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

[Winnifred]

https://i.postimg.cc/05ZB69wJ/Screenshot-2023-12-12-at-11-27-06.png

THe audio sections on the audacity update are quite useful but they seem to separate out (leaving gaps) and when I moved them next to each other the speeds had changed... I am not even sure what it means by speed and if that affects the recording once converted to MP3?

Thanks

Hi Emma,

I haven't ever played with speed settings, but I notice that the "Play at Speed" toolbar appears in Audacity automatically (default settings). On mine, it shows up at the bottom of the screen.

Perhaps if you inadvertently tapped or clicked that slightly, might that have caused this? I tried to replicate what you're seeing, but didn't manage. Not sure if this is much help, but perhaps try to select each track and check to see if either the numbers on either that toolbar or for "Speed and Pitch" under "Effects" have changed. They should both be set to 1.0 or 1.00.

I do think it'll affect the speed of your reading once you convert it (but you could try it and see whether you can hear a difference).

Cheers,

[emmacharliebrowning]

Thanks for the help, clicking the tempo bar did work to reset individual tracks (although it is normal at '120' which I don't understand, I assume this is for music).

I've partially worked out how to not do this now. It seems, on a mac, if I click on the line between two tracks and a staple symbol appears , and move the track, then it time stretches them.
If I aim toward the top of the bar and a hand appears, then it doesn't time stretch it.

[emmacharliebrowning]

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img922/5871/tOitTx.png

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img923/4122/3f4pvY.png

Hello librivoxers,

I am still stuck on the new 'tracks' in audacity. I keep accidentally inserting a black line that acts a wall and stops the tracks moving. I also keep creating a loop , which is easier to deal with as I just move it to the end.
I have tried clicking 'Tracks > align end to end' but it doesnt work when there are the black lines (and I can't manage to move the lines where the gap is in the example track, as the time stretch symbol keeps appearing).
Are my settings wrong? Can I make it impossible to have gaps between tracks? How am I creating the lines?
I wish I hadn't updated audacity!

Many thanks for any answers

Emma

[SowasVon]

I keep accidentally inserting a black line that acts a wall and stops the tracks moving.

Those black lines look like split lines. You can create them on purpose - place the marker at a spot in the track and press Ctrl + I (or via the menu: Edit > Audio Clips > Split). If that's not what you're doing accidentally, then I don't know how it's happening.
But you should be able to remove them this way (I can't check on my end because I've kept an older version of Audacity):
Select the whole track by clicking in the track's header.
Join all splits by clicking Ctrl + J -- OR -- by right-clicking to open the context menu and clicking "Join" -- OR -- by going into the menu: Edit > Audio Clips > Join.

By the way, split lines can be useful in editing if you place them while meaning to do so
For example, I find them handy to mark exactly where a badly spoken section starts and ends. To then select the section between the split lines, double-click inside of it - now you can delete it.
It's more precise than marking by pressing the mouse button, holding, dragging for the estimated length of the section and then letting go of the mouse button.

To turn loops off:
Transport > Looping > Loop On/Off

Edit: Ahh, you're on Mac. I don't know whether the same shortcuts apply, and I don't see the menu bar in your screenshots. I assume the same commands would help, but can't say whether you can trigger them the same way as on PC
I assume that you can turn off loops though by clicking the icon that looks like a square consisting of two arrows (7th button from the left).

[emmacharliebrowning]

Thanks! Clearing the loops worked so solves most of the problem! I think the keys do something else on my mac. I wish I hadn't updated audacity!

[Peter Why]

You can always re-install an older version; I'm still using 3.3.3 (on a PC), because I've seen so many reports of problems with the update.
Peter

[Jillk101]

Is there something easier to use than audacity?

[loon]

You can prepare your file with any audio editing program that can create MP3 files with the following specs
128 K bits per second FIXED
44,100 samples per second
Mono
and overall volume in the LibriVox specified range.

Many people use the 'checker' program to make sure their recording meets these specs before they upload.
(See: https://wiki.librivox.org/index.php?title=Checker)

If you are familiar with any other editing program you are welcome to use it.

[carlk]

I’m setting up Audacity for the first time and here’s my current problem:

The recording level and playback level tools are not displaying the green bars or any sort of numerical values at any time. See image.

Mac version 3.4.2

[Winnifred]

I’m setting up Audacity for the first time and here’s my current problem:

The recording level and playback level tools are not displaying the green bars or any sort of numerical values at any time. See image.

Mac version 3.4.2

That's happening to me too. I don't often look up there when I'm recording, so it hasn't affected me that much, but it is weird.

Also on a Mac (MacBook Air) running 3.4.2

We probably should report it to Audacity folks.

[ChristopherW]

I’m setting up Audacity for the first time and here’s my current problem:

The recording level and playback level tools are not displaying the green bars or any sort of numerical values at any time. See image.

Mac version 3.4.2

That's happening to me too. I don't often look up there when I'm recording, so it hasn't affected me that much, but it is weird.

Also on a Mac (MacBook Air) running 3.4.2

We probably should report it to Audacity folks.

This is a known issue:

https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/playback-and-recording-level-toolbar-are-missing-scaling-and-db-levels/92896

Apparently the bug is in MacOS itself, and the fix is to update to 14.3.

[Winnifred]

I’m setting up Audacity for the first time and here’s my current problem:

The recording level and playback level tools are not displaying the green bars or any sort of numerical values at any time. See image.

Mac version 3.4.2

This is a known issue:

https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/playback-and-recording-level-toolbar-are-missing-scaling-and-db-levels/92896

Apparently the bug is in MacOS itself, and the fix is to update to 14.3.

Aha! I updated and all's working right again. Thanks!

[JessicaHendra]

Help! I never used to have this issue with Audacity but when I Export my audio file I choose the 128 bit rate for export, but then when I run the file through Checker it says the bit rate is wrong! Has anyone had this issue?
Thanks!

[TriciaG]

Are you choosing CONSTANT bit rate (a radio button)?

See here:

[zachh]

I have run into a problem and am hoping that a wiser person can help me with what I did wrong. I finished editing and listening back to a chapter of my current solo. The waveform looks like the usual height, which is usually within 1-2 decibels of being correct. When I exported this file Checker said it is 75.7 decibels, and when I tried to amplify it to 89 the whole thing was clipped. When I was about halfway through editing it the volume I heard through the earbuds dropped a lot, but the waveform was the same. I pushed the button to raise the volume coming out of the computer, and everything seemed normal again. I am wondering if I hit something by mistake. I am using Audacity 2.4.2 on a Macbook Air on Sonoma 14.2.1. My old computer was more than 8-1/2 years old, so I bought a new one about a month ago. I have recorded several chapters on the new one with no problems in the past month. The export settings all look correct and Checker didn't flag any of them. If anyone has any advice I will be very grateful to hear it.