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

[MarkShellhammer]

Hi Paula,
As I understand it, Audacity has incorporated this as a new feature for music production. If you copy/paste it creates a new clip. Is that what you are experiencing?
I had to go to preferences-Tracks Behaviors- and click on Editing a clip can move other clips. Then you'll still need to highlight the entire track, right click and then choose -join clips.
Hope this helps

Mark

[pmessina]

Thank you, Mark. That worked. I never would have figured that out on my own. I figured it had to do with the new version.

You're a genius.

Paula

[Winnifred]

Thank you, Mark. That worked. I never would have figured that out on my own. I figured it had to do with the new version.

You're a genius.

Paula

The latest version 3.4.1 now has a shortcut for joining (Ctrl-J on Windows; Command-J on a Mac). That will save you a bit of time as you don't have to navigate to the menu anymore.

Heads' up, everyone. 3.4.1 also splits the track if you try to noise reduce just a short piece, and probably does it for other effects as well, but I just haven't run into them yet. Joining the tracks is the same as for inserts, above.

Cheers,

[bountonw]

Dumb question. Why do the sections need joined if they are back to back? Doesn’t exporting give a clean sound even without joining?

[Winnifred]

Dumb question. Why do the sections need joined if they are back to back? Doesn’t exporting give a clean sound even without joining?

You might be right. I’ve never tried exporting without combining the tracks first. I should try playing with that. I’ve always just assumed that my final file should consist of one track (looks neater too), but I don’t know that it’s required. I suppose there might be a slight risk that if the tracks aren’t aligned tightly, you’ll end up with more silence than you wanted, but I can’t think of any other dangers.

Perhaps someone with more knowledge of this will weigh in.

Cheers,

[pmessina]

There were numerous gaps in my recording, not just one, gaps that I had not made. They did not stay joined when I brought them together. When I followed Mark's instructions, everything was joined. There were largest stretches without sound between the joined sections that I had to remove.


Paula

[pmessina]

Thank you, Winnifred. Very helpful. Paula

[pmessina]

Just got through exporting a file. Once you select export, there's a drop down menu where you can select mp3. Hope this helps.

Paula

[TheBanjo]

On a Mac running Sonoma, I am finding I cannot open a 25 minute .aup project file I have recorded with Audacity 3.4.0 (on one occasion) or on 3.4.1 (on a second occasion). I get error message "Audacity failed to read from a file in <start of path name>."

Using 3.4 1, I am able to record a 30 second fragment, save that, and reopen it.

Audacity shows the following "problem details" when I attempt to open the 25 minute files.

{
"timestamp": 1699658320,
"event_id": "c7101e3ea00a403bb63a3924371cd19d",
"platform": "native",
"release": "audacity@3.4.1",
"contexts": {
"os": {
"type": "os",
"name": "Macintosh",
"version": "10.16.0"
}
},
"exception": {
"values": [
{
"type": "File_Error",
"value": "Audacity failed to read from a file in /<path>.",
"mechanism": {
"type": "runtime_error",
"handled": false,
"data": {
"sqlite3.rc": "101",
"sqlite3.context": "SqliteSampleBlock::Load::step"
}
}
}
]
}
}

Both times this has happened, I have attempted to use audacity-project-tools to recover the project. The first time I did this, I had no success whatever. The second time, I got back most of my file, but with the first thirty seconds and the last minute missing, and (I haven't checked this) possibly other parts missing as well. I have zero confidence in the integrity of the file. The recovery utility spat out a message indicating 8 blocks were missing.

I have now thrown an hour of recording time down the drain, and no longer have any confidence in what has been, until now, a useful and reliable tool. I think I'm going to have to revert to using an older version.

#EDIT: I have now filed a bug report with Audacity: https://github.com/audacity/audacity/issues/5576

[annise]

It's a while since I recorded anything but we learned by experience to always make a .flac file when finishing a session. Audacity had a brilliant save feature based on multiple folders and disaster struck if you moved or renamed any of the folders it used - I don't know if this still applies but it may - it would have taken some big changes to change it.

Anne

[TheBanjo]

On a Mac running Sonoma, I am finding I cannot open a 25 minute .aup project file I have recorded with Audacity 3.4.0 (on one occasion) or on 3.4.1 (on a second occasion). I get error message "Audacity failed to read from a file in <start of path name>."

Using 3.4 1, I am able to record a 30 second fragment, save that, and reopen it.

Audacity shows the following "problem details" when I attempt to open the 25 minute files.

{
"timestamp": 1699658320,
"event_id": "c7101e3ea00a403bb63a3924371cd19d",
"platform": "native",
"release": "audacity@3.4.1",
"contexts": {
"os": {
"type": "os",
"name": "Macintosh",
"version": "10.16.0"
}
},
"exception": {
"values": [
{
"type": "File_Error",
"value": "Audacity failed to read from a file in /<path>.",
"mechanism": {
"type": "runtime_error",
"handled": false,
"data": {
"sqlite3.rc": "101",
"sqlite3.context": "SqliteSampleBlock::Load::step"
}
}
}
]
}
}

Both times this has happened, I have attempted to use audacity-project-tools to recover the project. The first time I did this, I had no success whatever. The second time, I got back most of my file, but with the first thirty seconds and the last minute missing, and (I haven't checked this) possibly other parts missing as well. I have zero confidence in the integrity of the file. The recovery utility spat out a message indicating 8 blocks were missing.

I have now thrown an hour of recording time down the drain, and no longer have any confidence in what has been, until now, a useful and reliable tool. I think I'm going to have to revert to using an older version.

