CS2 Mic Crackling sound

[♡♥⛧🩷⚝✨☆|Kitsune|ᓚᘏᗢ|☆✨⚝🩷⛧♥♡]

So like, i have my voice_loopback command set to true. When I talk, The voice sounds like its crackling / distorted, robotic ish. But it works well on discord and whatnot. Also , a few people whom i hear, i hear that their voices are crackling too. Now, I update my drivers every now and then, my headphone/mic device is new too. Used to work well in csgo but maybe its a cs2 issue. Any idea how to fix it?

[Paveツ]

I have same issue.. Following

[bleh]

have same issue $300 xlr mic and i sound like a drive through with bluetooth issues

[Paveツ]

I found solution. Go windows voice settings and lower the mic quality to cd quality. Helped me :)

[♡♥⛧🩷⚝✨☆|Kitsune|ᓚᘏᗢ|☆✨⚝🩷⛧♥♡]

Originally posted by Paveツ:

I found solution. Go windows voice settings and lower the mic quality to cd quality. Helped me :)

ayee You're a lifesaver hehe♥ This worked for me as well...though whenever i restart cs, it starts to distort again. Then i have to go to sounds > voice settings > recording> choose my mic, right click on it and then check or uncheck the (give exclusive priority to applications) option then it works again hehe

[Paveツ]

Amazing :)

[Grant]

Originally posted by Paveツ:

I found solution. Go windows voice settings and lower the mic quality to cd quality. Helped me :)

This did not help

[Dreshikage Kira]

Originally posted by Paveツ:

I found solution. Go windows voice settings and lower the mic quality to cd quality. Helped me :)

I have been searching for a solution for years and this worked beautifully. You must be heaven sent my man. Thank you!

[Steven]

TL;DR; : YT channel "Kamikaze DAN" has a video called "How to fix Voicemeeter microphone crackling in Discord" which provided a fix for me with my Focusrite.

I've tried multiple solutions for this issue and I've tested most of them for days.

My testing mainly included 3 different ways of testing:
All of them starts with an Aida 64 stress test to put the PC under load
Start CS2 with any workshop map -> use command voice_loopback 1 -> Check the mic
Start Discord -> use listen back option under device settings -> Check the mic
Windows sound control panel -> Listen -> Listen to this device enable -> Apply -> Check the mic

Probably due to all of these programs using different compression algorythms the results were different. Usually CS2 was the only problematic application.

Changing the Sample Rate to 44100 and the buffer size to 256 and restarting the game only worked as a temporary fix.

Changing the smd_mixahead value did not improve the situation. -> current value is the default (0.001000)

Changing the audiodg.exe seemed to fix this issue permanently.

If u would like to experiment with these:
Task Manager -> Details tab ->
audiodg.exe -> right click -> Set Priority -> High
audiodg.exe -> right click -> Set Affinity-> CPU 0


My current setup is the following:
audiodg.exe:
Processor Affinity -> CPU 0
Process Prioirty -> High


Device: Focusrite Scarlett third gen
Driver version: 4.119.13
Firmware: 1605
Sample Rate: 48000 (default)
Buffer Size: 192 (default)
Under Latency Information Safe Mode: Enabled (default)


Using taskschd.msc:
I have a scheduled powershell script which executes up on logging in and it sets the Processor Affinity & the Process Prioirty.
Using regedit:
I have the Process priority forced to High.

Hope this helps.
If you have any suggestions/ questions feel free to let me know.

[♡♥⛧🩷⚝✨☆|Kitsune|ᓚᘏᗢ|☆✨⚝🩷⛧♥♡]

Originally posted by parasztragu:

TL;DR; : YT channel "Kamikaze DAN" has a video called "How to fix Voicemeeter microphone crackling in Discord" which provided a fix for me with my Focusrite.

I've tried multiple solutions for this issue and I've tested most of them for days.

