Spotify Desktop is badly clipping and distorting audio on certain tracks

[chipples]

I've noticed recently that on certain tracks, Spotify desktop (Windows) seems to be clipping and distorting audio if its volume control is set too high.

This is extremely noticeable in some songs. Listen to the opening of this track in the Windows desktop client, with your Spotify volume set to 100%: https://open.spotify.com/track/2hRG95NMMGJ7heJiIZrdWA

You'll notice very obvious distortion in the bass notes in the first 10-20 seconds of the song. Even if I turn my system volume way down (but leave Spotify's volume at 100%) so that everthing is very quiet overall, the distortion is still clearly present, which means that it's not a problem with the overall volume, Spotify is introducing it.

I can also see in Windows mixer that the volume peaks up to the max for every one of these bass hits. Lowering Spotify to about 60% volume eliminates the audible distortion, and correspondingly you can see that the peaks are then just below maximum. At this point I can max out my system (Windows) volume and get the music very loud, but without distortion - another indicator that it's Spotify itself which is introducing this clipping.

I do not have the 'Set the same volume level for all songs' setting enabled.

What this means is that Spotify's volume control doesn't just attenuate down from a maximum volume of 0 dBFS (the maximum volume level for a digital audio signal) at 100%, it seems to be actually attempting to amplify the signal, meaning that the waveform ends up clipped if it's already close to or at 0dBFS and therefore cannot be pushed any further.

This seems like a serious oversight for an application whose raison d'être is playing music!

Can someone from Spotify comment on what might be going on here? What is the correct volume to set Spotify at so that the digital signal is being neither attentuated (effectively reducing bit depth), or amplified (potentially introducing clipping), so that I can just control the volume using the Windows system volume instead?

[chipples · Accepted solution]

In case anyone is interested, or has this problem, I accidentally fixed it. I enabled this 'Set the same volume level for all songs' settings, which fixed the problem, but I didn't want to leave it enabled, in case the volume normalisation impacted the dynamic range of any of my music. However, when I disabled the setting again, the problem didn't come back! The song now plays without clipping those bass notes. Who knows why, but it did seem to work.

[chipples]

I've just experienced this issue again with a different track, and my above solution did not fix it:

https://open.spotify.com/track/6ReqI2SKrLLRrJqZQQqzpT

[fluidzspotify17]

If you have premium.  Try Fidelify, and use Asio/wasapi in settings, it bypasses the Windows mixer.

[chipples · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the tip! I might have a look at that.

In the meantime, I finally solved my problem. I uninstalled the RealTek drivers from my system, and enabled Microsoft's default 'HD Audio Driver'. Problem solved! All the tracks that were peaking too loud and clipping, now peak just a touch below 0. RealTek was obviously introducing some sort of volume normalization which was poorly normalised and causing clipping. 

[radiopro]

I have found audio clipping / distortion coming from several clips as well as various level of sound. I have found that there is no 'real' audio quality being maintained by Spotify. Even on Andriod phones, I found your problem to be noticeble. My theory is either, they don't care ( which probably isn't the case) or whoever rips the audio does not do so by industry standards.

Great Questiona and Insight!!!

[rfurr]

I found my problem was the Windows 10 Sound Effects was enabled.  Disabling this allowed me to turn up the Spotify Desktop volume to 100% w/o any distortion.  And the Volume Mixer started working as expected.  See attached pic for instructions.

[anandatrulley]

It seems to be windows drivers that are the issue...

I had the exact same bass clipping issue.  As it turns out, it appears that it's not spotify at all.  It's the windows audio drivers.  Some drivers will work better than others depending on which audio hardware you have, but it's definitely windows, not spotify.  I can crank the spotify volume up all the way and lower the windows volume and it sounds great.  The flip side was that I could crank the windows volume all the way and find a lower spotify volume where it still sounded great.  Here's the kicker though...if I record the music on Audacity at full spotify volume and full windows volume, it sounds super distorted...but when I export that recorded file and play it on a non windows system (in this case my factory audio system in a toyota camry) and crank the volume up all the way, no distortion.  That means that the audio file that I recorded was getting a perfect signal from the source (spotify) and that the amplification after the source (windows drivers) is what's distorting it.  My windows audio is run off of sound blaster audio, but it's just some onboard audio hardware that came on my motherboard.  I think the solution for those looking to play primarily off of windows without extra amplification from an outside source like an audio receiver would be to get an actual audio card maybe?  I'm guessing the drivers for these would fix the issue at hand.  Another sign that it's not spotify is that I can play from my new sony reciever (model STRDN1080) that has built in spotify compatibility and crank that as high as I want with no distortion.