersion is intensly broken, but to be honest, it is as soon as I hear it happen in the loading screens when I think about doing anything. Any moment I do anything in the game, I expect it to happen. I worry it'll start any second (which it usually does..) and it already pulls me out so far.

ShB SPOILERS:
Imagine you're about to face Hades, you stare him down, the Theme starts playing and all you hear is a crackling mess of screeching.
ShB SPOILERS END

I worry that that might be my experience with EW if I keep going. I'm not far into the MSQ but I don't know whats gonna happen next. I hate to think that might happen.

I know others have it worse when they have queues of 5k+ just to be dropped from the queue and having to requeue, I've been lucky that my times were high but I have gotten in within reasonable times so far. It doesn't make me less sad though.
But I guess I am just human, and I'm selfish in saying this, but I feel like I was entirely unable to play since EA release, whilst no one I know personally had any issues besides logging in and maybe 1 DC a night. Why do I have to deal with this? Why do I get treated the same, when I am pretty much completely unable to enjoy what I paid for just the same?

Best of luck, I envy all of you for whom any of the possible fixes have worked! Enjoy the game and turn that sound up! For all of us sitting on the bench, ready to follow you, fellow Warriors Of Light. ♥

TLDR: It's a bump. It's a vent. Wish i had a solution for yall, cus I know what it feels like. But I did see, we finally made it onto the "known issues" list, so one can only hope.

EDIT: I saw a new 'fix' by setting your power usage to balanced, it didn't work. But it made me notice something about the issue when I tested it. It seems like there is a 'build up' and a 'threshhold' to it. When I start the game fresh, I go to bigger fates to make sure that if the issue could happen, it would.
It works fine for a minute maybe, but theres a certain point at which it just breaks and any effect that worked before is now broken and the bgm is forever broken aswell.

Thanks for compiling all the stuff from various threads. I've even seen more than what you listed! I gave up trying to "fix" things on my end a few days ago, and I'm now waiting for SE to revert whatever is causing this as it's definitely something born from EW's new sound features--regardless of if you are using them or not. For me, it's been a real downer since it's so terribly distracting in brand new battles which contain audio ques and dialog. It gets the worst during FATES and 8 man trials. I want to progress, but the first new trial was such a bad experience that I'm not sure I can deal with that again. This is incredibly frustrating.

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Originally Posted by Fyxation

Thanks for compiling all the stuff from various threads. I've even seen more than what you listed! I gave up trying to "fix" things on my end a few days ago, and I'm now waiting for SE to revert whatever is causing this as it's definitely something born from EW's new sound features--regardless of if you are using them or not. For me, it's been a real downer since it's so terribly distracting in brand new battles which contain audio ques and dialog. It gets the worst during FATES and 8 man trials. I want to progress, but the first new trial was such a bad experience that I'm not sure I can deal with that again. This is incredibly frustrating.

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iam willing to edit and quote myself if you are adding your steps, which you tried.
ty

I am relieved to be seeing this forum post. I thought I was going mad with EW and the popping sound, crackling, headset, speakers etc. Thanks all for your efforts. I tried a few things and I keep losing spell sounds so glad it isnt me.

Idk about y'all but for me the sound just seems off... I was not getting popping... But I would get a stutter here or there... Or I'd notice the cutscene audio would start quietly and randomly get louder... Also I have never once heard the RDM ability scorch prior to EW.. and now it's very annoyingly in my ears ... Looking at you Erik (it's not there fault) also Holy seems much quieter to me.. Additionally it just seems to me like a lot of the combat sound effects are muffled or quieter I'm general (except for RDM scorch)

Reporting in to say I finally tried using the spatial sound option (via their free trial) and it made 0 difference :/

I'm randomly having the special effects drop and voice acting drop.
Seems to happen after a few hours of being logged in. So annoying as the only way to fix it is to relog, which can take hours.

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Originally Posted by Elliah-Seraheart

Afaik the only throttling going on (if you don't underclock your CPU) is when your CPU gets too hot. But that wouldnt JUST affect audio. It would also result in low fps - and obvious delay with input etc.
My CPU doesnt get hot when playing FF14 - and the audio stuttering is absolutely not related to downthrottling of CPU when too hot. I also know that it's not related to the CPU not being able to draw enough Volts.

