Audacity Forum

The instant you have serious troubles with Audacity 1.2, we push you over to 1.3. Audacity 1.2 is very old and no longer supported, patched, corrected, or updated. Audacity 1.2 can be unstable on newer computers. Download and install the latest Audacity 1.3 from here... http://audacityteam.org/downl...

The short answer is no. Once you have one data point off, the difference is 100%. You can really mess up the tools by having two copies of one song (for example). One might be a very tiny fraction of a second longer than the other. To your ear, they would be exactly the same song, but they would be ...

Oddly, there's not a straightforward answer. It would be a good start to tell us which version of Audacity and which kind of computer you have. I'm typing on an Intel MacBook Pro OS-X 10.5.8 and I use Audacity 1.3.12. I know you were hoping to avoid all that by posting down here in the fuzzy forum, ...

Some laptops use the battery system as part of the stability/filter system. You may find that if you fix the battery, the power supply noise may go away. Try the battery first. Really messy things can happen when you have a constantly flat battery.

Koz

In Audacity 1.3.12, it's in View > Show Clipping. Audacity 1.2 is very old and no longer supported, patched, corrected, or updated. Audacity 1.2 can be unstable on newer computers. Download and install the latest Audacity 1.3 from here... http://audacityteam.org/download/ You can install both audaci...

You are, or should be "Signal Conditioning." Preparing the signal so it's compatible with your instrument.

Koz

But do remember that Projects do not save UNDO layers.
Koz

Closed Audacity, selected the USB Device in System Preferences/Sound. You didn't need Audacity. That panel has a sound meter which jumps when you apply sound correctly. It's a wide-range sound meter and if it didn't jump when you spoke into your microphone, then yes, there's something wrong. You ne...

I was confused because you posted in the Audacity 1.2 forum. Stick with Audacity 1.3. 1.2 has serious problems. How much hard drive space do you have (in MB) and when was the last time you defragmented and error checked the drive? Do you like to collect plugins and did you apply a bunch of new ones?...

There were a lot of steps there. Which ones didn't work? Start with Audacity closed. Did the Apple system show the USB device?
Koz