ZzzBlackLight wrote:

because the integrated realtek sucks as everyone knows.

New to me.
Maybe you should check your settings and make sure it's really the sound card before considering to buy an external one.
I only know of producers and DJ's in need of an external sound card for uncompressed sound, ultra low latency and multiple output sources.

NoYzE wrote:

ZzzBlackLight wrote:

because the integrated realtek sucks as everyone knows.

New to me.
Maybe you should check your settings and make sure it's really the sound card before considering to buy an external one.
I only know of producers and DJ's in need of an external sound card for uncompressed sound, ultra low latency and multiple output sources.

It's not that I mean it sucks very much - on my old PC it was even quite ok, but this one is defect and I can't do anything about it, so i'm just buying a new one.
Just wanted some opinions on 1/2/3 i said up there.

From what I've heard, any sound card'll beat integrated in terms of sound quality (though I can't really see this being relevant for osu!). I don't think there should be any lagg whatsoever.

- [ U z z I ] - wrote:

From what I've heard, any sound card'll beat integrated in terms of sound quality (though I can't really see this being relevant for osu!). I don't think there should be any lagg whatsoever.

Most, if not, all pci-e sound cards will have latency. Some of them even have a variable delay which males it impossible to compensate for. Onboard is the best way to go for clicking dots. If it does not work, buy a new motherboard.

Do not buy asus sound cards if you plan on playing osu!.

Then what should I buy? I want it specifically for osu!, I want some quality sounds.
God dammit :/

Most USB headphones probably have a static latency.

ZzzBlackLight wrote:

I want it specifically for osu!, I want some quality sounds.

Why do you want :quality: audio when every single mp3 on here is either youtube rip or transcode from 320kbps mp3 to 192? All you're going to manage to do is make shit audio sound shittier.

What exactly is "defect" about your current audio setup? Care to elaborate?

Buying quality headphones did a lot in terms of better sound for me.
Also, you can turn up the sample rate of on-board sound cards in windows control panel.
Up to 24 bit 192000 Hz Studio Quality.

Lach wrote:

Why do you want :quality: audio when every single mp3 on here is either youtube rip or transcode from 320kbps mp3 to 192? All you're going to manage to do is make shit audio sound shittier.

I was hipster I tried making beatmaps around .ogg vorbis files.

osu needs flac support

Okay, so my problem is that when I got a new PC with a new sound card, it sucked. It was much more quiet than the last one I had even though it's Realtek too - I fixed than problem a bit though through tweaking settings and setting the equalizer. My headset is quite nice and had no problems whatsoever on my old PC. The reason why I want a sound card is the problem which it makes when talking on any Voice program - skype, teamspeak, anything. I tried uninstalling my card drivers, going on stock windows ones and it didn't fix it too.
I got an On/Off switch on my headphones. Let's say, I speak with someone on skype. I want to listen to a song with my headphones, so I put my mic off. I start the song, everything is nice, but the person i'm talking to is hearing everything I can hear in my PC, even though the mic is off. I read for a week already, people told me to disable Stereo Mix or "What you hear" which I did, it didn't help. Changing the places of my plugs didn't help either, the same thing is happening and everyone can hear what I hear. Messing around with settings didn't help, nothing did. Many people post these problems on forums and none of them had a good and helpful answer, that's why I didn't bother to even try and ask on forums. The only thing that might help is just change the sound card, so I came to ask if there is lag so I can't play osu! anymore. I don't know what the hell I should do with it right now, I'm so pissed. I don't think you guys will be able to help me, but if someone knows why this might be happening please help me ._.

