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Question

Crackling audio

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
September 4, 2021
19 replies
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I am a voice actor with an in home studio. I have used zoom for over 2 years for video meeting and such with no sound issues at all. All of a sudden about a month ago, I've started having crackling audio coming through when in zoom meetings. It only happens through zoom, all other audio sounds perfect.

I'm on 64 bit Windows 10 using a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 audio interface.

I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling zoom as well as my audio drivers and the drivers for the interface.

Any ideas on what might be causing it and how to fix?

Thank you!

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DrDK

Newcomer

BRILLIANT! My buffer was at 1024, bumped it down to 512 and it sounds just fine! Easy-peasy.

Thanks so much! ;^)

V

Vismyteacher

Newcomer

Pls, how to do it on MacBook ?

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Djumpax

Newcomer

Hi. I'm an audio engineer and I do podcast editing and post-production. I noticed the same problem months ago on zoom audio recordings that I usually receive from my clients almost every day. After some research I can conclude this crackle sound has nothing to do with equipment, sound interface, computer or audio settings (it's a BS). It's a generic digital fast-clicking sound which is somehow subtly added to the 3-9 khz frequency range in real time. I reviewed over a hundred different recordings, from different people with different equipment from different parts of the world. *Crackling was always the same* That says a lot about this problem. This leads to only one conclusion - it's caused while live recordings over zoom. Since it's a frequency range that requires corrections very often, crackling sound becomes even more expressive. None of the denoising software I own can painlessly remove it, so I'm forced to remove it manually. The reason for this issue may very likely be an error or a bug in the backend audio code on zoom service - or it was done intentionally. Why? I still don't have a meaningful answer. It could also be caused by a global digital glitch or something. That's already a conspiracy theory. Thanks, V.

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DrDK1

Newcomer

Bumping buffer to 512 fixed it.

V

Vismyteacher

Newcomer

How to do so on MacBook? Pls

A

anzori88

Newcomer

Hi all,

I have same issue. I do not use any specific software or hardware. I'm just using Zoom for my work meetings and whenever screen is shared by my or someone else the crackling sound is there and for me it's almost impossible to attend/lead the meetings. Drivers are up to date, Zoom too. I tried all possible options from Zoom's audio settings but nothing helped. 🙄

Any ideas? Any solutions? Any plans from Zoom team for the next update? It's this way for couple months already (for me).

T

TLC_23

Newcomer

hello - any luck correcting this. I've been having this issue for over a year and as i head into the autumn and winter months i do more virtual course with important audio recordings shared after. i'd love to hear if if sound a way to correct this? Thank you!

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PatMay

Newcomer

I have done all the things as stated above. It still happens but not all the time. Drives me mad but no solution still

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SilverRose

Newcomer

I have had this problem for MONTHS!!! What can we do PLEASE?!? The computer is connected with a projector. Does that have anything to do with it?

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ianprawira

Newcomer

I'm having issues with current Zoom audio. It's crackling whenever someone speaks. This is not device specific because the crackling issue still persist even though I am using Bluetooth headphone or cable headphone.

I am using Asus Vivobook M1403QA
This is really annoying, can anyone help?

I

ianprawira

Newcomer

Hey I found the solution to this. As I expected, the issue comes from the latest Zoom App. So we need to use Zoom web (using Chrome).

I found the steps from this post: https://devforum.zoom.us/t/launch-zoom-client-from-browser-without-redirect/9304/2

This is quoting from linked post:

You can use our Web Client as the join_url without leaving the website by replacing /j/ with /wc/.
https://zoom.us/wc/{meetingID}/join 218.
If you like to join with having the user type in their names you can base64 their names at the end of the url.
https://zoom.us/wc/{meetingID}/join?prefer=1&un={base64-firstname-lastname}

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geetalisaikia

Newcomer

Same here. Please guide me if you've been able to fix the issue.

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PatMay

Newcomer

Hi - changed sound settings to this

No more crackels!

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geetalisaikia

Newcomer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6AxOBDYJqw

I followed the steps and the problem has vanished.

S

sophiedean90

Newcomer

You might have solved this now, but for anyone else with this problem using a mic with a focusrite on Windows I have found a solution that works for me. For some reason my computer changed the focusrite to 8 channels instead of two. I went to hardware and sound in control panel, then change system sounds, clicked on the focusrite and under advanced you can choose how many channels it is using, change it from 8 to 2, then I made sure my buffer size in my DAW was 256 and the same on the focusrite in the system tray and the crackling disappeared!

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dgnats

Newcomer

Has anyone tried using a different browser? I noticed the same annoying crackling using Microsoft EDGE, but not Firefox...