What do you mean "sounds like hell"? I assume you mean "doesn't sound like music". It seems to be working ok for me. Open the info window (alt+3) and see if it says 48000 Hz Stereo ADP, if not maybe some other decoder is messing with it.
48000 Hz Stereo ADP, indeed. Headerless, too, if that matters. The computer I'm running has the VC++ redistributable package from 2008...is it just as compatible as the 2005?
I doubt it's an issue with the runtime. If you try writing a wav (switch to the disk writer output plugin, uncheck "convert to format", set the output directory to someplace reasonable, and play), does the resulting wav sound OK? Which version of in_cube are you running?
My problem isn't ADP related, but rather PS2 VAG. In version 0.38, ALL Monaural audio playback is garbled almost beyond recognition. Either that, or it plays way too fast, etc.
I never had this problem before the "Complete rewrite of the PS2 interleave management" update to in_cube...