[UE4.27] Reverb introduces massive crackling to sound

[rePewtr]

Hello,

I can't get steam audio reverb to work in Unreal Engine 4.27. When I follow the Steam Audio documentation it always introduces a massive crackling to the sound that it is used on. Tried many different settings without any luck. My wild guess is, that something is not right in the SoundEffectSubmixPreset(SteamAudioReverbSubmixPlugin). But I have no Idea.

Here is a Link to a default project with the issue. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VBHhfB4XfvmNXO7YARUJPk014D7PC3dv/view?usp=share_link

[lakulish]

Thanks for providing the minimal project. Unfortunately, I'm unable to reproduce the issue. Can you provide either a) more details on what steps you follow that guarantee that the issue occurs, or b) a short video/audio clip that includes the sound?

Two observations that might be relevant to narrowing this down:

1. I noticed that the scene type was set to Radeon Rays. Does this issue only occur with Radeon Rays, or have you encountered it with Embree or the Default options too?
2. I noticed that you had enabled listener-centric reverb and source-centric reflections. This is probably not what you want; you would typically pick one or the other. Does disabling one or the other help with the issue?

[rePewtr]

Hey,

thanks for the help so far. I've made a small video showcasing first my settings and then how it sounds with reverb and lastly how it sounds if I disable it.

https://youtu.be/UZaec-rNUEE

It sounds the same if I disable it on the Source Component of the Audio and enable it on the Listener Component of the PlayerCharacter.

I tried your suggestions with the rays, but nothing changed. I tried a couple more things and it seems like the reverb implementation is working, but the reverb itself isn't working correctly. As example: If I open my SteamAudioMaterial and set all absorptions to 1.0, re-export the static meshes then the sound issue is gone but obviously so is any reverb. So to me it seems like its interacting with the world, but the final sound that is received is not right.

On a sidenote: The editor crashes when I try to bake reflections from a SteamAudioBakedSource.

[TheLetslook]

I encountered a similar problem with the latest version of the plugin (4.1.4) on Unreal Engine 5.1.1 and 5.2 preview 2

[UWp05]

I am also experiencing this issue with plugin version 4.5.1 in Unreal Engine 5.3.2

It seems to happen with both reflections and reverb, baked or real-time. It continues to occur after a fresh project and following the users guide. I'm happy to provide more info/project if needed

edit: I also tried an older version of the plugin 4.1.4 in UE5.3.2, 4.1.4 in UE5.1.1 and still the issue persisted in the same way. The only option I tried that did work was to use the old bundled-in beta version of the plugin in UE5.1.1 (deprecated in 5.3)

[UWp05]

Alright after a while of experimentation and even a complete system wipe and drive clean I have had no success with this issue. In this comment I will provide all the information I have along with detailed steps, a video and a project.

System Specs: ASUS gaming laptop (Strix-G531GW)

• Windows 11 22H2
• i7 9750H
• RTX 2070
• 16GB DDR4
• Steam Audio 4.5.2
• Unreal Engine 5.3.2

Video of the issue: https://youtu.be/IQ2KE-Nwhzc?si=8mhPk_W7yZera_8n

Link to a minimal project (I created the following steps and recorded the video using this project): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1G_0CibKP3gJyEWtCGmLnzthDUwGwJIny/view?usp=drive_link

edit: ^^ link should be public now XD

Steps: I have created many different projects during my investigation. This issue happens every time no matter what I try, but at least I can confirm that following these steps does result in it occuring for me.

1. New project (blueprint)
2. Check that the legacy steam audio plugin is removed from engine plugins
3. Add plugins folder to project directory
4. Copy steam audio 4.5.2 into the plugins folder
5. Open project
6. Enable steam audio 4.5.2 and restart editor
7. "Yes" to rebuild modules popup
8. Set Spatialization, reverb and occlusion plugin to steam audio (Project Settings/Platforms/Windows)
9. New empty level
10. Build a room out of cubes
11. New actor blueprint
12. Add audio component (actor Blueprint)
13. Add a sound (audio component)
14. Drag actor into level inside the room
15. New attenuation settings (audio component)
16. Set spatialization method to binaural (attenuation settings)
17. Spatialization sounds ok...
18. Enable occlusion (attenuation settings)
19. New steam audio occlusion settings (attenuation settings)
20. Enable apply distance attenuation, apply air absorption, apply occlusion and apply transmission (steam audio occlusion settings)
21. Add steam audio source component (actor blueprint)
22. Enable simulate occlusion and simulate transmission (steam audio source component)
23. To all the cubes, add steam audio geometry component and set a material (e.g: concrete)
24. Export static geometry
25. Occlusion sounds ok...
26. Set reverb send method to manual, 1.0 (attenuation settings)
27. New steam audio reverb settings (attenuation settings)
28. Enable apply reflections (steam audio reverb settings)
29. Enable simulate reflections (steam audio source component)
30. Play in editor...
31. [ajbdvjkhabvjkhacvkladjbvjkhadfbgvasdhjlbvjkhadbvhjksdfbvjkhsdbvhbdfhjkvbsdhjkbvjkhasdbvjkasdbjkvfb]

Everything other than the above is left as default

Other info:

• The legacy plugin works fine in older versions of unreal on my system.
• The issue affects both reflections and reverb, baked or real-time.
• During standalone play, reverb and reflections do not happen at all (as if they get disabled).
• Using/not using a reverb submix as per the documentation has no effect.
• I have messed around with most of the plugin project settings to no effect.

Hope this helps

[Valmirius]

I have the same problem as rePewtr showed in his video and in close proximity it sounds like UWp05's video. I followed the guide in the documentation like they did and unfortunately it happens regardless of what settings I play with Reverb on.

The audio crackling sound artifacts only happens on reverb being added.

Plugin version 4.5.3 Unreal Engine 5.4.2

Windows 11 Pro - 23H2 AMD Ryzen 9 7900X 12-Core Processor, 4701 Mhz, 12 Core(s), 24 Logical Processor(s) 64gb DDR4 4087MB NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 (NVIDIA)

[lakulish]

@Valmirius We are still unable to reproduce the issue. Can you provide a minimal Unreal Engine project that reproduces the issue? Thanks.

[achandak]

@Valmirius - Can you also show where Steam Audio plugin is enabled in Edit > Plugins.

In particular, I want to confirm if you have deleted the Steam Audio plugin bundled with Unreal Engine by default. See Step 2 in documentation.

[Valmirius]

Hi guys,

Thanks for getting back to me.

I can confirm I removed the bundled engine plugin and replaced it. In this instance in a project plugins folder within my game folder structure.

I can also provide an example project later when I get access to my pc again, but sadly I'm not sure if it's going to be much help.

The reason being, is I've tested with a few different devices (a gaming laptop, and another desktop - same specs as mine but with a 4090) and compared to my pc listed above they don't have the problem with the same project.

So it appears to be something that only happens on certain hardware. This would explain why you're having trouble reproducing the issue with the examples provided previously.

One thing to clarify too, is that when the issue does happen, it will happen on all the different audio devices on that same affected computer when you test them.

I've tried messing with different sample rates in both the unreal project settings and also on the audio settings on Windows and it didn't make any difference.

Please do let me know if you need audio settings/device/ driver information if it's pertinent and I can provide these