Audio issues

from Sins Forums

This game and only this game has issues when the audio subsystem is executed.  The intro movie sound works just fine but once the main menu loads all sound starts to crackle.

 

I've read all the suggestions, about bloom, etc etc.  None of it works.

 

Audigy s zs up-to-date drivers.  All other games, WoW, COD4, supreme commander, CIV, Unreal work fine.

 

I've read about the k-lite codec pack and that it may cause issues, however that has never been on this machine prior to the install of this game.  I did however install the pack to see if it altered the audio.  It did in fact alter for the worse.  I've uninstalled the software with the audio from the game reverting back to the crackle.

 

The only solution and it is not a solution, is a complete reinstall of the drivers.  An uninstall reinstall of the audio drivers allows the game to function until the system either goes into standby or a restart. 

Let me add more to this, if I do not launch the game after the full reinstall of the drivers and restart the machine multiple times or let it go into stand by if I launch the game after those restarts everything is fine.  Once I restart after closing the game and re launch the game the audio goes to crackle.

 

This happened to me a long time ago, over a year, on another different machine in which the developer finally discovered there was a problem with how their software was working with the audio subsystem and had to patch it. 

 

The fact that all other games work fine and that the game does work fine after a reinstall of the driver and then to finally end up with bad audio after playing the game has to link to this game.

technical
6,315 views 13 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
i got the SAME problem, the vids are ok but the menu's and also when im playing, everything crankle's

i've heard it was not supported under 7.1 surround sound or something? not sure
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

This is odd. Do you have "Bloom" or full multisampling on by any chance? When the sound works back up your user.setting file. Then perform the series of actions that causes the audio to crackle and compare the current state of the user.setting file with the backed up one using a freeware text comparison tool (e.g winmerge).

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Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
This happens to me too. I have not uninstalled and reinstalled my audio drivers and I don't really want to if the problem's going to come back when I restart. I have a Creative X-Fi with updated drivers and I use headphones. It only makes a cracking noise when audio is playing, I think; if I turn the music down to zero it seems like it's gone, but when I exit the menu and go back to the game the crackling is back.
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
i got samples 2X, no bloom (that makes my fleets white )

i also got this crankle sound all the time on bioshock, it is very annoying
Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top
Audio crackles here when I enable hardware sound in the User.setting file. With it off, it works fine. I only get it when weapons impact, however.
Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top
Okay, it turns out Creative released drivers on the 18th of this month that I didn't know about. Those fixed my crackling problem. Man, talk about having to keep things updated :D

edit: after playing for a bit, I'm not suer if it's fixed. It's fine until a battle breaks out. Whenever my ships fire, or when their attack hits an enemy ship, or something, there's the same popping noise. I don't know if that's supposed to happen or if it's a bug but either way it's annoying.
Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top
If you could provide me the path to the file to ensure I perform this on the correct file I will do as instructed.
Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top
I think I have narrowed down the issue. When Sins loads you have those two movies and than the splash screen with the Sins tag line. When that goes away and the menu attempts to load I can hear stuttering in the audio as if its trying to do something but either has to many things queued up or its trying to fast to execute audio while the sound system is being executed.

Its not that my machine is holding anything back. 2.4 core duo with 2 gb of ram SATA drives 8800 GTS on an nvidia 680 board.

Once again its only this game and its fixed if I reload the audio drivers. There has to be something going on with the loading of the menu.
Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top
I have this issue too. Running the game in a window fixed the crackling sound for me. Only in full screen, for me, does the sound crackle.
Reply #10 from Sins Forums Top
There is a general problem with audio in Sins with Creative/Emu soundcards. I have read of many on this forum with Audigy soundcards that either have crackling or no sound at all. I have an Emu 1820m and I also have no in game sound at all. I have updated to the latest drivers released in January for my card but still no sound. I buy and play a lot of computer games and this is the first game where I have had no sound at all. I have some other very recent games by THQ and do not have any audio issues whatsoever. I'm not going to do a reinstall as I should not have to and it may not even work. Please fix this as soon as you can Stardock - I and many others would appreciate it. Thanks!
Reply #11 from Sins Forums Top
I just bought this game today. I read countless reviews on how good it was. Not one review brought up the sound issue. Unfortunately, I cannot take the game back as it is already opened. Does the developer have a return policy? I'm not happy with my purchase and want a refund. I'm not getting my money's worth.
Reply #12 from Sins Forums Top
I just bought this game today. I read countless reviews on how good it was. Not one review brought up the sound issue. Unfortunately, I cannot take the game back as it is already opened. Does the developer have a return policy? I'm not happy with my purchase and want a refund. I'm not getting my money's worth.
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Change the usehardware line in your user.setting to false, try it out.
Reply #13 from Sins Forums Top
Hey thanks for the tip. I saw an even larger thread on this. I turned down the hardware acceleration from full to standard. That seemed to fix the issue. :)