Hi everyone,

I re-installed a fresh copy of FS9 after around a year and started filling it with my usual addons. I've got most of my things set up so today I decided to test the sim out and immediately noticed a very annoying problem. I downloaded POSKY's 737NG as well as Emil Serafino's soundpack to go with it. While the aircraft and everything associated with it work fine, the engine sound is crackling. I don't remember ever having this issue in FS9 before so I'm rather stumped. I've added the advanced sound settings to the FS9.cfg file but it seems like that's not doing anything. Unfortunately, as far as aircraft are concerned, I have none installed yet other than that 737NG so I cannot test if it's happening throughout the sim or if it's just isolated to this particular aircraft.

 

My PC specs are below:

Intel Core i7-3820 @ 3.6GHz

8GB DD3 SDRAM

Asus GTX560Ti with 1GB of video memory

Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit

3TB SeaGate Barracuda Harddisk

2TB WesternDigital MyBook Essential External Harddisk

 

The sim runs smooth as butter as my hardware far exceeds the requirements for FS9. I've installed the sim on my internal harddisk to maximize performance and that drive is devoid of other software as I've kept it as clean as possible.

 

What could be causing this issue?

 

Here is the advanced sound settings I've added to my FS9.cfg:

[sOUND]
SOUND=1
SOUND_FADER1=0.500000
SOUND_FADER2=0.500000
SOUND_FADER3=0.750000
SOUND_FADER4=0.800000
SOUND_FADER5=1.000000
SOUND_FADER6=0.800000
SOUND_QUALITY=2
SamplesPerSec=44100
BitsPerSample=16

 

Any help would be much appreciated, thanks.

 

Edit: I took the liberty of installing Project Airbus's A380 and also installed my Turbine Sound Studio's Engine Alliance pack to go along with the Emirates A380. Unfortunately, the problem persists so I've ruled out the soundpacks as being the culprit. One other I noticed was that the displays in the 2D panel were flickering like crazy while on the groud, but when airborne, they stopped flickering and the sound cracking returned. The crackling is not present while on the ground, just in the air.

The usual problem with sound crackling comes from your sound card settings. Check that your equaliser is "flat". Check that you don't have audio effects on or 3d surround on.

Can't help you out on the sound, but I spent most of yesterday trying to eliminate gauge flickering especially the GPS. Despite searching forums, Google etc couldn't find anything of substance, so I reinstalled an older Nvidia GTX 680 driver and the flickering has gone. I'm no expert but I worked on the fact that FS9 is "game wise" old, and probably the latest drivers were for the latest "stuff" on the market. The only one where flickering still occurs is Kittyhawk B737. Could be wrong, but for now it works on most aircraft I have so far tested !

Echofox

Hello gents,

 

Thank you for the replies.

 

I'm not sure I have a dedicated sound card installed on my PC, chances are my motherboard probably has something in built? I use an Asus P9X79 motherboard if that's any good to you. I did visit the control panels sound settings and checked that my headphones were ticked as default with a green check mark. However, another icon called "Digital Audio (S/PDIF)" was also showing as "Ready". Not sure if that has to do with anything?

 

Flickering wise, it's lame that you have to downgrade drivers as I prefer to have the newest most stable release of drivers on my PC. Guess I'll have to live with that then.

 

Best regards.

I have noticed the same sound crackling in FS9 while airborne. I am using the HJG B727-200. I have attributed the crackling to using Radar Contact 4. Sound is smooth on the ground but in the air I hear cracking. If I try a flight without using RC4 then I don't have any cracking. I like the RC4 program but feel the sound quality leaves a lot to be desired.

 

Bob

Can now confirm, by testing, flickering caused by Nvidea drivers 310.70 and 310.90. I have reverted to 306.97 which was released last October.

 

Intel i7-3770K CPU @3.5 HGz 4.00Ghz,

8.00GB RAM,

Nvidia GTX680

 

I don't see any difference graphic wise between the 306.97 and 310.90, and I have all sliders to the right. Hope you fix the sound.

Echofox

Have fixed both flickering in displays as well as crackling sound.

 

I had forgotten to lock my FPS in FS9 and the moment I locked the sim to 60FPS, all crackling and flickering disappeared. Have double checked to make sure all equalization settings are "flat" and no audio effects are in use.

 

Many thanks gents!

Excellent

Echofox

Can't help you out on the sound, but I spent most of yesterday trying to eliminate gauge flickering especially the GPS. Despite searching forums, Google etc couldn't find anything of substance, so I reinstalled an older Nvidia GTX 680 driver and the flickering has gone. I'm no expert but I worked on the fact that FS9 is "game wise" old, and probably the latest drivers were for the latest "stuff" on the market. The only one where flickering still occurs is Kittyhawk B737. Could be wrong, but for now it works on most aircraft I have so far tested !

Echofox

 

I've only experienced the same crackling sounds in the PMDG 737NG but the solution was, as you found out too, is to limit the fps. It's really unbearable otherwise!

:huh: Sound card drivers where my crackle problems. Was very severe in the cockpit when I raised and lowered the engines. I was using the Creative XFI Champion sound card and was beating out my brain for days :angry:  wondering why and how to solve the crackle problem. Without realizing the fix occured when I updated my creative drivers to the latest version. The problem was gone for good. Tested on a new build with the default Creative DVD drivers and the crackle was there, then updated again and it was repaired. I hope this helps out a bit for future readers trying to solve the crackle problems. Whatever sound card you are using,  MAKE SURE!, that you have the latest and best updated drivers.