Our environment is Windows 10 Pro and Audacity 2.3. We have a broadcast console that sends audio to a USB Tascam US 2x2 to the W10 computer. The system works well until…
If an accidental feedback screech happens due to a mic or other device being on while Audacity is playing back (audio still being received through the Tascam), and after the feedback screech is removed, Audacity recordings remain corrupted. Usually, without changing any settings, the recording seems to be working fine, but upon listening to the recording, there are buzzes and drops. Also typically, I can export to mp3 for example, and the mp3 also has the buzzes.
I have frequently been able to “fix” this situation by switching the Audio Host from Windows Directsound to Wasapi, or vice versa, depending on which one was active during the accidental feedback. Rebooting sometimes brings things back to normal in conjunction with switching the Host.
I don’t know if this is a Windows issue, an Audacity issue, or the Tascam US 2x2 issue.
Need some advice, THANKS!
Joe
I can account for one scenario. If you have any automatic gain or auto volume service running, it will go nuthouse if you send massively high volume through it.
Just as an experiment, see if it comes back down by itself after several minutes. One of the legacy AGC systems works like that. The loudest sound forms a baseline that the rest of the show is compared to. If the loudest sound is thermonuclear, you may get unstable sound for a long time, but not forever.
Windows has built-in tools and effects you can check. I’ve been burned by having them running and I didn’t know.
https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/faq_recording_troubleshooting.html#enhancements
Another possibility, do you leave Skype or other chat programs running in the background while you’re recording? Terrible idea. Make sure they’re all completely shut down when you’re recording.
a broadcast console
Do the sound meters on the broadcast console recover immediately? If you listen to the Tascam, does it get noisy after a recovery?
Koz
As a fuzzy rule, Audacity doesn’t do anything to the incoming sound. Windows, however, particularly Windows with other sound programs can have tricks and hidden services.
Koz
Do you have any of the bad sound? Post some here.
https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/how-to-post-an-audio-sample/29851/1
The more the merrier up to 20 seconds mono or 10 seconds stereo.
Koz