Distorted Music in Neverwinter Nights

[PsypherPunk]

i'm playing NWN over on the Ravenloft PW and have noticed that when entering one specific location the music briefly (for the first note or two) wildly distorts, getting much louder and 'hissing' before returning to normal.

i've tried replacing the relevant piece of music (the .bmu file) but that hasn't work; i'm assuming therefore, that it's not a corrupt file.

Anyone seen anything similar? Or have any idea what might be the cause or what i could try (which logs to check, etc.)?

Update: Another user on the same server has noticed this exact problem, same location, same issue (also a Linux user).

[Roxoff]

Is this a large area you're entering? Maybe with a large amount of custom stuff/placeables/graphics in it? Maybe the computer is struggling to keep up when trying to play the music file, read the hak pack and load the standard graphics all at the same time.

I always play NWN with the music off (it grates like hell after a while, despite how nicely they get it to set the mood), and I try to launch from XFce rather than KDE or Gnome - it's a lighter environment, so there's less going on in the background to slow the game down. It does help, particularly when the game is starting up and when you're entering the first area.

[PsypherPunk]

Nope, it's a small tavern and the music it plays is one of the default tavern pieces (mus_tavern*.bmu).

Reading further on the Bioware forums, apparently this isn't uncommon. A few people (Linux-only, sadly) have noticed this happening when entering certain areas.

i've tried running it via Fluxbox (or a bare X session) but the same problem persists. It seems like it's an issue in the sound config. but i've no idea where to begin with that.

[Strix Varia]

I have NWN, but I've never played it on my Linux machine, only in Windows. I've also experienced a sound similar to what you described. Right when a music track starts playing it will wildly hiss really loud for about one second. It's happened on a few different occasions but I haven't noticed any sort of pattern. I just thought I'd let you know so that if it is actually the same problem, it might not be specific to Linux users.