Clipping different between PowerMac G5 and MacBook Pro?

Hi,
I have been using Audacity to record church services for quite a while now, and we just upgraded to a “new” computer. The previous one was a PowerMac G5 running Mac OS 10.5 and Audacity 1.3.10. The “new” one is a MacBook Pro running OS 10.6.8 and Audacity 2.0.0 (I also tried 1.3.14). With the PowerMac, if I had some clipping happen during the recording, I could stop and use the envelope tool to shrink the clipped section and it would bring the whole waveform back as I reduced the amplitude. With the MacBook Pro, if I try the same thing, it just shrinks the clipped waveform, and I still have clipped audio.

So I’m wondering if this is just the difference between sound cards on the two computers, or if something has changed between the software versions.

Thanks for any help!

Nothing has changed from 1.3.10 to 2.0.0 in that regard, so it would appear that the difference is down to different sound hardware between the two machines. You’ll need to turn down the input to the MacBook Pro before the signal reaches the line input jack.

  • Bill

Ok, thanks for replying so quickly. I wonder if the difference is between the hardware of the G5 and the MacBook Pro, or if it’s a difference in how Leopard and Snow Leopard handle audio signals.
I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered that I could do that on the G5, but I originally assumed it was the fact that I had upgraded Audacity.

Most of the time when I am recording I can keep the level down so it doesn’t clip, but occasionally there will be a signal spike coming from a mic and I can’t change the output volume quick enough. It was very nice to be able to reduce the volume with the envelope tool and eliminate the clipping.

Has anyone else been able to do this on other hardware / platforms?