Playback quality in LMMS bad on nightly branch | LMMS | Page 1

dim zodiac Feb 16, 2026, 8:56 AM

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Hi. I tried updating from Alpha to Nightly in November last year, but the sound quality was bad, so I downgraded back to alpha, assuming this nightly was just bugged. Seeing the new features I wanted to give it another shot. But the audio quality is still bad, so now I'm convinced it's some sort of upgrade to the audio playback that has an edge case that nobody else seems to have encountered.
Here are 2 videos. The one that starts with WACUP playback of the track is on the NIGHTLY I downloaded today, while the other one is on ALPHA 1.3

As you can hear, the LMMS playback sounds like it's being compressed for some reason. I tried changing the output library from SDL to any of the others, I tried messing with windows settings, but I haven't had any luck. I also tried basically all permutations of the SDL output settings.

I am using Windows 11 23H2
My headphone is a corsair virtuoso wireless xt (dongle wireless, not bluetooth. it's not a microphone issue, i tried restricting access to my microphone for all apps in windows settings and the quality was just as bad)

Any help is appreciated!

wintry tangle Feb 16, 2026, 5:22 PM

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dim zodiac Hi. I tried updating from Alpha to Nightly in November last year, but the sound ...

it's not a microphone issue
It could be. If you have any peripherals like a microphone connected, your soundcard could be 'interfered', so shut down, remove connected perihelia and try again, however do also set backend to SDL, because for Windows, that is the correct choice!
Also, for Nightly ID, please Screenshoot your project tittle and post it

fluid nebula Feb 16, 2026, 6:04 PM

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dim zodiac Hi. I tried updating from Alpha to Nightly in November last year, but the sound ...

What sample rate is your device running (check in settings)

dim zodiac Feb 16, 2026, 9:53 PM

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Everything is set to 48000 hz stereo in both windows and lmms

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As for removing microphone, I am not able to unplug all my microphones because one of them is built into my laptop. ( Asus vivobook 15 pro oled)

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I am mostly perplexed how an issue like this could have started to appear between versions

fluid nebula Feb 16, 2026, 10:02 PM

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I want to try something real quick that you might want to test

Will be back soon

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And also how are you playing the sound from LMMS? A sample clip?

dim zodiac Feb 16, 2026, 10:07 PM

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Which sound? sounds in that track are sample clips for beat/bassline, sample tracks for one-time effects, and vsts synth1 64bit and bassmidivsti hooked up to timbres of heaven v4.00 soundfont for instruments

fluid nebula Feb 16, 2026, 10:09 PM

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dim zodiac Which sound? sounds in that track are sample clips for beat/bassline, sample tra...

The main sound that plays
I can see for one of them you have it playing in WACUP

dim zodiac Feb 16, 2026, 10:09 PM

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Thats just an export of the entire project

fluid nebula Feb 16, 2026, 10:09 PM

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ohhh right right

dim zodiac Feb 16, 2026, 10:14 PM

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i wonder if it's sample specific though, because the bug does seem to be sort of dependent on the instrumentalisaion. there are other tracks where i can't hear a difference. i will send the samples that play during the portion in the videos

fluid nebula Feb 16, 2026, 10:16 PM

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dim zodiac i wonder if it's sample specific though, because the bug does seem to be sort of...

It’s probably the samples.
Currently samples are processed in a way that is unconditional. Avoiding this unconditional processing when it isn’t needed might fix it. No guarantees that this will work though.

I will take a look when I’m back home.

dim zodiac Feb 16, 2026, 10:17 PM

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track 1 is built like this (order of files is top to bottom)

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(no fx on any of them)

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and at the end of every bar is a shaker into a crash (no fx either)

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this sample is on a track in the background

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that's all the samples in that section

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if this alone doesn't help narrow down the issue i can try assembling the project's instrument references after work and send the project file and the dependencies over. it'd just be a bit of a mess because there's like 18 instrument tracks lol

fluid nebula Feb 17, 2026, 1:07 AM

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dim zodiac track 1 is built like this (order of files is top to bottom)

Can you test this and see if it fixes it?

dim zodiac Feb 17, 2026, 1:10 AM

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It'll be another few hours (6+) until I'll be able to test it, but I will try it later today.

dim zodiac Feb 17, 2026, 7:29 AM

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unfortunately the issue persists

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this does only seem to affect in-daw playback at least, as an export sounds just as i would expect

dim zodiac Feb 17, 2026, 7:53 AM

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i tried spamming drums on the bassline because i thought there was some overlap between when the glitch happens and when the waveform in the header bar turns red. and, well, it might be?

i tried recording videos of it again, but they don't show it very well, because obs limits the volume of my recording. it's basically like the previous video, where the nightly is quieter and occasionally seems to be ducking in volume.
but what i found is that on the new version, the relevant spot is just quieter, so it kind of feels like there is some project-wide auto compression that's happening....
i tried raising the master volume slider to 200% and while on the alpha it clips and crackles and gets really loud, on the nightly there is no perceivable difference between 80% and 200%

wintry tangle Feb 17, 2026, 5:33 PM

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dim zodiac i tried spamming drums on the bassline because i thought there was some overlap ...

