New Windows 11 Desktop (Audio)

[herbk@comcast.net]

Greetings to all:
As earlier versions of Windows become difficult to manage (and our PC's are getting dated), we are
introducing a new machine with Windows 11.
One of the first programs I wanted to install was SDR-Console. The most current version
3.4, build 3871 went on as expected. I have a Cloud IQ radio on the local network so
I wanted to "try things out" and this was available and is now accessible.

While everything looks good and as expected, the strange part is the audio is garbled and
unintelligible. The mode is irrelevant: whether I am trying for amateur radio or WWV, all the
audio is unintelligible. At this point, I am listening to the computer via the front audio jack on
the Windows 11 machine with
headphones, but even if I set up a Bluetooth speaker it doesn't matter. No clean audio
with everything else looking OK.

Since I am new to Windows 11, I am not sure whether I need to configure something in
the Windows audio chain to address this issue or, perhaps, reinstall the SDR-Console program itself.
Maybe someone has had this issue before?
Thx

[jdow]

A very basic source of problems can be the choice of audio sample rates. Set EVERYTHING to 48 ksps. That MAY give blue tooth thinguses multiple kinds of fits, though. I think they might be stuck at 44.1 ksps. You can bisect your problem a little. If the computer's speaker jack sounds OK with SDRC with audio sample rates set to 48 ksps then the issue is likely BlueTooth. I guess it figures. CloudIQ is an incredible mass name collision on Google. {^_-} Nonetheless I believe I found that it's maximum sample rate is 1.8 Msps. That's not a USB data rate problem. It still might be a USB power problem. Make sure your port's power delivery capabilities are dialed up to full. Windows seems to push power savings to the max these days. So you may have to doctor your computer's power settings.

{^_^}

[herbk@comcast.net]

Jdow:
Thanks much for taking the time and offering possible heads up on this. Since the ICloud is fully intelligible on various Windows 10 machines on the local network, I interpret your advise to set the audio sample rate (and bit depth perhaps) within the Windows 11 audio settings. Would this be the audio input, audio output or both?
I will forget about the Bluetooth audio for now and try and get some intelligible audio thru the audio out connector on the front of the new machine, using headphones.
I will give this a go, Thx again.

[Max]

Would this be the audio input, audio output or both?

It's a requirement of SDRC to set the audio input rate (mic/audio in) at 48kHz as my understanding is that it's used as a clock somewhere along the audio input DSP chain. Many people have been tripped up by this. For example, if you have 44.1kHz on the audio input it can often result in no Tune signal, despite the connection between the two not being immediately obvious.

People have also had trouble with USB headsets that are locked to 44.1kHz and (some brands) not adjustable.

Just stick to 48kHz throughout and you should have no issues. I don't believe from previous cases that the bit depth is a big issue.

Max

[jdow]

One unfortunate feature of windows may still exist. Regardless of the settings for the sample rates within settings if an application asks for 44.1 ksps it gets 44.1 ksps and subsequent get 44.1 ksps. I think the original design intended to have a resampler handle the rate mismatch. But at least some USB dongle audio devices didn't bother and presented the behavior above. So far I have avoided Windows 11. I notice it has a maze for audio setup with important parameters controlled from different parts of settings. So I don't really know what could clear it for you. I presume all your SDRC settings are the same as on the other machines. Am I right? This includes the CloudIQ settings as well.

{^_^}