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PSA: Slowdowns & audio glitches mid-song in RS on PC? Using external or PCI sound card? Tried everything? Here's the fix!


Billkwando

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I used to have no problems with Rocksmith, but then I got a fancy Auzen soundcard (PCI), because I wanted Dolby Live for games that have surround sound, like Freespace.

 

All of a sudden, I had audio glitches left and right, and couldn't start up the game without the audio glitching out and slowing down/distorting. I often couldn't make it through a whole song without the game freaking out. As my wife wisely pointed out, you would think that the game designers would've taken into account that actual musicians might want to play the game, and they might have stuff like fancy audio hardware and ASIO drivers. Oh well.

 

I dealt with the errors and glitches in the game. Also I could no longer do video capture, without major lag and glitches, which had never been a problem before. I was reduced to pointing a camera at my TV if I wanted to make a video. I would have to kill all my Firefox processes, to even have a chance of getting it to run right, and even on a fresh restart, the game would still glitch out on the title screen. I would have to minimize and then maximize the game to get the audio to go back to normal. I was using programs that kill tasks when the game started up (which came with it's own set of problems, like important diagnostic services being shut down and not restarting upon exiting the game). I tried defragging my HDD. I tried various Ubisoft ini fixes, which only managed to make my guitar sound like crap. Some recommended turning Exclusive Mode off. Nothing worked.

 

All this happened because I mistakenly assumed, with the help of some bad Google advice (or maybe the card documentation, I can't remember), that when you install an external sound card, you must disable the onboard motherboard audio, in the bios. This is not the case. I'm not guaranteeing that this is true 100% across the board that it works, but I have a feeling that it is probably true for virtually everyone, and even if you have doubts, it can't hurt to try.

 

All you have to do is reboot your computer and hit F2/Del/whatever key gets you into the bios for your particular board, and enable onboard audio. On my Asrock B75 mobo, it was found in a menu under Southbridge Configuration. Hopefully your internal audio has some sort of digital output. Mine are both optical. You can switch between the 2 sound cards via right clicking on the speaker icon in the system tray, under Playback Devices (I'm on Win 7, YMMV) and change the default audio device to the one you want to use.

 

The only problem that remains, naturally, is the physical connection to your audio receiver/speakers. Naturally you will have to use a switchbox or splitter of some kind, or manually move your audio connections from one card to another. In my case, I already use an old Joytech AV Control Center 2 switchbox, which has 4 optical inputs (switches 1-4), one of which was already dedicated to my PCI audio output. So I just moved my Wii to switch #5, since the Wii doesn't use optical anyway, and hooked the computer up to that. If you'll be needing a switchbox (they make optical-only ones), I find that monoprice.com has the best and cheapest options. Beware of Monoprice stuff sold on Amazon, as it's often marked up for way higher than what you'd pay if ordering from Monoprice directly.

 

Now I can easily switch whenever I want, but since I rarely use the Dolby anymore anyway, and unless I notice any difference in audio quality when listening to music, I'll probably end up using the onboard audio again much of the time. I was just too stubborn to give up that otherwise awesome sound card that I paid money for, and instead endured years of torturous Rocksmith performance, and countless hours of looking for solutions to make RS play nice with my PCI card.

 

Believe me, if you enjoy playing RS regularly but have this issue, it's worth giving it a try! My RS is perfect again!

 

It wouldn't hurt to make this a sticky somewhere, if nobody objects. :)

Words of wisdom for CDLC charters:

 

"When in doubt, steal a tone from Kansas' Carry On Wayward Son"

 

- Billkwando

 

Download my L'Arc~en~Ciel Ken "Love Driver Cat" custom Inlays here

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I was gifted a Focusrite Scarlett Solo (gen 2) to use with my Peavey Revalver software. The audio sounded so good that I made it as my default sound device. When I tried it with Rocksmith, It sounded great, however the latency made it unplayable. I tried the ubisoft recommended latency fixes, but they did not work.

 

Now I have to switch it to onboard sound when I want to play Rocksmith. It's very easy to do in windows 10. You just left click the sound icon in the taskbar, and if you have multiple sound devices enabled the current one will be displayed and there will be a downward arrow next to it. Just click the arrow and select the device you want.

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I was gifted a Focusrite Scarlett Solo (gen 2) to use with my Peavey Revalver software. The audio sounded so good that I made it as my default sound device. When I tried it with Rocksmith, It sounded great, however the latency made it unplayable. I tried the ubisoft recommended latency fixes, but they did not work.

 

Now I have to switch it to onboard sound when I want to play Rocksmith. It's very easy to do in windows 10. You just left click the sound icon in the taskbar, and if you have multiple sound devices enabled the current one will be displayed and there will be a downward arrow next to it. Just click the arrow and select the device you want.

 Yup, it's about that easy in Win7 also. So you have both audio devices connected via switchbox, like me, or do you have to manually reconnect?

 

and yeah, pretty much everything ubisoft puts in their faq is useless.

Words of wisdom for CDLC charters:

 

"When in doubt, steal a tone from Kansas' Carry On Wayward Son"

 

- Billkwando

 

Download my L'Arc~en~Ciel Ken "Love Driver Cat" custom Inlays here

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 Yup, it's about that easy in Win7 also. So you have both audio devices connected via switchbox, like me, or do you have to manually reconnect?

 

 

and yeah, pretty much everything ubisoft puts in their faq is useless.

 

 

I don't have a switchbox. I am connecting them manually for now. Mainly because the onboard audio doesn't provide enough power to my headphones. I just unplug my headphones from the Scarlett and into a Logitech surround sytem that plugs into the motherboard. If I plug the headphones directly into the motherboard I can't get the volume high enough. I have looked into switchboxes though. that would make it easier.

 

I also have another computer in my gym room that I use to play while on my spin bike. For that computer I use a cheapo Behringer guitar interface for the audio output. (I use that instead of the onboard audio because of the volume issue as well.) However, unlike the Scarlett, there is no latency issues with the Behringer. But, I did get popping noises. I followed the Ubisoft instructions and was able to get it to work perfect. I don't remember for certain but I want to say that setting the audio engine to 1 did the trick.

 

I think the "higher tier" audio interfaces just don't play well with Rocksmith. I really wish they did though. My Sennheisers with the Scarlett is a sweet combo.

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