ZzzBlackLight wrote:

Okay, so my problem is that when I got a new PC with a new sound card, it sucked. It was much more quiet than the last one I had even though it's Realtek too - I fixed than problem a bit though through tweaking settings and setting the equalizer. My headset is quite nice and had no problems whatsoever on my old PC. The reason why I want a sound card is the problem which it makes when talking on any Voice program - skype, teamspeak, anything. I tried uninstalling my card drivers, going on stock windows ones and it didn't fix it too.
I got an On/Off switch on my headphones. Let's say, I speak with someone on skype. I want to listen to a song with my headphones, so I put my mic off. I start the song, everything is nice, but the person i'm talking to is hearing everything I can hear in my PC, even though the mic is off. I read for a week already, people told me to disable Stereo Mix or "What you hear" which I did, it didn't help. Changing the places of my plugs didn't help either, the same thing is happening and everyone can hear what I hear. Messing around with settings didn't help, nothing did. Many people post these problems on forums and none of them had a good and helpful answer, that's why I didn't bother to even try and ask on forums. The only thing that might help is just change the sound card, so I came to ask if there is lag so I can't play osu! anymore. I don't know what the hell I should do with it right now, I'm so pissed. I don't think you guys will be able to help me, but if someone knows why this might be happening please help me ._.

- Did you check if the issue is with the PC sound devices and not the headset itself? (the headset might bleed sound to the mic channel).
- Have your tried recording your mic while listening music in something that is not Skype? (both with the mic on and off).

Full Tablet wrote:

- Did you check if the issue is with the PC sound devices and not the headset itself? (the headset might bleed sound to the mic channel).
- Have your tried recording your mic while listening music in something that is not Skype? (both with the mic on and off).

Yes, I did check that the problem is the sound device, even with my headset completely unplugged, whenever I try to record something the other person can hear my system sounds.
- I tried it in Teamspeak too, and with a friends help. Same result, he could hear music from my Pc.

ZzzBlackLight wrote:

whenever I try to record something the other person can hear my system sounds.

Record something? Maybe it enables Stereomix, while recording.

NoYzE wrote:

ZzzBlackLight wrote:

whenever I try to record something the other person can hear my system sounds.

Record something? Maybe it enables Stereomix, while recording.

I mean record like just press the talk button and let a song in winamp run. The other person can hear it. Is it even possible to enable stereomix by itself? o_o

Can they hear your microphone and your sounds at the same time?
That's very weird.
I had to use Virtual Audio Cable and rewire my stereomix and mic to one virtual audio device to achieve that.

You may consider to completely remove your sound drivers (device manager -> uninstall) and let windows reinstall the default one (stereomix is enabled with realtek drivers only on my device) or reinstall the newest drivers from your mainboard manufacturer-site if the problem persists with windows default drivers after purging the old ones.

Other than that i really don't know what could help you, sorry

NoYzE wrote:

Can they hear your microphone and your sounds at the same time?
That's very weird.(

Yes, I know. Many people can't even achieve that when streaming for example, and they can hear my voice and the system with a quality as high as me, like a normal twitch.tv stream. I'll try to mess around tomorrow a bit with the drivers, maybe it will help but I tried it so many times I don't think it will. Still hoping for someone with a not integrated sound card to tell me an opinion about it. Thanks for helping me by the way

ZzzBlackLight wrote:

Still hoping for someone with a not integrated sound card to tell me an opinion about it.

I told you my opinion about it in my first post. I had used a xonar sound card for a while, and it's very difficult to play with. You can even ask lolcubes about it.

The card also seemed to cause bluescreens, but that could have to do with my motherboard, or something. I hardly notice the difference in audio quality between onboard, and shit sound card, for mp3s used in this game, since they sound terrible to begin with.

This thread sounds like it belongs more in tech support, than in gameplay & rankings.

Lach wrote:

ZzzBlackLight wrote:

Still hoping for someone with a not integrated sound card to tell me an opinion about it.

I told you my opinion about it in my first post. I had used a xonar sound card for a while, and it's very difficult to play with. You can even ask lolcubes about it.

The card also seemed to cause bluescreens, but that could have to do with my motherboard, or something. I hardly notice the difference in audio quality between onboard, and shit sound card, for mp3s used in this game, since they sound terrible to begin with.

This thread sounds like it belongs more in tech support, than in gameplay & rankings.

Well, to begin with it was about how the gameplay with other than on-board sound cards is, but it kinda changed along way.
And I don't want it to be 100% for better quality, just wanted to get it louder. My current card is to quiet for my liking.

Tech support problem maybe, but it's not specifically related to osu!

