@po
Sounds like you're getting the classic "buffer underrun"-type sound.
If you play a song, and check out the Options -> Audio Settings area, you'll likely see a slider under the heading 'DirectSound Properties'. Slide the slider to the right slowly until the 'Underruns' figure stops increasing (and you'll likely notice the 'hard static' will stop happening).
In short, the buffer size is a tradeoff between how much latency there is between making a change to the music and hearing it, and giving the sound card (via its drivers) a chance to deal with all the information it's being sent. Better drivers (WDM or ASIO drivers for your sound card) make for the ability to have lower latency, typically. If your sound card has fancy WDM or ASIO drivers, use them! If not, you can try ASIO4ALL - a 'universal' ASIO driver. If nothing else, it works quite well on my scummy ole Sound Blaster Live Value.
Good luck.
PS: Of course, you could just have crappy, overloud, clipping samples. :o)
Sounds like you're getting the classic "buffer underrun"-type sound.
If you play a song, and check out the Options -> Audio Settings area, you'll likely see a slider under the heading 'DirectSound Properties'. Slide the slider to the right slowly until the 'Underruns' figure stops increasing (and you'll likely notice the 'hard static' will stop happening).
In short, the buffer size is a tradeoff between how much latency there is between making a change to the music and hearing it, and giving the sound card (via its drivers) a chance to deal with all the information it's being sent. Better drivers (WDM or ASIO drivers for your sound card) make for the ability to have lower latency, typically. If your sound card has fancy WDM or ASIO drivers, use them! If not, you can try ASIO4ALL - a 'universal' ASIO driver. If nothing else, it works quite well on my scummy ole Sound Blaster Live Value.
Good luck.
PS: Of course, you could just have crappy, overloud, clipping samples. :o)