Significant Audio Crackling/Popping When Listening to Background Music - Xbox One X

Hi Diego,

I tried the steps you sent (cleared 6 times just for good measure!), but unfortunately there's no difference to the clicking and popping.

However, I think we are onto something as far as the solution goes. Thinking about your comments RE: signals competing in one space, I tried some experiments with the built-in 'Game vs. Music' volume slider in the guide menu (accessed by
pressing 'A' on the Spotify/Groove app in the Xbox Guide).

• Both Game and Music at 100% (centre position): Horrible clicking and popping with a loud piece of music and loud game section.
• Game at 100%, Music at 75%: Significant reduction in artifacts.
• Game at 100%, Music at 50%: The sweet spot. No artifacts in multiple tests.
• Game at 50%, Music at 100%,
  
  AND Spotify manually turned down to 50% using my phone (Spotify Remote): Sweeter spot - reducing the overall signal to 100%.

So it appears we have identified the problem and solution:

• The 'Game vs. Music' volume slider has a fundamental flaw in that the sum of both ends should always be 100, but the centre position is summing two signals at "full blast" to make 200.
• In my 4 examples above the total volume went from 200%->175%->150%>100%, hence getting cleaner and cleaner.
• Earlier in my checks, I could have sworn the the Stereo Uncompressed output was louder than the 5.1 equivalent. I now believe it actually is, and this is the reason it produces more artifacts (less headroom).

If you could somehow feed this back within Microsoft it'd be massively appreciated. But at least I have a workaround for now.

Thanks again for your help and understanding!

James

Hi Diego,

Thanks a lot for the speedy reply!

Regarding gaming and listening to music individually, yes - audio works flawlessley so long as I am not trying to do both at the same time. But they go so well together!

It does seem odd that the integration of both is buggy - especially in the case of local files, which the 360 handled effortlessley all those years ago.

On the 'Snapping' of apps, I think I might have misled you by saying "side by side". I've only had my Xbox One for 1 week so sadly missed out on the 'Snap' era. I was instead referring to having both apps running at once.

I do think there's mileage in getting this functionality readded to the Xbox - there is a real social element to being able to have a game running while cueing up Spotify. Plus the PS4 can still do it.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Thanks,

James

Hi James,



Thank you for letting us know that the issue has been fixed. We'll be locking the thread as the issue has been resolved
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Thank you and have a great day!

Hi James,

Thank you for keeping us updated and clarifying how the apps are being used. I was under the impression those music apps snap a media player like they did when Snapping apps was a thing, but they simply add a media player to control the music from the Xbox
guide that pulls up when you press the Xbox button on the controller. I understand now that they play in the background while a game is being played, but the idea that the audio overlaps or interferes with each other still remains the same since the audio
is more streamlined when using stereo uncompressed. That's why I think it works better with a headset using Windows Sonic for headphones.

I can suggest some other console troubleshooting that you haven't tried and see if that helps. First we can clear the persistent storage found by going to the Disc & Blu-ray settings and then selecting Blu-ray. Go to Persistent storage and clear it a total
of 5 times. Just go back into the setting and select clear until you have done it 5 times.

Then go to your Network settings and go to Advanced settings, then Alternate MAC address and then select Clear and restart the console when you are prompted to.

Let us know if that helps.

Hi James,

I read through your thread and personally I believe the issue relates to the first two bullet points you mentioned with the background music apps audio and the audio from the game are essentially competing to produce the sound over HDMI Stereo Uncompressed.
Your test using the headset with Windows Sonic selected also leads me to believe the snapped music apps audio is interfering with the game audio and vice versa since Windows Sonic for headphones is a spatial audio technology like Dolby Atmos for headphones.
It also improves the accuracy of the sound you hear in your games.

Snapped apps was a big thing a few years back but Microsoft removed it due to the issues associated with the feature. Background music apps are essentially an extension of snapped apps because they operate while you are playing games so bugs like this one
may be due to snapped apps not being generally supported anymore.

Have you tried your music apps without snapping them and playing them normally without playing a game in the background?