MAME (2014) Audio Static (Can't seem to fix it... help)

RetroArch Windows devices
#1

So I am running the 32bit build of RetroArch using the MAME (2014) and I’m getting a lot of static/crackle in various games (Street Fighter 3 and Samurai Shodown as just two examples).

I’m running Windows 7, with a Turtle Beach Montego DDL PCI Audio Card, and an ATI Radeon HD 4800 PCI Express Video Card.

I have tried changing (in various combinations):

Audio Sync Audio Latency Audio Rate Control Delta Audio Maximum Timing Skew Frame Throttle VSync Hard GPU Sync

Nothing seems help. This does not seem to be an issue with some games, and other cores do not seem to have this issue…

Does anyone have any advice?

#2

That usually indicates a drop in framerate below 60 fps. Are you running any shaders? If you look into your process monitor, are any of your CPU cores maxed?

#3

Looks like my TV’s estimated refresh rate is around 59.2 (as shown by RetroArch), which it roughly the FPS I am getting… is there a way to boost that to a solid 60?

I’m currently not using any video filters, I tested the same games under the standalone MAME 0.171 32bit executable, and everything sounds fine there.

  • Update - Turning on Threaded Video got me a solid 60FPS, but it didn’t fix the sound issue.
#4

Ah, ok, I would leave off threaded video and stick with regular vsync but then go into settings > audio and increase audio max timing skew until the crackles (hopefully) go away.

#5

I maxed out skew to 0.50, which helped only a little. Then bypassed the max by modifying the config directly to 1.0 which really didn’t change anything.

I guess I’m going to poke around for a new sound card, as this Turtle Beach one is a bit old. But like I said, every works 100% in the standalone MAME executable.

#6

I seem to recall a similar problem when I first started with retroarch. I got it when I used the bsnes, mednafen, and mame cores. What helped me was changing the audio driver in Settings > Driver. Though, my retroarch installation is on linux, not windows, so I am not sure this will help.

#7

Well I got another sound card (Asus Xonar DGX), but it had the same issue so I don’t think it’s the cards… I did attempt other drivers (dsound and sdl2) but they all just generated awful high pitched noises, xaudio was the only one that game me proper sound. This is very odd… is there any way to drop the audio rate below 48000 and get sound? I changed the config to 44100, but once again just got noise.

#8

What CPU do you have? Sounds like you’re dropping frames. Enable FPS in the video setting and see what frame rate you’re getting.

#9

Go try 64bit retroarch.

#10

Unfortunately this is a 32bit system, so RetroArch 64bit is out of the question.

My system specs are as follows:

Operating System Windows 7 Professional 32-bit SP1 CPU Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 @ 3.00GHz
Conroe 65nm Technology RAM 2.00GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 400MHz (5-5-5-18) Motherboard ASUSTeK Computer INC. P5E-VM HDMI (LGA775)
Graphics HT-R680 (1920x1080@60Hz) 1024MB ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series (Sapphire/PCPartner) Storage 3726GB Western Digital WDC WD4003FZEX-00Z4SA0 ATA Device (SATA)
223GB KINGSTON SHSS37A240G ATA Device (SSD)
Audio Turtle Beach Montego DDL Wave

Any further advice would be much appreciated. I still don’t understand why neither direct sound nor sdl2 fail to work at all… I know SDL audio works with other SDL games…

I’m getting a solid 60 FPS while playing games using the MAME 2014 core… so I doubt this is related to dropped frames.

#11

Just noticed RetroArch 1.3.2 was released a few days ago… looks like xaudio is still generated some crackling and static, but SDL2 audio works now! And low and behold the audio is perfect… of course SDL2 video still causes a crash… but hey, I’ll take what I can get. :slight_smile:

#12

Oh nice. No reason to switch to SDL2 video if you’re already doing fine with (open)gl.