I also have the dropout failure on V3.3. with very similar observations written before from other users.
Recently I had some discussion in the German support forum of Audacity, see: Aussetzer bei V 3.xx - Audacity allgemein (plattformübergreifend) - Audacity-Supportforum . The German moderator encouraged me to place my error report to the audacity developer. So I am here.
I will not complain the memory usage of the latest Audacity, wich also is discussed in this record, but the playback dropouts are very ugly.
In short detail: In June I updated Audacity from V3.0.0. to V3.3.3. (German version) on my windows 10 PC. Since that time I observe this dropout behavior. I’m using Audacity in playback and overdub modus with 2 to 12 tracks and an audio length from 0.5 min to 5 min and my sampling rate is 44.1 kHz only. And these are my observations:
• It happens nearly independent with the number of tracks used
• The dropouts are unpredictable.
• The dropouts accumulate after opening of an existing project, when I start overdub of a new track.
• The dropouts accumulate at points where clips are ending and starting
• When repeating the failed overdub recording, the first dropout of the second take will appear at a later time than at the first take.
• Continuing so the repeating, you will reach the end of the song without dropout. From this point you can continue playback/overdub with mostly no more dropouts.
• During my recording phase I do not use any real-time effect of Audacity V3.3.3. During the finalizing phase often I add the real-time effect reverb. I do this at the entire tracks and wonder that no additional dropout is present throughout the song.
• The dropout time is between 50 and 300 ms. I can measure this, because at the dropout point the overdub track is shifted to the right side by this value. This also says that the recording has no interruption during the playback dropout.
Is there a chance to get this dropout behavior thrown out without changing the user hardware?
By the way: I like V3.3.3. with the real-time effects and the easy clip handling. Many thanks to the developers.