Windows 10, Audacity 2.1.3. I’ve been recording ok for awhile. Suddenly a problem has developed - 2 minutes into the recording, it begins to be distorted, garbled. The first 2 minutes are fine. What is causing this? Nothing has changed, same laptop, same Snowball mic. Except now after 2 minutes of music (guitar, singing) it becomes garbled. Thank you.
The distortion isn’t unusual. What’s unusual is the two minutes. This kind of distortion usually kicks in quicker—in the five to ten second range. Is it worse when you hold one note for a long time?
Did you start actively using Zoom, Skype, or Chat? Those kinds of apps change the sound system. They have to. That’s how they work. They see any sustained sound—music or not—as noise and try to get rid of it.
Windows has internal tools that try to manage musical tones too.
https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/faq_recording_troubleshooting.html#enhancements
Restart the machine and don’t let anything else start. Do Not leave Zoom or other program like that napping in the background “waiting for a call.” Don’t let them start at all.
Koz