Support for higher audio sample rates

Comments

24 comments

  • ||Jojo||
    I think its because Discord called them voice (not music) channels and designed it for gamers with low latence and bandwith prefered!
    -6
  • Miety

    Bandwidth and frequency do not relate directly. It is just a configuration issue, I suppose.

    On windows, at least, the discord app seems to open its audio device with fixed rate, 44.1kHz.
    But as a general rule, applications which use the sound devices in "shared mode" should open them with "default" rate, to obey the configurations of OSes about their sound devices; found as "sample rate for shared mode".

    Then we could adjust the sample rate to be familiar with our environment.

    1
  • ArthurJ.Crowley

    I agree whole-heartedly! I often do recording, and having to switch sample rates just for gaming is annoying me, as I also deem it unnecessary (just down-sample if necessary, my CPU is strong enough). Instead, we get static, garbled audio (but not on my end, only my voice being transmitted out gets garbled).

    0
  • irsl

    if you are producing music, 48kHz is all you need

    higher sample rates are only useful for special recording situations where you plan on transposing down one or two octaves. 

     

    "Sampling rates higher than about 50 kHz to 60 kHz cannot supply more usable information for human listeners. "

     

    -9
  • Garrett Myers

    Just trust me when I say I am definitely the audio engineer who occasionally does need these higher sample rates. I agree, 48 is all I need for most situations. I hear a clear difference between 44.1 and 48, but nothing above that. I'm a huge proponent for consumer and audiophile gear not requiring over 48k sample rates, and even for most people not needing 24-bit depth! 16-bit is all most people need, even the most discerning listeners. But, I record vocals at high sample rates like 96 and 192 when I intend to do pitch correction and pitch shifting, because I find Melodyne and other similar pitch shifters produce much more believable results when they have access to those ultrasonic frequencies. After pitch shifting, I return the project to 48k. But it's often during this crucial pitch shifting phase that I need to communicate with my clients about their preferences, and for this (now more than EVER, in spring of 2020) I often use Discord. I no longer need to route my session audio directly through Discord, as I use an audio plugin called Audiomovers Listento to stream low-latency multichannel PCM audio to people I work with. It's pretty insane! But I'll have a Discord channel running alongside that, so that I can have video and two-way communication. And my mic runs through my interface (Antelope Audio) to Discord, so it has to follow the same sample rate as my DAW session.

     

    I suppose I could also plug in my backup audio interface, and just deliberately not sync the clocks. I could have the second interface run at 44.1 to send and receive through Discord. I could then patch the line outputs of that interface into spare line inputs of my main interface, and set up direct monitoring of those inputs so I'd hear then in my headphones. It'd be easier if Discord could just do its own SRC between higher sample rates, but I suppose the demand is just too low. Except I know there are a lot of audiophile gamers who want their *cough of disapproval* 384kHz, 32-bit DACs to run Discord and games. Maybe there's hope after all.

    1
  • altair

    (Only for studio mic users)It also doesn't support high buffer size like 1024 and start clipping the audio. I have to use 512 so that my voice doesn't clip.

    0
  • jokleinn

    irsl, that doesn't change the fact that people who have gear that ~can~ record with high sample rate (e.g. my Focusrite Scarlett Solo) still cut out constantly on Discord when set to 44.1 kHz. There is something wrong.

    It'd also be trivial for the Discord App to downsample a high sample rate audio buffer (e.g. a 192 kHz parcel of audio) to the 44.1 kHz / 48 kHz that Discord may want to use.

    It's unbearable to have a device that has wonderful sound quality suddenly have horrible quality due to the random audio cuts only in discord. Mumble can handle it just fine, as can Steam Voice. Steam Voice uses Opus -- the same codec as Discord -- so the issue is strictly with Discord and is clearly completely remediable.

    If every other application can handle this device at 192 kHz, and Discord still cuts out and breaks even when I have it set to 44.1 kHz, there is really no reason to attack people who have high sample rate audio gear. It's tangential to the conversation, this is a genuine bug that needs a fix, not an edge case where people have misconfigured hardware. Discord should work with this set to 44.1 kHz, not to mention the fact that it should also extend an arm and do the tiny effort to additionally support 192 kHz.

    0
  • LaChaDerp

    "if you are producing music, 48kHz is all you need

    higher sample rates are only useful for special recording situations where you plan on transposing down one or two octaves."

     

    That couldn't be more wrong.

    7
  • Isaias Lafon

    Jojo is right but the others don't know about music production! 48Khz is low for quality on music, But is a standard, 192 is better, but only if you have speakers or headphones able to apreciate that quality, with 44.1Khz y 48Khz you have critical sampling ove 8000 Hz!!! with 1% distortion of the soundwave at least! More close to 20000 less samples for second to represent that frequencies!

    0
  • Garrett Myers

    I think you guys are missing the point. I'm not here to argue about what sample rates sound best. Believe me, if I'm using a higher sample rate on a given project, it's because I know exactly what I'm doing and why I need it in that instance.