In AFP, Do you have same base-velocity in Nightly as in Alpha?

dim zodiac Feb 17, 2026, 10:01 PM

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I didnt even know that field existed

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Why would it be different on nightly vs alpha when the project is identical?

wintry tangle Feb 18, 2026, 11:56 PM

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dim zodiac Why would it be different on nightly vs alpha when the project is identical?

Why would it be different on nightly
Prpl because of some experiment, but more important, was it the explanation for the lower volume?

dim zodiac Feb 18, 2026, 11:56 PM

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no

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it's not that the individual instrument is louder or quieter, it's something that affects the entire project when it's played in editor.

fluid nebula Feb 19, 2026, 12:03 AM

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It’s hard to say if the quality is different

The difference is faint if anything..

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Have you tried using PortAudio? Since you said it doesn’t happen on export, so it might be the device, and that backend was recently refactored

dim zodiac Feb 19, 2026, 12:04 AM

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i tried using portaudio and it sounds very muddy

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i won't have time to check anything today but i think it's only subtle because of my obs settings. on my end it's more noticable. i can try getting a higher quality video maybe tomorrow

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when you mention the backend refactor, is that just PortAudio or also SDL or whatnot? if the latter, could you point me at a nightly version before the refactor as well? I'm down to try earlier nightlies around major changes to isolate what changes caused the issue

fluid nebula Feb 19, 2026, 1:16 AM

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Its just PortAudio currently

dim zodiac Feb 21, 2026, 1:10 PM

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hi, i had some time today

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i recorded the segment on the alpha with volume set to 200%, then installed the build you sent earlier in this thread, then recorded with volume set to 200% again

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here are the waveforms

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(i also added extra snares)

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here is the audio file (loud)

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this should give a better impression of the difference than my obs recordings did

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only beat and bassline is more subtle but there is a difference

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here is another view of the same waveform where the "dark blue" is parts where the ALPHA has sound and the NIGHTLY does not. the other colors are various kinds of overlap.

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same deal but for the "full mix" version of the waveform. a lot more blue in this one

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here's just the drums. it's a lot more subtle of course. first half is alpha, second half is nightly.

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oh, it's actually only more subtle because i made a mistake: i recorded the "alpha" version of the bassline at 100% master volume, while the "nightly" version was still set to 200% from the previous test. so the drums comparison should look more like this when both recordings are set to 200%

fluid nebula Feb 21, 2026, 1:41 PM

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dim zodiac oh, it's actually only more subtle because i made a mistake: i recorded the "alp...

Can you get the actual audio file and load that into Audacity

Then load alpha and nightly and do a zero test (inverting the alpha signal and summing it with the actual audio file, and then do the same for the nightly)

just a better way to confirm if there’s actually a difference rather than sight seeing

dim zodiac Feb 21, 2026, 1:41 PM

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like, loading the export rather than recording the playback from the DAW into audacity?

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how do i invert the alpha signal and sum it with the audio file? i'm not particularly fluent in audacity

fluid nebula Feb 21, 2026, 1:51 PM

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dim zodiac like, loading the export rather than recording the playback from the DAW into au...

Forgot this was a project again lol
So just get the alpha and nightly exports loaded into a single Audacity session (same settings and everything)

Then invert the alpha signal
Then mix that signal into the nightly signal

Audacity should have effects to do this (Effect > Special > Invert)

dim zodiac Feb 21, 2026, 1:52 PM

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ok i'll do that a few times for different configurations

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i'll also still get recordings of the in daw playback because the bug is only audible to me in the in daw playback on nightly

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i can mix them in different ways to see if that's correct

fluid nebula Feb 21, 2026, 1:54 PM

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Its kind of hard because the recording and export probably go through different signal chains so the sound may not be exactly identical

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But if theres a huge difference we will know

dim zodiac Feb 21, 2026, 1:54 PM

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yeah, it's not, but the difference between DAW-Alpha and DAW-Nightly is what perplexes me

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i'll get the data soon loading

fluid nebula Feb 21, 2026, 1:56 PM

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dim zodiac yeah, it's not, but the difference between DAW-Alpha and DAW-Nightly is what per...

Oh you are having problems the alpha live playback and the nightly live playback?

