Combat Sound Effects Distorted

[kuma_aus]

I haven't played enough to tell, but after someone mentioned it I switched to Paladin and killed some mobs. To me it feels like some skills sound very off. I noticed this especially with Riot Blade. Don't know how to describe how it's different, but it certainly seems different to me.

[Proctor]

I've heard noticeable crackling, but only when using the Immerse Spatial Audio gamepack and setting, when I was spinning next to an orchestrion playing music. I turned the setting off after that (EDIT: while it may still lightly crackle with spinning near orchestrions, the audio gamepack sounds much better after turning the audio sample rate down to 48 KHz in my computer's audio settings). This could be a different issue, but it's the only instance so far where I've really heard what sound like the issues in the OP post. Sounds subjectively are seeming a lot better on 6.0 for my install, so this makes me wonder if it is a more specific technical issue than a general one, such as for certain hardware. If anyone experiencing the issue could attempt to enable then disable Immerse Spatial Audio, that could possibly help with clarifying and more specifically articulating this issue (such as, is the muffling for distant sounds heard when that setting is enabled similar to the muffling being experienced for weaponskills in this issue).

Overall it seems like some yet-to-be-resolved issue is existing in the following 6.0 patchnote: "The sound engine has been improved to more easily discern sound effects when a large group of players are present."

[ToastyKeen]

I've been getting horrible crackling as well whenever I'm going around and doing any combat. It doesn't really matter what class I play or where I'm doing it. Everything was fine before Endwalker dropped, and then when it dropped I've been having the issues near constantly. My frames are fine, and I'm not dropping any packets, my own network is sending and receiving packets normally too, so I have to assume it's a client side issue or some kind of hardware issue on my end.

I haven't really tried all the fixes yet, I had heard that changing your system sample rate down could help with the sound problems but it didn't really do much, I've checked the settings, I don't have the spatial audio enabled. I did notice that there's a new Equalizer Option, or at least I've never seen it before. It's set to normal, I wouldn't know if any of the options would actually help with the stuttering and crackling audio. Mostly I just wanted to report that I am having the issue and that I hope that it's something that can be fixed sooner rather than later, being able to enjoy the music is one of the highlights of my experience in this game and it would kind of suck if I didn't get to experience it like it was meant to be experienced.

That said I'm going to try some other troubleshooting steps and see if that helps.

Update:
Switching down to DX9 did partially fix the issue, I still notice some slight stutters from time to time but not nearly on the level of what I was hearing before.

Update 2:
I switched back up to DX11 to test some other things. I switched my headset USB up to a 3.2 port and that seemed to help just as much as swtiching down to DX9. It's still got the occasional hiccup. I know this isn't really and option for everyone but it seemed that some hardward change ups might work out in people's favors. I've heard if you have bluetooth audio and switch to wired it tends to help a lot.

I also heard putting your listening position to 100 in the sound settings on the game helped and I did that as well, so far it seems to have helped as well I don't know how much though so ymmv.

[YukikoKurosawa]

Glad I'm not the only one. I noticed all the jobs have random sound effects sound as if they're broken. You ever notice how the sound of combo attacks is very weak and unimpactful if you don't do the combo correctly? That's what a lot of combo attacks sound like now even when you DO them in order.

Interestingly, I first noticed this in the Endwalker Job actions trailer. I thought maybe it was just a bug, but you can hear the same sound effect issues in the trailer, disappointingly, they either didn't see this as a problem worth fixing on release, or they INTENTIONALLY borked the sounds. I have no idea why they would think making the sounds LESS impactful would be a good idea. But honestly it sounds like they're just broken. Whether or not SE sees them as broken is the question.

We all know what happened to Gunbreaker SFX though so I'm not optimistic.

[plz]

The sound effects finally got so annoying that I googled it and found this thread

My issue is also only with sound effects. Voices and music are fine, for the most part, but any time I'm in battle I want to just turn the sound effects off because they're so bad. They have a very piercing, sharp quality to them, almost to the point of static, like the gain on them is way too high or something. They also possess some weird thing that makes them sound "hollow", almost like an entire sound range is scooped out of the audio and only the top end plays, and that this top end has the gain turned up to maximum. It hurts my ears and is very piercing. I did download the Spatial Audio thing while the game was down, and I sent in a picture of my ear and downloaded the software and enabled it in game. I originally thought that *this* was the issue, but even after restarting my computer and disabling Spatial Audio, the sound effect issue is still present. This is actively causing my ears pain and it is an extreme displeasure to hear, and I am fearful that it might never get fixed. If this never gets fixed, I will eventually be forced to play with all sound effects turned off, or it might even cause me to stop playing altogether

For reference, I have a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 preamp and am listening via Sennheiser HD 650s and I never had this issue until Endwalker

[YukikoKurosawa]

I haven't played enough to tell, but after someone mentioned it I switched to Paladin and killed some mobs. To me it feels like some skills sound very off. I noticed this especially with Riot Blade. Don't know how to describe how it's different, but it certainly seems different to me.

I play PLD and can confirm. Of all the abilities, Riot Blade and Royal Authority are the only ones to suffer from this. It basically makes no sound save for the initial charge up sound it makes as your character animates right before you actually strike and the mana regen sound. The original impact sound is completely gone. Royal Authority sounds partially broken, as though the sound is cracking and only partially audible through distortion. I'm positive something went wrong with the sound engine and they just ignored it because the problems were audible in the Endwalker Job Actions trailer so they knew about it and didn't fix it even before launch.

[YukikoKurosawa]

Update:
Switching down to DX9 did partially fix the issue, I still notice some slight stutters from time to time but not nearly on the level of what I was hearing before.

Question, how do you switch to DX9? I can't find any option anywhere, just turning off Dx11 in the laucnher which didn't fix anything lol

[Xerkrosis]

Question, how do you switch to DX9? I can't find any option anywhere, just turning off Dx11 in the laucnher which didn't fix anything lol

If you turn of DX11, it switches to DX9. It's an either or case.

[Kenpai]

I've been getting the same problem, as soon as I start combat on, say a training dummy, the sound starts to stutter REALLY bad, and it's everything: sound effects, music, my character's voice.

Something I found odd was while I've been using the training dummies in Stilltide, if I go to their rear and have my camera face forward, the stuttering happens without fail, but if I turn the camera around to face their side towards the cliff, it tends to get better and sometimes even stop.

So far I've tried:

-Switching to DX9
-Default audio to 16-bit at 44100
-re-checking all the game files
-updating whatever drivers I had to update
-lowering numerous graphical settings to the lowest

Nothing has worked for me so far. The game was working totally fine on Tuesday, so there has to be -something- that the devs can do to fix it. Or at least I hope. I honestly can't play with this godawful noise, and I've been waiting for this expansion for a long time now!

[YukikoKurosawa]

If you turn of DX11, it switches to DX9. It's an either or case.

Ah, well that didn't make any difference for me, everything sounds the same DX9 or DX11