Sudden distortion on most tracks & getting worse...

[Jerry Bransford]

MediaMonkey Gold V-4.0.3.1476

I have been a MM user for probably ten years... this is a brand-new problem that just started today. A little search on the internet says I'm not alone with this sudden distortion problem.

All of a sudden earlier today, an hour into a shuffled mix of my Christmas tracks, the tracks have become distorted and the distortion is getting worse the longer it plays... so bad I have restarted MM several times and even rebooted my computer which has not helped at all. It is worse than simple clipping, I have to describe it as major distortion making the music unlistenable.

I haven't changed or modified anything in MM in what seems like a few years, and not since the last SW update to 4.0.3.1476. Changing the Output Plug-in in Options from Media Monkey DirectSound Output to waveOutput V2.0.2a didn't change anything or help. There are no other plug-ins being used. Resetting & removing the Equalizer changed nothing.

The same tracks I synched to my Apple Nano device last month are fine & play without distortion.

No third-party add-ons, just the bare standard MM package that has suddenly started distorting the same tracks I've been listening to for years. What gives? Oh, I do not have Track Leveling turned on and the Clipping level control I noted while searching for a possible cause has never been touched in the years I have been using MM.

HELP guys, I have a big Christmas party coming up next weekend & I want to use MM for my background music.

Jerry

[nohitter151]

Any problem with the same files from another program like Windows Media Player?

[Jerry Bransford]

Any problem with the same files from another program like Windows Media Player?

No. As mentioned above, even my Apple NANO is playing the same exact tracks without distortion or problem, & all tracks currently on my NANO were synched to it using Media Monkey.

[nohitter151]

Any problem with the same files from another program like Windows Media Player?

No. As mentioned above, even my Apple NANO is playing the same exact tracks without distortion or problem, & all tracks currently on my NANO were synched to it using Media Monkey.

Yes but your iPod is different hardware. I mean does everything sound ok from the PC, when played with different software.

[rovingcowboy]

I too have just had this show up again as stuttering, in my case, what i thought was a bad script some place, turned out to be another program taking up mor ram then it did befor and causing the cache to try and clear out fast enough to make room for all the data mm uses when playing songs, plus my hd was heavy fragmented, from this new defragmenting program not having a proper setting for amout of fragmentation needed before it works, so doing the cleaning and defrag manualy and shutting off several back ground programs has stopped the stuttering on my system again.

So try that stuff on yours, it might work,

[Lowlander]

The key is to do what Nohitter151 suggested and that is to play the same files that have distortion in MediaMonkey on the same PC with a different Media program. If for example playing them in WMP also has the same distortion the problem lies with the PC itself (firmware/soundcard being likely issues). However if WMP plays those songs fine then the problem is most likely with MediaMonkey.

[rovingcowboy]

Yep but i dont like to blame mm for things like this when i get them cleared up by means of maintaince of the computer, even if wmp plays them perfect like they do on my system when mm is stuttering, mm uses more ram and has more data it uses for songs then those other programs. Which is why i'm always fast to say clean you machines.

If the issue still happens after all clean and other program checks show good, then i will start looking at mm as the cause. But only after everything else no matter how off the wall it seems is checked out.

So see i'm just adding things to do to what nohitter151 said to do. Boy scout motto be prepared. And safty first!

[Jerry Bransford]

Turns out it's not just Media Monkey that is distorted, it distorts using Windows Media Player too. I just updated my Realtek Audio driver which made no difference.

However, there is no distortion when I use my computer's windows-based iTunes application to play the same tracks over my computer's audio system. Neither does it distort when I play music from my Windows computer's web-based Pandora.

I'm a little lost... I don't know which music programs use/don't use Realtek or what the difference is between how Media Monkey and Windows Media player plays, both of those are distorted, yet there is no distortion when I use iTunes or Pandora on the same computer to play music.

This is a new problem, the computer has been playing music files from Media Monkey and Windows Media Player for years, now they are distored.

My disk has been defragmented and no difference... and no other new software is running. I'm stumped.

[rovingcowboy]

I've had some dang program on my main computer for work, keep starting windows autoupdate exe and running that up in to the thousands of mem used which causes such horrible sound and stuttering of the music even messing with mouse controlls it makes me stop the games or the music.
And go to taskmanager and end task on the waupd program it needs to be done twice to close it, at first i thought it was only my system but it sounds like you got the same thing, this happed to my system after an updateof realtech sound drivers but in reverting back to old drivers i still get same issue, so i'm thinking its not the real tech drivers, but maybe another windows update that is causing this turning on of the auto update program, which all sound is good again after i close that in task manager.

My jukebox computer is stand alone and does not use realtech, which is making the case /against real tech and windows seem like the reason.

[nohitter151]

Turns out it's not just Media Monkey that is distorted, it distorts using Windows Media Player too. I just updated my Realtek Audio driver which made no difference.

However, there is no distortion when I use my computer's windows-based iTunes application to play the same tracks over my computer's audio system. Neither does it distort when I play music from my Windows computer's web-based Pandora.

I'm a little lost... I don't know which music programs use/don't use Realtek or what the difference is between how Media Monkey and Windows Media player plays, both of those are distorted, yet there is no distortion when I use iTunes or Pandora on the same computer to play music.

This is a new problem, the computer has been playing music files from Media Monkey and Windows Media Player for years, now they are distored.

My disk has been defragmented and no difference... and no other new software is running. I'm stumped.

MM and WMP use the same audio codecs for decoding digital audio, so the problem is definitely your DirectShow. You could try something like this:
http://www.ehow.com/how_12150516_fix-directshow.html

[jkramer]

You can get distortion caused by nearby electromagnetic outputs.
Have you tried shutting off peripherals, such as printer, or other possible sources?

[MurrayBarn]

I also have the distortion problem. Its only on some tracks, I have re-levelled all my tracks. The files that distort on MM play fine in iTunes and Media Player. It is either Windows 8, which I recently installed or the latest version of MM. Please help somebody

Thanks
Murray

[Lowlander]

Disable Play > Level Playback Volume, do the files still distort?

[MurrayBarn]

Hi Lowlander

I disabled Level Playback Volume and I could hear a very slight improvement. What is strange is that it is only happening on some songs. The song I used to test your adjustment is the only one on that album that distorts.

Kind regards
Murray

[Lowlander]

Some providers like Amazon provide files with the wrong volume level tags and thus require re-analyzing. Note though that by default MediaMonkey doesn't re-analyze files with know volume level tags (option can be set under Tools > Options > Volume Leveling).

More on poor sound: http://www.mediamonkey.com/support/inde ... ticleid=90