Sound cutting out in Bioshock 1

[Crazy6a3er]

It has been a few years since this game was released and yet 2K never fix this problem. The problem is all the sound in the game is "snap crackle pop" static and seems to skip also especially during the intense firefight and the water splashing on the ground.
Example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yih3VWTDuSg

Can anyone give me some solutions?

[Greenie]

Well i use a Creative Sound Blaster Z, and ingame i enabled EAX effects and that stopped sounds from being cut out, now i can get in a firefight with guns blazing and no sounds get muted. If you are using onboard audio like realtek then maybe EAX wont work though.

[Crazy6a3er]

Originally posted by Vicarious:

Well i use a Creative Sound Blaster Z, and ingame i enabled EAX effects and that stopped sounds from being cut out, now i can get in a firefight with guns blazing and no sounds get muted. If you are using onboard audio like realtek then maybe EAX wont work though.

Thank you so much buddy! When I was searching the audio option, the EAX couldn't be enabled and I was frustated enough how I was going to fix it until I found this:

http://forums.steamgames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1133842

F. Fixing "Stuttering Sound" when EAX is enabled (Added by: JoeB)

This generally occurs when you use an onboard/embedded sound card like SoundMAX. The problem stems from how it handles OpenAL. Without going into the technical details, the fix is as follows.

1. Install the latest version of the OpenAL drivers
2. Go to C:\Windows\System32 (or C:\Windows\SysWoW64 for x64 OS's)
3. Copy over wrap_oal.dll into the same folder where Bioshock's executable is located (steamapps\common\bioshock\Builds\Release\)
4. Rename this file openal32.dll

Now turn on EAX again and you'll be able to still experience the effects without the stuttering sound and potentially massive performance degradation.

NOTE: Also, it is worth mentioning that this fixes the issue that causes SFX to cut out. With EAX off, only a few SFX can play at the same time with onboard soundcards. This sounds absolutely horrible because SFX are always cutting eachother off (e.g. VERY noticable when the alarm is going off while the security bots are firing while splicers are screaming in the background).


Will report back after playing some hours.

[ThreeSon]

Originally posted by Crazy|6a3|er:

Originally posted by Vicarious:

Well i use a Creative Sound Blaster Z, and ingame i enabled EAX effects and that stopped sounds from being cut out, now i can get in a firefight with guns blazing and no sounds get muted. If you are using onboard audio like realtek then maybe EAX wont work though.

Thank you so much buddy! When I was searching the audio option, the EAX couldn't be enabled and I was frustated enough how I was going to fix it until I found this:

http://forums.steamgames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1133842

F. Fixing "Stuttering Sound" when EAX is enabled (Added by: JoeB)

This generally occurs when you use an onboard/embedded sound card like SoundMAX. The problem stems from how it handles OpenAL. Without going into the technical details, the fix is as follows.

1. Install the latest version of the OpenAL drivers
2. Go to C:\Windows\System32 (or C:\Windows\SysWoW64 for x64 OS's)
3. Copy over wrap_oal.dll into the same folder where Bioshock's executable is located (steamapps\common\bioshock\Builds\Release\)
4. Rename this file openal32.dll

Now turn on EAX again and you'll be able to still experience the effects without the stuttering sound and potentially massive performance degradation.

NOTE: Also, it is worth mentioning that this fixes the issue that causes SFX to cut out. With EAX off, only a few SFX can play at the same time with onboard soundcards. This sounds absolutely horrible because SFX are always cutting eachother off (e.g. VERY noticable when the alarm is going off while the security bots are firing while splicers are screaming in the background).


Will report back after playing some hours.

Did this fix do the trick for you? Any more sound problems?

[Stemot]

I can confirm it worked for me with my Realtek onboard sound, took me a while to find OpenAL drivers though so here is the one I used after finsing the link on GoG.com:
http://support.focus-home.fr/oalinst.exe

[Crazy6a3er]

Sorry guys for not responding the question for such a long time. Yes I can confirm it did fix the atrocious issue. Try yourself if you have such the problem like me.

Originally posted by Stemot:

I can confirm it worked for me with my Realtek onboard sound, took me a while to find OpenAL drivers though so here is the one I used after finsing the link on GoG.com:
http://support.focus-home.fr/oalinst.exe

Thanks for providing the link!

