I’ve had 2.x for a long time (currently 2.1.0) and I’ve read similar bugs but most if not all had a LOUD beep on both channels at regular intervals.
This recently showed up and nothing has changed on my laptop. Running Win 7, with an Alesis multimix 8 at VERY irregular intervals I get a LOUD beep over the recording waveforms. It’s like an 80’s Mario beep, nothing at all like a system beep.
I’ve uninstalled Audacity, deleted everything in the registry that audacity poked in there, and I have no idea what it is. I do know what it is NOT, some external noise in the room. It happens with the mics removed from the mixer AND with the mixer powered off.
The current version is 2.1.2, and did you download it from the official [u]audacityteam.org[/u]?
I think I’ve heard of this happening when someone was selling their version of Audacity and there was a beep in the trial version… There are (3rd-party) trial plug-ins that do the same thing, but Audacity doesn’t apply plug-in effects during recording.
This is happening during the recording? You can see it on the Audacity meters and the waveform, and it’s “permanently” in the recording, and maybe hear it (if you’re monitoring through the computer), so it happens at the same place every time during playback?
And it’s a given the beep is actually in the recording, right, you can point to it in the blue waves? Is it also a given you can export and post a sample of this beep? Use Audacity default WAV, 16-bit, either stereo (ten seconds) or mono (20 seconds). If possible, get a sample of quiet “room tone” as well as your normal show (voice, etc.) as well as the beep.
Do you do anything wild and wacky? I mean in the computer? Games? Do you like to record internet music or other shows? Chat? Skype?
…deleted everything in the registry…
There’s the kiss of death, right there.
There’s a 100% chance you don’t have a standard machine and anything we do is going to be pure guesswork. My first out of the gate guess is you managed somehow to create a feedback path right on the edge of breaking into regenerative sound. Every so often conditions line up and you get EEEEEE___*. And then it goes to sleep until conditions line up again. Developers call those conditions “Moon Phase Errors.”
So post a sample and we’ll see if anybody recognizes it.
The laptop has had the same version since I got it, I think either direct or sourceforge, I “think” but it was an .exe.
The Win7 machine is pretty bare bones and is only used for this one purpose (recording) and no software has ever been installed since new.
The “beep” is in the waveform
“There’s the kiss of death, right there.”
Hang on, deleting registry entries is as commonplace as me walking down the street. A FRESH install should re-write any registry entries.
Remember I had a GOOD WORKING setup that just started doing this, if uninstalling and reg deletions are “the kiss of death” there’s something broke in the installer.
I’ve been a computer professional since well before Windows came out, and have used every O/S before, since and after, the “KOD” comment may be meaningful if mom or pop did it, but not here. I’ve done more successful registry pokes without a failure than most people on the planet so if there’s nothing to discuss I’ll look for another way to record.
PS, I downloaded the newest version and the beep is still there. Beep attached
Audacity has a beep setting (off by default, in Interface Preferences) that beeps on completion of processes lasting more than a minute. Your beep does not sound the same as that.
Any other beeps than that are coming from your computer, not from Audacity. Of course, you can turn off sounds for all events in the “Sounds” tab of Windows Sound.
OK, it’s NOT coming from any Windows sound source, I disabled them all except the speakers. I recorded a few seconds and inserted a 500 hz noise from inside audacity after the self generated tone.
Other applications than those listed in Windows Sound may make noises.
Are you sure the beep is not some kind of Alesis time code?
I know you know this, but you must not forget to do anti-virus scans using the latest virus definitions.
If you are append-recording to the end of the same track with Transport > Overdub on, Audacity might play and re-record an earlier fragment of the track. It’s a bug. You would not record a tone unless a tone was already in the track.
That apart, yes it would be good to record with another application than Audacity. I think you will receive the same beep.
Hang on, deleting registry entries is as commonplace as me walking down the street.
Yes, but. That’s fraught with meaning. It means any problems you have are likely to be serious and not fluffy, and further, normal “mom and pop” servicing isn’t going to help.
It’s not just “tone.” it’s a neat, orderly squarewave.
A spectrum analysis reveals harmonics up as far as the sound channel will take them.
500
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Alesis multimix 8.
Which one? You can get one with USB or FireWire.
Can we assume the beeping stops if you unplug the mixer completely and record your laptop built-in microphone?
