Spotify Crackling noise on local files

[TokyoRailgun]

Plan

Premium

Country

UK

Device

PC

Operating System

Windows 10

My Question or Issue

For about 3 weeks now, anytime i go to play local files. i get horrible cracking from spotify on playback, almost like the sounds been turned up too much. the song plays but there's no point in listening due to it. however its only on my PC because I've used these sames song on my note 9 daily without issue. I've played the files on windows media player and the crackling is not present. I'm assuming an update is what caused the issue. but it's a big problem for me.

[Peachi]

This issue is driving me nuts. Aside from that Spotify is so slow now too for desktop, it used to work just fine. I almost can't take the issues anymore. Always something. Why can't they get it right anymore? How hard can it be? 

[alexdboer]

Same here! I thought I was going crazy

[co-sine]

Me too!! It was all good before my new install of Spotify, I tried desktop version and UWP version, same problem occurs. Other music players don't have this issue.

The crackling noise come from the punch or bass sounds.

Also, all the file format is Apple AAC format.

Just upload the computer sound recording to address this issue!!!

Plz fix!!!

[TokyoRailgun]

off topic, but whats the name of that song. the videos too compressed to make out the kanji portion. but yeah its the exact same on mine. if they cant fix this i may endup having to look elsewhere.

[Jeremy]

Hey there folks,

Thank you for your posts here in the Community.

Can you try to perform a clean reinstall of the app to make sure there's no old cache files causing this. 

We also suggest that you have a look at this article on our support site.

It would also be great if you'd let us know how much free space you have on your computer: Open File Explorer. Use the keyboard shortcut, Windows key + E or tap the folder icon in the taskbar. Tap or click 'This PC' from the left pane. The amount of free space on the hard disk will be shown under the Windows (C:) drive.

If the issue persists - can you provide us a screen recording? That will make us understand more directly what's going on from your end.

We'll keep an eye out for your replies.

Cheers 🙂

[co-sine]

Kenshi Yonezu - Eine Kleine [アイネクライネ]

[TokyoRailgun]

Hello,

i tried the clean install. However nothing changed, i was actually really hoping it would be the miracle lol.

I've looked on the linked post and couldn't find anything relevant to this issue. however it should be said, from my experience lower "frequency??" songs or maybe lower bass i'm not too sure on the lingo don't have it happen as often.

As for storage there is 39.7Gbs free on the drive spotify is installed too, however before the issue arose i had used the drive and spotify at as little as 4Gbs free.

Included is a clip that shows the difference, this was actually the song i discovered the issue on.  

[co-sine]

didn't work as well, same perfromance.

and I've already posted my screen recording on my previous reply.

[Jeremy]

Hey there again @TokyoRailgun and @co-sine,

Thank you for your replies and confirmation 🙂

Does this occur with all your local files or specific ones?

Also - can you let us know about the ones in a different format than the AAC? Do you have MP3 ones? If so - how do those sound?

Keep us posted 🙂

Cheers!

[co-sine]

Alright, end of testing, here is the results:

First, yes it occurs on all my local files, not online streaming tracks.

I got the one FLAC file of certain track, and used foobar2000 to convert them into 5 types of file:

1. MP3, CBR 320kbps ------------ no crackling noise

2. Apple AAC, VBR 320kbps ---- crackling noise

3. Apple AAC, CVBR 512kbps --- crackling noise

4. Apple AAC, CBR 512kbps ----- crackling noise

5. Apple Lossless (ALAC) --------- no crackling noise

After testing I can tell it's the encoder issue of Apple AAC, maybe y'all can just upgrade the aac encoder of windows verison. BTW Android device doesn't have this issue, only desktop verison (both UWP and Win32 application).