My audio output messed up after installation

[themadone]

I decided to test dBpoweramp Music Converter R14.3. I installed it with all the default settings and proceeded to rip a cd of mine in high uncompressed quality. After it finished, I started playing my Winamp playlist that consists of only mp3 files, as I usually do when I'm working on somethng that takes a little while. I had listened to tracks on the same playlist before installing the dbCD ripper and there were no sound problems.

The mp3's volume levels on my playlist are normalized to the perfect level, I have Winamp's volume bar to 100% and there's no distortion whatsoever. Now AFTER installation of the dBpoweramp Music Converter R14.3, the audio levels are completely messed up. The same songs I was listening to earlier are now blaring with extreme distortion and I have to lower Winamp's volume down to around 60% to get it to how it used to sound before installation, only now it sounds much lower.

I have played around with my sound card's settings, nothing was ever touched in those. I have uninstalled the program, no change. Tried System Restore, it doesn't fix it. I have done my best to reinstall my codecs (just in case a questionable one was installed with dBpoweramp Music Converter
R14.3), nothing. Played those same mp3s on other software like MPC, WMP12, Gom player, Zoom player, Quicktime, iTunes, even a few video editors, the result is exactly the same. Uninstalled and reinstalled my sound card, no change. Tried a DIFFERENT driver, no change. This distortion happens with all audio formats, including flac and wave.

Now it seems like I'll be forced to reinstall Windows because something is FUBAR and I can't fix it. What can I do, damn it??? I'm on Windows 7 Ultimate x64.

[Spoon]

Re: My audio output messed up after installation

You are blaming the wrong thing...dbpoweramp does not even have audio out, so cannot change anything audio playback related.

Also if it was software related, a system restore to an earlier point would correct the issue (as everything is restored, programs + settings + drivers).

Potentially you have a hardware fault, it is a co-incidence that dbpoweramp was installed at the same time.

[themadone]

Re: My audio output messed up after installation

Hi, thanks for the prompt reply. I know how that looked but as it turns out I think I might have proved that something in your software caused it. I almost started reinstalling Windows earlier because I was at such a loss but a desperate grasp at straws ended me up here.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2653312

It definitely happened after I ripped a couple tracks off a cd single in 24bit 192000Hz uncompressed wave. There's a hotfix available for that, and you need to supply an email address, where you will automatically be emailed the d/l link. I just installed the hotfix and my sound is back to normal.

[Spoon]

Re: My audio output messed up after installation

This does not relate to dBpoweramp as it does not use the inbuilt Sample rate converter in Windows. The reason being it is pretty crappy, even with the hotfix (I am sure), dBpoweramp has its own inbuilt resampler (which is about 100x slower than the one in Windows), but does not give distorted results.

Also you are best ripping CDs to 16 bit, 44KHz, the conversion 16 bit >> 24 bit whilst does not lose anything, it pads with zeros so is a waste of space.

Frequency conversions are lossy, that means 44KHz >> 192KHz with any resampler will lose quality. Audio hardware might resample on the DAC for different reasons.

[themadone]

Re: My audio output messed up after installation

The reason I rip those at the highest possible frequency is for dyiacapella-ing purposes, they're instrumentals. I found that I get slightly better results with higher frequency wave rips, and if you're a quality whore like I am, it kinda becomes OCD-like.

I'm gonna try doing it one more time to see if the audio distortion happens again, and hopefully the hotfix will do its trick once more.