My testing mainly included 3 different ways of testing:
All of them starts with an Aida 64 stress test to put the PC under load
Start CS2 with any workshop map -> use command voice_loopback 1 -> Check the mic
Start Discord -> use listen back option under device settings -> Check the mic
Windows sound control panel -> Listen -> Listen to this device enable -> Apply -> Check the mic

Probably due to all of these programs using different compression algorythms the results were different. Usually CS2 was the only problematic application.

Changing the Sample Rate to 44100 and the buffer size to 256 and restarting the game only worked as a temporary fix.

Changing the smd_mixahead value did not improve the situation. -> current value is the default (0.001000)

Changing the audiodg.exe seemed to fix this issue permanently.

If u would like to experiment with these:
Task Manager -> Details tab ->
audiodg.exe -> right click -> Set Priority -> High
audiodg.exe -> right click -> Set Affinity-> CPU 0


My current setup is the following:
audiodg.exe:
Processor Affinity -> CPU 0
Process Prioirty -> High


Device: Focusrite Scarlett third gen
Driver version: 4.119.13
Firmware: 1605
Sample Rate: 48000 (default)
Buffer Size: 192 (default)
Under Latency Information Safe Mode: Enabled (default)


Using taskschd.msc:
I have a scheduled powershell script which executes up on logging in and it sets the Processor Affinity & the Process Prioirty.
Using regedit:
I have the Process priority forced to High.

Hope this helps.
If you have any suggestions/ questions feel free to let me know.

Changing the process priority by tinering around with audiodg.exe definitely seems to work :3
affinity to 0 and priority to high~ Thank you so much!

[H3mPp4X]

Originally posted by ᲼♥⚝✨☆CharmCaster|Kimiko|ᓚᘏᗢ|☆✨⚝|:

Originally posted by parasztragu:

TL;DR; : YT channel "Kamikaze DAN" has a video called "How to fix Voicemeeter microphone crackling in Discord" which provided a fix for me with my Focusrite.

I've tried multiple solutions for this issue and I've tested most of them for days.

My testing mainly included 3 different ways of testing:
All of them starts with an Aida 64 stress test to put the PC under load
Start CS2 with any workshop map -> use command voice_loopback 1 -> Check the mic
Start Discord -> use listen back option under device settings -> Check the mic
Windows sound control panel -> Listen -> Listen to this device enable -> Apply -> Check the mic

Probably due to all of these programs using different compression algorythms the results were different. Usually CS2 was the only problematic application.

Changing the Sample Rate to 44100 and the buffer size to 256 and restarting the game only worked as a temporary fix.

Changing the smd_mixahead value did not improve the situation. -> current value is the default (0.001000)

Changing the audiodg.exe seemed to fix this issue permanently.

If u would like to experiment with these:
Task Manager -> Details tab ->
audiodg.exe -> right click -> Set Priority -> High
audiodg.exe -> right click -> Set Affinity-> CPU 0


My current setup is the following:
audiodg.exe:
Processor Affinity -> CPU 0
Process Prioirty -> High


Device: Focusrite Scarlett third gen
Driver version: 4.119.13
Firmware: 1605
Sample Rate: 48000 (default)
Buffer Size: 192 (default)
Under Latency Information Safe Mode: Enabled (default)


Using taskschd.msc:
I have a scheduled powershell script which executes up on logging in and it sets the Processor Affinity & the Process Prioirty.
Using regedit:
I have the Process priority forced to High.

Hope this helps.
If you have any suggestions/ questions feel free to let me know.

Changing the process priority by tinering around with audiodg.exe definitely seems to work :3
affinity to 0 and priority to high~ Thank you so much!

Still doing the same with focusrite scarlet works 10min and then its back....

[Steven]

Originally posted by H3mPp4X:

Originally posted by ᲼♥⚝✨☆CharmCaster|Kimiko|ᓚᘏᗢ|☆✨⚝|:

Changing the process priority by tinering around with audiodg.exe definitely seems to work :3
affinity to 0 and priority to high~ Thank you so much!

