50/50 chance for the program to be unresponsive after recording for an hour

[chowand]

Hi

Whenever I record system audio such as a Zoom meeting, I always have to roll the roulette in terms of whether I can save or retrieve the document. After recording and when I stop close, theres a 50% chance that everything proceeds fine (I can save, I can export), or theres a 50% chance the program decides to not respond.

When I say not respond, I mean Audacity is still clearly in operation. You can Alt-Tab, when you try to Alt+F4 there is a prompt that warns you to save. But no matter what I do there is literally nothing I can do to interact with the program. Mouse operations are completely ignored, keyboard shortcuts do not work. I am stuck with what is in essence an image of my last operation, but it does not proceed from there.

What makes this infinitely more frustrating is that when I force close and I restart the program, the data is recoverable, but the problem now has a 100% chance of occurring. I.E. The first click after I open the program is the last command the program registers. I literally am stuck on an Export Audio prompt, one button away from being able to obtain my file, but I am stuck with no way to click save or do ANYTHING to interact with the program. My CPU RAM usage is single digit, I have let the program sit for hours, and its still shows as the program is running but that I have absolutely nothing I can do to make the thing work.

I have lost hours and hours of recording because of this. If anyone has a free recommendation for other system audio recording software because of this please let me know

[kozikowski]

I believe Zoom has a service where they will record voice for you. I believe in the last iteration they could give you separate files for each performer.

Programs such as Skype, Zoom, Meetings, etc, take over the computer’s sound services when they run and you have nothing to say about it. That’s why they’re so successful. I’m surprised you could get it to work at all.

You can use the Hands Free option in a quiet, echo-free room. Place your phone on the table between the computer and you to record both sides.

I have a microphone that fits in the ear and will record both sides on a separate sound recorder.

What you can’t do is force the Zoom computer to do it.

There is another trick. Set up a separate computer and log into the conversation. Set that one to record the incoming sound. Don’t connect a microphone. That will capture all sides of the performance. I did that one at an old company. We had people who couldn’t be part of the meeting but needed to hear it.

Koz

[kozikowski]

There was one heavy computer user that did manage to rip control of the sound away from the application and successfully record everything clearly. What that also did was damage the application’s echo suppression and directional management. The people at the far end had damaged sound and had trouble hearing him.

This isn’t easy.

Koz