Audio popping issue

[Malinn]

I've tried switching to DX9, Uninstalling virtual audio cable, setting the default device in the app sound setting, and disabling all other audio devices. Trying to change any audio settings on my headphones with XIV open hard crashes the game, so I've been waiting the last 7 hours to get back into the game.

Sometimes combat is fine? Depends on the area and how many people are around i think. Did a trial and nothing went wrong, but it immediately got bad after.

[Mog_Biscuit]

I might have a potential fix for the audio stuttering but I haven't fully tested yet.

Turn Spatial sound off in your PC sound settings. This will require you to restart FF14 but I tried running a dungeon afterwards and encountered no issues. Before the sound was popping every time I went into combat.

[TojiSuzuhara]

bumping this in hope it gets attention. I've troubleshooted what ppl suggested here and some has helped. For me, changing the listening position to 100 has helped the most. I just did a trial, and i noticed when i would be facing/looking at the boss, audio would start to stutter/crackle. When i'd look away, it'd clear up in an instant. Interesting to see if anyone else can try this and see if the same thing happens. To me it sounds like its this spatial audio upgrade stuff they added (i did not buy or am using that new addon) which if this is what's causing this is a shame. Don't think this is something they should have done straight out of the gate at launch

[Drymac]

Same problem here. Music keeps playing but no SFX.

[Elliah-Seraheart]

I, like so many of you have been having this exact same issue ever since Endwalker hit.
Pls make sure to fill in a bug report with as much information about your system as you can.

I have made a new discovery however that leaves me almost certain that Endwalker brought a change in how audio is handled. The Audio issues are ABSOLUTELY, demonstrably related to camera position. Sound is either heard from the position of the character, or the position of the camera. When there's an obstruction of any kind, be it through an object, a wall, an asset or even certain boss's particle effects - you get audio stuttering/clipping/popping. This is why you get less issues in wide, open spaces and more issues in cramped spaces and more audio sources in different places (combat). For the time being - setting listening position all the way to character helps a little.

I've uploaded a video that illustrates the obstruction theory in 4 different instances.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLQW6ShIkJY

[SleepyMoony]

hello i am also having this issue. it only happens when i am in combat, when someone near me is in combat, or someone uses a skill that might be used during combat. seems like only the bgm is getting effected though; turning it off has fixed the issue. In the meantime i'm manually playing area music on loop through youtube but that's not what i might call ideal.

earlier i also had an issue where VO wasn't playing, either in or out of cutscenes. it fixed when i restarted the game later, but i just muddled through it at the time because of queue times haha

update: moving my listening position all the way to "character" like @Elliah-Seraheart suggested fixed it, for now at least. Thanks!!

[Elliah-Seraheart]

hello i am also having this issue. it only happens when i am in combat, when someone near me is in combat, or someone uses a skill that might be used during combat. seems like only the bgm is getting effected though; turning it off has fixed the issue. In the meantime i'm manually playing area music on loop through youtube but that's not what i might call ideal.

earlier i also had an issue where VO wasn't playing, either in or out of cutscenes. it fixed when i restarted the game later, but i just muddled through it at the time because of queue times haha

update: moving my listening position all the way to "character" like @Elliah-Seraheart suggested fixed it, for now at least. Thanks!!

I've not yet heard of someone having these issue's exclusively with BGM. For me, and many others the issue happens with any sound. Be it BGM, Sound effects, Ambient or Voices. It's an absolute mess in dungeons - and makes cutscenes almost unwatchable.

That said, I am glad you resolved your issues somewhat. Pls still make sure to send in a bug report regardless. Mentioning the issue, your specs and the fix that worked for you might help them detect the underlying cause.

[Shian]

I was getting a lot of problems with the sound system.

When I ran the game through my headset on Direct X 11, it would crash on startup.
I fixed it by turning off Direct X 11 mode.

However, the game now crashes on graphical problems, so I had to swap back to Direct X 11. I updated all my drivers and I was able to play the game with sound through my speakers. But the sound would pop in and out and not play randomly.

If I swapped to my headset, it would again crash.

So I tolerated the speakers popping for a while and then I ended up purchasing the sound add on and ran the sound through my headset and I haven't had problems with the sound since.

The only issue now is I can't actually play the game without my headset. As much as I love the improved sound, some times I don't want to wear my headset and unfortunately, going back to speaker mode means the audio issues come back.

[rody29]

bump, having the same issues, tried all the suggestions and nothing works

[VaireAsani]

Bump, also still having issues. I've tried everything. DX9 seemed to make it worse somehow. Listening position made no difference either.