Apogee Mic + on Sonoma 14.6.1 Audible Click when Record starts

Hi, novice here who is trying to improve and has invested in an Apogee Mic+ to record spoken word audio. In GarageBand the Mic is active all the time and does not record any extraneous click or lag when you hit record. However, in Audacity the mic doesn’t activate until you hit record and then produces an audible ‘click’ followed by a period where no sound is recorded and then it catches up and records at same speed as the input (if that makes sense. This happens every single time. In order to workaround it I have to hit record, wait then speak. Then I have to go back and edit out the audible click.

Is there a way to have the mic in a kind of standby as soon as I start a project in Audacity or some other fix please?