The all-new "HELP! I have an Audacity problem" thread

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TriciaG
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Post by TriciaG »

Generoushorse wrote: March 29th, 2021, 6:39 am
TriciaG wrote: March 29th, 2021, 6:18 am
This sounds like noise cancellation on the mic, or some sort of noise gate. Are you using Audacity 3 or an older one? I don't think Audacity has a noise gate feature, so it's probably the mic. (It might be easier to do a web search on your mic than to find instructions in a printed manual.)
I believe I'm using audacity 3. Now that I know it's not an audacity problem I'll check to see if its a mic issue.
Per PM, this is resolved. Glad to know it! 8-)
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Rapunzelina
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Post by Rapunzelina »

anneflebari wrote: March 26th, 2021, 3:21 pm Downloaded Audacity3, recorded test, fine...try to open program again- get Audacity page but nothing works- can't select anything and can't even close, have to go to task bar to close window! Have uninstalled and reinstalled, restarted etc etc..Using laptop and Windows10 ..Anyone else having problems?I hate computers!! Anne
Hi Anne, I was doing some searching in the Audacity forum for another issue and this post (the link below) reminded me of your problem, so in case you're still having it:


https://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=117371

1) Re-boot your computer. If that doesn't fix it, then,

2) Delete C:\Users\<your name>\AppData\Roaming\audacity\audacity.cfg. If that doesn't fix it, then

3) Rename C:\Users\<your name>\AppData\Roaming\audacity
And I suppose, if that doesn't fix it, then,
the previous version is still available here: https://www.fosshub.com/Audacity-old.html ...
anneflebari
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Post by anneflebari »

Thank you... don't know how but it fixed itself eventually!
SaraHale
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Post by SaraHale »

Hey, everyone!

I'm having an issue with Audacity 3.0.2. Every time, I try to correct a mistake I get "Not Responding". Audacity is frozen right now. I also save the recording as an Audacity Project File.

I usually open a new file correct the mistake then copy and paste it into the recording.

It hasn't been working correctly since yesterday. Any thoughts?

I'm using Lenovo Legion Y540 with Windows 10.

Thank you for your help.
Thanks, SaraHale. :D
Constructive criticism is always welcome. :thumbs:
DecemberInk
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Post by DecemberInk »

I'm a new user to Audacity and I have a question/problem. When I record an audio, all the specs are correct (44100 Hz, 16 bit) and then I export it to mp3 (constant, 128 kbps, mono). But then, when I re-import the file back into audacity the file shows up as "32-bit float." Google search tells me that this is Audacity's default settings. However, there is no option to change it back to 16 bit. If I need to edit this file because it didn't pass PL, what do I do?

On a similar note, should I be "saving" every recording instead of simply exporting it as mp3? Would that solve this problem?
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Post by lurcherlover »

Open Audacity and go to "Preferences" (Under the "Audacity" label at top left).
Then choose "quality" and on the list on left choose 16 bit. Also you could set "High Quality" - Click on OK and you should be fine. Later convert to MP3 using "export as MP3."

DecemberInk ? Are you an ink user, with fountain pens?
TriciaG
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Post by TriciaG »

On a similar note, should I be "saving" every recording instead of simply exporting it as mp3? Would that solve this problem?
I won't comment on the 16-bit vs 32-bit float issue, because that's the one tech spec that isn't important (we don't check it). But it does make sense to save the recording in a different format to preserve its quality, at least until you get the PL OK.

I save files (after editing, but before noise reduction) as FLAC. It's lossless, so it doesn't lose quality when you import and export multiple times. And it produces smaller files than WAV (another lossless format).

Or you could just save as Audacity files. ;)
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GrayHouse
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Post by GrayHouse »

"32-bit float" is the internal word size used by Audacity when you're recording or editing. That's the default setting (for good reasons) and it's the one you should use. It doesn't affect the format of anything that you export - except if you're saving your work as Audacity Project files.

If you use the 16-bit setting then Audacity rounds all the numbers to 16-bits after each edit or effect. If you're doing lots of operations that change the amplitude of your audio then the rounding operations introduce noise to your audio.

That setting is not the same as your recording settings (typically 44100 Hz, 16 bit). So you record using 16-bit audio, but you edit using 32-bit float values.
ETA: And then you export to whatever format you want - ideally something lossless (like FLAC) for your intermediate work, or mp3 for your final audio.