I overclocked my CPU some 2 years ago, and made sure to have really good cooling - because i knew how much heat it would produce. I specifically bought a new power supply that is able to supply the overclock sufficiently, and then some.

Anyway - I love not having to wear clothes at home in winter... But i'm 99% sure it's not related to the audio issues,

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Well, I can show you a video if you want. There's is an absolute 100% 1:1 correlation with zero delay whatsoever when I change that setting. You can IMMEDIATELY see it cause the sound issues or resolve it (as long as it's not a big battle), in real time, without hurting the FPS much until you go too low. It disproportionately affects the audio.

Again, I can record a video and show it, it's not a guess or theory. It affects it instantaneously and I've been switching back and forth as I play to have less broken sound in dungeons and trials, and going back while waiting in queues, so I don't have excess heat and fan noise. The moment I click it, the sound instantly changes, and the FPS remains good either way.

Edit: Also, just to add more detail, the CPU usage doesn't seem to ever go too far past 50% in any case anyways, according to windows task manager.

I played all through Early Access without experiencing any sort of audio problems, but after the emergency maintenance a couple days ago, now I notice it all the time. Battle effects stop working, boss skills/AOEs don’t play, skill sounds from us or other party members don’t play, character voices cut in and out. Background music seems fine—it’s the only thing that doesn’t cut out for me. Sometimes the sounds come back within a few seconds. Other times they stay broken.

I tend to have the bug where my sound all cuts out except the background music—and interestingly enough, my character wasn’t performing the animations for the actions when the sound was cutting out. I checked my VPN and did not see any packet loss or other ping spikes that could have caused the issue instead, since I know lag will cause animations not to play sometimes.

Sadly, the only remedy I’ve found is closing the game completely and restarting it. Simply relogging did not fix it. And sadly that’s not a great fix given the state of the queues in this game. It only really works if you do it in the late night/very early morning hours when queues aren’t thousands of people. :c

I hope this is fixed because it’s incredibly jarring. And I rely on sound queues in battle with regards to certain mechanics, so it’s kind of messing with that a bit.

Putting my 2 cents in as well... I know there was some discussion that it might be related to older parts but I just got this PC and am experiencing the same issues.

The issue started for me the FIRST mini-boss during the first EW dungeon. The audio cut out completely, and I was able to get it half back by setting the equalizer to standard (it was set at logitech initially)-- however, my battle effects were gone and anytime I pressed a skill action I'd hear an annoying clicking. The MSQ lacked voice acting as well and it's incredibly frustrating as other fixes suggested in the thread have done nothing to help.

As it is, I can only get BGM and some system sounds-- but even the BGM will pop every so often. This isn't playable. I was so ready to enjoy this expansion fully but after spending a week in queues to get another barrier I'm not sure I'll even try to play for a while.

My PC:
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600x
OS: Win 10, latest updates


EDIT: I relogged the next day just to see if it got better and I haven't had the issue since-- the only change I've made is not using my headphones, and keeping the sound settings to CD quality.

any news from SE regarding this?

Only news we've got is the acknowledgement of the issue in "know endwalker issues" in the news, and the Sound Director's tweet about knowing about it and trying to fix it.
No real ETA so far.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by KnottySloth

So since its over 20 Pages full of Ideas and Feedback around the Sound Poppoing Error i thinks it's time for an overview about tries and errors and possible fixes, who are overall, still not finally able to solve this error.

Here is the Error and how its comes to light

Here is a list, which more or less many user tried, with more or less, mostly less, sucess:

• Deactivate DirextX 11 and go back to DX9
• switch graphical adjustmenst (down, up etc.)
• Reinstall audio and gpu drivers
• install third party audio
• reinstall FFXIV
• check about CPU usage and adjust
• changing priority in CPU settings
• change from Logitech Wireless to cablespeaker
• changing equalizer mode in FFXIV to standard (and back)
• change sound mixer game output into dxmode
• change listening position in FFXIV to 100
• closing realtek audio manager
• enabling audio add-on as trial
• turn spatial on or off
• it returns after restart.
• switching GPU ^_° gives an "improvement"
• LINK config settings which adjusted into better
• borderless Window etc didnt help
• LINK Official Statement about the Soundbug
• some weird ticket with reinstall IE etc. whcih didnt helped at all
• changing the fps to 165 did make it better for 1 evening, and after restart it got worse again
• Go to control panel, hardware and sound, power options, and set your power plan to "Balanced" if it's set on "save power" (nope)

