Win 7 64 Bit

[MarkDuffy]

Hi
I have been using Audacity for years on several machines. I use it to record interviews and chat radio. Hardly ever for music. The current edition down not require lame. Or at least I don think I have loaded it.

My current machine is win 7 64bit. Second hand. I have a setting, set up by my predecessor, for X86 and 64bit.
I have loaded it in the folder for x86.
I am using audacity 1.3.12 beta(unicode)

it has worked fine till this morning. I was recording from the web. BBC today programme. I had it up and running but it had not caught the start of the inter view so I restarted it again.
Then I got this message `
Error while opening sound device. Please check the input device settings and the project sample rate.
I have reloaded Audacity. I can not record on it at all.
And you know what I reckon that it's win 7.
I have looked for my sample rate but I have no idea what that is.

Here's hoping as I use this a lot.

Mark

[steve]

Check to see if your sound card drivers have been automatically updated recently - if they have, then you could try rolling them back to the previous drivers.

Also, some questions...
Have you ever had Audacity 1.2.x installed on that computer?
Did you need to do anything to get Audacity working initially, or did it all work "out of the box"?
Do you know how to switch the recording input, for example if you want to record from a microphone?

[MarkDuffy]

Hi Steve
Thanks for all that. Possible the sound card. Could have updated in the few seconds while I was recording and then stopped and started. This would have been all of 10 Seconds. Sp small window.
I have only had this version on this computer.
I have never needed to record form a mic. But assume that I would pop it in the front and record.
I use MP3 Skype recorder to record all my calls automatically on Skype and I am having no trouble. Would this be what you mean by the mic.
And yes everything worked out of the box so to speak.
It's a right bugger because the recordings on the radio are only available for a week or at least the ones I want and they are really useful if you want to speak to / interview that person some months later.
It is so odd. I was literally about to record with the bar/line moving across the screen. Then I stopped it by closing it down. as I have done before on many occasions. Do you think I may have altered a setting. I always tell myself that technological problems are invariably a mistake I have made. And keep searching for the answer. when I get it it is a bit of a pain as it then takes a millisecond to correct.
Win7 is excellent but I do not know my way about as I did with XP. Not sure how to roll back but could try that. Do you mean go back to the settings of a previous time for the machine as in XP?

Apart from anything else what does the message mean.

[steve]

Could have updated in the few seconds while I was recording and then stopped and started. This would have been all of 10 Seconds. Sp small window.

Thanks for the clarification - I'm getting a clearer picture now
In these circumstances it seems unlikely that it is a driver issue, so probably not worth messing with them at this stage.

Error while opening sound device. Please check the input device settings and the project sample rate.
I have reloaded Audacity. I can not record on it at all.

That means that Audacity cannot connect to your sound card.

Possibly the most likely cause is that something switched off the recording input that you were using.

Note that Skype manages the computer sound system very aggressively and will often change the sound card settings to suit itself. Always check that Skype is totally shut down before you start Audacity.

Re-installing Audacity will make no difference as Audacity saves it's settings in a file that does not get overwritten by re-installing. That file is named "audacity.cfg"
This probably will not help, but it will eliminate one possibility:
To reset the Audacity Preferences,
1) Close Audacity
2) Search for the file "audacity.cfg" (you will need to enable searching for hidden files)
3) Delete the audacity.cfg file
4) Restart Audacity.
(note to other reader - this method only works if Audacity 1.2.x has never been installed).

[kozikowski]

I was literally about to record with the bar/line moving across the screen. Then I stopped it by closing it down. as I have done before on many occasions.

Wait. You were about to record? What bar was moving? IMHO, stopping a recording (or any process) by closing the application is loudly begging for trouble. All you need is one application that's not well behaved and it can cause all sorts of troubles.

Koz

[MarkDuffy]

Hi Steve
I un installed Audacity.
reinstalled audacity.
Checked to see if any changed.
No same notice.
I turned off Skype. Though I am 100% certain that I would have had Skype running earlier as it is always on even when outlook is off. Skype is my phone.
I closed audacity and checked it was not dunning using task manager.
I have all files shown.(can't stand files hidden)
I searched for audacity.cfg using the search on win7 just above the win start logo.
Response No items match your search.
I then looked for it manually in the audacity folder and could not find it.
Then out of hope opened Audacity again but notice still there. funny because though it can not communicate with the sound card it makes a loud bleep to say so.

