MP3s sound really poor...

[TRDrummer]

So I was finally able to get some MP3's on this computer. However, when using the playlist in Aerodrums the quality of the MP3's is really poor. When I close Aerodrums and play the MP3's from a media player they sound great... ahy help???

[Richard]

We haven't heard of a problem like this before.
Could you describe what you mean by poor quality?
If the audio is distorted perhaps you have the song volume within Aerodrums set too high and it's clipping.
If the audio is stuttering then it could be a performance issue.
In case it's the mp3 file itself or the way that Aerodrums decodes the file, you could try convert the .mp3 file to an .ogg file (using a free program such as Audacity) and seeing if the ogg file sounds better within Aerodrums.

[TRDrummer]

The best way I can explain it is that the music sounds as if you take the EQ and turn down all the lows and highs. Kind of like an old radio sound. When I close Aerodrums and play the files through a music player they sound great. I tried playing music through another program and running Aerodrums to play along with, however is seems Aero drums takes total control of sound and will not let any other program use it??'

The music is not distorted and it does not shutter. It just is low quality through Aerodrums.

[Richard]

Thanks for the description but I'm really not sure what could be causing it. My best advice is to convert an mp3 to ogg format or download an ogg file from the internet and see if it has the same issue.

Regarding not being able to play songs from other programs while Aerodrums is running, this is unfortunately the expected behaviour. It's a necessary evil of achieving low latency audio on Windows. The "Exclusive WASAPI" audio device that you have selected from the Aerodrums Latency screen takes full control of your soundcard and thus prevents other applications from using it. If you instead choose "Shared WASAPI" you will be able to play audio from other programs but the latency will be greater. Still, it may be acceptable to you.