Interesting Sound Issue

[Iano]

I had noticed from day one with Civ IV that the music and sounds seemed somewhat muffled and almost lo-fi sounding. I just figured it was lo-fi to keep the game size down and didn't think much of it after that... Well I was playing some and took a break, so I had Civ IV minimized and was doing some net browsing as well as listening to some music. I noticed right away that my music through Windows Media Player sounded like crap. Sounded lo-fi and muffled.

I figured I'd do a little experiment. I closed Civ IV while my music was playing and it still sounded poor. Then I closed Media Player and reloaded the music file, suddenly it was crystal clear and great sounding. Interesting, somehow Civ IV made everything sound like crap! So I tried another experiment. I loaded up a song in Media Player, played it some, paused it, and then loaded up Civ IV. Suddenly everything sounded great in Civ IV. Interesting! So somehow when Civ IV initializes the audio systems it makes them sound horrid. I realize I'm not exactly running a normal gaming/consumer card (M-Audio Audiophile 2496) so it could be a driver issue... but I've done plenty of gaming with this card and never noticed anything out of the ordinary. Has anyone experienced this issue?

 

[Iano]

I figured out my own issue, I hope this information helps anyone else with a similar situation. I monitored changes in my sound card control panel when loading Civ IV. The majority of music you listen to is played back at a 44,100 sample rate. For some reason when Civ IV initializes the audio it sets my playback rate to a mere 8,000. I remedied the problem by telling my sound card to lock in the 44,100 rate. Hope this helps someone out, I am passing this information on to Firaxis as well.

 

[Tunch Khan]

I figured out my own issue, I hope this information helps anyone else with a similar situation. I monitored changes in my sound card control panel when loading Civ IV. The majority of music you listen to is played back at a 44,100 sample rate. For some reason when Civ IV initializes the audio it sets my playback rate to a mere 8,000. I remedied the problem by telling my sound card to lock in the 44,100 rate. Hope this helps someone out, I am passing this information on to Firaxis as well.

Can you please give a detailed description on how you did that?

 

[Iano]

Sure thing. I accessed the M-Audio Delta Control Panel, and under the Hardware Settings tab there is a section called "Codec Sample Rate". Under this section I selected 44,100 and then checked the "Rate Locked" checkbox. Keep in mind this is for a specific card, if you do not have an M-Audio card your procedure may be different.

 

[Tunch Khan]

Sure thing. I accessed the M-Audio Delta Control Panel, and under the Hardware Settings tab there is a section called "Codec Sample Rate". Under this section I selected 44,100 and then checked the "Rate Locked" checkbox. Keep in mind this is for a specific card, if you do not have an M-Audio card your procedure may be different.

No i don't have that card, but thanks for writing it here. Someone else might have it and i'm sure they'll find it useful. It gave me some ideas tho. Thanks again.