Clicking and popping audio in Windows 11 ARM on M1
- Thread starter MichielS
- Start date
Same issue here. What I don't understand about this reasoning is that the total memory required to run "sound" should be so trivial compared to all the processes I am running. I have windows open and am giving it 80% of my memory. But on the mac side I have chrome with 10 tabs, word, powerpoint, and many instances of excel open. Nothing is running slow or having issues. Except my sound has a crackle. The argument that there is not enough memory to do that seems fundamentally flawed upon any logical inspection. Unfortunately, I need windows to get 80% of the memory. So what is the real fix here Parallels.
Yes I've also been mulling over that. How could old computers with kilobytes and megabytes as memory play sound fine without any crackling noise, but a new computer with 32 GIGAbytes RAM can't do it? I am able to run very heavy programs and processes in my Mac view, I can have basically unlimited tabs open in Chrome without any slowing down (my old computer from 2017 completely died of all my tabs
) etc. but I can't play audio in Parallels because of ... low memory? 
I just can't understand how audio could demand so extreme amount of resources ...I may have found a working solution. I use a Macbook pro 16 with m1 pro and have the standard version of parallels.
In the settings you will find the option adaptive hypervisor under CPU/RAM. This function has to be switched off and then the sound problem was solved for me.
maybe it will work for you too!
Best wishes
Rob
In the settings you will find the option adaptive hypervisor under CPU/RAM. This function has to be switched off and then the sound problem was solved for me.
maybe it will work for you too!
Best wishes
Rob
WilliamT14
Member
Excellent find. Trying this setting disabled as well.
Tried disabling hypervisor to no avail. The only thing that's worked for me in some sense is to renice Parallels and the processes within the VM using audio to -20. Then the audio is working for a few hours before the crackling starts again ... So there seems to be some kind of build-up of something over time that is slowing down the audio to make it start crackling. The only thing then is to completely restart the Mac. I wish there were some cache or something I could just reset when that happens instead of restarting the computer, but oh well, at least I get good audio for a few hours at a time 
Same problem here, MacBook Pro M1 32GB, lots of crackling audio. Using `nice ` helps a bit, it crackles less frequently, but it still crackles. I'd hoped to use audio software in Windows but the crackling is a problem. Parallels support said it was a Windows problem and to contact Microsoft, I don't see how that could be true though. I tried things like reducing bit depth and frequency of the audio driver in Windows but that didn't help. Also tried the above suggestion of altering advanced settings as well as number of cpu cores but it didn't help. It'd be great if Parallels were to acknowledge this problem
Yeah I have a hard time believing it would be a Windows problem, since I've never experienced this on any Windows computer except for one. It was an old laptop and the audio would start stuttering when I had too many tabs open in Chrome or just used up too many resources in other ways. But I have another old (10+ years) PC I use for gaming and watching movies and TV and there have never been any problems with the audio there whatsoever. I can't believe a top of the line Macbook Pro M1 32 GB is too weak to play audio in Windows.
Helge Becker
Member
This problem remains unresolved. It is not limited to M1 but present on all Apple Silicons. And VMWare does not have this issue, so it is a bug in Parallels Desktop.
Helge Becker
Member
Thanks for the suggestions. Sadly, none of them helped. Tested on MacBook M1 Pro 16 GB Ram and Mac Mini M2 Pro 16 GB with the professional version of Parallels Desktop running Windows 11 Pro. Allocating 8 or 10 GB memory to the VM doesn't change anything. Neither does reniceing the process or disabling the hypervisor. (There is no choice between Paralells and Appels Hypervisor anymore.) Disabling isolation reduced some of the crackeling, but not much.
Try changing the sound settings in Parallels, it might help. Disabling Adaptive Hypervisor worked for me.
Refards, David
You might need to adjust configurations after the upgrade. Watch out for potential errors.
Helge Becker
Member
What you mean? What configuration needs to be updated? And since VMWare Fusion does not have any issues on the same machines, I doubt we talk about a user issue. Right now I am highly disappointed by the quality of the software and its price tag.
Same issue here on Mac Studio with Parallels 19 running Windows 11 and foorbar2000. The sound issue occurs after few hours playing music. VMware Fusion does not support coherence mode when running Windows Arm architecture. That's why I switched to Parallels but now I am really disappointed that the sound that Parallels cannot fix this issue.
Same issue here. MBP with M1 Max with 32GB. Using Win11 ARM on Apple Silicon since end of 2021, at this time it was Parallels 17 Pro, now it's Parallels 20 Pro.
Issue never got fixed by Parallels and I neither believe it's a Microsoft issue, nor that it's related to insufficient RAM or whatever. (see the VMware posts)
Tried all the hints here (adaptive hypervisor, renice, 24bit 48KHz Audio Setting), nothing seemed to solve the issue. Since it hasn't got fixed in more than 4 years, I believe Parallels is not interested at all to find a solution for us. Sad.
Issue never got fixed by Parallels and I neither believe it's a Microsoft issue, nor that it's related to insufficient RAM or whatever. (see the VMware posts)
Tried all the hints here (adaptive hypervisor, renice, 24bit 48KHz Audio Setting), nothing seemed to solve the issue. Since it hasn't got fixed in more than 4 years, I believe Parallels is not interested at all to find a solution for us. Sad.
Helge Becker
Member
Agree. Cancelled the Pro subscription and switched over to VMWare. Not enough quality for this price and ‚mew' features are meaningless if critical bugs get not fixed. Bye
Has anyone been able to overcome the issue with sound crackling? Nothing seems to help me. I have purchased two pro licences and on both devices, when I listen to music, the sound lags, which is quite frustrating. I am unsure what to do. On Windows 11 ARM with the latest updates, nothing seems to help, neither disabling Hyper-V nor reducing/increasing cores and memory. Please advise me on what to do so that I can listen to music and watch videos normally through Parallels. It's an expensive product, but why can't this problem be solved?
Does VMware really work better for you?
I'm getting not crackling, but gaps. The audio cuts out for up to a second, then cuts back in. It's often related to opening a browser tab or something, but it also happens when Parallels is in focus.
WilliamW18
Bit poster
I'm late to this, but I have a question for everyone: when you connect your audio interface, do you connect it to the Windows or Mac side?
Probably pointless to reply 5 months late, but mine are always connected to Mac. I think I've tried connecting directly to Windows and it doesn't help though!