Crackling Audio

[sacred blade]

Would anybody have any idea what would be causing audio crackling? I disabled all of my mods and the issue persists. It can be heard through my stream on discord, so I assume its an issue with the game itself. Any help on this would be appreciated as I've only found forum conversations dealing with Linux systems and I'm playing on windows 10. I've played for around 350 hours and this problem only just now appeared. Heres a list of some shit ive already done:
Tried to update audio drivers - most recent version installed
Uninstalled and reinstalled the game
Disabled all mods + re-enabled
I've not messed with some of the secret settings and it hasn't changed anything
Really got no idea whats goin on with it

[neon bronze]

Does the issue occur when playing without mods? If not, then it is a mod.

[pastel elbow]

disabled all of my mods and the issue persists

i'm assuming it's only crackling in factorio and not other applications?
and the other applications are fine while factorio is running? (ie music/youtube in the background?)

[neon bronze]

Are people watching your stream also hearing the crackling? To rule out faulty audio playback equipment.

Try disabling unused audio outputs. Try changing the output bit depth to at least 16 bits. Try changing output sample rate to 48 kHz

[sacred blade]

The issue does occur, regardless of mods enabled or not

[sacred blade]

Yes, every other application is fine except for factorio

[sacred blade]

Yes, I can record a audio sample of it if you're curious. I find it rather strange that that occurs as well - generally when Ive experienced similar issues in the past it was due to an issue with the audio device itself, not the game.

[sacred blade]

I changed the bit depth prior, it was already set to 16 bits and is currently. Same thing with the output sample rate

I had already previously disabled all other audio outputs except for my headset, so its not an issue there

I had been playing factorio prior to purchasing the space age dlc on 2.0 and it was fine. I purchased the DLC, installed it and never played until just a few days ago when I noticed this issue. Nobody else seems to have run into it tho

[sacred blade]

I purchased the DLC weeks ago, sometime early november

[pastel elbow]

does it happen with space age disabled?

[sacred blade]

Yup. I actually haven’t thought to try re enabling it and seeing if that corrects the issue but it started when space age was enable and persisted after i disabled the full list

[neon bronze]

Your system does not have any strange or unusual audio device, such as a "sound card"? Using only standard sound devices such as usually comes with the motherboard.

[sacred blade]

Nope, nothing seemingly out of the ordinary. This is a recently new install of windows

[neon bronze]

Do other games have this crackling issue?

[sacred blade]

Nope, not even sounds running over the game

Alright sp

Just launched the game. Not sure what happened but my audio is now fixed

[pastel elbow]

oh

[sacred blade]

I appreciate your guys's time

[pastel elbow]

was going to say, what happens if you run an ubuntu usb and try launching the game off that

🦆

[sacred blade]

Not seeking help or anything - just thought I'd tell you guys in case this was something intriguing to you.

Installed a bunch of mods the day before yesterday, realized yesterday afternoon that the issue was no longer a thing. Audio sounded great, no stutters or weird skips, nothing. Today I get on, hit with the same exact thing as before. No changes made to settings, mods, everything was the same as the day before.

Partially debating on whether or not I should post something on the forum site - see if anyone else has ran into this. Only reason why I'm not is cause I'm assuming its an issue with my system and not the game. Still weird asf