We're having the same problem, it's hurting production bad. We have had to roll back to 2.0 for now.

Easy to reproduce: Get any audio in the flow, then link it with a audio out.

Hi,

The crackling sound is likely caused by an Audio Player module and not by the Audio Output.
To fix it, you should set each Audio Player's module Buffer Max pin to at least 6:

Note, you can search for Audio Player modules using the Find Module option: https://aximmetry.com/learn/virtual-production-workflow/preparation-of-the-production-environment-phase-i/scripting-in-aximmetry/flow-editor/module/#find-module 

Warmest regards,

Hi,

It didn't solve the problem for me... I also tried with higher values. :(

Hi Matthiew78,

Do you have crackling audio on playback (Audio Player module)? And does it also happen with audio input devices? You can use the Audio Input module to access for example a microphone device's audio.

Sadly, there is more than one issue with the audio since the input and output timing system was revamped in the Aximmetry version 2023.2.0.

Warmest regards,

Hi there.

We finally upgraded from 2023.1.0 to 2023.2.2, since we desperately need to implement stuff like 3D Cleanplate.
Also the six-hour 1-second-audio-delay is said to be fixed in newer versions.
We even managed to clean up our Unreal scene, to avoid that well-known 'GPU Load goes through the roof' issue.

We're having severe Audio Problems though as already described in this thread (crackling audio).
Since we're using quite a few sound effects in our setup, this is how I set up all audioplayers for now:

Larger Buffer Max values (like 20 or even 40) bring GPU/CPU Load up considerably.

However, even with those values the problem still persists and we're considering to roll back to 2023.1.0 again.
(Which normally means a  solid day of frustrating work to get everything up and running again....)

So here we go with a few questions....
- Is there any setting in the AudioPlayer we should change for better performance?

- What is the 'Allow Audio Stretch' good for? No matter if it's on or off, the crackling does not change.

- Is there any 'preferred' or 'internal' audio sampling rate in Axy?
So far I resampled all our Audio (mp3) to 48kHz, Stereo, 192kBit, but maybe there's a different resolution Axy is more happy with?
Or maybe even convert everything to WAV?

We're on a Dante Network, using DVS on our Windows machines. DVS is set to WDM mode, as ASIO does not seem to work with Axy?
(And many other things)

*Any* tip or trick is highly appreciated, as we really want to go with the newer Versions of Axy!
(Pretty please!....:-))

Cheers & all the best.

Eric.

Also.... what is the Unit in Buffer Min/Max?
Samples? Frames? Milliseconds?

As a side note....

Even when we disable Dante entirely
and the *only* Audio Device is the computers' headphones out
and we add only a single clip to a brand new compound......
the crackling occurs

Aaaand another side note.
I cleared Axys Resource Cache (just because I didn't have any other idea....)
It's expected, that Axy has to re-compile the shaders.
But even after three hours (and a couple of restarts of both Axy and the machine itself)
we're back to ye olde GPU Overload issue:

This (optimized) scene used to run at 50% GPU and 50% CPU before clearing the cache.... :-/

So before spending another day with reverting back to 2023.1.0,
are there any infos available when the next Axy Release is to be expected?

FWIW... Maybe we should start a ranking here for GPU usage.
I'd say that the 6200+% I've just seen right before Unreal crashed in Axy is a good starting point... :-/

Hi Eric,

If you have a really lot of Audio files, then you should not open the ones you are not using:

This is also true about the video files.
And only open them when you start or are about to start playing them.

You could also try to increase the Buffer Min. Buffers are counted in frames so they are dependent on your frame rate. Their behavior is going to change a bit in the next release, so you wouldn't need to set higher than 2 frames of buffer to achieve a stutter-free sound.

There is no preferred sampling rate or audio format. You can use any of them in Aximmetry without drawback.

Allow Audio Stretch won't affect the cracking sound. It would allow a Video Player module's audio to match the playback speed if you change the speed from 1.

You can use the /asio - command line switch to use ASIO audio input devices instead of DirectX ones: https://aximmetry.com/learn/virtual-production-workflow/preparation-of-the-production-environment-phase-i/scripting-in-aximmetry/command-line-switches/
This only applies to the audio input, we have on our request list to make it work for output too.

In the case of the performance issue after clearing the cache, it could help a lot if you could copy-paste the log from Aximmetry after that. So for example we would know if it stuck at caching something. And does it happen with scenes rendered by Aximmetry, like the Studio: Demo Sets?
You can also try clearing the cache again when it happens.

Warmest regards,

Hi,

If the problem with the audio quality persists, can you share 1-2 audio files that have this kind of problem?

Warmest regards,

@TwentyStudios I was referring to this post: https://my.aximmetry.com/post/3138-202321-skyrockets-gpu-usage
and unfortunately we haven't been able to fix it yet. Still running 2023.1.0 but will try another attempt later this year :-)

@Eifert when you say And only open them when you start or are about to start playing them.  that means I have to add an extra logical to open them before playback? Or will triggering Playback automagically open the file?

Cheers & thanks for clarifications.

Eric.

@Eifert unfortunately the problem does not occur with any specific audio file (in that case it would be wayyyy tooo easy to fix... :-)).
It occurs sporadically and I found a nasty hackaround for now.
Basically 'resetting' the main AudioOut module by switching it's outputs back and forth.

Maybe even Dante is the culprit. We're investigating :-)

Hi,

If the Audio Player module's Playing State pin is set to Playing, then you only need to Open it to start playing it, you don't need to trigger the Play pin.
But you should only do this if your compound has hundreds of Audio Player modules and it is affecting the performance.

You could do the following to see if the problem is inside Aximmetry or not.
You set two Audio Out modules to different devices. And your turn Open off and on in the one that is being received by Dante. If that fixes the sound in Dante, then it is likely the problem is outside of Aximmetry:

You should have reported the GPU load separately. The issue presented in this post no longer happens: https://my.aximmetry.com/post/3138-202321-skyrockets-gpu-usage
Resetting the settings like in my previous post could also fix your GPU issue in some cases.

Warmest regards,

I have the same issue with 2023.2.2 Any type of media playback that has audio combined with a audio input in the compound causes the crackling.

Two images of compounds that crackle. This is incredibly frustrating. 

@magician

Exactly the same over here!

A little update:

After some trial & error we apparently figured out a solution.
Setting the 'Input Extra Delay' in Prefs -> Video Input to 2 (instead of the default 0.7) seems to fix the issue...

Hi,

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We're aware of the audio issues, particularly when there's an open Audio Input module. Rest assured, our team is diligently working on it.

In the meantime, we suggest the following workaround, which may help mitigate the issue: https://my.aximmetry.com/post/3610-audio-crackling-issue-fixed

Warmest regards,

Hi,

We are thrilled to inform you that the issue has been addressed in our most recent update, Aximmetry Version 2023.3.1, which has just been launched. With this update, you should no longer experience any crackling sound when using an open Audio Input module.

Thank you for your patience and ongoing support throughout this process. We deeply appreciate it. Should you encounter any further issues with the audio or anything else, please do not hesitate to report them. Your feedback is invaluable in helping us improve.