[ThreeSon]

Originally posted by Crazy|6a3|er:

Sorry guys for not responding the question for such a long time. Yes I can confirm it did fix the atrocious issue. Try yourself if you have such the problem like me.:devilskiss:

Originally posted by Stemot:

I can confirm it worked for me with my Realtek onboard sound, took me a while to find OpenAL drivers though so here is the one I used after finsing the link on GoG.com:
http://support.focus-home.fr/oalinst.exe

Thanks for providing the link!:possession:

No problem. Thanks for the fix.

[ThreeSon]

Unfortunately after following all of the steps, I'm still getting major stuttering. Oh well.

[Solo`]

Thanks guys.. it worked for me Cheers

[Nick930]

Tried this for Bioshock 2. Did not help. Oh well, maybe someday they'll fix it. They did add controller support after 4 years

[PALADiN]

This sounds exactly like my problem with multiple concurrent sounds.
http://steamcommunity.com/app/7670/discussions/0/558754260373133936/

[argon321]

Originally posted by Crazy|6a3|er:

Originally posted by Vicarious:

Well i use a Creative Sound Blaster Z, and ingame i enabled EAX effects and that stopped sounds from being cut out, now i can get in a firefight with guns blazing and no sounds get muted. If you are using onboard audio like realtek then maybe EAX wont work though.

Thank you so much buddy! When I was searching the audio option, the EAX couldn't be enabled and I was frustated enough how I was going to fix it until I found this:

http://forums.steamgames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1133842

F. Fixing "Stuttering Sound" when EAX is enabled (Added by: JoeB)

This generally occurs when you use an onboard/embedded sound card like SoundMAX. The problem stems from how it handles OpenAL. Without going into the technical details, the fix is as follows.

1. Install the latest version of the OpenAL drivers
2. Go to C:\Windows\System32 (or C:\Windows\SysWoW64 for x64 OS's)
3. Copy over wrap_oal.dll into the same folder where Bioshock's executable is located (steamapps\common\bioshock\Builds\Release\)
4. Rename this file openal32.dll

Now turn on EAX again and you'll be able to still experience the effects without the stuttering sound and potentially massive performance degradation.

NOTE: Also, it is worth mentioning that this fixes the issue that causes SFX to cut out. With EAX off, only a few SFX can play at the same time with onboard soundcards. This sounds absolutely horrible because SFX are always cutting eachother off (e.g. VERY noticable when the alarm is going off while the security bots are firing while splicers are screaming in the background).


Will report back after playing some hours.

I had the sound stuttering issue and this fix solved it for me on a W10 pc. Just replying to thank you very much, and maybe to bump this for someone else with the same issue now in 2016.

[Nick930]

I can confirm that this does NOT fix my problems. I followed these steps exactly and then ran through Neptunes Bounty and as soon as I got up to the 3rd floor and started fighting the 2nd big daddy, the sounds starting cutting out. Some of my gunshots weren't producing sound, explosions, everything. Sounds terrible.

At first I thought the above fix had helped.. but nope... nothing. This game is completely and forever broken. I really hope this remastered version coming out this fall fixes the problem.

[unknownx2]

Windows 10 user here. 100 % FIX. Fixed allllll my stuttering. U can easily test it by scrolling through your weapons with the mousewheel. if your audio is bugy and stutters, your sound will be mute while scrolling trough your weapons. if your sound IS fixed , you will hear the constant switiching noises fluently, no matter how fast you are scrolling .

(quite a shame that 2k put no effort in delivering a nice PC port for their greatest game back in the day. No someone has to come up with the most insane way to fix the audio , by placing a DLL in the exe folder and renaming it. lol)

[Nick930]

Originally posted by finn =DD:

Windows 10 user here. 100 FIX. Fixed allllll my stuttering. U can easily test it by scrolling throug your weapons with the mousewheel. if your audio is bugy and stutters, your sound will be mute while scrolling trough your weapons. if your sound IS fixed , you will hear the constant switiching noises fluently, no matter how fast you are scrolling .

This thread has been dead for years. Wtf are you doing

[unknownx2]

Originally posted by Nick:

Originally posted by finn =DD:

Windows 10 user here. 100 FIX. Fixed allllll my stuttering. U can easily test it by scrolling throug your weapons with the mousewheel. if your audio is bugy and stutters, your sound will be mute while scrolling trough your weapons. if your sound IS fixed , you will hear the constant switiching noises fluently, no matter how fast you are scrolling .

This thread has been dead for years. Wtf are you doing

what do you mean? i report that the fix works perfectly fine today on win 10 and reporting a way to test it.