Still doing the same with focusrite scarlet works 10min and then its back....

Restarting/Logging out/Sleeping the PC resets the affinity and the priority settings, that is why I have a scheduled task which sets it automatically.

Changing the audio device from default to focusrite (even if the default is technically the focusrite) seems to "remove the crackling"/"update the status of it".

I'd recommend increasing the Buffer size to 256 or above and/or lowering the sample rate to 44100. (changing the sample rate requires you to restart CS2)

To monitor your issue during a game, just use voice_loopback 1 from the console to hear yourself.

Using the fix I mentioned before resolved the issue for me. I don't get it why we have to dive this deep just to have a microphone work properly in a game with one of the most sold interfaces...

This issue is annoying and with my computer it only seems to be an issue with CS2.
No other programs have audio issues like this for me, also the audio quality sounds horrible compared to any other modern games...
#ValvePleaseFix

[98]

Originally posted by parasztragu:

Originally posted by H3mPp4X:

Still doing the same with focusrite scarlet works 10min and then its back....

Restarting/Logging out/Sleeping the PC resets the affinity and the priority settings, that is why I have a scheduled task which sets it automatically.

Changing the audio device from default to focusrite (even if the default is technically the focusrite) seems to "remove the crackling"/"update the status of it".

I'd recommend increasing the Buffer size to 256 or above and/or lowering the sample rate to 44100. (changing the sample rate requires you to restart CS2)

To monitor your issue during a game, just use voice_loopback 1 from the console to hear yourself.

Using the fix I mentioned before resolved the issue for me. I don't get it why we have to dive this deep just to have a microphone work properly in a game with one of the most sold interfaces...

This issue is annoying and with my computer it only seems to be an issue with CS2.
No other programs have audio issues like this for me, also the audio quality sounds horrible compared to any other modern games...
#ValvePleaseFix

yes i got this same problem from the latest update i hope they fix it

[slytown]

Same issue. Tried everything. I have two different microphones and both work in other programs but not CS2.

[Hexspa]

Originally posted by ᲼♥⚝✨☆CharmCaster|Kimiko|ᓚᘏᗢ|☆✨⚝|:

So like, i have my voice_loopback command set to true. When I talk, The voice sounds like its crackling / distorted, robotic ish. But it works well on discord and whatnot. Also , a few people whom i hear, i hear that their voices are crackling too. Now, I update my drivers every now and then, my headphone/mic device is new too. Used to work well in csgo but maybe its a cs2 issue. Any idea how to fix it?

Yes, RME Babyface Pro here and I get crackling in CS2. I’ve tried everything and support says they can’t help me and referred me here. Might be an ASIO conflict or other low-latency driver issue since you have a Focusrite.

[HankDazzle]

Same issue. Had to mute everyone and stop using voice because I got kind of sick of people keying up to tell me I have a dollar store microphone. Rode NTG3 shotgun mic on a MOTU 1248 (aka the dollar store setup). I am not using any kind of intermediary software device like Voicemeeter. Mid-game, you can change the mic input in the CS2 menu to something else and back and it'll work again but only for a few rounds.

My sound device works fine in everything else, including Discord while I'm still in-game. This was never an issue in CS:GO and I think it may have been introduced in a recent CS2 update.

A lot of the solutions posted are temporary band-aids that just reset the device in CS2 the same as what I described above. Don't change your samplerate to try to accomodate this as it'll return all the same and now your samplerate is set lower for no reason.

When it repros next I'll try the audiodg affinity thing -- by setting affinity to CPU 0 (if it's working) you may be getting it off an efficiency core or something? I don't know why that would work, but I'll give it a shot and update. Again it's a CS2 issue though and literally nothing else on the machine has this problem. But it's possible some Windows change created a conflict with CS2.