ME1 Sound problem with audio channels

[Whimper]

I bought Mass Effect for my PC through Steam when it was on sale over Christmas. The game's sounds are normally quite alright, except for any time there are ambient sounds playing in the background. In these cases, numerous audio glitches turn up. Turning the sound volume to 0 eliminates the problems with skipped dialogue, but also silences all sound. With the sound turned to even 1, all the problems come back.


Citadel: Flux
The music (actually a sound effect) skips badly, non-wheel dialogue is absent completely, and wheel dialogue often has lines omitted (silent) or interrupted. Ambient crowd noises are sometimes present, sometimes not. Sound effects like gunfire fail about 70% of the time, and interact with the other glitches (causing the music to skip, the crowds to be noisy or not, etc).

Noveria: Hotel
The music here (actually a sound effect) blocks out the speech of that yellow-clad Asari who offers you a quest.

Feros: Thorian's lair
The ambient sound suppresses all non-wheel dialogue between team mates, and most sound effects (gunfire, etc) are failing about 70% of the time. Dialogue with the asari clones is clipped, interrupted, or silent.

Ilos: Archives and aquaduct
The sound of running water suppresses many other sounds and team dialogue.

My computer:
Intel CoreDuo2 E6400 2.13GHz
2GB RAM
2x Nvidia GeForce 7950GT running in SLI
Onboard sound (Analog Devices SoundMAX Integrated HD Digital Audio)

Fixes I've tried:
Disable Hardware sound, through in game settings. (No effect)

Reduce or disable hardware acceleration through Windows sound settings. (No effect)

Edit BaseEngine.ini to change MaxChannels to 64 from 32. (No effect)
Or change MaxChannels to 32, add Available line of 30 (or 62). (Made problem different and worse).
Add ReserveChannels=2 line. (Didn't notice improvement.)

Unfortunately, Analog Devices doesn't seem to produce on board sound solutions any more, and I can't find more recent drivers for the integrated chip. This is the only game I have significant sound troubles with, so I'm not too excited to buy a new sound card.

[arizonachris]

Have you tried verifying the game files? Right click on the game in your Steam Games list and choose Properties> Local Files tab> Verify

[Whimper]

Verifying the local files did not resolve the problem.

[Piez]

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1101900

[Whimper]

The fixes recommended in the post you linked, Piez, introduced tons of new problems in sounds throughout the game. Explosions of static, muffled or misplaced sounds, constant crackling, and many other glitches that render the game absolutely unplayable.

I'm reverting back to my old BaseEngine.ini, because those solutions were way worse than the problem. Were those parameters written for a different series of sound chips than mine?

[Megaxtar]

Unfortunately, Analog Devices doesn't seem to produce on board sound solutions any more, and I can't find more recent drivers for the integrated chip. This is the only game I have significant sound troubles with, so I'm not too excited to buy a new sound card.

I think you answered your own question:o

[Whimper]

Buy a new sound card? Ugh. Where do I begin to even look?

[Megaxtar]

Buy a new sound card? Ugh. Where do I begin to even look?

Local PC shops, On-line search, that question is endless.

[Jito463]

I'd recommend looking at the Asus Xonar cards. They're likely going to be my replacement for my Audigy 2 when I finally decide to spend the money and upgrade.

[deadlybydesign]

I turned off hardware sound, if that helps. Still sounded fine, if not terribly atmospheric. The hardware setting did nothing but screw it all up for me. (loud ambiance, quiet dialogue, etc)

The good news? Bioware did ME2 for the PC, so the sound is fine.

[generic]

I get the exact same problems at the same places, and I have quite different hardware. I think I may have fixed it but I'm not sure, I was at the Ilos aqueduct stage and the sound problem seemed to be solved.

1) Backup your configurations folder just in case. Go to My Documents\Bioware and make a copy of the Mass Effect folder.
2) In the Mass Effect folder, delete all files except the Save folder.
3) Run MassEffectConfig.exe, it should re-detect your PC configuration.
4) Set your grahics and sound options, disable hardware sound.
5) Run the game.

[halfburnttoast]

I've got the same problems. Usually it would be fixed by editing the config files. But every time they update the game, the fix stops working until someone comes up with a new one. It's pretty aggravating.

Toggling 'hardware sound' doesn't help. For me, it gives me the choice of overly loud ambient noise or sounds cutting out all the time.

[Whimper]

I turned off hardware sound, if that helps.

Fixes I've tried:
Disable Hardware sound, through in game settings. (No effect)

Thanks, but tried that.

I get the exact same problems at the same places, and I have quite different hardware. I think I may have fixed it but I'm not sure, I was at the Ilos aqueduct stage and the sound problem seemed to be solved.

1) Backup your configurations folder just in case. Go to My Documents\Bioware and make a copy of the Mass Effect folder.
2) In the Mass Effect folder, delete all files except the Save folder.
3) Run MassEffectConfig.exe, it should re-detect your PC configuration.
4) Set your grahics and sound options, disable hardware sound.
5) Run the game.

I'll give this a try, but it seems like it would just reset it to settings that never worked in the first place.

[ybantraw]

Open the BIOengine.ini for editing.
Change the values listed in the ini to the following.

[ALAudio.ALAudioDevice]
MaxChannels=64

[ISACTAudio.ISACTAudioDevice]
MaxChannels=64
TotalAvailableChannels=62
ReserveChannels=2

A further point: Sound is the biggest performance hitter of most games. I always have sound acceleration set as basic and sample rate as good. Never suffer which glitching etc.

[darthnbs]

Open the BIOengine.ini for editing.
Change the values listed in the ini to the following.

[ALAudio.ALAudioDevice]
MaxChannels=64

[ISACTAudio.ISACTAudioDevice]
MaxChannels=64
TotalAvailableChannels=62
ReserveChannels=2

A further point: Sound is the biggest performance hitter of most games. I always have sound acceleration set as basic and sample rate as good. Never suffer which glitching etc.

I almost gave up with the audio problem when I found this fix. Editing it to 64 fixed everything. I thought I needed to buy a new soundcard just to play this game.

[Mixel]

Is your audio driver updated to the latest version?

Admins - Is it maybe possible to get a thread stickied with all these audio problem bugs and fixes, as there are an awful lot of people experiencing them?