    My post was about the fact that if my audio hardware is running at anything higher than 48kHz, Discord simply doesn't work. If my sound is running at 48kHz, I can call my friend whose sound is running at 44.1kHz, and we can communicate just fine. However, if I'm running 88.2kHz or 96kHz and I hop on a Discord call, then I can't hear anybody and nobody can hear me. I have to change my sample rate to 44.1 or 48 to have sound in a voice or video call. For most of you, that's as easy as switching the sample rate and going about your own merry way. You've never had to convert an entire Pro Tools session to a new sample rate! Trust me, it's an absolute bear of a process.

    I was never saying Discord should transmit Uber high quality audio at high sample rates. The bandwidth required would be astronomical! What I was saying is that they should make it so I can hop in a call on Discord even if my audio is currently running at a high sample rate. Discord doesn't care if I have it at 44.1 or 48, so please make it not care if I'm running 96 or 192! Maybe I'm taking a break from a long studio session, and want to play a game with friends and talk over Discord. I'm human, I have fun too! I just want Discord to work like it should, without me worrying about whether Discord is compatible with my current audio setup.

    P.S. To address the audiophile sample rate debate that has sprouted in this thread, hear me out: If you're listening to music, 99% of you don't need your sample rates to be anything higher than 44.1 or 48. First, I'm an audio engineer/music producer, and trust me I'm not putting anything important in any frequencies so high that they'd be adversely affected by a standard sample rate. If you're obsessing over the clarity of the sound above 10,000Hz, then please stop and instead pay attention to the actual notes and music I've written for you! 😂 Second, almost all the music you listen to is encoded at 44.1 or 48. Even if you have good speakers and audio hardware, good luck finding music that was actually made and mastered at the high sample rate you're running. If you actually want to experience 192kHz audio, then you need a song that was recorded at 192, edited at 192, mixed at 192, mastered at 192, exported at 192, and downloaded or streamed at 192. If anywhere in that chain, someone used 48kHz, then the whole chain is only 48kHz, and therefore that's all you're getting out of your fancy system. So yeah, if you want a high quality audiophile music experience, know that the people making the music intended it to be listened to at a standard sample rate, and doing do will ensure the best audio experience you can get.

    0
  • BeauBastion

    Please don't turn this into a sample rate argument as that's off topic. Users want support for higher sample rates and I for one support this feature.

    4
  • Sporesirius

    Please add this feature :(

    5
  • KingSins

    Yes, it is. I can't stream movies with a frequency higher than 48k. After 10-15 minutes, my viewers get background noise. I have to restart the stream. 2021, discord can't be optimized.

    4
  • Mr Bullet

    I've been using a 192kHz 24bit interface for years now and I never had major problems with dc. However, friends have told me that they had some weird distorted noises in my dc streams and from time to time I hear a distorted crack. Today I started dc and I did not hear anything and I couldn't talk to anyone. Any other program as well as Windows works perfectly fine. When I switch to 48kHz discord also works. 

    My conclusion about this is that dc completely dropped support for sample rates over 48kHz due to many bugs they didn't want to fix. I don't see the point why I should have to consume everything with 48kHz just to be able to use dc.

    PS: 96kHz actually works

    4
  • NightmareAKz

    Found this thread because of that problem. After updating my client today, discord failed to send other users' voices to my output, and only started to work after lowering the sample rate below 192k Hz.

    2
  • justryin

    Yup just found this thread because of the same issue im having. I thought I was going crazy. Seems even finicky . Have to restart to get it to work. 

    2
  • KniL

    Same here, found this thread after searching about my 192k Hz problem with Discord

    2
  • Bodycounter

    Mr Bullet

    I have had the exact same problem since yesterday. I was unable to hear anyone in Discord at 32bit/192kHz. It took me an hour to notice that the problem was my sample frequency because everything else worked fine. Discord should at least inform the users when they change things like this so drastically.

    24bit/48kHz does work for me and there's no audible difference. 32bit/192kHz is gimmicky anyway but it was hard to get behind the problem in the first place.

    1
  • Zipdox

    Discord uses the Opus codec which only supports 48kHz sample rate.

    -1
  • herrnn radidgumpu

    Man, I really need support for a higher sample rate I need to switch my sample rate every time I want to talk which is not great. because I usually produce at 96k or 192k for a higher threshold of aliasing. 

    1
  • Zipdox

    Opus is hard coded at 48kHz so there's no point.

    -1
  • KingSins

    @herrnn radidgumpu
    I can hear everyone perfectly at 96 kHz 32 bit. But during the stream, the sound starts to creak after 15 minutes. It still hasn't been fixed.

    1
  • herrnn radidgumpu

    KingSins The input dont work for me for some reason tested on my focusrite 6i6 and audient evo 8 and apollo twin.

    1
  • JTRKON

    Same problem here. Please fix it.

    0

Please sign in to leave a comment.