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That would make more sense

dim zodiac Feb 21, 2026, 1:56 PM

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i've never had problems with alpha live playback

fluid nebula Feb 21, 2026, 1:57 PM

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I guess seeing a difference in quality

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What I meant to say

dim zodiac Feb 21, 2026, 1:57 PM

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i suppose a more technically correct statement would be that the difference between the quality of the alpha live playback and the alpha live export has never been audible to me

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oh wait i forgot to add the snares on nightly

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ugh i should do this with just the bassline because the instruments i use have too much entropy

dim zodiac Feb 21, 2026, 2:39 PM

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ok

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the difference between exports is minimal, the difference between lives is wonky, and the live vs export ones are mostly down to volume, although the nightly one is uneven because of the glitch

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raw files

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.... after this myriad checks i figure out that "export nightly" was at a different sample rate to all the others...
it's too late for today to do it all over again so i hope this suffices 🙏

fluid nebula Feb 27, 2026, 10:52 PM

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dim zodiac raw files

for live playback, what was the audio device you used in settings?

dim zodiac Feb 27, 2026, 11:38 PM

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I didnt mess with settings after upgrading/downgrading because the downgrade installation process is annoying since it resets all my folder paths because if i dont delete the settings file lmms refuses to open

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So it's whatever the default is

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Sdl

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At the start of this thread i said though that i notice the issue regardless of my audio device output settings though. I tried every sdl sample rate before joining here, and PortAudio just sounded underwater, and i didnt get any output with other options

fluid nebula Mar 1, 2026, 3:41 AM

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dim zodiac At the start of this thread i said though that i notice the issue regardless of ...

Can you double check your output settings, just to make sure nothing funny is going on external to LMMS?

dim zodiac Mar 1, 2026, 3:44 AM

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also export settings were like this in case that matters. i didnt touch anything basically

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these menus are a bit confusing to me because they changed from the alpha. in alpha i always made sure to select "sinc best (slowest)" on export

fluid nebula Mar 1, 2026, 3:46 AM

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I was hinting at checking your Windows audio settings basically

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Just to make sure

dim zodiac Mar 1, 2026, 3:46 AM

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oh

fluid nebula Mar 1, 2026, 3:47 AM

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dim zodiac these menus are a bit confusing to me because they changed from the alpha. in al...

That setting did not really do much and was problematic

dim zodiac Mar 1, 2026, 3:47 AM

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what are you looking for in audio settings?

fluid nebula Mar 1, 2026, 3:47 AM

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Just general stuff, volume and stuff are as expected and whatnot

dim zodiac Mar 1, 2026, 3:48 AM

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yea

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i dont have my usual device connected right now as it's in my old apartment, but i remember double checking the settings in relation to this before

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it's 48000Hz stereo and then the volume is normal. the settings dont change between me upgrading and downgrading

fluid nebula Mar 1, 2026, 3:50 AM

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Your LMMS sample rate is at 44100 Hz

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Maybe match them up and see how it sounds?

dim zodiac Mar 1, 2026, 3:50 AM

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it sounds the same

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it's one of the things i tried before making this thread

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i can try again when i've got access to my headset again

fluid nebula Mar 1, 2026, 3:51 AM

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Hmm... Is there a way you can send the project?

dim zodiac Mar 1, 2026, 3:51 AM

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sec

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this is just the parts that are needed for the comparison shenanigans i did the other day

📎 testproject.zip

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when it comes to exporting the full project, it seems like a nightmare because of all the dependencies that can't be resolved/packaged automatically. but the audio is weird on this so it shoooould be enough?

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i can hear the difference on my laptop speakers as well so i doubt it's just a thing for the audio output device

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it's also here on 48000hz. the beat 1 just seems ducked compared to the export

fluid nebula Mar 1, 2026, 4:36 AM

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Pretty much sounds the same for me

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Strange

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Nothing seems wrong

dim zodiac Mar 1, 2026, 4:41 AM

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Huhh

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Is it my laptop...?

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But it's different in the audio files from last week right?

fluid nebula Mar 1, 2026, 4:43 AM

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dim zodiac But it's different in the audio files from last week right?

Yeah they sound different

dim zodiac Mar 1, 2026, 4:43 AM

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I'll look into things some more next time i have my headset...

dim zodiac Mar 2, 2026, 11:57 AM

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i'll have to delay the checks a bit because i've got a busy week without much time to dive into the issue ahead of me. wanted to give a heads up and just thank you for your help and patience so far though 🙏

dim zodiac Mar 17, 2026, 1:30 PM

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ok so i figured that it might be os specific so i installed debian on wsl to try and run the linux nightly build to see if it's any different, but after extracting the appimage im unable to run it because of error while loading shared libraries: libgpg-error.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

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i dont know enough about linux to really go further than this. i tried downloading the file from online but the closest i got said that it's just a symlink to another file, so that's a dead end for me. couldn't find any sudo apt-get instructions for installing the nightly on the download page either, and i tried a couple combinations but it couldn't find a package. shrug

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my other idea is to ask friends to try the test project to try and figure out some kind of commonality if it is OS/hardware dependent but after this whole adventure i dont have the energy for that today

#Playback quality in LMMS bad on nightly branch