Sound is scrambled / distorted

[YannigVdW]

Hi,
Since today all music I play in MB is heavily distorted. I play music from a NAS, but radio stations have the same problem.
The same music files play fine in Windows Media Player, VLC, Firefox, ... Windows sounds are also ok.
I tried changing audio player output and sound device in the preferences, but that does not solve it.
This morning I installed two Intel updates: bluetooth and wifi driver. I rolled back those drivers, but the problem persists.
I updated my motherboard specific audio drivers (MSI MAG Z790 Tomahawk Wifi, realtek audio), but this didn't fix it either.
I installed the latest MusicBee version, but once again, no change.

You can find an audio sample here. It's the audio track stripped from a movie I made.
https://mb.yannig.eu/audio.mp3

And the settings file:
https://mb.yannig.eu/settings.ini

Any idea how I can fix this? I really don't want to change music player

[Mayibongwe]

Since today all music I play in MB is heavily distorted.

How about now, is this still happening?
(in case it was a temporary glitch due to some poor internet connection since you mentioned the use of an NAS)

[YannigVdW]

Problem is still there ... When I move the files local (to my desktop for example) the issue persists.

[Mayibongwe]

This morning I installed two Intel updates: bluetooth and wifi driver. I rolled back those drivers, but the problem persists.

Did you happen to update your audio drivers as well?
What MusicBee plugins do you have installed and enabled?
Is MusicBee whitelisted in your security software?

Other than that, I have no further input on what might be happening.
This will be hard to diagnose here seeing as nothing changed on MusicBee's side and a lot changed/updated on the Windows side.

[sveakul]

Problem is still there ... When I move the files local (to my desktop for example) the issue persists.

Your key is your statement "Since today.."  If MusicBee was working fine yesterday, what did you do today just before turning it on?  And before trying to fix it by mass driver reinstalls?  Your settings show you're using all kinds of replay gain, "SoundEnhancer", cross fade, what looks like DirectSound, the famously buggy "mb_Upnp.dll" plugin (google that one), etc.

Uninstall all plugins, un-check all DSP effects, change the output to Wasapi (Exclusive), restart MB.  Clean now?  If so, add back the other stuff one at a time until you find the offending culprit.

Also:  was all the reinstalling of MusicBee done after a clean uninstall of what was there previously?  Are you sure multiple versions/types aren't battling it out on the same machine?

[YannigVdW]

I disabled all plugins and DSP, switched do Wasapi. Same problem.

Then I disabled the equaliser: problem fixed. The preset I'm using seems to be corrupt, the bands are in a wrong position. As soon as I touch one band, the problem is gone.

On a side note: MusicBee runs by default on my secondary screen. When I click the equaliser button, the window does not appear. When I move Musicbee to my primary screen, the equaliser window appears correctly when I click the button.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.