Well, i hope some of these will help you for a short time. As Elliah-Serahart pointed out here there might be a problem when FFXIV is starting /loading, so that resolves the restart - error back feature.

best of luck to all of you. Stay healthy

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Bump for first page

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Originally Posted by KnottySloth

Bump for first page

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what worked for me was disabling sound to the controller, then changing audio device in windows to also not the controller . sometimes FFXIV makes windows change the preferred audio device to the controller.

I finally gave up on this. After installing the game to an SSD and that changing nothing, there's nothing more I can try.

I was thinking, if the cause of this problem was a change to the audio driver, all they needed to do is add an option for changing back to the old driver and maybe everything would be fine. Or would Endwalker new stuff really not work with the old driver?
Although that change would require an update of the client, I think it could pretty much be implemented at anytime, it shouldn't have to make us wait until the 21st.

Honestly, I'm kinda afraid that whatever fix they intend to add in 6.01 ("if any adjustments are needed") might really not work for everyone, just like some fixes that have been proposed by the community work for some people but not for most of them.

It really seems SE sees this as a minor problem, even though there are about 30 threads on this issue here on Lodestone, this one having over 200 comments and a few of them around 40-60, not to mention Reddit, YouTube etc.
Even though it's not really acceptable that we have to wait until the patch, it doesn't seem we have much choice.

If by the patch this isn't fixed though, I'll just have to leave the game…
It's very disappointing that'll have to abandon a game that's so special to me and did so good to my mental health through the last 2 years for such reason.
Even if I could afford a computer newer (and more expensive) than the one I currently have (which would only be possible for me like 6 months to 1 year from now), it would be such a waste to spend money on it only for the sake of Final Fantasy XIV, while most games I'm interested in still work in my current PC.
Which means that if this issue doesn't get fixed soon, it would probably take years for me to be able to return to the game…

Quote:

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Originally Posted by HyoMinPark

I tend to have the bug where my sound all cuts out except the background music—and interestingly enough, my character wasn’t performing the animations for the actions when the sound was cutting out. I checked my VPN and did not see any packet loss or other ping spikes that could have caused the issue instead, since I know lag will cause animations not to play sometimes.

Sadly, the only remedy I’ve found is closing the game completely and restarting it. Simply relogging did not fix it. And sadly that’s not a great fix given the state of the queues in this game. It only really works if you do it in the late night/very early morning hours when queues aren’t thousands of people. :c

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Pray tell, if You have several "Output" devices, including DS4 controller (OR DS5). For me game tends to output different sound "layers" in separate devices and I fixed it by disabling those devices in Windows settings.

Just wanted to chime in that I had also been having the same audio issues to the point it was basically unplayable unless completely muted. I tried pretty much all the suggested quick fixes but the only one that actually made a difference for me was enabling the spatial audio. I downloaded the trial, set it up, and although it didn't completely eliminate the issue, (it still pops up somewhat randomly) it made a dramatic difference. It essentially went from audio stutter and cracking every 10-15 seconds to happening maybe a few times in an hour and not so terrible I had to mute the game. Hopefully they completely resolve the issue in 6.01 but for now that was the only thing that helped in my case.

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Originally Posted by AeroXaia

Well, I can show you a video if you want. There's is an absolute 100% 1:1 correlation with zero delay whatsoever when I change that setting. You can IMMEDIATELY see it cause the sound issues or resolve it (as long as it's not a big battle), in real time, without hurting the FPS much until you go too low. It disproportionately affects the audio.

Again, I can record a video and show it, it's not a guess or theory. It affects it instantaneously and I've been switching back and forth as I play to have less broken sound in dungeons and trials, and going back while waiting in queues, so I don't have excess heat and fan noise. The moment I click it, the sound instantly changes, and the FPS remains good either way.