Can you provide the exact motherboard brand/model? I wouldn't trust google for finding out if other people have problems with this model though, it's kinda pointless unless you know what you're looking for. Everyone is too quick to blame everything in their PC. Also what headphones do you have?

ZzzBlackLight wrote:

Well, to begin with it was about how the gameplay with other than on-board sound cards is, but it kinda changed along way.
And I don't want it to be 100% for better quality, just wanted to get it louder. My current card is to quiet for my liking.

You can try reinstalling your sound drivers. Volume from your card should not be a problem unless your headphones have a higher than normal impedance. Also confirming that headphones do a lot more for sound quality than sound cards do. Most onboard sound is good enough these days.

Also try Control Panel > Sound > Communications > Do Nothing.
I have to use this myself, because my sound misbehaves at times and stays stuck on low volume. I also disable echo-cancellation and other automatic features in my voip applications since they also misbehave with the realtek drivers... and plugging in new USB devices mutes the current application in windows repeatedly until I restart it ?? ?? ...Blimey.

RaneFire wrote:

Tech support problem maybe, but it's not specifically related to osu!

Can you provide the exact motherboard brand/model? I wouldn't trust google for finding out if other people have problems with this model though, it's kinda pointless unless you know what you're looking for. Everyone is too quick to blame everything in their PC. Also what headphones do you have?

You can try reinstalling your sound drivers. Volume from your card should not be a problem unless your headphones have a higher than normal impedance. Also confirming that headphones do a lot more for sound quality than sound cards do. Most onboard sound is good enough these days.

Also try Control Panel > Sound > Communications > Do Nothing.
I have to use this myself, because my sound misbehaves at times and stays stuck on low volume. I also disable echo-cancellation and other automatic features in my voip applications since they also misbehave with the realtek drivers... and plugging in new USB devices mutes the current application in windows repeatedly until I restart it ?? ?? ...Blimey.

My headset is Creative Fatal1ty HS-800. The motherboard is msi B85-G43, quite a new one. I'm going to try to install the sound drivers from scratch.

If you want a hassle free, higher quality option you could invest in an external DAC/headphone amp. Like a FiiO or Zero DAC (on ebay). I've had a Zero since 2007 and it's great.

Ok, the problem was not with the headset, the settings of my sound card, or any other thing with software. I know now what was the problem - after doing stuff for 3 weeks already I just plugged my headset to the back motherboard jacks - works better, my system sounds are nearly non hear-able and that is fantastic. The problem was with the front audio panel - looks like never mobo's have a problem with the front panels - at start the back ones were much more quiet then the front, but with a bit of tweaking and putting the equalizer to rock it's fine now. As I found out, motherboard creators don't "shield" the cables from the front audio panel when connecting them to the motherboard or they just shield them wrong.
I still plan to change my headset to some USB now, I'm sick of Jacks and that sort of thing. Thank you everybody for your help, I really appreciate it. I guess we fixed a problem that many people on the internet have. Maybe someday someone with that kind of problem comes here and finds the solution to it

ZzzBlackLight wrote:

I still plan to change my headset to some USB now, I'm sick of Jacks and that sort of thing.

USB headsets can have a noticeable delay.

Full Tablet wrote:

USB headsets can have a noticeable delay.

Please tell me you're joking. I don't think about something like a 5$ mic, more something like a Razer Kraken on USB 3.0, would that have delay too? o_o

Glad you could sort that out so far
Can't say much about USB delay though.
Because no headset could compete with it I have professional Pioneer headphones and a simple USB headset around me neck xD
But i don't think USB will have too much delay.
There is still the Global offset option in osu to fix that.

I did suspect front panel, but you mentioned "high quality" sound broadcasted so I was puzzled and figured it must be a driver problem. Great to hear that's all it was though.

USB Headphones are generally inferior. With everything being done on the headphones, there isn't much budget for high quality while being affordable, with most audiophiles going for dedicated high-end sound cards, external dac/amp's and blowing the big bucks. As a result the USB headphones are mostly geared and priced for gamers who have poor hearing acuity It may be a similar situation to a dedicated sound card, but I have no experience with them and can't be certain.

