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Apple has not fixed the macOS audio left/right balance bug for nearly 10 years

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Re: Apple has not fixed the macOS audio left/right balance bug for nearly 10 years

#81

Post by Eric_WVGG »

api wrote: post #70

It seems like lots of very mature software projects have these bugs that just hang around forever. Someone could fix them. Someone should fix them. Nobody fixes them. My own projects have a few so I am guilty. Maybe they give the project “character.”

My favorite is… - set desktop icons to align to grid - have say half a dozen icons in the top right of your desktop - plug into an external display - the icons will be sort of in the same place, but not actually aligned. (Moving a single icon will cause it to go to an unpredictable place because everything around it is stepping over the place you’re trying to drop it.)

This has been the behavior for every version of MacOS at least going back to 10.2 Jaguar (2003).

Re: Apple has not fixed the macOS audio left/right balance bug for nearly 10 years

#82

Post by tmikaeld »

TwistedWave wrote: post #52
tmikaeld wrote: post #14

The left/right channels drifting randomly is one thing (SoundSource fixes it), but it gets worse.. I've been trying to raise awareness of Apples horrible audio issues for quite a few years now. Driver re-starts and USB re-connects, for no apparent reason. [0][1] I have the issue on Mac Mini (2018) Intel, Mac Studio M1, Macbook Pro M2, so it's not device specific. [0] https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/132423 […

I have just reported a bug where high memory pressure could cause memory pages from the real-time audio thread to get swapped out, causing audio glitches. I am not hopeful for a timely resolution now...

There might be something to it, higher than > 60% memory pressure and the issue will get a lot worse and more frequent.

Re: Apple has not fixed the macOS audio left/right balance bug for nearly 10 years

#83

Post by mschuster91 »

TwistedWave wrote: post #52
tmikaeld wrote: post #14

The left/right channels drifting randomly is one thing (SoundSource fixes it), but it gets worse.. I've been trying to raise awareness of Apples horrible audio issues for quite a few years now. Driver re-starts and USB re-connects, for no apparent reason. [0][1] I have the issue on Mac Mini (2018) Intel, Mac Studio M1, Macbook Pro M2, so it's not device specific. [0] https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/132423 […

I have just reported a bug where high memory pressure could cause memory pages from the real-time audio thread to get swapped out, causing audio glitches. I am not hopeful for a timely resolution now...

> I have just reported a bug where high memory pressure could cause memory pages from the real-time audio thread to get swapped out, causing audio glitches.

By any chance, is that problem related to the new Microsoft Teams and its incoming-call notification sound? Ever since the Sonoma update and the coinciding Teams switch it's glitching horribly.

Re: Apple has not fixed the macOS audio left/right balance bug for nearly 10 years

#84

Post by soundnote »

yungporko wrote: post #50

as a long term apple user, their blatant disregard for fixing bugs is really starting to piss me off to the point where next time i upgrade my phone and computer, i'm probably going back to android/linux. their software is literally a microsoft-tier experience (maybe even worse at this point) across the board now, and i'm not going to keep paying a premium for non-premium bullshit full of stupid bugs any junior dev c…

The natural scroll setting of the mouse and the trackpad are bound. You can't have one setting for one device and a different one for the other. It's maddening. Both Windows and Linux handle that easily.

Re: Apple has not fixed the macOS audio left/right balance bug for nearly 10 years

#85

Post by madaxe_again »

unwind wrote: post #9
madaxe_again wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The audio balance on Apple computers changes randomly, and has done so for at least a decade. https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/79384/audio-balanc...

Following the link, and a few more, describes at as changing "when volume buttons are pressed during high CPU load". That is perhaps random-seeming, but also way different from actually being reandom. I have never used a (modern) Mac long enough to listen to audio, so I have no experience with this I just thought it sounded odd. Now having learned that, I really ( really ) wonder how such a bug can happen, and how it…

There are worse bugs that happen under high CPU load - I reported that you can interact with applications behind the hibernate Lock Screen… 9 years ago. You still can.

Re: Apple has not fixed the macOS audio left/right balance bug for nearly 10 years

#86

Post by lanthade »

Apple audio issues are definitely nothing new. I recall as far back as the early 00’s problems with stereo separation on apple laptops. This was especially apparent when playing backing tracks out the headphone port where it was a mono tracks/click pair. The click could be clearly heard on the tracks line which is a bad thing for the house mix. That particular problem was hardware though. If you used an external usb interface the problem went away.

Re: Apple has not fixed the macOS audio left/right balance bug for nearly 10 years

#87

Post by hules »

goblin89 wrote: post #43

I have been producing music on macOS for 8+ years on multiple laptops (from x86 to ARM), different external DACs, wired and wireless headphones, etc. I am very sensitive to L/R balance and sometimes have to adjust the panning ever so slightly if my ears are off (e.g., after pressure change during a flight) in phone’s Accessibility settings. The fact that there is an Apple-specific L/R audio balance bug, which now see…

It does not happen with all devices. I have a number of audio devices, and it happens only on my thunderbolt 3 owc dock.

Re: Apple has not fixed the macOS audio left/right balance bug for nearly 10 years

#88

Post by MetalSnake »

10729287 wrote: post #64
kpmcc wrote: post #42

The fact that this has existed for so long and is common enough to warrant a third party program devoted to resolving the issue is an embarrassment for Apple. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/balance-lock/id1019371109?mt=1...

There are so many bugs and even more poor ergonomic choices that have been unfixed for years on Apple Devices. It's fascinating considering the whole cult regarding the company's so called attention to details.

That "cult" and "attention to details" was a long time ago, when Steve Jobs was CEO. But even then there were many bugs, like the .DS_Store files, which never got fixed. It got much worse when Tim Cook took over. Now I only use macOS because the next best thing is still worse, and also the Mac hardware became really good with the switch to ARM (after a long long dark time with x86 where the hardware got worse and worse with each iteration).

Re: Apple has not fixed the macOS audio left/right balance bug for nearly 10 years

#89

Post by pohuing »

shiroiushi wrote: post #47
rogual wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the Jobs years it was because the person at the tob intrinsically gave a shit about making a good thing. But you're right, it certainly seems that's the kind of game Cook is playing. Better than Windows, but no better, and keep the extra money.

It's a winning business strategy, especially when you have legions of die-hard customers who won't leave you. Microsoft has a similar situation (though many probably won't leave MS for different reasons), so it's in their business interest to increase profits by subjugating their customers with annoying ads baked into the OS. What do they have to lose? It's not like Apple's/MS's customers are going to switch to Linux…

Except apple does also put ads in their os. And you can't even permanently disable them, the iCloud nagware comes back every once in a while trying to sell me overpriced storage.

Re: Apple has not fixed the macOS audio left/right balance bug for nearly 10 years

#90

Post by anentropic »

I used to experience this all the time and had a 3rd party app installed to lock the balance to centre.

But it seems to have gone away in last couple of versions of macOS, have not had the 'fixer' installed since I got an M1 and it hasn't occurred again for me (so... Sonoma and the one before).

If I recall, the original reason for the bug was a stupid keyboard shortcut (helpfully mapped to "f*** up my audio balance") that was easy to trigger by accident, with no visual feedback to know that you'd done it.

I wonder if it's locale-specific, maybe some keyboard layouts or whatever still have it mapped.

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