Annoying sound artifact

[alex.767]

At high power settings, there's an annoying clicking sound that happens every other second or so. Here's a video: https://streamable.com/net8x

It's more prominent in-game.

[KenG]

Hour meter. Usually very hard to hear in the airplane...

[MikeM]

Hi Alex,

My first guess is a distorted loop of some kind. But it would help if we could narrow it down to a source.

It would be most helpful if you could do a startup from "Cold and Dark" and let me know at which point you start hearing the "ticking" noise.

1. Do you use recording software during your flight all the time? I found this can be taxing the system which can mess up playback.
2. Does it "occasionaly" happen or do you hear it everytime you load a flight with the KA?
3. If you go into the Prepar3D sound configuration (Options -> General -> Sound), you can mute several categories of sounds by removing the checkmark in front of the slider. Please let me know if disabling either Engine, Cockpit or Environment removes the "ticking" you are hearing.

And finally, it would also be useful if you could share your system specs.


Mike

[Taguilo]

Hi,

I'm sorry perhaps I'm a bit deaf but I cannot distinguish any strange sound in that video.

Tomas

[N4GIX]

Hi,

I'm sorry perhaps I'm a bit deaf but I cannot distinguish any strange sound in that video.

Tomas

Neither could I Tomas...

[alex.767]

Hi,

I'm sorry perhaps I'm a bit deaf but I cannot distinguish any strange sound in that video.

Tomas

Neither could I Tomas...

It's more audible with headphones on.

Hi Alex,

My first guess is a distorted loop of some kind. But it would help if we could narrow it down to a source.

It would be most helpful if you could do a startup from "Cold and Dark" and let me know at which point you start hearing the "ticking" noise.

1. Do you use recording software during your flight all the time? I found this can be taxing the system which can mess up playback.
2. Does it "occasionaly" happen or do you hear it everytime you load a flight with the KA?
3. If you go into the Prepar3D sound configuration (Options -> General -> Sound), you can mute several categories of sounds by removing the checkmark in front of the slider. Please let me know if disabling either Engine, Cockpit or Environment removes the "ticking" you are hearing.

And finally, it would also be useful if you could share your system specs.


Mike

1. Nope, I'm not always recording
2. Happens every flight
3. It's coming from the Engine channel. I tried the different channels independently.

[Taguilo]

Ok, so if you detected to be coming from engines, please check this:

Go to P3D and turn off the default engine volume slider. That will filter aircraft engine sounds. See if that sound is still audible.
Then go to MVAMS, and put all three sound sliders (Manually option) to 0.
Close P3D, start again and load same flight. See if sound is still present.

Thanks!

Tomas

[alex.767]

Ok, so if you detected to be coming from engines, please check this:

Go to P3D and turn off the default engine volume slider. That will filter aircraft engine sounds. See if that sound is still audible.
Then go to MVAMS, and put all three sound sliders (Manually option) to 0.
Close P3D, start again and load same flight. See if sound is still present.

Thanks!

Tomas

Ok, I did all this - 0 on the MVAMS slider and off on the engine channel in P3D. The sound wasn't present. Turn on the engine channel in P3D, and it comes back.

[Ephedrin]

I think I know what you mean.. It's like a click when the sound is reloading. I hear it every approx 7-8 seconds with all my Milviz aircraft except the Turbo Otter and only with them.. It's very present in the Beaver and a little less in the Porter. I guess it has to do with the sound setup but I haven't found out yet what it is. There was a time it was gone so I suppose it has to do with the driver or anything else hardware / OS related. I got somehow used to it but still it's annoying.

[MikeM]

Ok, I did all this - 0 on the MVAMS slider and off on the engine channel in P3D. The sound wasn't present. Turn on the engine channel in P3D, and it comes back.

Thank you for performing all the checks and narrowing it down to the engine channel!

The problem you are experiencing is described by Ephedrin's explanation... Diving into detail; what you are hearing is a pop/click due to mismatched sample ends in a looped audio file. During development sample ends are crossfaded so this doesn't occur. The bad news is, it is impossible to control how these samples are loaded into memory and/or your audio driver processes input for playback.

As for a fix; I cannot reproduce it on my system, but since it is persistant for you, we can continue hunting the source down. I can almost guarantee we will end up with a single *.wav file that is the culprit. Simply run up the engines/props on the ground (one engine at a time) and let me know which engine (left or right) and at what RPM the popping/clicking occurs.

Something else that may help in the meantime is checking your audio settings in Control Panel. Make sure the speaker configuration is set to 2 channel stereo. The Prepar3D/FSX sound system has known issues/artifacting with 5.1 configurations.


Mike

[alex.767]

Ok, I did all this - 0 on the MVAMS slider and off on the engine channel in P3D. The sound wasn't present. Turn on the engine channel in P3D, and it comes back.

Thank you for performing all the checks and narrowing it down to the engine channel!

The problem you are experiencing is described by Ephedrin's explanation... Diving into detail; what you are hearing is a pop/click due to mismatched sample ends in a looped audio file. During development sample ends are crossfaded so this doesn't occur. The bad news is, it is impossible to control how these samples are loaded into memory and/or your audio driver processes input for playback.

As for a fix; I cannot reproduce it on my system, but since it is persistant for you, we can continue hunting the source down. I can almost guarantee we will end up with a single *.wav file that is the culprit. Simply run up the engines/props on the ground (one engine at a time) and let me know which engine (left or right) and at what RPM the popping/clicking occurs.

Something else that may help in the meantime is checking your audio settings in Control Panel. Make sure the speaker configuration is set to 2 channel stereo. The Prepar3D/FSX sound system has known issues/artifacting with 5.1 configurations.


Mike

So far, I've been unable to mitigate it at different RPM, power lever, and condition lever combinations. All I can say is that it's easier to hear with power levers idle vs. full thrust.

[MikeM]

Alright, that info already helps.

Could you check if it dissappears when you feather the props?

And if possible... do you hear it on the left or right engine? Simply shut one down and check if it's still there.

[Ephedrin]

Alright, that info already helps.

Could you check if it dissappears when you feather the props?

And if possible... do you hear it on the left or right engine? Simply shut one down and check if it's still there.

I hear it only on the right ear. Can't check the rest of your questions now as I head towards my bed now..

[Cleptric]

I did some research, and the file causing the "pop" is PT6A-60_ENG1_PROP_1700RPM.wav
I edited it in a DAW and faded out the end slightly.
Now the pop is gone.
Edit: You'll hear the pop if you play this sound file on it's own.

[MikeM]

I did some research, and the file causing the "pop" is PT6A-60_ENG1_PROP_1700RPM.wav
I edited it in a DAW and faded out the end slightly.
Now the pop is gone.
Edit: You'll hear the pop if you play this sound file on it's own.

Very nice that you were able to trace this back to a source file

It would be great if "alex.767" and "Ephedrin" could also confirm this file is causing the problem on their systems. This way we can include a revised sample as a fix in a future version/patch.