I recently recorded about an hour-long podcast with my brother (we split the recording into two seperate half hour stereo tracks, using two mics,sample rate 44100) . After we finished taping, I unplugged my M-Audio USB interface, which is what my mics were plugged into, and was therefore my input source. I did not return to the file until later, but when I did, I found that the entire track was chopped up.
I am wondering whether a) there is any fix to make this audio usable, b) if it was caused by my configuration and was bound to happen before we even started, and c) if not ‘b’, what steps I can take next time to avoid having this happen to my audio again.
Thanks in advance for any help anybody can offer! I’ve attached a sample clip that hopefully shows what I meant when I described the audio as ‘choppy’.
@kozikowski that’s what I was afraid of, I unplugged the USB device before saving the project as an Audacity file. A dumb mistake, I know. And while you’re right about it being a bummer to have to re-record, I guess it’s a great way to learn.
So the lesson for next time would be to instantly save (in multiple formats) my recordings before doing ANYTHING else, correct?
Thank you for your advice; it makes it a lot easier to hear that I’m not the only one who’s done this before.
I unplugged the USB device before saving the project as an Audacity file
AAAAAAAAAAH! [crashing explosion sound]
… instantly save (in multiple formats) my recordings before doing ANYTHING else, correct?
Just two. Export as perfect, uncompressed WAV (Microsoft). There are no options for this format. Then Save an Audacity Project. One trick is to save a Project before you start recording. Processing after that is much faster and easier and less prone to damage.
Do Not use MP3 anywhere in the production process.
Then listen to at least one of them before you go home. My Mac will give me an icon with a little play symbol in it for the WAV and let me confidence play right from the desktop. A Project will only open in Audacity.
One copy of the show is brittle and nobody keeps up with more than two. “Oh, wait. That was the day I forgot to make the fourth backup to the thumb drive…” Or better: “I’m so tired I could eat dirt. I’ll make all four backups later.”
Thank you for your advice; it makes it a lot easier to hear that I’m not the only one who’s done this before.
No, you are pretty much the only one who’s ever done this…
Unplugging the device does not affect the recording, assuming you pressed Stop before unplugging it.
I would look at Audacity > Preferences… then the “Recording” section. Try recording a test at 0 milliseconds “Audio to buffer”. It will probably fail, so try 10 milliseconds and increment upwards by 10 milliseconds until you get a good recording. This may help the dropouts. If it does not, take the buffer much higher, say 200 milliseconds, but you may get clicks.
Make sure you are running as few other applications and tasks as possible. Try turning Wi-Fi off.
Also set M-Audio up in Applications/Utilities/Audio MIDI Setup (Input tab) so that it is default input device and set to 44100.0 Hz 2-ch. Then its settings match with Audacity sample rate and number of channels. You can probably set 24-bit for M-Audio in Audio MIDI setup. Setup in Audio MIDI Setup may not be necessary but it is always good practice especially if you ever do overdubs (in that case, make the same settings in the Output tab as the Input tab).
Too high a buffer has been confirmed at least once as the cause of wide recording dropouts on Mac. The buffer clicks complained about are not always spikes. Sometimes they are small dropouts, but the user does not realize it.