Greetings
Thank you for the 2.4.1 update, especially the larger timer display.
I have an unusual issue with 2.4.1. (on Windows 10) When I hit one of my short cut keys, especially the numbers, the Audacity screen very quickly flashes to whatever other screens are open (eg: Google Chrome or Explorer) and back to Audacity.
It doesn’t affect function, it’s just hard on the eyes!
I checked, and I notice version 2.3.3 does not do this.
Thanks for your help.
James the Media Trainer
What does the shortcut do?
Hi.
I checked, and the screen flashing only seems to occur on Noise Gate and Limiter. (I use a lot of Macros, with combinations of effects, so for me it happens very often).
Thank you for any help you can offer.
Kind regards
James the Trainer
Do Noise Gate or Limiter cause the problem if you apply them manually rather than in a Macro?
Could you check if other effects that appear “below the line” in the Effect menu (such as “High Pass Filter”, “Low Pass Filter”, “Tremolo”…)
Hi
The noise gate and limiter effects cause the problem even on their own, even when not used in a macro.
I tried all the other effects in the effects menu (above and below the line) and the screen flash did not occur for any of them.
James
Is that when running them from the Effect menu rather than from a keyboard shortcut?
Hi there.
It happens when I use keyboard shortcuts, also when I use these effects in macros and also when I use them from the effects menu.
I have attached a short video to demonstrate.
Thank you for your help.
Try the delay effect again, but set “Allow duration to change” to “No”.
I changed that over, and made no change. The delay effect does not cause the flash effect, just the noise gate and the limiter.
Thanks
How about the “Vocal Reduction and Isolation” effect? Try it with “Remove Vocals: to mono” (first option) and “Remove Vocals” (second option in the first control). Do either, or both create the screen flash?
Do you get a screen flash if you use “Tremolo” on a very long track?
Thanks for your reply.
I tried all those, and there was no screen flash.
Hope that helps. Kind regards from the South Pacific.
By my count you have 8 apps open on your machine including Audacity and Chrome. What happens if you close Chrome and/or close everything else?
Reset Windows? Shift+Shutdown > OK > Wait > Start.
Do you use Google Cloud or other on-line storage system? The current Audacity versions don’t like that very much.
Have you had any other app stability problems? Any time I have any doubt at all, I cold restart. Even if the system claims it recovers perfectly, “(Nothing to see here. Move along. Move along,)” any kind of crash can leave debris.
Koz
Hi, thank you for this suggestion.
I turned off my machine completely and restarted. Still the same issue.
However, after restarting, I noticed that it only happens if Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge is open.
Interestingly, when I drag Audacity over to a second screen, and use the same two effects, they still cause a short ‘jump’ in both Chrome and Edge in the address bar - like they are reacting to the Limiter and Noise Gate effects somehow.
Cheers
James
like they are reacting to the Limiter and Noise Gate effects somehow.
That is what I was looking for. A new or different action or symptom.
You could try resetting Audacity. Unfortunately, just installing a new one won’t do it. You have to delete the Audacity configuration files and make it start over.
I’m not a Windows elf. Looking.
What was the original or First Birthday OS on your machine?
Koz
Here it is.
https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/preferences.html#reset
Scroll down into the Windows notes.
Koz
Good idea.
Not sure if I want to do that right now, as I have a ton of short cuts and macros set up in Audacity.
I suppose there is no way to reset preferences without losing everything?
There will be in the soon to be upcoming 2.4.2 release where there will be a new item in the Tools menu for Reset Configuration
Meanwhile go the the folder location suggested by Kozikowski -and just delete the audacity.cfg file
You should notice a couple of plug-ins files and a plugins folder - and a Macros folder - do NOT delete or touch those.
Peter.
Greetings.
Tried this, and it certainly did reset all my screen and shortcut settings. 
However, the screen flash still happens, when Chrome and Edge are open.
I’m not sure if anyone else is having this issue, or just me. My computer perhaps, or maybe an issue with the video card.
Thanks for all your help and ideas.
What video card do you have?
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050