Edit: Also, just to add more detail, the CPU usage doesn't seem to ever go too far past 50% in any case anyways, according to windows task manager.

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So what is it you are suggesting? Go into power options and down throttle the cpu manually? I will try and see if it works for me.

EDIT: Throttling the CPU down made no appreciable difference for me, in fact the lower I throttled it the worse my issue got.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AeroXaia

Well, I can show you a video if you want. There's is an absolute 100% 1:1 correlation with zero delay whatsoever when I change that setting. You can IMMEDIATELY see it cause the sound issues or resolve it (as long as it's not a big battle), in real time, without hurting the FPS much until you go too low. It disproportionately affects the audio.

Again, I can record a video and show it, it's not a guess or theory. It affects it instantaneously and I've been switching back and forth as I play to have less broken sound in dungeons and trials, and going back while waiting in queues, so I don't have excess heat and fan noise. The moment I click it, the sound instantly changes, and the FPS remains good either way.

Edit: Also, just to add more detail, the CPU usage doesn't seem to ever go too far past 50% in any case anyways, according to windows task manager.

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Sadly - I can claim the exact opposite. There are people who CAN see a clear correlation and there are people who absolutely cannot claim the same. But this is precisely why I'm led to believe that CPU spikes are generally not the cause of this. It's always hard to differentiate causation, correlation and synchronicities. There may even be multiple different causes for the same issue. It's not that straight forward. Ask any doctor, or technician. I'd still encourage you to share any footage you got - because it may help devs diagnose issues, may help you and everyone suffering from the same causes.

On another note - I didn't play for a few days, and it randomly got MUCH better. I really only get it in Inns and some parts of towns now. In combat I'm almost free of issues. I may get half a second of it every 5 minutes or so. It's been like this for 2 days now. I didn't change a thing. On the contrary - I've been taxing my CPU more, with Adobe Programs in the background while playing. I also turned my miner back on.

I hope your issues get better as well - one way or another.

It is interesting to see, that in DE there are not so many complaints, posts and threads about this issue, but here in EN forums. I was so "glad" somehow to see this thread, because I (and my husband) seemed to be the only ones with THIS issue.

Since Day One of Endwalker I cannot play anymore, because I do not want to ruin my Game Experience and I do not want to mute everything.

I have not even started the Main Story, I do not know how all the content is, I only took Sage and Reaper and am leveling them a bit.

I noticed the issue with the very first (Reaper Job) Quests, and because the sound is so annoying and disturbing I never continued any Quest at all.

I tried everything suggested here and really nothing helped :(

Bumping this so it doesn't get lost and also adding what's been happening to me.

Noticed a couple things;

All audio (and only in this game as everything outside of the game functions normally); music, SFX, system sounds, ambient sounds, voices and performance, stutters depending on the camera angle, or my character's location in relation to what I'm attacking or whoever else is doing something.

Sometimes the audio stutters depending on where my character is physically located. Example; friend's striking dummy in the goblet. He has a striking dummy directly facing a wall and I'm keeping the camera position facing the wall. When I attack the dummy from behind the sounds stutter. When I attack from its left flank the sounds stutter. When I attack the dummy from its right flank the sounds never stutter. When I attack from the front the sounds never stutter. This also occurs in dungeons and I have to physically move to certain areas around my party's targets to not have the audio stutter.

I will have all audio but music muted and in certain zones and during certain boss encounters in dungeons, all Haukke Manor bosses and all Stone Vigil bosses for example, the music will stutter within 10 seconds of loading in the zone or within 10 seconds of the fight occuring. Unmuting SFX seems to make the music stop stuttering but as soon as I mute SFX the music will start stuttering again. The stuttering also stops occurring when I move my character to certain places around the target. Strange thing is if I have everything but SFX muted the SFX never stutters as often as music does in certain places.

The stuttering is drastically exacerbated if my Listening Position is any less than 100.

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Originally Posted by Cithaerias_pyropina

Bumping this so it doesn't get lost and also adding what's been happening to me.

Noticed a couple things;

All audio (and only in this game as everything outside of the game functions normally); music, SFX, system sounds, ambient sounds, voices and performance, stutters depending on the camera angle, or my character's location in relation to what I'm attacking or whoever else is doing something.

