What happens if you unplug the headphones and listen with the Mac’s internal speakers?
– Bill
I think my issue had to deal with some VST plug-ins I had on my MacBook, because I think I got Audacity working again.
I also had an issue with GarageBand not responding whenever I opened it, and it dealt with some VST instruments I downloaded, so I deleted the VST plug-ins that were crashing GarageBand. And I feel like that also contributed to getting Audacity’s playback functioning properly on my MacBook.
Hello there,
Just switched to Big Sur (11.2.3) and tried Audacity 3.0.0. I’m usually recording through decks and onto a mixer pioneer, but somehow I just can record on Mono, no Stereo options available in the new set up. Does anyone knows what is going on?
CHEERS!
David
Please avoid double posting. I replied here: No stereo recording - #4 by steve
I recently updated to Big Sur 11.3.1. I am able to record new podcast episodes but I am not able to open any of my previous aup files.
I upgraded to Audacity 2.3.2 with no resolution. Yikes, this is a real problem for me.
Any suggestions on how to diagnose this problem.
Never mind this was a DropBox incompatibilty on Big Sur. I needed to update DropBox.
Don’t open Audacity while they are in your dropbox folder. (We have multiple reports of cloud drives causing serious problems with open Audacity problems).
Copy or move projects to a normal disk folder before opening in Audacity.
Hi. I just upgraded to Audacity 3.0.2 and am running Big Sur 11.4. The app can open and play my files without using the Terminal command any more, which is nice. But no matter how much I mess with the Buffer length in the Device Preferences, I can’t get the playback crackle to go away completely. This is most discouraging. Are there other preferences I need to play with? Thanks!
Can you make it better or worse? (Does changing the buffer length have any effect, if so, what’s the best setting)
I have been using and loving Audacity on an old windows laptop for many years without any issues. 
Today I switched to using it on:
iMac (Retina 4K, 21.5-inch, 2019)
3.2 GHz 6-Core Intel Core i7
16 GB 2667 MHz DDR4
Radeon Pro 560X 4 GB
Big Sur 11.4
And I now am getting the same issue as spanghew (quoted post). 
The playhead doesn’t glide across the screen on my Mac - instead it now moves in a series of steps - it even appears as if the steps are not even.
The sound meter at the top is also very jerky now.
Any ideas? Something I can adjust on my Mac? 
Many thanks!!
That sounds like a different issue.
Right-click on the Audacity app and choose Get Info.
In the Get Info window, check “Open in low resolution”.
Does that help?
I have managed to make it better by changing the setting. 20 to 50 all sounds about the same. Still some crackling but not as annoying. Good enough to edit an LP or cassette transfer. Luckily, it does not appear on the finished product after I export the files. Thanks for responding.
Hi,
I have macOS Big Sur. I downloaded Audacity 3.0.3 (easily) but have been unable to import an .mp4. I have followed steps to download the 64-bit FFMPEG library and to map it manually. When I do that, the file I can browse to is not named the same as what is listed in the manual install instructions (link 2 below). The manual instructions say select the file “ffmpeg.55.64bit.dylib” but the one I can select is “libmp3lame64bit.dylib”. My computer won’t open it because of a risk of malware.
I have also tried downloading the 3.0.2 version to see if the library came included. That didn’t work either. If anyone has suggestions about ways to fix this problem, please let me know!
Here are the links I’ve tried already with no success:
- https://lame.buanzo.org/#lameosx64bitdl
- https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/installing_ffmpeg_for_mac.html
- https://lame.buanzo.org/
Thanks!
So the buanzo website is difficult/confusing to read and you have simply downloaded the wrong file. It is easy to overlook. You want to download FFMPEG, not LAME.
You just need to keep reading. Four or five lines below “64-bit LAME for Mac OS X”, you will see “64-bit FFMPEG for Mac OS X”. That’s the one you are looking for!
Hi There.
Is there any chance to record a podcast interview with a person not in the same room as me? E.g. via zoom and not to use zoom?
How can I record an free soundtrack from the internet - means directly from Safari to Audacity without any microphone?
Thanks for your help.
Megggy
Why would you not want to use Zoom’s built-in recording feature? It’s the obvious way to record Zoom meetings, and it works.
I’m brand new to Big Sur and Audacity. I’m trying to install the “ACX-Check.ny.txt” plug-in found on Audacity’s Wiki Plug-in page. Audacity isn’t recognizing it when I search for it in “Effects” to enable it. Then I noticed that this plug-in file ends in “txt”, while all the other plug-ins end in “ny”. Could this be a typo? Should I just delete the “txt” from the file name and see if Audacity recognizes it? Thanks for the help!
Nevermind - I figured it out! I’m new here, also…couldn’t find a way to delete my post.
Hello! Is there a solution to the -9997 error code? I’m trying to record a vinyl record and when I click “click to start monitoring”, that’s the message I get. I’ve scanned for audio devices, made sure everything is plugged in tightly, but no luck! Any suggestions would be appreciated!
Hello all, I have not used Audacity for a while, I have a new MacBook Pro with Big Sur and also just downloaded Audacity 3.0.5. Could someone please tell me - or point me to instructions - on how to setup input to internal audio channel instead of microphones? Want to record some music from the web, I have done it once but long time ago in an earlier version and can’t remember anymore. Thank you!