When you import your audio in to Audacity again (eg for editing) it gets converted back in to Audacity's internal format (usually 32-bit float). That's fine. Just do your editing and then export again to your chosen file format.
Maxvlad
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Post by Maxvlad »

So Audacity... Is anyone familiar with an issue causing your recording to drop in pitch? For some reason, my recordings keep coming back sounding like they're being just slightly slowed down. While it's kind of cool to sound like the All-State guy, it doesn't come across as natural. I've performed a fresh install, and it's still happening. I've tried compensating with the tempo settings, but it doesn't quite do the trick. What little information I've found online suggested that recording in stereo vs mono might fix it, but the problem persists under either setting. Anyone have any experience with this issue?
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Post by KevinS »

Maxvlad wrote: May 4th, 2021, 1:55 pm So Audacity... Is anyone familiar with an issue causing your recording to drop in pitch? For some reason, my recordings keep coming back sounding like they're being just slightly slowed down. While it's kind of cool to sound like the All-State guy, it doesn't come across as natural. I've performed a fresh install, and it's still happening. I've tried compensating with the tempo settings, but it doesn't quite do the trick. What little information I've found online suggested that recording in stereo vs mono might fix it, but the problem persists under either setting. Anyone have any experience with this issue?
Might you upload a sample? And, do you have a sample from another program?
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Post by Rapunzelina »

Maxvlad wrote: May 4th, 2021, 1:55 pm So Audacity... Is anyone familiar with an issue causing your recording to drop in pitch? For some reason, my recordings keep coming back sounding like they're being just slightly slowed down. While it's kind of cool to sound like the All-State guy, it doesn't come across as natural. I've performed a fresh install, and it's still happening. I've tried compensating with the tempo settings, but it doesn't quite do the trick. What little information I've found online suggested that recording in stereo vs mono might fix it, but the problem persists under either setting. Anyone have any experience with this issue?
This doesn't ring a bell for me, but could you provide more information, like Audacity version, operating system, microphone type/model, do you record and then listen to the play-back on the same machine? Could you try with a different microphone to see if it's still happening?
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Post by Rapunzelina »

PS. I am just now reading a post on Audacity forum about checking the sample rate in Windows Sound settings so that both recording and playback were set at 44100 Hz. Worth a try.
On Windows: Control Panel > Sound > Manage Audio Devices > Playback (Speakers) > Properties > Advanced > Set Sample Rate to 44100.
In Audacity: menu Edit > Preferences -> Quality > Set Default Sample Rate to 44100 Hz.
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Post by pschempf »

There’s a slider on the toolbar that can actually change the playback speed and it wouldn’t be hard to knock it off kilter. Might be worth a look to see if is on something other than 1.00. The slider on my setup is just to the right of the volume controls for the microphone and earphones, but it may be in a different spot for your installation.
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MarcTheReader
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Post by MarcTheReader »

Hello all! I'm trying to fiddle around with my one minute test, but it seems to reach a maximum volume with Audacity around 85.7dB, which I understand is just below the minimum. Has anyone else encountered this problem or perhaps knows what I'm doing wrong?

Here's a link to the test as I currently have it.
https://librivox.org/uploads/tests/test_MarcTheReader.mp3
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Post by lurcherlover »

MarcTheReader wrote: May 6th, 2021, 9:40 pm Hello all! I'm trying to fiddle around with my one minute test, but it seems to reach a maximum volume with Audacity around 85.7dB, which I understand is just below the minimum. Has anyone else encountered this problem or perhaps knows what I'm doing wrong?

Here's a link to the test as I currently have it.
https://librivox.org/uploads/tests/test_MarcTheReader.mp3
There seems to be some noise behind your recording. Are you close miking? Do you have enough gain when recording? The noise is probably a low gain when recording, so make sure you get a heathy waveform with the recordings.

You can push up the recording by say a couple of dB in Audacity by going to effect on top menu and select amplify and put in 2 or 3dB into the box and then OK. You can also get rid of the noise >>Effect >> noise reduction (mark an area of silence or record and add 10 secs of room sound, >> get noise profile from this, leave other settings as they are. You can then make one or two passes over the whole recording. Do this before amplifying and you should have a healthier and less noisy recording. (Remove extra 10 secs of silence before submitting any recording[s])!
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