Sound Blaster AE series sound cards are incompatible with MS

FrancRos31 commented 4 weeks ago

Issue type

General playback bug

Description with steps to reproduce

This issue comes from this forum thread: https://musescore.org/it/node/370561.

ll bug è in verità un'incompatibilità di MuseScore 4.x con qualsiasi scheda audio della Creative Labs con nome Sound Blaster e Sound BlasterX delle serie AE. Non ho voglia di smontare il PC per montare la SBX AE-5 o un altro modello. So solo che io e gli altri che possediamo uno di questi modelli non possiamo usufruire dell'anteprima audio. La serie SXFI (USB) e le uscite HDMI sono compatibili, ma solo se le AE non sono installate in uno slot PCIe della scheda madre. Visto che la SB AE-7 mi serve, semplicemente registro un file MP3 o FLAC. Durante l'ascolto cerco di individuare errori nel file di MuseScore.

MuseScore 4.x is incompatible with whatever sound card from Creative Labs named Sound Blaster and Sound BlasterX from the AE series. Due to this issue, the playback doesn't work, it is silent.

Supporting files, videos and screenshots

Check this video on YouTube showing the playback issue: https://youtu.be/9Ddut8R8z9Y.

These are the specs of the user reporting the problem: OS: Windows 11 Pro CPU: Intel i9-11900F RAM: 64GB Dual Channel Sound cards: Sound Blaster AE-9, SXFI Gamer, Radeon RX 590 Video card: Radeon RX 590 8GB NVMe: Samsung SSD 990 Pro 2 TB (3), WD Blue SATA 1TB (3)

What is the latest version of MuseScore Studio where this issue is present?

Musescore 4.x

Regression

I was unable to check

Additional context

No response

Checklist

[X] This report follows the guidelines for reporting bugs and issues
[X] I have verified that this issue has not been logged before, by searching the issue tracker for similar issues
[X] I have attached all requested files and information to this report
[X] I have attempted to identify the root problem as concisely as possible, and have used minimal reproducible examples where possible

cbjeukendrup commented 4 weeks ago

Is this the case even after updating to 4.4.3? That update contains a fix that should mitigate issues similar to this.

If even 4.4.3 really doesn't help, then it would be useful if you could upload the files from "Diagnostic > Save diagnostic files…".

FrancRos31 commented 3 weeks ago

Is this the case even after updating to 4.4.3? That update contains a fix that should mitigate issues similar to this.

The youtube video in the description was made with the 4.4.3 version. The user said that the playback of the MuseSounds never worked since the version 4.0.0. For the diagnostic files I need some time, they can't be loaded on the forum.

cbjeukendrup commented 3 weeks ago

MuseSounds playback specifically? Does that mean that it does work for MS Basic?

FrancRos31 commented 3 weeks ago

MuseSounds playback specifically? Does that mean that it does work for MS Basic?

No sound library works, whatever kind, MuseSounds, MS Basics, VST, these sound cards are totally incompatible with MS.

FrancRos31 commented 3 weeks ago

il problema si presenta con qualsiasi versione di MuseScore 4. Nelle prime versioni, l'audio era accelerato e acuto. Nelle versioni più recenti tende a restare silenzioso. Ho notato che molti utenti si sono lamentati di questo problema quando nel sistema ci sono almeno 32 GB di RAM e una delle schede audio AE. Sembra che le AE blocchino qualsiasi scheda audio, infatti, non posso ascoltare l'anteprima neanche tramite HDMI o dispositivi USB. In un altro PC con 8GB di RAM e la SXFI Games, cuffie USB, il problema non si presenta. Visto che realizzo video non solo musicali ma anche di gameplay e che collaboro con Creative Labs, che non trova la soluzione se non nella programmazione di MuseScore 4, per me è essenziale avere la AE-7.

This is from the email the user sent me containing the diagnostic files. MuseScoreDiagnostic.zip

cbjeukendrup commented 3 weeks ago

Thanks for the diagnostic files.

@RomanPudashkin @mathesoncalum It looks like closestSupported is nullptr in WasapiAudioClient::configureDeviceInternal. According to the docs, that can happen, and we handle that case by giving up. Maybe we should make a slightly more advanced retry mechanism, for example:

first, try with the ideal format, i.e. WAVE_FORMAT_IEEE_FLOAT with 2 channels and 32 bits
then, try not setting the amount of channels (because we can now handle other numbers of channels as well
then, try with the suggested format from m_audioClient->IsFormatSupported, if there is any
finally, try with just the format from m_audioClient->GetMixFormat, without any modifications

It might also be useful to find out which hresult is returned by m_audioClient->IsFormatSupported, and compare that with https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/api/audioclient/nf-audioclient-iaudioclient-isformatsupported#return-value.

FrancRos31 commented 2 weeks ago

For the Sound Blaster AE-7 and AE-9 there's a workaround that fixes the issue: turn on the Direct Mode in the Sound Blaster Command app.

musescore / MuseScore