Poor audio quality v4.5

[kmcculla]

We are currently playing all of our music from a computer (win 7 64-bit). When we use Realplayer or WMP the music sounds great. However, when we attempt to play the same MP3's as sound attachments to slide shows, the quality degrades quite a bit. We have tried adjusting the volume within MS (v4.5) but it still sounds very crackly. Any suggestions?

[northerntech]

Presuming you're connecting the MS computer to your sound system via an audio board or similar interface, is this path the same when you've played audio using one of the other players - just to rule out a cable or impedance-matching issue? I'm pretty sure MS uses WMP as its playback engine for audio so the difference is puzzling. Audio codecs are one possibility (there is support information for this from MS) but generally if WMP plays something MS should too. Have you tried WAV files or CD audio? If you can determine if the problem is limited to MP3's then you'd have a place to start, and a workaround while you search for a solution. We use MS for almost all audio integration now and our expensive professional CD player is basically a paperweight for everything but rehearsals. In an audio-heavy presentation this morning we used MP3, WAV and audio from video through 4.5 on a Win 7-64 bit computer with no issues. It makes the audio guy's job a lot easier having only one external source to worry about, so this is something definitely worth pursuing.

[David Burton]

It makes the audio guy's job a lot easier having only one external source to worry about, so this is something definitely worth pursuing.

Amen from a former audio guy now the video guy.

I assume that the playback through the computer with Real Audio sounds good through the sound system? And then the same file sounds crappy in MS?

If that is the cause there is a codex problem, check and make sure that Real Audio is not the default playback program and that Windows Player is, that could be part of the problem.

[Dan Rector]

Media Shout has had this problem in the past. I experienced a very similar thing to what you are describing several years ago (version 3.0 or 3.5 - don't rememver for sure) and went through every connection, every input and output. Only by looking through some of the forums did I stumble on some others reporting similar issues. I was able to roll back a fix pack and it restored the sound quality, and I remember that we stayed at that level for quite some time until we could prove that it was again working in the newer fix packs.

[David Burton]

I guess what version are you running ?

We are using MS for all audio playback I have 4.5 release 223. I know its a Beta, but I like it. The codex is the Klite routines suggested by Media Shout. My Minister of Music does not like the fact that we do not use the CD player for playback because he does not like computers, but again that is not his call.

The only problems we have had with sound playback has been with the compression routines that I have used for MP3 playback. Sound guy thinks that it is too compressed and missing some high frequency data. Wave files playback fine and he is happy with that.

Our set up is Win 7 Professional 64 bit with an AMD 4400+ Dual Core and Soundblaster USB sound card into a Radio Shack Video distribution amp for the multiple Audio feeds with 1 to a Behringer Mini Mix board and low impedance feed to the main sound board. ( The mini mix allows me to patch in an MP3 player or other audio source at different levels than the computer into the sound feed and only take up 2 channels on the main sound board.)