Sometimes the audio stutters depending on where my character is physically located. Example; friend's striking dummy in the goblet. He has a striking dummy directly facing a wall and I'm keeping the camera position facing the wall. When I attack the dummy from behind the sounds stutter. When I attack from its left flank the sounds stutter. When I attack the dummy from its right flank the sounds never stutter. When I attack from the front the sounds never stutter. This also occurs in dungeons and I have to physically move to certain areas around my party's targets to not have the audio stutter.

I will have all audio but music muted and in certain zones and during certain boss encounters in dungeons, all Haukke Manor bosses and all Stone Vigil bosses for example, the music will stutter within 10 seconds of loading in the zone or within 10 seconds of the fight occuring. Unmuting SFX seems to make the music stop stuttering but as soon as I mute SFX the music will start stuttering again. The stuttering also stops occurring when I move my character to certain places around the target. Strange thing is if I have everything but SFX muted the SFX never stutters as often as music does in certain places.

The stuttering is drastically exacerbated if my Listening Position is any less than 100.

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Yeah someone a while back did a video on how it seems to be positional and bounces more off of objects. If I position my camera above it seems to reduce as well.

One interesting thing happened a few days ago for me - the sound issues in game became extremely bad but when I tabbed out they migrated into my entire machine even when just clicking the sound volume tester on the task bar. The static was so bad I had to reboot my entire machine and go back to the queue. This happens occasionally but if it helps with troubleshooting I thought it would be good to make sure I dropped that info here. This issue is super intermittent some dungeons I am fine others are borderline unbearable but there is always some level of static, stuttering and distortion occurring. Mt Gulg so far has been the absolute worst of them all.

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Originally Posted by OmniusOmnium

So what is it you are suggesting? Go into power options and down throttle the cpu manually? I will try and see if it works for me.

EDIT: Throttling the CPU down made no appreciable difference for me, in fact the lower I throttled it the worse my issue got.

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Yeah, that's what I'm saying, lowering it makes it worse. I don't have a solution, I'm just trying to get to the root of the issue so it can be fixed.

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Originally Posted by Elliah-Seraheart

Sadly - I can claim the exact opposite. There are people who CAN see a clear correlation and there are people who absolutely cannot claim the same. But this is precisely why I'm led to believe that CPU spikes are generally not the cause of this. It's always hard to differentiate causation, correlation and synchronicities. There may even be multiple different causes for the same issue. It's not that straight forward. Ask any doctor, or technician. I'd still encourage you to share any footage you got - because it may help devs diagnose issues, may help you and everyone suffering from the same causes.

On another note - I didn't play for a few days, and it randomly got MUCH better. I really only get it in Inns and some parts of towns now. In combat I'm almost free of issues. I may get half a second of it every 5 minutes or so. It's been like this for 2 days now. I didn't change a thing. On the contrary - I've been taxing my CPU more, with Adobe Programs in the background while playing. I also turned my miner back on.

I hope your issues get better as well - one way or another.

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I'm just telling my experience and what I've found, hoping to get closer to the cause/solution. Are you afraid if CPU is part of it, it won't get fixed? It's affecting a lot of people that it wasn't before, I doubt they would just say "nope, just get a better CPU" when they can't even afford servers with all the congestion.

If you lower that setting enough and it has no effect, I'd be extremely surprised. Lowering the maximum CPU allowed should throttle the CPU no matter what, since you're setting the upper bounds of the range. With less CPU, like you said, it should come up with all kinds of issues, but again I'd be surprised if you didn't also run into sound issues before other issues, if you go down in 10% steps for example.