Thanks again Steve for your time.
Thinking about it. I was turning it off without great caution this morning. If you can think of some setting I may have changed. I had windows player on at the time.

Here is an image of the screen piece. In case I have gone loopy I just click on the record button to start a recording.

SP32-20110302-001139.gif (96.08 KiB) Viewed 819 times

Further below I have an image of Audacity playing a recording made by MP3 Skype recorder and opened by Audacity. I is playing as we talk.

SP32-20110302-001923.gif (91.53 KiB) Viewed 819 times

[steve]

To clarify regarding Skype.
It is possible to run Audacity and Skype at the same time, but very many users have reported problems when trying to do so. Skype can, and sometimes does change the sound system configuration in unexpected ways, which can leave users scratching their heads. The point of disabling Skype is to take it out of the equation while we try to track down this problem.

Re "audacity.cfg"
On Vista and Windows 7 this file will be in
Users\<user name>\AppData\Roaming\Audacity

Unless Audacity has never been closed (without crashing), that file will be there.

When you have found and deleted that file, restart Audacity.
If the problem is still there, go to:
Edit menu > Preferences > Devices.

What options are currently set?
What other options are available?

[MarkDuffy]

Hi Steve
Sorry it's been a while. Been busy at other issues.
I thought that Audacity was working for a moment. Not. I have deleted audacity.cfg.
re-started
No change same dialogue box as before.
Checked the devices and they are as shown below. (note no recording device found)

Also and possible related. With windows media player when I create a playlist ( I have only done a few) and try to play it there is no sound. ( I had intended to record this in simple audio for my Iphone)
Well I'm alive and kicking so maybe I should not feel so P...d off.

[Slang]

Hi, Steve et al.

I have tried suggestions at

viewtopic.php?f=37&t=4825

and thought that maybe this thread would help me to record in newly installed v.1.3.12 Beta, which I have installed and uninstalled several times, together with alternatively trying v.1.3.7 Beta, which works well on my other 64-bit machine.

This machine is using Windows 7, the Asus SoundMAX Audio driver seems to be up to date, and I have been resorting to recording on the other machine for months, after trying various fixers to this problem machine.

I thought that this thread would help, and maybe it has, some. I deleted the Users\<user name>\AppData\Roaming\Audacity\audacity.cfg file and restarted audacity, but the problem was not fixed.

I have repeatedly visited Edit | Preferences | Devices and have tried various options. Here are my choices:

Host: Windows DirectSound
MME
Using: PortAudio V 19-devel (built Mar 29 2010 21:03:06) [no options]

Playback Device: Primary Sound Driver
Speakers (SoundMAX Integrated Digital HD Audio)
SPDIF Interface (SoundMAX Integrated Digital HD Audio)

Recording Device: Primary Sound Capture Driver
Microphone Array (SoundMAX Digital HD Audio)
Line In (SoundMAX Integrated Digital HD Audio)

Channels: 1 (Mono)
2 (Stereo)

While playing with this, I did SOMETHING that at least starts a recording when I press the red-circle button. It seems to be activated by background sound and comes to a level just above the 2 stereo-channel center lines. I can hear a faint recording of something streamed from Web playback, hidden by the low fuzz of background noise.

I'm lost, having tried for months everything I can think of, without success. I'm hoping that you can help me see my way through this maze, Steve. And I hope that you don't mind my kibbitzing and joining this conversation, MarkDuffy.

Thanks, guys.

Slang (also a Steve)

[MarkDuffy]

AHHHHHHH!!!
I

I started reading the solution and implementing it till I noticed at the end that it did not work.

All I keep telling my self is that it has worked perfectly for 6 months since I bought this machine.

I am not as smart as you guys and do not know my way abut the machine.
But it was working. I stopped it roughly and it would not start again. I have not tried to revert to older setting on this machine. I will do this now. First I will note my preferences.