#EDIT: I have now filed a bug report with Audacity: https://github.com/audacity/audacity/issues/5576

I've now done some further testing, and find that I now have the same problem when I save, and then try to reopen, an Audacity project using a version of Audacity that I was previously able to use just fine (Audacity 3.3.2). This indicates the symptoms I am experiencing are not the result of any bug in Audacity. While I have yet to determine the root cause, I suspect the Apple implementation of iCloud Drive under Sonoma may be playing a part. For the iMac where I've been experiencing this problem, I've had "Optimize Mac Storage" turned on for my iCloud Drive at the time when the problem has occurred. When this setting is on, not all files in my Documents folder (which is where I store my Librivox recordings) are guaranteed to be available immediately on my local PC. Some are just in the cloud, though available to be downloaded at the click of a finger, provided I've got an internet connection. My most recent tests show that I can record, and then reopen, a 25 minute file to a LOCAL folder that is never sent to iCloud drive. I've just now turned my "Optimize Mac Storage" setting to OFF (which will call all my iCloud content to be downloaded to my PC for immediate access, even if I have no network connection, while still syncing it to iCloud). I'm hopeful that once this arrangement has bedded down (the downloading will take a while), I'll find I can go back to working as I was, recording to a subfolder of my Documents folder.

[TheBanjo]

It's a while since I recorded anything but we learned by experience to always make a .flac file when finishing a session. Audacity had a brilliant save feature based on multiple folders and disaster struck if you moved or renamed any of the folders it used - I don't know if this still applies but it may - it would have taken some big changes to change it.

Anne

Hi Anne,
I believe the architecture you're describing, with the use of multiple folders, went out the window when they introduced Audacity 3. Audacity 3 now uses a database (SQLite) to store the audio and all metadata in a single .aup3 file. That said, exporting to a .flac file immediately after recording would still provide some useful fallback safety, in the sense that one would easily recreate the project from the .flac file if the .aup3 file was showing as corrupted or unopenable. My problem has been that I don't think I could save, and then reopen, even a recreated project. However, it's possible, and I'll certainly take up your suggestion until I know I can safely go back to my old way of working.

Peter

[TheBanjo]

Latest on problems I have been experiencing with Audacity 3.4.1 (and, as it turns out, even sub-versions of Audacity 3.3) running Sonoma on a Mac and saving project files to a folder under iCloud management:

I can now confirm that (a) if I save an Audacity project to a folder on my Mac (running Sonoma 14.0) that is not included in iCloud Drive (ie, is not a subfolder of either Documents or Desktop), I can save and open the project just fine in Audacity 3.4.1.

If, however, I save the Audacity project to a subfolder of Documents or Desktop (both of which I have under management of iCloud Drive), I get a message when I try to open the saved project either that Audacity can't read the project file, or that the file is corrupt.

If I copy the Audacity project that I saved initially on a drive that is outside the scope of iCloud Drive to a location that IS under the scope of iCloud Drive, I can open that Audacity project file successfully from the new location. I have not checked, however, whether it is possible to edit the project successfully, save the edited file, and then reopen it subsequently. IT MAY NOT BE.

All this suggests to me that some process under Sonoma/iCloud is interfering with the saving of Audacity project data for a longish project (in my case, 25 minutes) in a folder that is being managed by iCloud.

A workaround is to save the project on a folder that is not managed by iCloud and (probably) to do all editing work in that same location, too (although I have not yet checked this latter point).

I have closed a bug report I filed earlier with Audacity on this matter, and have lodged a new one: https://github.com/audacity/audacity/issues/5577

[NicoleJLeBoeuf]

Heads' up, everyone. 3.4.1 also splits the track if you try to noise reduce just a short piece, and probably does it for other effects as well, but I just haven't run into them yet. Joining the tracks is the same as for inserts, above.

Cheers,

Yyyyep. This was frustrating me intensely tonight during edits. I began recording into a new track at the timestamp of the PL notes, then I did my usual processing on the newly recorded track, and all my usual effects (De-clicker, Limiter, Loudness Normalization, and sometimes Noise Reduction) caused the short track to jump to the right, or, if I only selected part of the new recording, to get a huge space inserted which pushed the selected part to the right. I'd have to zoom out, find where my recording landed, and drag it back.

Is there no setting that corrects this? Is it just a bug? I'm pretty adaptable, and I actually quite like the new Export interface (esp. when exporting multiple!), but I will absolutely revert to an older version of Audacity so as not to have to deal with this.

Addendum: This is a difficult issue to search for, but I tried again and found this Audacity forum thread discussing this issue:

https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/noise-reduction-shifting-track/88649/6

Seems to be related to a bug with pasting clips, which kind of makes sense, assuming that effects like Noise Reduction work by basically copying the post-effect version of the selection over the top of the pre-effect version of the selection? They're working on having it fixed for 3.4.2, and until then, one user found relief by reverting to 3.3.3.

[Winnifred]

all my usual effects (De-clicker, Limiter, Loudness Normalization, and sometimes Noise Reduction) caused the short track to jump to the right, or, if I only selected part of the new recording, to get a huge space inserted which pushed the selected part to the right. I'd have to zoom out, find where my recording landed, and drag it back.

I haven’t come across that… yet. Hope I don’t, because reverting to 3.3.3 isn’t an option for me — the new Sonoma OS on my Mac messed that one up as well. Caught between a rock and a hard place. Loudness Normalization, De-Clicker, and Noise Reduction seem to be working for me except when I try to apply them to an insert on a separate track.