I have just finished the patch content of base game and I feel great regret. I have forced myself to play as I had already wasted a week waiting for the fix. Sadly, still no word from SE. It was such a disaster watching those great cutscenes with stutter, constant static noise, and slowed down voice acting that would cut before the end of each dialog. It pains me that such crucial experience and part of the story got destroyed by the issue. I really don't know what to do now. I badly wanna continue with HW but if it's gonna be fucked by the same crap then what's the point. Hard to immerse yourself if audio keeps trying to damage your eardrums lol.
Pity. :/

I have been having this issue since Early Access opened. Any time I am in battle (and thankfully, only in battle) the sounds cracks, stutters, pops, and is generally painful to even listen to at this point.
I have found that by moving my mouse around and changing my angle, it will improve from some angles, but usually it's an angle that makes it impossible to play effectively (can't do a trial if you have to have your camera pointed away from the fight so the sound doesn't make me want to scream anymore).
I have a sneaky suspicion it's something to do with new the sound settings, but I'm no professional so don't quote me on that- kind of ironic though that this fancy new setting is added, and all of a sudden, all these people- myself included- are having sound problems when there were none before.
Please please fix this soon. I *want* to listen to this game, not feel like I have to turn the sound off completely to even try to be a productive member of a group.

Just posting a reply here since I'm having the same issue as well and none of the fixes mentioned by others has worked so far. The only thing I have been able to do so far to help has been to mute the Master Volume in the settings so that when I enter combat or heavily populated areas I don't start stuttering. I even tried to mute everything except for the system sounds so that I would still be able to hear the alarms for timed gathering nodes and eventually if I was in a dungeon when the alarm pinged it would suddenly begin stuttering again.

The most annoying part is seeing everyone talk about how good and great and wonderful and amazing the music is in all the new zones and I can't even have the audio for an alarm timer enabled because it'll start making things wonky. It's not like we can realistically stay out of combat either, unless you're someone who spends hours on end doing emotes to other people in town. Even though I'm not some kind of audiophile who is necessarily missing out on a lot from not hearing the BGM, having to experience combat with no sound really has made me realize how much the combat audio helps my gameplay. I have a new found respect for any deaf gamers out there. Although, it is nice being able to do a hunt train without hearing that 1 annoying squealing female mi'qote that always seems to end up right behind me no matter what server I'm on.

I still think that if they just gave us an option to enable the old sound driver from pre 6.0, this problem would be solved.
Sure it requires a client update, but I don't see why it would have to wait until Jan. 21st.

my fear is they will not fix this problem in the next patch, because i have not seen them specify the problem that we are having.

My audio's just been... wonky.

Occasionally certain sounds won't play (like when a critical engagement ends in Bozja/Zadnor) or they'll be weirdly muffled like I have 5.1 surround sound going through headphones. Certain dungeons are worse than others with The Dusk Vigil being the worst where I probably couldn't hear half the sounds play.

So I have discovered that if I have my second screen on, particularly if it is playing a video or taxing the GPU/CPU the stuttering will be much worse. With my 2nd screen completely disabled in my graphics driver settings I have seen enough of an improvement that the game is now playable. There is no longer any stuttering in cutscenes or dungeons. There is still some stuttering and all around bad quality audio in 8-man and 24-man content, with alliance raids being the worst by a significant margin. As some others have said, rapidly twisting the camera in the opposite direction of the boss seems to "reset" the sound and alleviate the problems, although only temporarily.

Another thing which has made it more bearable is to turn the master volume almost all the way down, I think I settled on 49 in the end. This won't actually solve the problem, but it does make it much less noticeable. Once I turned the master down I fiddled with the other volumes as well until I settled on the most comfortable audio experience. Obviously this will differ depending on personal taste and hardware. But my settings are:

Listening Position: 100
Master: 49
BGM: 100
Sound Effects: 40
Voice: 100
System Sounds: 32
Ambient Sounds: 32 (this one seems to be of particular importance and needs to be low or OFF).
Performance: 100 (though it makes no difference unless you're listening to a bard).

Self: 100
Party: 50
Other PCs: 26

Wireless Controller Settings: Muted and "none" selected.

Equalizer Mode: Standard (Playing around with this can have a significant effect)

Spatial Audio: OFF (I tried with it on and it sounds absolutely terrible).

It should also be known that I am playing my sound via my GPU HDMI cable to my TV (NOT via a headset or headphones AUX connector).

My windows sound settings are as follows:
All enhancements DISABLED.
Default Format: 24bit 48000hz (Studio Quality)
ALL other audio input and output devices DISABLED (not just unplugged) in windows sound settings.
Windows Spatial Surround: OFF
Any other software/hardware based enhancements or apps like realtek DISABLED.

