Severe audio issues on WIRED headphones

[Lexinad]

First of all, my specs are:

Windows 11 Pro
GPU: RX 6800
CPU: Ryzen 5 7600X
32gb of ram
SSD: Samsung Pro 980

All drivers up to date.

I want to clarify this issue is NOT related to bluetooth as many have suggested online:

I bought the game today and can't get to play it with how severe the audio issues are. To be perfectly clear, I do NOT use wireless or bluetooth headphones. I say this because I've been reading all day about Handsfree Telephony and Bluetooth Audio Gateway service as the main cause of audio problems. However these things are only relevant to bluetooth headphones users, so it can't be why my audio is so distorted.

My audio problems are as follows:

- No problems in the first 5 seconds or so, and as soon as i see my spaceship, some slight but noticeable audio crackling can be heard.
- When my character exits the pod, more glitchy sounds can be heard.
- Quickly, either all audio ceases, or these clipping sounds get louder and louder until all sound is muted.
- Unless I mute the game in Windows audio mixer, these issues persist. That is, even if I turn the ingame master volume all the way to 0, the audio glitches can still be heard. To be more clear, the audio does get lower in volume, but it doesn't dissappear completely.

Now, the stuff i've tried is:

- Changing around the default output device in Windows sound settings.
- Disabling Bluetooth Audio Gateway and therefore Handsfree Telephony (tho again, this shouldn't be relevant in my particular case).
- Deactivating bluetooth itself in Windows.
- Use a virtual cable for the output device (I've heard that the game has some sort of trouble deciding which output device to use, so I guessed it was worth a shot).
- Use Process Lasso to disable hyperthreading (heard it might be the cause of audio issues).
- Manually select the game's prefered audio input/output device.
- Turn off any unnecessary applications and rebooting my pc (such as MSI Afterburner).
- Changing around the audio quality of my headphones through Windows sound settings (from 48000 Hz to 44100 Hz, for example).
- Rebooting my pc with each change made.

Of course, if it doesn't make a difference, I revert any changes.
My headphones in any other application and Windows itself work perfectly fine.
As it stands, these issues render the game unplayable for me. Unless an update fixes these issues, I might have to refund this game, and i really don't want to.

[Dankems]

Same problem with wired headphones, really hoping for a fix here...

[Pacda]

Many audio problem for me the sound cut off one or two seconde every 2 or 3 minutes and at this moment i was unable to speak with my mic during a good 30 seconds my teamate doesn t hear me its very annoying
I have a gsp 670 seinheiser

[Lexinad]

Forgot to mention, tried two more things:

- Used speakers to see if the issue could be reproduced, and it did, with no difference at all from my headphones.
- Tried sharing my screen with a friend to see if they could hear the same glitchy sounds, and they could.

All of this indicates to me that it is 100% a game issue, not a hardware one

Originally posted by Lexinad:

First of all, my specs are:

Windows 11 Pro
GPU: RX 6800
CPU: Ryzen 5 7600X
32gb of ram
SSD: Samsung Pro 980

All drivers up to date.

I want to clarify this issue is NOT related to bluetooth as many have suggested online:

I bought the game today and can't get to play it with how severe the audio issues are. To be perfectly clear, I do NOT use wireless or bluetooth headphones. I say this because I've been reading all day about Handsfree Telephony and Bluetooth Audio Gateway service as the main cause of audio problems. However these things are only relevant to bluetooth headphones users, so it can't be why my audio is so distorted.

My audio problems are as follows:

- No problems in the first 5 seconds or so, and as soon as i see my spaceship, some slight but noticeable audio crackling can be heard.
- When my character exits the pod, more glitchy sounds can be heard.
- Quickly, either all audio ceases, or these clipping sounds get louder and louder until all sound is muted.
- Unless I mute the game in Windows audio mixer, these issues persist. That is, even if I turn the ingame master volume all the way to 0, the audio glitches can still be heard. To be more clear, the audio does get lower in volume, but it doesn't dissappear completely.

Now, the stuff i've tried is:

- Changing around the default output device in Windows sound settings.
- Disabling Bluetooth Audio Gateway and therefore Handsfree Telephony (tho again, this shouldn't be relevant in my particular case).
- Deactivating bluetooth itself in Windows.
- Use a virtual cable for the output device (I've heard that the game has some sort of trouble deciding which output device to use, so I guessed it was worth a shot).
- Use Process Lasso to disable hyperthreading (heard it might be the cause of audio issues).
- Manually select the game's prefered audio input/output device.
- Turn off any unnecessary applications and rebooting my pc (such as MSI Afterburner).
- Changing around the audio quality of my headphones through Windows sound settings (from 48000 Hz to 44100 Hz, for example).
- Rebooting my pc with each change made.

Of course, if it doesn't make a difference, I revert any changes.
My headphones in any other application and Windows itself work perfectly fine.
As it stands, these issues render the game unplayable for me. Unless an update fixes these issues, I might have to refund this game, and i really don't want to.

[BigAl]

Exactly the same issues, audio starts fine but once you start getting multiple sound sources it just breaks up into crackling.

Windows 11 Home
GPU: RTX 3600
CPU: Ryzen 7 6800H
16gb of ram
Headphones connected to laptop's 3.5mm jack, no bluetooth audio devices connected and bluetooth disabled systemwide.

Game is completely unplayable with this much audio distortion

[Rejex]

Running into something that sounds vaguely similar, however I am not getting distortion

I get NO AUDIO aside from in-game voice chat...

Nothing I have tried is working

[Heinz]

It's not consistent, but I too have audio issues. On top of the crackling that others have reported in sessions the music plays fine, VOIP via Discord plays fine (so it's not the headphones), but the SFX cut in and out for short periods to a few seconds. I've seen entire orbitals impact in silence.

Sometimes restarting the game helps, sometimes it doesn't.

[HookShot Drew]

I've tried everything you've listed as well as voicemeeter to try to force the game to use the forcusrite audio drivers since I thought my USB audio receiver was the culprit.. This game is a buggy mess lol

[Bob the Boomer]

Try downloading - https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/download/details.aspx?id=8109

DirectX Redist (June 2010)

The Microsoft DirectX® End-User Runtime installs a number of runtime libraries from the legacy DirectX SDK for some games that use D3DX9, D3DX10, D3DX11, XAudio 2.7, XInput 1.3, XACT, and/or Managed DirectX 1.1. Note that this package does not modify the DirectX Runtime installed on your Windows OS in any way.

[Bob the Boomer]

Did the above help?

[HookShot Drew]

nope

[Lexinad]

Originally posted by Hell Diver 2.1:

Did the above help?

Sadly no

[Bob the Boomer]

Sorry I am out of ideas then, maybe someone else can look around reddit for a solution or youtube for now, very vexing issue

[Pacda]

for me since the first patch all my audio problems are gone!

[HookShot Drew]

to the OP with this issue, after nearly pulling my hair out for weeks trying to fix this, I finally fixed it. In my case, it was my Scarlett Solo by Focusrite audio receiver that was causing the glitching. I uninstalled the software and reinstalled it, restarting my computer. Now the game runs at 70+ FPS on the highest settings and I don't get the crackling audio that would eventually crash the game and cause me to play at 15-20 FPS. It may not work for you but give it a shot if you have audio software like an Audio receiver

[FliXis]

4080
13700k
64gb DDR5
nvme
win11

I also sometimes have a crackling sound and the sound also disappears for a few seconds