Audio pitch problems

Bashe

n00b
Joined
Aug 16, 2004
Messages
9
I'm not sure what started to cause this or why, but I'm having a few problems regarding the playback of certain sound files and midis on my computer.

The problem goes like this: whenever I play back a midi or a Windows scheme sound, the pitch is slightly lower than it should be. I don't know what to do with the Windows sounds, but I can fix the midi problem by making Winamp's midi output DirectSound instead of the Microsoft GS synth. However, this doesn't fix games, and, as said before, the Windows scheme sounds along with some other program sounds, are wrong. Not affected by the problem are usually wavs played back through an external program, and sounds in games, sans midi playback.

I'm using the onboard audio of my motherboard, which is an Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe. I tried uninstalling the Realtek AC97 audio drivers and reinstalling them using the latest ones I could find on the internet, but it did not fix the problem. I would just install a sound card, but I'm having problems with my case and the sound card won't even fit for some strange reason, considering it's a standard sound card.

However, when I completely unhook my computer and turn the power all the way off, undo the side and try to mess with putting that sound card in, but not get it in, when I put my computer back together, the sound will be normal again, but only for that session. Once I restart, it'll be messed up again.

This is a very strange problem, and I've done all I can do to try and fix it permanently, so now I'm here, asking for help.

Your help is appreciated! :)

For comparison, here's an audio file, played back the "wrong" way and played back the correct, normal way.
http://www.bashedonavan.com/wrong.wav
http://www.bashedonavan.com/correct.wav
(Sorry for the hissing, but that's another problem for another time.)
 
I don't know a fix for you, but I bet I can tell you what's causing it.

I have a MOTU 828mkII which is a firewire recording interface. It has a control panel app which allows me to select which sample rate I want it to run at. To say the drivers are crap on windows is an understatement. Long story short, due to driver miscommunications, sometimes the interface is set to playback at 44.1KHz while Winamp is still pumping out 48KHz. The result? Slightly slower, with lower pitch. The effect is dramatic when the source is 96KHz and playback is 44.1KHz. Just like old school slowing down the tape speed. To fix it I close winamp, set the interface to some random sample rate, then again at the rate I want. Re-launch winamp, all is good.
 
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