Thanks guys, that was exactly the problem. I followed the thread @windg provided, and it worked first time. I really appreciate you guys

@n2185x the distortion I faced with lt-atari800 audio was resolved by applying the patch in this linked thread. The patch, to my knowledge, has not made it into the libretro core

I can confirm that applying this patch and recompiling fixed my audio quality and buzzing

https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/22530/lr-atari800-buzzing-sound/4

@TheBossT said in Retropie 4.4 HDMI Problem: Garbled Sound When Playing ANY Console/Emulator:

Also if anyone can maybe give some alternatives to bluetooth audio as the lag ain't great, that will be greatly appreticated!

There aren't many solutions out there and it seems this solution not only breaks other audio outputs but also is unusable due to the lag. I'm almost certain the Pi dosen't have enough horsepower to emulate games and stream bluetooth audio, as per the tutorial above I have completely removed it and I recommend that you should too. Let me know how you get on and if you find an alternative that doesn't stutter.

@Nikorasu081 said in Why does "Black Frame Insertion" f*** up the audio?:

Why would you consider it profanity if I didn't spell it out?

Offensive language is not welcomed here, some *** don't cover it or make it go away. We all understand the frustration of having something not working, after putting a lot of effort into it, but this is not an excuse to put it into your topic title. Come back in a week if you wish to participate in the forums again - this time having more consideration for the forum rules.

A few suggestions

Make sure you have a good power supply. Low power will cause the RPi to throttle down causing all sorts of glitches

If you're using the 3.5mm jack, better get a USB sound card. The 3.5mm is known for it's noisy output.