Popping noise on music start/stop

kloot

Hi there,

When I play music (mp3) using the Sound Play Music action I often hear the audio "pop" on start and stop. The easiest way to reproduce this is to press pause a few times during playback (though it's also there when I switch scene and cross fade to a new track).

Once you hear it this is quite annoying, and it takes the smoothness out of cross fading between tracks. Is this a known issue? Any workaround available?

AC: 1.65.2
Unity : 2018.2.17f1

Thanks!

ChrisIceBox

I'm not aware of any such issue.  The 3D Demo similary relies on the music system and has no such behaviour.

I'll need some more details:

• What do you mean by "pop", exactly?  A momentary rise in volume?
• Are you relying on Audio Mixer Groups?
• What's your Music volume set to in Options?
• What's the "Relative volume" of the track in question?
• Do you get the same behaviour in the 3D Demo?
  

kloot

By pop I mean a short crackling sound, hard to explain but yes - the same problem is going on in the 3D demo:
1. Open up the music storage window and deselect "music can play when game is paused"
2. Play the game and press the escape key a couple of times (to maximize the pop - raise the volume)

Though this isn't a big deal when pausing/resuming the game, the same pop sound is very jarring when cross fading between two pieces of music when the player leaves one scene for another.

ChrisIceBox

Please answer the questions re mixer groups and volume settings - I can't recreate any such issue.

What platform are you working on, and is this in Editor / builds / both?

kloot

Oh sorry, I skipped some details since the issue could reproduced in the 3D demo.

No, I'm not relying on Audio Mixer Groups, my music volume (in options) is set to the default value, and the relative volume of my tracks ar all set to 1.

I'm running this on Windows 10 and the click/pop/spark/crackling sound appears in both the editor and builds.

ChrisIceBox

No problem. Actually I think I can hear it - it is extremely subtle, though it may vary with platform.

The pop when crossfading does, for me at least, seem to disappear when switching to Audio Mixer Groups. See the Manual's "Sounds" chapter for details on how to set them up.

The pop remains when pausing the game, but here AC is relying on Unity's own ignoreListenerPause property. A potential workaround may be to check Music can play when game is paused?, and then use the Sound: Play music Action to stop/resume music manually when entering / exit pause mode.

kloot

I switched to using Audio mixer groups (and exposed the attenuation params with appropriate names) but unfortunately the pops are just as audible (both in editor and build).

Weather it's subtle or jarring is only dependent on the music volume, the pops are there regardless (and quite jarring on my system).

kloot

I tried it on another (Windows) system as well and the pops are unfortunately just as audible there.

ChrisIceBox

Did you try the Action-based workaround I suggested?

kloot

I didn't try that since my main problem isn't pause/resume but the popping while cross fading between scenes.

ChrisIceBox

It all helps to understand the issue, and you listed it as a symptom. Please try it regardless.

kloot

I have now tried the Action-based workaround you suggested and the popping sound is still there.

I did manage to find a decent work around though: If you use the Play Music: Stop action and enter a fade-out time (0.2 will do), the popping sound dissapears! So instead of using the Play Music: Crossfade action to fade between scenes, I now use a Stop with a fade-out time (set to wait until transition ends) followed by a Play action for the new song. It does make it so that you have to wait a while before the song for the new scene is played though, but it works

You can read about other people struggling with the same pop-noises in Unity here:
https://answers.unity.com/questions/375774/what-causes-the-audio-clicking-how-do-i-get-a-clea.html