Can anything be done to stop the crackling audio?

[Timo4545]

It's literally making the game unplayable for me. I heard it was an issue with fullscreen but even windowed it crackles like hell.

[Ghiron]

There's a crackling campfire in the soundtrack. Is it that, or is it audio cutting out?

[Timo4545]

No, it's general popping and crackling. Like when you have a headset but the cable's not in all the way, or when there's dust or something in your headset earpads.

It does seem to be tied to the music and ambience though, but it's not actually a part of the song / ambient tracks, like a campfire sound would be.

I don't want to have to mute the game entirely just to play it.

[Timo4545]

Oh it's making audio outside the game crackle like hell too. Which immediately disappears when I close the game.

[db48x]

Sounds like a problem that not many people are experiencing. It certainly isn’t happening on my computer.

[Timo4545]

It seems to start crackling once I hit maximize on my window.

[Thom293]

I'm 99% sure this isn't related to the game. Something to do with your system.

[Timo4545]

It's only dwarf fortress that causes the crackling audio, if it were my system it wouldn't be tied to the game running and having been maximized.

[Mute]

winkey + r -> mmsys.cpl -> double click your speakers -> advanced -> make sure it isn't above 16 bit/48kHz (try 44.1kHz as well if that doesn't work)

[db48x]

Originally posted by Timo4545:

It's only dwarf fortress that causes the crackling audio, if it were my system it wouldn't be tied to the game running and having been maximized.

It can easily be both. Perhaps no other game you own is exercising your system in quite the same way that Dwarf Fortress is. What is your CPU usage while Dwarf Fortress is running? How many cores does your CPU have?

[Kermit the Frag]

I have the same issue! Strange part is that when I minimise the game to tray I can still hear the music, but it clears up instantly. When I maximise it back, the crackling comes back as well.

[Jetrel]

Turn the music off and play the soundtrack in youtube. :3 Its what I do to listen to the better songs. Drink and industry on repeat lol.

[Timo4545]

Originally posted by Jetrel:

Turn the music off and play the soundtrack in youtube. :3 Its what I do to listen to the better songs. Drink and industry on repeat lol.

It somehow makes other audio crackle too, I tried turning off the music in game and listening to videos too. It's crazy

[Los.Injurus.Bob.Blunderton]

Originally posted by Timo4545:

It's only dwarf fortress that causes the crackling audio, if it were my system it wouldn't be tied to the game running and having been maximized.

That's because your CPU is getting pinned to the wall and beat-down by this bully of a game.
Your onboard audio is processed by the CPU (also, this is ALL audio pretty much, as hardware audio hasn't been supported since Windows XP, due to DRM on movies mostly).
If the audio from the game is not processed fast enough, it will drop out which is heard by audible clicks and pops because the samples it's getting do not start nor end at 0 db (silence). So, if processing a stream of audio (from a game, movie, internet) is interrupted, this will be heard most often as audible clicks and pops even if sound drops for a mere few bits-worth of data.
So the game is taking priority over your audio processing. This can be avoided by:
*Muting the audio so you don't hear it. Put on a movie or something, but if it's still doing this system-wide while the game is running, you'd be up the creek without a paddle so-to-speak.
*Setting the game to low/lowest priority in task manager. It might run a little slower but that should put it below the audio processes on the CPU.
*You can try making sure you have the newest audio driver installed, but I doubt that'll fix it.
*Get a new computer or upgrade your processor to one with more cores.
Intel-based computers aren't as upgradeable as AMD-based computers, but if you have a dual-core or quad-core intel chip, it's likely you can get something a bit better for much less than replacing the whole computer. You would need to make sure your BIOS is up to date, and that your motherboard and the processor cooling solution can both handle the new chip.
If you aren't experienced with CPU upgrades, keep in mind they involve working around a lot of tiny little pins (in the socket, or sometimes on the chip itself on AMD AM4 systems), so it's often best to have a professional do this. It's super-easy to mess up the socket pins on intel sockets and AM5 (not AM4) sockets on the motherboard, even if you drop the chip into it by only the width of a finger, so you must be super-duper careful there. Otherwise you risk a no-boot or a boot with only half your memory channels working, cold-boot bugs, or 'strange crashing' randomly under load.

[Kermit the Frag]

Just an update, none of the tips here helped. Andmy CPU is running at 1% load in the menu and the audio is still popping. When I minimise the window to tray the audio is cleared up. When I try to change the audio from the speakers to the monitor integrated speakers it is clear again, so it is somehow connected to the on board audio vs the display port audio. Though I'm not sure how that is possible.

[Kermit the Frag]

I found a solution. Setting the sound quality to 24bit 192000Hz in Control panel/Sound/(select your sound device from the list) -> Properties -> Advanced. In any other setting, the crackling will happen.