1 Topic by cjunekim (edited by cjunekim 2021-08-24 20:24:32)

  • Registered: 2021-01-17
  • Posts: 30

Topic: digiface makes distorted sound when buffer size is 256 in foobar2k

I'm not sure if this is digiface's issue or foobar2k's but just want to eliminate one of probable causes.

Could anyone confirm this issue is reproducible on your system please?

  1. Set digiface's sample rate to 44.1k or 48khz. Set its buffer size to 256.

  2. download foobar2k v1.6.7, which is the latest as of now.

  3. go to its Preferences>Playback>Output setting page and set the Device to "Primary Sound Driver [exclusive]" (make sure your digiface's WDM device is set as default playback device in your windows)

  4. load any music with the matched sample rate (if you are set to 44.1khz, you should load a song with 44.1khz, and otherwise it will show errors)

  5. play it(whether to headphone or ADAT) and see if you can hear serious distortion

Now, stop playing. Close foobar2k and change digiface's buffer size to something else. 128, for example. Run foobar2k again and load the same song and play. I don't hear any distortion in this case.

Foobar2k uses WASAPI in exclusive mode when "[exclusive]" device is selected. This is really strange because the distortion happens only in 256 buffer size.

My OS is Windows 10 21H1.

2 Reply by MC

  • MC
  • MC
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  • Registered: 2007-04-06
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Re: digiface makes distorted sound when buffer size is 256 in foobar2k

Might be, WDM does have limits and does not support buffer sizes above 256 AFAIK. Then just use 128. Also note that WASAPI Event or Push will work (I think Event was flawed), so make sure to use the correct one.

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

MC's Website

3 Reply by cjunekim (edited by cjunekim 2021-08-25 04:46:53)

  • Registered: 2021-01-17
  • Posts: 30

Re: digiface makes distorted sound when buffer size is 256 in foobar2k

MC wrote:

Might be, WDM does have limits and does not support buffer sizes above 256 AFAIK. Then just use 128. Also note that WASAPI Event or Push will work (I think Event was flawed), so make sure to use the correct one.

Thank you for your answer. However, the sound is okay when buffer is anything other than 256. For example, 128 and even 512 and 1024 works.

BTW, from 1.6 https://wiki.hydrogenaud.io/index.php?t … ease_Notes foobar2k has built-in wasapi support and it doesn't have event/push option for wasapi. I'll try it with a wasapi plugin.

4 Reply by MC

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Re: digiface makes distorted sound when buffer size is 256 in foobar2k

I have Foobar 1.64 (with WASAPI 3.4). The setting that you mentioned does not exist here, it says "Primary Sound Driver", without [exclusive]. In this mode the Windows kernel mixer and resampling is active. No issue with whatever buffer size.

I wouldn't use this mode but ASIO instead, which will switch the sample rate of the unit to that of the played file.

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

MC's Website

  • Registered: 2021-01-17
  • Posts: 30

Re: digiface makes distorted sound when buffer size is 256 in foobar2k

I also have UCX and it outputs distortion(more like clicks in this case) with any buffer size when foobar2k uses it exclusive.

  • Registered: 2021-01-17
  • Posts: 30

Re: digiface makes distorted sound when buffer size is 256 in foobar2k

I tried it with wasapi out plugin and it worked. So this has more to do with fb2k's builtin wasapi implementation, I guess.

https://www.foobar2000.org/components/v … out_wasapi

  • Registered: 2021-01-17
  • Posts: 30

Re: digiface makes distorted sound when buffer size is 256 in foobar2k

This has been reported before on foobar2k forum. https://hydrogenaud.io/index.php?topic= … #msg999812

You should manually set the Hardware buffer in  milliseconds to something like 50ms.