The shielding in the rear panel should be adequate, since it is the thin twisted cables connected to the motherboard/front panel which are leaking the signal, or just the path all the way from the circuitry to the connection pins. There is no route/cables like these to the rear panel, and the shielding there is primarily to prevent interference from the power supply. Quality of sound through the rear panel is generally superior. Your motherboard has Realtek ALC892 and it's specifications are more than fine.

Now I'm at least able to play osu! again and that's what matters. I'm gonna get some cheap usb headset and see if there is any delay. I don't want to waste 120 USD on something I'll be barely using lel.

USB delaying or not depends on the driver software.

I once showed my friend osu! and I realized his supposedly expensive USB "gaming keyboard" with macro buttons and glowing lights had a delay so bad I might as well have been playing from Mars. Remember, simple and solid.

WolfCoder wrote:

USB delaying or not depends on the driver software.

I once showed my friend osu! and I realized his supposedly expensive USB "gaming keyboard" with macro buttons and glowing lights had a delay so bad I might as well have been playing from Mars. Remember, simple and solid.

I don't think that it was a "gaming keyboard", probably something shitty. Most mechanical kb's are usb as I recall, so they can't have delay lolol.

Can't read air quotes?

ZzzBlackLight wrote:

...because the integrated realtek sucks as everyone knows.

I've tried the integrated Realtek audio chip on my motherboard (ASRock 970 Extreme3), and didn't notice a difference at all in-comparison to my Xonar DG.

Integrated audio has come a long way from what it once was.

Lach wrote:

Do not buy asus sound cards if you plan on playing osu!.

Why?

I have a ASUS Xonar DG, and play osu! just fine (no bluescreens or whatever was mentioned), and I'm real sensitive to any kind of delay. I'm using UniXonar modded drivers though with the Low DPC latency package on Windows 7 (8 and 8.1 had issues). Can't speak for the quality of ASUS's drivers, but I've heard a good bit of negative things.

But in any case, if using an ASUS card, don't keep the audio control panel open if you don't have to (adds onto DPC latency), and don't enable GX mode, ever (that alone is the root cause of most bluescreen-related incidents along with audio crackling and etc. with ASUS cards).

ZzzBlackLight wrote:

...I still plan to change my headset to some USB now, I'm sick of Jacks and that sort of thing

I'd recommend onboard audio before any USB audio. I've never heard of a good USB audio solution yet, and mainly only hear of problems with them. I even had an old Logitech USB headset take out a port on my laptop before because the headset's controller overheated or something and fried...

As for general tips with any audio hardware:
- Don't pile on any sound enhancements (software bass, Beats by Dre, Dolby Home Theater, etc); those will likely add onto latency, CPU usage, and DPC latency
- Get proper drivers (there is no general guideline for this, just have to check which drivers work the best on your hardware)
- Get proper hardware (a $10 USB headset or sound card is likely going to be garbage compared to modern-day integrated audio chips; research into the hardware before buying)
- Use a proper interface (Wired has less latency and issues than wireless; avoid bluetooth period, use 3.5mm jacks if possible, or fallback to a wired USB solution if 3.5mm isn't possible)

Espionage724 wrote:

Lach wrote:

Do not buy asus sound cards if you plan on playing osu!.

Why?

I have a ASUS Xonar DG, and play osu! just fine (no bluescreens or whatever was mentioned), and I'm real sensitive to any kind of delay. I'm using UniXonar modded drivers though with the Low DPC latency package on Windows 7 (8 and 8.1 had issues). Can't speak for the quality of ASUS's drivers, but I've heard a good bit of negative things.

But in any case, if using an ASUS card, don't keep the audio control panel open if you don't have to (adds onto DPC latency), and don't enable GX mode, ever (that alone is the root cause of most bluescreen-related incidents along with audio crackling and etc. with ASUS cards).

I was using the low latency unixonar drivers, and I'm aware of the things that GX did. I have since done a fresh windows install, so I may chuck it back in and see if it still causes bluescreens, because it was pretty nice for listening to music because of the options.