Crackling audio when playing steam games.

[sK]

So, I have had this issue for around a month now and I cannot find a fix for it anywhere.

I have updated every driver that I could possibly think of, tweaked all my sound settings, changed the USB port that my headset is connected to countless times.

I mainly only play Rainbow Six Siege nowadays and everytime I load up the game I immeditly just have an overwhelming amount of crackling coming through my headset. I thought it might only be in R6 but I tested a few other games and it is happening on all the steam games I tested it on.

The next step I'm about to take is just buying a new headset and seeing if that is the issue but my sound is perfectly fine while performing every other task on my PC, youtube,spotify etc.

Has anyone else had this issue or know a fix for it? any help at all would be hugely appreciated!

Current Headset: Corsair Void PRO RGB with the latest iCUE software update.
Windows 10 64 Bit - updated to the latest version and all other updates installed.

Thanks!

[Ttiki]

Try this guide and come back if it didn't help!

[sK]

Hey,

Thank you for the reply. I have come across that guide already along the way of trying to resolve this issue and I have followed all of the steps that they suggest and there sadly hasn't been any change :/

[sK]

BUMP

[sK]

Update: Still haven't found a fix for this issue. Is something anyone has experienced before?

[Machina X Flayjam]

Ive experienced it. It sucks

[-- MID ONLY --]

It is now mid-2022, and I still have this problem. Anyone already found the solution please?

[FreeFallingRN]

I'm comming acros a similar problem. I listen to music when playing my games, but when I play steam games the audio quality takes a nosedive, it goes full on digital, like it gets compressed.
Could my issue have the same cause?

[Marco, the Cool Omen]

I had the same issue start randomly last night, crackling/broken audio only for Steam games and no other apps (spotify, youtube, non-steam games all fine) with a Sound Blaster Audigy Fx

Going into Big Picture Mode (steam client beta) seems to have fixed it? I don't know how and I don't know why. I wanted to see if the audio crackling happened with steam itself so I turned on BPM and then when I launched games their audio was fine. I exited BPM and their audio was still fine. I have more questions than when I started, but audio works for now.

[vegantears]

Also experiencing this since yesterday. I can't think of anything that I changed except maybe a windows update. The TLDR is that it appears to be linked to Steam and power consumption and not the controller alone since if I lower the resolution to the lowest settings in games or else play games through Epic Games the crackle goes away. Here is the long explanation of what I'm experiencing (note: I've found no solution so far):

What I'm Experiencing: Crackling while in any game at 1080p - 4K resolution ONLY with Focusrite Controller and ONLY with Steam Games, and only some of them.

Games I've tested that do not have the crackling issue in Steam:
- Hunt Showdown
- Ready or Not
- Shadow of the Tomb Raider
- Satisfactory
- Among Us
- Squad

Games I've Tested that DO HAVE the crackling issue in Steam:
- Sekiro
- Subnautica
- Cooking Simulator
- Outer Wilds
- Phasmophobia

As you can see, it's kind of up in the air as to which games will experience it.

What Hardware I Have: NVIDIA RTX 3090, Ryzen 7950x, 64.0 GB RAM, X670 Aorus Elite AX, 1050W PSU

Windows Version: 10

What I've Tried:
- Windows Update
- Graphic Driver Update
- Focusrite Reinstall
- Computer Restart
- Changing sample rate and buffer size to max and min (nothing worked)
- Trying all different USB imports
- Unplugging and plugging in Focusrite Controller
- Plugged my headphones directly into my PC (this fixed it which localizes the issue to the controller)
- Disabling/enabling both input and output devices
- Disabling all other input and output devices
- Changing game resolution to the lowest settings (this worked but by no means a satisfactory solution)

Based on this info, it appears the issue is with power, but my PC meets the specs necessary to run games at 4k resolution at full graphics just fine, so I don't see any reason I should experience this issue with at 1080p and the power draw shouldn't be an issue since I have a 1050w PSU.

Please let me know if you find a solution and I will do the same.

[Joke]

Originally posted by vegantears:

...
What I'm Experiencing: Crackling while in any game at 1080p - 4K resolution ONLY with Focusrite Controller and ONLY with Steam Games, and only some of them.
...

If you take your audio from a Focusrite USB interface, there should be a settings app for it.
Look for a setting for "buffer size", and change it to a bigger buffer.
You will have to experiment to find the smallest buffer size that has no crackling.

[Zav]

Same problem here, its been 3 days...

[gamelatchkr]

i hate it

[gamelatchkr]

its not your headphones only

[Sora_Slimecat]

Originally posted by AMONG US:

its not your headphones only

I'm having this issue but only with one pair of bluetooth headphones, my noise cancelling ones. I have no idea what's causing it. works fine with my wired speakers and cheaper jogging bluetooth earbuds but the minute i connect the more expensive headset the audio loses it and crackles on and off very quickly.

[chuitskat]

I have this problem but only on the second computer I install the game on. The computer I originally installed them on works fine. I switch between the two often and it works regardless of which one is the 1st computer I install it on. The only way to fix it is to restart the game which is really annoying because it starts up again after a few minutes. :(