Editing audio files? Maybe don’t upgrade your Mac to Sonoma yet

[TheBanjo]

Turns out there’s a bug in Audacity versions up to the current version 3.3.3 when running under Sonoma that makes editing audio files needlessly tricky. Suggest you don’t upgrade to Sonoma until Audacity 3.3.4 becomes available. For details of this known Audacity bug under Sonoma, see: https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/highlighting-audio-in-macos-sonoma-is-lagging-jerky/85807/16

[Winnifred]

Turns out there’s a bug in Audacity versions up to the current version 3.3.3 when running under Sonoma that makes editing audio files needlessly tricky. Suggest you don’t upgrade to Sonoma until Audacity 3.3.4 becomes available. For details of this known Audacity bug under Sonoma, see: https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/highlighting-audio-in-macos-sonoma-is-lagging-jerky/85807/16

Aargh. I should have waited longer before updating. I’ve been having the jerky mouse syndrome since updating (though I can work around it by watching the Timeline bar instead of the highlighting) and my Audacity regularly crashes on startup, saves the (empty) file, and asks me to recover that when I restart. I see they’re working on fixes, so I can probably live with this for now, provided there isn’t anything else going on.

Next time there’s an update, I’ll wait a few weeks before adopting it. At least I know now what’s going on.

Thanks,

[TheBanjo]

Yes, Winnifred, exactly. In the past, I've always done that myself, but this time I just jumped in. Lesson learned (I hope).

And now you come to mention it, I've also been experiencing exactly the same crashes you've mentioned. So there are at least two pretty -in-your-face bugs that need to be sorted out for Audacity 3.3.4.

[TheBanjo]

I've never used a beta (ie, not yet officially released) version of Audacity before, but the bugs in version 3.3.3 when running under Sonoma have been so annoying I thought I'd try running the beta version of 3.3.4. Downloaded and installed this morning (from https://github.com/audacity/audacity/releases, under "Assets") while also keeping my version of 3.3.3 for recording (which I know works fine).

I must say editing with the 3.3.4 beta edition was a delight after working with its kludgy predecessor, and so for, anyway, the 3.3.4 beta version has not crashed on opening, either.

Note that the process of exporting an mp3 file is different under 3.3.4. This doesn't present any problems, although you may need to check back to see what the Librivox specs are for that mp3 file: https://wiki.librivox.org/index.php/Tech_Specs

[iBeScotty]

There was recently an article at Sweetwater on this topic of upgrading to Sonoma:

https://www.sweetwater.com/insync/should-i-upgrade-to-macos-sonoma/

I don't use it but no doubt Audacity will be updated soon. I also haven't upgraded to Sonoma yet either, but I am usually slow at change

scotty

[Winnifred]

I've never used a beta (ie, not yet officially released) version of Audacity before, but the bugs in version 3.3.3 when running under Sonoma have been so annoying I thought I'd try running the beta version of 3.3.4. Downloaded and installed this morning (from https://github.com/audacity/audacity/releases, under "Assets") while also keeping my version of 3.3.3 for recording (which I know works fine).

I must say editing with the 3.3.4 beta edition was a delight after working with its kludgy predecessor, and so for, anyway, the 3.3.4 beta version has not crashed on opening, either.

Note that the process of exporting an mp3 file is different under 3.3.4. This doesn't present any problems, although you may need to check back to see what the Librivox specs are for that mp3 file: https://wiki.librivox.org/index.php/Tech_Specs

There are three different versions for Mac; which one did you download: beta-1-arm64, beta-1-universal, or beta-1-x86_64? I'm thinking of trying it, but want to make sure I grab the right one, and I don't know enough to differentiate between them. I'm thinking it's probably the first or third, but I'm not sure.

Thanks,

[TheBanjo]

I've never used a beta (ie, not yet officially released) version of Audacity before, but the bugs in version 3.3.3 when running under Sonoma have been so annoying I thought I'd try running the beta version of 3.3.4. Downloaded and installed this morning (from https://github.com/audacity/audacity/releases, under "Assets") while also keeping my version of 3.3.3 for recording (which I know works fine).

I must say editing with the 3.3.4 beta edition was a delight after working with its kludgy predecessor, and so for, anyway, the 3.3.4 beta version has not crashed on opening, either.

Note that the process of exporting an mp3 file is different under 3.3.4. This doesn't present any problems, although you may need to check back to see what the Librivox specs are for that mp3 file: https://wiki.librivox.org/index.php/Tech_Specs

There are three different versions for Mac; which one did you download: beta-1-arm64, beta-1-universal, or beta-1-x86_64? I'm thinking of trying it, but want to make sure I grab the right one, and I don't know enough to differentiate between them. I'm thinking it's probably the first or third, but I'm not sure.

