Audio popping issue

[rutilation]

Unfortunately for me, this patch didn't really fix the audio issue, it just made it... different. I got my hopes up when I saw a bunch of people here saying the issue was fixed on their end, and I was even happier when I walked inside the buildings in Great Work, which had always triggered the stuttering for me before, and didn't experience any issues. But when I started doing my roulettes, the issue came up again, and it was especially bad in the alliance raid I did. The best way I can describe it is that the stuttering effect in particular is gone, but the audio becomes very scratchy, laggy, and--for lack of a better term--bass-boosted. What's more, adjusting the camera while in combat doesn't alleviate the issue like it did before.

An update on this: since the problem seemed to have been fixed for most everyone else, I went looking for any possible issue that could have caused it on my end. Around the same time the audio bug cropped up for me, the dc jack on my laptop broke; it can power the computer, but it can't charge the battery. I overlooked it before because I couldn't imagine how the two could be related, and at the time I figured that the release of patch 6.05 had caused the problem. As it turns out, the faulty connection in there was causing the laptop to throttle the cpu--it was in a perpetual power-saving mode. Fiddling with the power settings couldn't fix it, but I downloaded throttlestop, unchecked the box labeled BD PROCHOT, and that fixed the issue for me completely.

[Fyxation]

I have AMD FX8350.
Just got on, turned everything up to test the audio. No crackle on zoning; no crackle in my house. Just did a couple 8 man roulettes and some FATEs in Thavnair and have not had any static yet. This is the first day of EW that I can actually enjoy the sound. Gonna probably do a new game+ or push an alt through EW MSQ just so I can hear it as it was supposed to be and actually play it without having a nervous breakdown. One thing I need to remember to do is back out and turn my system bitrate back up. I think I left it on CD quality after they suggested that weeks ago (gross).

[Lagunow]

AMD-FX8350 user here reporting.

Played for many hours today and performed several limit tests: reverted all the graphic settings back to how I used to play in ShB, activated DX11, high(desktop) and FPS limit on 60. Also had multiple apps running on background.

The audio crackling/stuttering appears to be completely gone. The "lagging" and random FPS drops that seemed to accompany it, also gone. Game is running as smoothly as it was on the day before 6.0 hit.

[Shalyra]

AMD FX6300 here, its fixed and everything is good again, thank you SE! Everything is good just like before 6.0

[miragedive]

Right. After endless fiddling and fidgeting with the settings, I think I may have found a temporarily fix/reduction. I tested this right in the middle of when the sound was stuttering literally every 5 seconds and had three clean minutes of sound on trial 2 + no stuttering in The Goblet or Radz-at-Han after. All of these fixes are necessary, I tried switching from FullScreen back to Borderless and the stuttering came back. This is assuming you've applied the fixes suggested in patch notes.

1. Switch to Fullscreen Display
2. Ensure that FPS is capped 1/1 or uncapped
3. Go to System Configuration -> Sound Settings -> Wireless Controller Settings, and set Speaker sounds to None. I reduced volume to 0 and muted for good measure.
4. If you use a gamepad/controller to play, either play wirelessly, or if you connect via cable, disable the controller as a sound device in your Windows settings. To do this, connect your controller, go to Sound Settings -> Device Properties -> Additional device properties -> On the General window, right at the bottom, change Device Usage to "Don't use this device (disable)"

This combination seems to work for me so far, but I'll feed back over the course of the coming few days if the issue comes back or if the issue remains fixed like this. At the moment I have my graphics reduced to mitigate, but if the fix holds I'll gradually increase. Note that this worked with a listening position of 50.

[miragedive]

Right. After endless fiddling and fidgeting with the settings, I think I may have found a temporarily fix/reduction. I tested this right in the middle of when the sound was stuttering literally every 5 seconds and had three clean minutes of sound on trial 2 + no stuttering in The Goblet or Radz-at-Han after. All of these fixes are necessary, I tried switching from FullScreen back to Borderless and the stuttering came back. This is assuming you've applied the fixes suggested in patch notes.

1. Switch to Fullscreen Display
2. Ensure that FPS is capped 1/1 or uncapped
3. Go to System Configuration -> Sound Settings -> Wireless Controller Settings, and set Speaker sounds to None. I reduced volume to 0 and muted for good measure.
4. If you use a gamepad/controller to play, either play wirelessly, or if you connect via cable, disable the controller as a sound device in your Windows settings. To do this, connect your controller, go to Sound Settings -> Device Properties -> Additional device properties -> On the General window, right at the bottom, change Device Usage to "Don't use this device (disable)"

This combination seems to work for me so far, but I'll feed back over the course of the coming few days if the issue comes back or if the issue remains fixed like this. At the moment I have my graphics reduced to mitigate, but if the fix holds I'll gradually increase. Note that this worked with a listening position of 50.

Feedback on this. It does mitigate the issue, significantly so, but it didn't get me through a full night of raid with my static and an 8 person Discord call running in the background. We were specifically doing P2S. At the start of the night on P1S it was fine, but as soon as we got into P2S the issue came back with a vengeance and I had to turn sound off to get through the raid. That said, the issue is still less than when it was before 6.08. You can try this for mitigation, but it's not a complete fix.

[Maeklos]

Chiming in after not playing for nearly a month. Sound issues seem to be fixed for me. I finally resubbed to give it a shot and spent 10 minutes running in circles in the Rising Stones casting Dyskrasia II. Normally, the problem would trip after 3-4 casts at most. Now, almost 10 minutes and nothing.

Yay for getting it fixed!

Boo for them ostensibly blaming us rather than investigating the problem before casting aspersions.

[Grimno]

Just did The Fourth Circle and trial roulette, as well as ran around the gold saucer doing Leap of Faith, ran around ishgard, and even did my leve quests.
Not a single pop and have had audio distance at 70/100 and Immersive turned off.
It feels so good to be back to normal play again.

[polyphanes]

Just coming back to report: no more audio issues, and it feels so good to not have to use the Immerse Gamepack anymore with its extremely uncomfortable spatialization! And I get my treble boost back, no less!

[TaleraRistain]

FX-6200 and no audio stutter, lag, or FPS drops that I've been experiencing since 6.0. The game plays exactly as it did before that patch now.

I ran Fourth Circle which is always absolutely horrible and it was clear as a bell. Flow on the Orchestrion in my inn room is another where I always had issues and it was perfect. Music is an essential part of the experience of XIV for me and I am so happy that the experience is complete again.