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

[TriciaG]

I wondered if I should have included that. Either Ctrl-A, or you can click the menu item Select > All.

[7A2c3Ml]

One more problem after another. 1) It keeps telling me it is "too short" a sample. How long should a sample be? 2) I also suspect I don't know how to TAKE a "sample". How do you isolate a section of the track?

[TriciaG]

What is the sample for?

If it's for noise removal, get as much as you can - most of the 5 seconds at the end of the recording works nicely, as long as it doesn't have any bumps or sudden sounds in it.

To get a sample, click and drag your mouse across the part you want to select. (depress the mouse key, drag, then release the mouse key when you're done dragging)

[7A2c3Ml]

Something is seriously wrong. "1:25" means "one minute 25 seconds", right? So "1:30" would be five seconds later, right? I dragged twice that length, and it still tells me "too short".

[TriciaG]

What is telling you "too short"? What are you trying to do?

[7A2c3Ml]

Sorry if I'm being obtuse, let alone obscure. I need to "take a noise sample", right? So I take a sample --or I think that's what I'm doing--and now I click that first button for taking the noise sample. THAT's when the message keeps popping up, telling me my sample is too short.

[TriciaG]

OK, so you're at normal zoom (Ctrl-2). You click and drag and highlight the last 5 seconds of the recording (from 1:25 to 1:30), then go to Effects > Noise Reduction and click the button to get noise profile. And it's giving you an error saying the sample is too short?

[7A2c3Ml]

Yes. At least I THINK that's what I'm doing. That's what I intend to do.

[TriciaG]

Then... it's beyond my pay grade. I have no idea.

If no one else knows either, maybe you'll have to ask the Audacity forum itself: https://forum.audacityteam.org/

[Rapunzelina]

A suggestion for Mark,

First see if following with this video helps any: https://youtube.com/watch?v=rvhqw7zBmEo (it's for an older audacity version, but the process is the same)

Then check if you can select a long enough sample in a different recording - just in case that particular recording is glitched.

[Kitty]

Something is seriously wrong. "1:25" means "one minute 25 seconds", right? So "1:30" would be five seconds later, right?

actually, not necessarily. It depends whether you have zoomed in so that your upper timeline bar shows every minute and second mm:ss. But if you have zoomed in much more, so it shows every second and millisecond, then you would also see the time as 1:25 but it would mean 1 second 25 milliseconds, and then you have indeed a much too short sample.

Listen to the highlighted part and check with your watch how much time is elapsing. Usually a sample of about 2 to 3 seconds is enough. Is that what your stopwatch is showing you that your sample is running for ?

Just for clarification, could you upload your file and we can have a look what exactly we are talking about and see whether it works in our Audacity program ?

Sonia

[bmpre]

I can't figure out how to load audacity plugins on a MacBook. I have the .ny plugins on my desktop. I try to right click on the Audacity icon to see the "show package contents" but when I right click on the icon, Audacity just opens.

[bmpre]

How to install plugin MacBook Pro

Phew. Figured it out. I don't know why this was so hard. I was able to get the plugins onto a Mac without too much trouble. Anyway, for future reference (mine and anybody else who might stumble on this):

Download plugin
Pull the plugin onto desktop
Open Finder
Use "Go" dropdown in tab at top of screen and select "Go to Folder"
Search "~/library" and enter
Open folder "Application Support"
Open folder "Audacity"
Drag plugin(s) from desktop to the "Plug-Ins" folder
Open Audacity application
Select "Effect" dropdown in tab at top of screen and select "Add/Remove Plug-ins..."
Scroll down to find your plug-in where it is alphabetically placed
Select "Enable" and "Ok"

[mightyfelix]

Glad you figured it out. If it makes you feel any better, that's about the same process PC users have to follow as well. Finding the plugin folder and all that. Now if anyone runs in to this problem in the future, I'll be more able to walk them through it.

[CBarsema]

Help! I cannot seem to get my voice between the .5 and 1.0 mark. I am using an external mic and audacity. Can someone give me some direction?