Thanks,

I downloaded the "universal" version. You can use the "arm64" version if you're confident you're running a so-called "Silicon" version Mac, with M1 or M2 processor, and you can use the x86_64 version if you're sure that you're NOT running a "Silicon" Mac. The "universal" version will install correctly on both kinds of Mac. I'm guessing the non-universal versions have a smaller file size than the universal, and I'm guessing that might be why some users would prefer them to the universal, but I haven't verified that.

[Winnifred]

I've never used a beta (ie, not yet officially released) version of Audacity before, but the bugs in version 3.3.3 when running under Sonoma have been so annoying I thought I'd try running the beta version of 3.3.4. Downloaded and installed this morning (from https://github.com/audacity/audacity/releases, under "Assets") while also keeping my version of 3.3.3 for recording (which I know works fine).

I must say editing with the 3.3.4 beta edition was a delight after working with its kludgy predecessor, and so for, anyway, the 3.3.4 beta version has not crashed on opening, either.

Note that the process of exporting an mp3 file is different under 3.3.4. This doesn't present any problems, although you may need to check back to see what the Librivox specs are for that mp3 file: https://wiki.librivox.org/index.php/Tech_Specs

There are three different versions for Mac; which one did you download: beta-1-arm64, beta-1-universal, or beta-1-x86_64? I'm thinking of trying it, but want to make sure I grab the right one, and I don't know enough to differentiate between them. I'm thinking it's probably the first or third, but I'm not sure.

Thanks,

I downloaded the "universal" version. You can use the "arm64" version if you're confident you're running a so-called "Silicon" version Mac, with M1 or M2 processor, and you can use the x86_64 version if you're sure that you're NOT running a "Silicon" Mac. The "universal" version will install correctly on both kinds of Mac. I'm guessing the non-universal versions have a smaller file size than the universal, and I'm guessing that might be why some users would prefer them to the universal, but I haven't verified that.

Ah, thanks. I know I have an M1 processor on my MacBook Air, so I think I'll go for the smaller one.

Cheers,

[sjmarky]

Ah, thanks. I know I have an M1 processor on my MacBook Air, so I think I'll go for the smaller one.

I think the universal is optimized for Apple Silicon, so you may find that this version runs faster even if it's a little bigger. I have an Air M1 myself.

[Winnifred]

Ah, thanks. I know I have an M1 processor on my MacBook Air, so I think I'll go for the smaller one.

I think the universal is optimized for Apple Silicon, so you may find that this version runs faster even if it's a little bigger. I have an Air M1 myself.

I’ve downloaded the arm64, but haven’t edited with it yet, so we shall see. Anything will be faster than trying to track that jerky mouse or having to restart at least once every time I open Audacity.

Thanks,

[TheBanjo]

Ah, thanks. I know I have an M1 processor on my MacBook Air, so I think I'll go for the smaller one.

I think the universal is optimized for Apple Silicon, so you may find that this version runs faster even if it's a little bigger. I have an Air M1 myself.

According to Apple documentation, "a universal binary runs natively on both Apple silicon and Intel-based Mac computers, because it contains executable code for both architectures." (https://developer.apple.com/documentation/apple-silicon/building-a-universal-macos-binary) I could always be wrong (and often have been!) but I don't see any suggestion in Apple's documentation that it will actually run faster on an M1 processor than an arm64 binary, however.

[Winnifred]

Recorded and edited in the beta this morning. It crashed once when I first saved, but otherwise worked just fine (and was faster than 3.3.3!). It's such a pleasure to be able to use my mouse normally again while editing.

Cheers,

[TheBanjo]

Recorded and edited in the beta this morning. It crashed once when I first saved, but otherwise worked just fine (and was faster than 3.3.3!). It's such a pleasure to be able to use my mouse normally again while editing.

Cheers,

Great to hear (well, not about the crash so much!). But yes. I was surprised how much easier it was editing with 3.3.4 beta after getting used to the clunky workarounds required in 3.3.3 under Sonoma.

[Winnifred]

I see that Audacity 3.3.4 is out today. Let's see if it's more stable than the beta.

Cheers,

[TheBanjo]

I see that Audacity 3.3.4 is out today. Let's see if it's more stable than the beta.

Cheers,

Thanks for noticing that!
Yep, first impressions are that 3.4.0 works well under Sonoma — certainly for basic Librivox recording and editing purposes, which is all that I've tried.