Forum Discussion

5 years ago

Solved

Issues with apex and using an audio interface as the audio device

Product: Apex Legends
Platform:PC
Please specify your platform model. PC
AMD or Nvidia Model Number 1080ti
Enter RAM memory size in GB 16GB
What is your gamertag/PSN ID/EA Account name? Pegatron
Please provide your squad mates' gamertag/PSN ID/EA Account name if possible.
Are you using any software with an overlay? No
Which Legend were you playing (if applicable)?
Which Legends were your squad mates using (if applicable)?
Where did the issue occur? In a match
Which part of the map or menu were you in? If you don't remember the exact name, please describe the area or what you were trying to do in the menu. Not applicable
What were you doing when the issue occurred? E.g. respawning a squad mate at a beacon, using an ability, a squad mate left the game. Happens in the lobby, but worse in the actual match
Did your squad mates also experience the issue? No
How many matches had you played in a row before the issue occurred? It’s been occurring 100% of the time since I got my new audio setup
When did this happen? (dd.mm.yy hh:mm) 26/04/21 2:00 CST
How often does the bug occur? Every time (100%)
How severe is your issue? Minor impact to gameplay
What happens when the bug occurs? Whenever I’m in the menu, my audio gets messed up in discord for my friends, getting worse in the match. I’ve been able to hear it for myself with the audio test in discord. This never happened when I used to play back in season 5 or 6, before I got my preamp (focusrite scarlet 2i2) with my condenser mic, which hasn’t had any issues with any other programs or games. Now that I’ve started playing again my mic has been crackling to completely cutting out at times, effectively making me unable to talk to my friends at times when playing.
What should be happening instead? My friends should be able to hear me as usual in all the other games we play
Steps: How can we find the bug ourselves? I’d suggest plugging a scarlet 2i2 into a pc, using it as your main audio device for your headphones and mic, setting it up as those for discord and windows, and attempt to talk to someone in the lobby and in game to replicate.

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Crackling to cutting out of mic in discord only while playing the game since I got my new preamp and condenser mic. Doesn’t happen in any other games or programs I’ve tried or used. Happens in the lobby to an extent, but worse in game.

wolf109909
5 years ago
@BigBoiPeggers Hi! I found many people with scarlet audio interfaces have similar issues. this could be how scarlet interface drivers manage latency by setting the default buffer size too low. I've found multiple posts on other forums including discord official ones, that many scarlet users experience with mic crackling. Try to fix this by going to Focusrite settings, which is the driver for your interface, set input buffer size higher, until the pops and cracks in the discord audio test disappear.

49 Replies

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EA_Kent
Community Manager
5 years ago
@BigBoiPeggers

Does this also happen if you remove the preamp and just use the condenser mic?

/Kent
BigBoiPeggers
5 years ago
I’m unable to use this mic without the preamp as it requires higher voltage than usb, but using an old usb mic I have does not have the issue present
EA_Kent
Community Manager
5 years ago
@BigBoiPeggers

Got it, thanks!

Are you only hearing the issues in Discord? If you use in-game voice chat does the same thing happen?

/Kent
BigBoiPeggers
5 years ago
Yes, the issue persists in the in game chat as well
wolf109909
5 years ago
@BigBoiPeggers Hi! I found many people with scarlet audio interfaces have similar issues. this could be how scarlet interface drivers manage latency by setting the default buffer size too low. I've found multiple posts on other forums including discord official ones, that many scarlet users experience with mic crackling. Try to fix this by going to Focusrite settings, which is the driver for your interface, set input buffer size higher, until the pops and cracks in the discord audio test disappear.
wolf109909
5 years ago
Adding on to this, if changing buffer size works, we should make a post for all Focusrite scarlet audio interface users that apex may have updated to eat more audio processing power. which they add up according to how many applications are generating audio events to the driver. for example in ASIO drivers with any DAW opened, one track of any software instrument VST under buffer size 32 should be okay with no crackling and popping. but 5 of them will definitely make it pop and crack. just turn your buffer size to a reasonable place covering all your audio needs and with the lowest latency. (buffer sizes directly influence audio latency.)
BigBoiPeggers
5 years ago
Oddly enough, this apparently just hadn’t caused any issues for me with anything else through blind luck or something, so I just didn’t even consider that could be a problem, but as it turns out this entirely fixed it, thanks for the tip lol
wolf109909
5 years ago
@BigBoiPeggers gotcha! I suffered from audio popping and crackling before, although not really in-game but WASAPI thing from my operating system. I tried every possible solution but it's still broken now unfortunately XD
EA_Kent
Community Manager
5 years ago
@wolf109909

Thanks a lot for sharing this! That's really good info to know. 👍

/Kent
BlockishBore
5 years ago
Hi, I came here to see if I could find any info on how to fix the same issue. I tried to decrease and increase the buffering size but I still have some crackling/robot noise problems when I boot up apex and have discord open while in a call. Any other things you would recommend to fix this? Wanted to point out I have played this game in the past and never have had this issue come up.