Photo 2 Audio Noise when editing

[Thobal]

I have a weird issue with Photo 2:

Whenever I move a slider, use a brush, the repair tool or anything more cpu intensive I get audible crackling noises from my loudspeakers. I use professional audio gear (RME Audiointerface, shielded cables, Yamaha speakers), all drivers are up to date, I’m on Windows 11 Pro on a more than capable system (i5 13600k, 32GB RAM, M.2 drives, etc.)

I don’t have any such problems in other applications, I’ve testet Ableton Live, DaVinci Resolve, Capture One and others.

Is there anybody with similar problems? (Unfortunately I couldn’t find anything similar in the forum or somewhere else)

Thanks in advance.

[NotMyFault]

I had the similar issue on specifically one of my windows 10 pc. Interestingly, no speaker at all was connected (i had different external speakers, connected by audio, and removed them for tests. Noise still present!). The noise ultimately was emitted by the speaker-less Dell display. 

It did not appear on other displays. It never appeared with any other app, or PC connected to the monitor. I could record the Affinity display output with OBS and playback with VLC, it did not produce the noise.

Affinity is probably kind of trigger by heavy usage of CPU/GPU resources, but not the cause.

Probably causes:

• power supply issues (voltage regulators etc) 
• mainboard power regulation issues
• missing shielding of audio electrical path inside PC

Do you have an optical audio output, or can use the HDMI cable and speakers of the monitor?
 

Did you try to turn power plugs by 180 degree to switch phases?
Do you have power plugs using earthing (3 pins) ?
Access to a device to measure all power chords and devices for leakage currents?

[Thobal]

I‘m using a beQuiet! Noise Dampening Case with a MSI Tomahawk Z790 Mainboard and a beQuiet Dark Power Pro power supply, all high quality components in my opinion.

I also use a speakerless dell monitor, but the noise is clearly coming out of my Yamaha speakers. When I turn off the speakers no noise is audible when I edit in Affinity Photo.

I also don’t think that cables could be a problem in my case, because I only use high quality Neutrik shielded audio cables, and my interface (RME UCX) is also on a professional level. But it is situated right next to my PC, could this be a problem?

I have a spare monitor, so I‘m going to test if that’s the cause. Also switching/turn the power cables. Hopefully that will solve the problems but I honestly have some doubt about that.

I never had such an issue before and it only occurs in Affinity Photo 2.0.0

[Thobal]

I tried everything possible: Different power socket, shielded power strip, turn power plugs by 180 degree, different monitor, different connection (HDMI <> Display Port), change to CPU graphics...I even changed some USB-Cables, but the audio noise is still present whenever I use Photo 2, Designer 2 or Publisher 2.

I tried other CPU-intensive apps, like Capture One with 20-30 different layers/masks on a single image, Ableton and Cubase with many tracks and plugins (maxed out the CPU), differnet games etc., but the described audio noise issue is only present in Affinity products (all Affinity products).
I also tried DxO PhotoLab and did some rather heavy and fast editing and there was no problem at all, no audio noise/glitches, unlike in all the Affinity 2.0 apps. Whenever I move a slider I get audio noise like physically moving a slider...If I would'nt know better I would describe it as an audio effect for slider movement, but it bothers me alot, because working comfortably like this is almost impossible.

Has anybody another idea what could be the issue here? Should I report this as a bug?

[Callum]

Hi Thobal,

This is going to be very difficult for us to investigate as we don't really have a setup like this that we can test with etc and we haven't had any reports of this issue before. I have found a Reddit thread of someone describing a similar issue in PhotoShop would you mind taking a read through it to see if any of the suggestions help at all? It may be worth running a benchmarking tool that can stress test your CPU/GPU if you have one available just to see if this also produces the noise.

Thanks
C

[DanDoe]

I currently have exactly the same problem with the three Affinity products ... impossible to work while listening to some music ... frustrating ... no other software I use generates this problem ... what more can I say ... no info found .... only in this thread, which seems to indicate that this problem really exists ...

[NotMyFault]

Hi @DanDoe and welcome to the forum.

Are you able to elaborate more about the exact setup of your system and the conditions triggering the issue?
Are you able to spend some time investigating and changing parts of the setup to nail down the exact cause and which components emitting the sound?
 

If yes, it might be possible to find  the cause of the issue, and maybe workarounds or a lasting solution.

If no, we can only add another case (now 2).

[walt.farrell]

If I had to guess, I would first make sure that you're not running any 3rd-party software that is known to cause issues, especially ASUS Sonic / ASUS GPU Tweak III / MSI Nahimic. Nahimic and Sonic, in particular, are designed to enhance audio but for some reason are also tied into video processing and can mess up video actions in the Affinity applications. Perhaps the converse is also true, and video operations in Affinity applications mess up whatever they are doing to the computer audio.

 

[DanDoe]

Thank you both @NotMyFault and @walt.farrell for your quick response... I first wanted to mention this new case ... I will of course investigate further and make a small report with more details as appropriate .. thank you again for the follow-up 

[walt.farrell]

You're welcome.

And a forum usage hint: when you want to @-tag a user, you need to follow these steps exactly:

1. Type the @ sign.
2. Start typing the username, and wait for the forum to supply a popup of matching names.
3. Select the name from the popup list.

When you do that correctly, you'll get a highlighted field like @DanDoe not a plaintext field like @DanDoe and the user will be notified (if they have their notification options set for that). If it's plaintext they won't be notified.

[R C-R]

5 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

And a forum usage hint: when you want to @-tag a user, you need to follow these steps exactly:

FWIW, it has always annoyed me that I can't just type the @ followed by the exact user name or copy & paste it after the @ for the tag to work.

But on a happier note, it seems like the popup list is getting smarter: the relevant user name now almost always appears as its first item. Anybody else noticing this or is it just my imagination?

[walt.farrell]

17 minutes ago, R C-R said:

But on a happier note, it seems like the popup list is getting smarter: the relevant user name now almost always appears as its first item. Anybody else noticing this or is it just my imagination?

I think it is prioritizing usernames that appear in the topic, at least sometimes (it doesn't always work).

[R C-R]

3 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

I think it is prioritizing usernames that appear in the topic, at least sometimes (it doesn't always work).

I think so too, but it seems like it did not begin doing that until recently.

[walt.farrell]

7 minutes ago, R C-R said:

I think so too, but it seems like it did not begin doing that until recently.

True.

[DanDoe]

Hello,

I think I've put my finger on the audio problem mentioned above ... simply by uninstalling the drivers for my M-Track Solo external audio card ... in short, Windows manages the card by itself in plug n play instead of using the manufacturer's drivers ... bad comments about the compatibility of this card's drivers led me to the solution ... I'm so satisfied with Affinity products that it was imperative to find a solution ... thanks again to all for the follow-up ...

And thanks @walt.farrell for the @tag tip