Windows Master Volume: Maximum of 80%
All other audio outputs in the windows volume mixer MUTED, this includes "system sounds" and absolutely any other app or program showing up in there, the only thing that should be unmuted and set at less than 80% volume is Final Fantasy XIV and the Master Output itself.

Any other audio crap that may interfere with the signal at any point DISABLED (In my case this was audio settings within the TV itself such as loudness equalization or surround sound etc.

As I say, none of these things will eliminate the problem, but they may make it slightly more bearable for you. And I know "turning down the volume" isn't a great solution, but it makes a difference in my opinion and is plenty loud enough with the settings set to cautious levels. And if you can do without it, muting other players spells completely and muting the ambient sound setting will make a significant difference in my opinion. Finally, the sound effects are heavily impacted in comparison to the BGM so for me turning the BGM up to max and the effects as low as I can while still enjoying the game made some difference as the music seems mostly unaffected so can distract from the bad effects.

Anyway, hope this helps someone else.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AluneTempest

my fear is they will not fix this problem in the next patch, because i have not seen them specify the problem that we are having.

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That's what I am afraid of too.
I can already see they releasing the next patch with some random change to the audio driver in attempt to fix the issue, but it end up working only for a restricted number of lucky players…

Quote:

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Originally Posted by OmniusOmnium

So I have discovered that if I have my second screen on, particularly if it is playing a video or taxing the GPU/CPU the stuttering will be much worse.

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This isn't my experience. I've played bozja/zadnor with instances filled with the max number of people and only the "you won" music after a CE doesn't play, but then 4-player dungeons will have 90% of the audio messed up in some way. I (personally, of course. as this is only a supposition) think there's something else going on.

I just would like to know about if they are planning on adding more free sub time,as I haven't been able to play since EW early access game out

Same issue with the audio, i try it with the settings from AsheStrachan, when i got ingame after 5 hours.

So my fix is defunct. Capping fps at 30 worked for a day or two, now the audio popping is back and it's even worse. The more players or monsters using spells/abilities the louder and more horrible the popping becomes. I've since put my fps cap back to 60 since it isn't working anymore.

Greetings fellow Eorzean,

We apologize for the inconvenience you have experienced with sound issues on Final Fantasy XIV. We have compiled a list of current issues with the game including sound related ones here which might be related to the same problem (i.e. the sound driver for the game itself):

https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...d6d790145bcf41

We appreciate your patience and understanding regarding this matter and ask that you try again at a later time to see if the issue persists along with keeping an eye out on the Lodestone website when further updates will become available.

Thank you for visiting the Final Fantasy XIV Technical Support forums!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Darneltia

Greetings fellow Eorzean,

We apologize for the inconvenience you have experienced with sound issues on Final Fantasy XIV. We have compiled a list of current issues with the game including sound related ones here which might be related to the same problem (i.e. the sound driver for the game itself):

https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...d6d790145bcf41

We appreciate your patience and understanding regarding this matter and ask that you try again at a later time to see if the issue persists along with keeping an eye out on the Lodestone website when further updates will become available.

Thank you for visiting the Final Fantasy XIV Technical Support forums!

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We finally got some info people!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Darneltia

We have compiled a list of current issues with the game including sound related ones here which might be related to the same problem (i.e. the sound driver for the game itself):

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Hello Darneltia, I'm not sure how much information the moderators have in regards to development issues, but if the problem is in the sound driver for the game itself, couldn't this problem be solved if it was only given us an option to switch drivers to an old version in which this error did not occur?
Just like we now have the option to switch from DirectX 11 to DirectX 9, couldn't they give us an option to switch from 6.0 sound driver to 5.5 sound driver?

It's been 10 days and nothing is being done.
This is what I have: Sound is crackling like crazy and I can only "hear" music and system sounds, all other is muted for some reason.
I tried every possible fix on my end that was ever mentioned here or on Reddit.
At that point I wasn't gonna let my sub run without playing so I soldiered on and it spoiled my experience.
I find it absolutely not acceptable to wait for the patch on the 21st to fix these issues, hotfixes exist for these specific cases.