Audio popping issue

[TheMeido]

Don't know if it's related, but in the Old Sharlayan innroom. Ever since patch 6.01 my FPS started to lower dramatically from capped 99/100 to near down 20 fps for odd reasons, acting almost like some weird memory leak if you stay in there too long and start messing around with the "try-on" function with the glamour dresser. My audio would also start to "pop" and "slow-down" during this. Think it's possibly related?

[GorthRedsteel]

Imagine waiting 2 weeks for a patch to address the huge bug that makes the game unplayable, just for it to make it WORSE. Like how is that possible? I understand they don't care about us from the west but holy shit - can they at least try to handle it? I'm getting furious as I had no issues before the shitty expansion, and now I get headaches from getting my ears getting assaulted. Constant popping and stuttering makes it a torture. What have they done with the game? "Improved sound" btw

[AurelGuthrie]

So I have tested out the solution to route the audio trough the Virtual audio cable by using the mentioned VB-Audio + Voice Meter (both can be downloaded on their website, you can get one virtual audio cable for free). After installling and restarting your PC, it is important to setup voice meter (or their audio mixer variant) so your main audio output, whatever you have (A1) is routed to the virtual cable (A2).
I have been testing this solution for around 60 min now as I am writing this, it does seem to work; if it stops working I will update the post!

Note: If someone else want to try this, would be appreciated. More people would give a better overwiev.

I'm currently trying this and it seems to be *mostly* working. Instead of having the crackling/popping audio issue most of the time during dungeon runs, now it happens for a couple seconds every 10 mintues or so. From a major issue to minor inconvenience. Still, that it doesn't 100% fix it makes me think there's multiple things causing this issue, and using the virtual audio device fixes one of them. Thanks to Packetdancer for sharing this solution! I will update if it stops working.

[Sarhina]

It primarily seems to be in dungeons or areas of dense combat for me, oddly moving the camera can briefly stop it. Not tried any of the fixes yet as they seem worse than the thing they're curing.
Just got into Asphodelos: the fourth circle and been hit with the WORST attack of this in the game, I had to switch off my sound completely.

[paga]

So I have tested out the solution to route the audio trough the Virtual audio cable by using the mentioned VB-Audio + Voice Meter (both can be downloaded on their website, you can get one virtual audio cable for free). After installling and restarting your PC, it is important to setup voice meter (or their audio mixer variant) so your main audio output, whatever you have (A1) is routed to the virtual cable (A2).
I have been testing this solution for around 60 min now as I am writing this, it does seem to make it much better (llok update1); if it stops working I will update the post!

Note: If someone else want to try this, would be appreciated. More people would give a better overwiev.

Update 1: like someone else said, its not perfect. Every 10-15 min it still happens (less than usual) for a few seconds. Compared to it happening all the time though, it is a solid improvement, at least the game is playble.

Does not work for me but my issue is not as bad as others, I only get some slight cracking every so often and not at all during combat, so for me its not unplayable but you still notice it. But thanks! 6.0 ran perfectly for me, I really hope they fix it soon.

[minopoki]

So I have tested out the solution to route the audio trough the Virtual audio cable by using the mentioned VB-Audio + Voice Meter (both can be downloaded on their website, you can get one virtual audio cable for free). After installling and restarting your PC, it is important to setup voice meter (or their audio mixer variant) so your main audio output, whatever you have (A1) is routed to the virtual cable (A2).
I have been testing this solution for around 60 min now as I am writing this, it does seem to work; if it stops working I will update the post!

Note: If someone else want to try this, would be appreciated. More people would give a better overwiev.

I tried the mentioned softwares, and it didn't work at all for me, but maybe I'm setting it up wrong...
I have VoiceMeteer set as my standard audio device. Should I change FFXIV audio device to something else?
Inside the VoiceMeteer app, i set my speakers as A1, tried both VB-Audio Input or nothing to A2, didn't make a difference.
Also, there are WDM and MME options for each device, and I don't know the difference. Tried changing them, and no difference.
Also, should I change something to audio input in the software?

EDIT: btw, something I had already tried a few days ago using the VB audio cables (I didn't have VoiceMeteer installed), was transmitting the game audio through a Google Meet reunion to my cell phone.
I set FFXIV audio output to VB cable input, then I set Chrome audio input to VB cable output, joined a Google Meet reunion, then joined the same reunion as another user in my phone, so I could hear game audio from it, and it would still stutter from my phone.

[GorthRedsteel]

I tried the mentioned softwares, and it didn't work at all for me, but maybe I'm setting it up wrong...
I have VoiceMeteer set as my standard audio device. Should I change FFXIV audio device to something else?
Inside the VoiceMeteer app, i set my speakers as A1, tried both VB-Audio Input or nothing to A2, didn't make a difference.
Also, there are WDM and MME options for each device, and I don't know the difference. Tried changing them, and no difference.
Also, should I change something to audio input in the software?

Don't get your hopes up and don't waste the time. How many different MIRACLE solutions people have posted already? Not a single of them work. We either upgrade our hardware. or SE stops being lazy and fixes the bug. We may wait for the 6.05, but let's be honest - it's still gonna be broken by then. Maybe in 6 months they finally release a statement that the game doesn't support PCs with older chipsets. Unlucky us. Save your pennies, and play other games in the meantime.

[Dekaar]

installed the immerse spatial audio plugin - 100% fixed the problem and no popping, stuttering and so on as before... deactivating it ingame directly made the bugs return.
So basically for those affected installing the plugin could solve the issue - Downside however - general effect and soundquality lowers thanks to the plugin and it costs after trial version is over

[paga]

Don't get your hopes up and don't waste the time. How many different MIRACLE solutions people have posted already? Not a single of them work. We either upgrade our hardware. or SE stops being lazy and fixes the bug. We may wait for the 6.05, but let's be honest - it's still gonna be broken by then. Maybe in 6 months they finally release a statement that the game doesn't support PCs with older chipsets. Unlucky us. Save your pennies, and play other games in the meantime.

I have a Ryzen 7 5600 and have audio issues so def. not only on old hardware.

[minopoki]

Don't get your hopes up and don't waste the time. How many different MIRACLE solutions people have posted already? Not a single of them work. We either upgrade our hardware. or SE stops being lazy and fixes the bug. We may wait for the 6.05, but let's be honest - it's still gonna be broken by then. Maybe in 6 months they finally release a statement that the game doesn't support PCs with older chipsets. Unlucky us. Save your pennies, and play other games in the meantime.

Once my current sub expires, I'm unsubbing the game until it someday works again. Not sure if I will wanna get back if that takes too long, though.
Right now I was just hoping we could bring SE's attention to this, but it really doesn't seem they care much about this.