Bugzilla – Bug 1948
Buffer sizes below 20 ms (30 ms with MME) can cause clicky playback
Last modified: 2019-08-04 17:49:18 UTC
Low values for buffer sizes can cause clicky playback with all forms of playback. The sweetspot appears to be 20 ms for WASAPI and WDS on Windows and on Mac. With MME host on windows sub 30 ms buffer size can cause clicketty playback. (I do sometimes seem to be able to avoid clicketies on WASAPI with ultra-low buffer sizes - but this is not consistent). Made P4 as we do not want to Release Note this for 2.3.0 ------------------------------------------- A possible solution: a) Make 20 ms the minimum buffer setting b) Add a warning in the app for settings od 20-30 ms that clicky playback may result. c) document the buffer size recommendations in the Manual - DONE for 2.3.0 on the Devices Preferences page.
This is a residual of Bug #1932
Elevated to P3 - we should Release Note this (I added one here)
Demoting to P5. It may even be NOT-A-BUG. 30ms is not the default. If a user reduces the buffer size they jolly well should already know it is a trade off. If a user sets a buffer of 20ms and the PC is not fast enough to keep up - well - we can't fix that. So this is just a 'bug' that can never be fixed, and so clogging up the bug tracker. This information is already clearly shown on the Devices_Preferences manual page which is linked to from the preference page. Perhaps this 'bug' could motivate improvements to the https://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Proposal_Smart_Help proposal.
(In reply to James Crook from comment #3) I'd say "Not a Bug", but perhaps our documentation is not sufficiently clear. Anyone that is familiar with ASIO or Jack will be well aware that reducing the size of audio buffers can reduce latency, but go too far and there will be dropouts. Users that are not familiar with ASIO or Jack probably will not know that, so our documentation must make it clear.
Originally tracked because it was thought to be a residual, but actually is OK behaviour.
