Hi
If I record from the internet on Audacity & then play back via Audacity the sound is distorted.
However, if I then export to a WAV or MP3 & play that back through Foobar200 the sound is fine.
So it seems that there’s nothing wrong with my sound set up since it’ll play anything from anywhere perfectly fine but
if I open an MP3 or WAV in Audacity (one that plays fine in Foobar), Audacity distorts the playback.
Any suggestions?
Check that you haven’t accidentality turned the track gain slider up in Audacity, (it should be on zero).
Err no, it’s at default in the centre.
it’ll play anything from anywhere perfectly fine but if I open an MP3 or WAV in Audacity (one that plays fine in Foobar), Audacity distorts the playback.
Your versatility may actually be the problem. Shift Audacity recording to a real microphone or other device instead of a software device you use to record the internet. For example: Built In Input on my machine is an actual, physical connection on the back of the machine.
Your machine may be trying to play the track twice, once from audacity directly and then again through the fold-back internet pathway.
Koz
OK, how it works (or worked) on my Win 10 PC is as follows:
In Audacity the Audio Host (beneath ‘Pause’ & ‘Play’) is ‘Windows WASABI’.
The recording device is ‘Speakers (AudioBox USB) (loopback)’.
The playback device is ‘Speakers (AudioBox USB)’.
It’s always been that way & I record from the internet via Audacity.
Then suddenly, without any changes, I get this distortion.
As I said, if I go ahead and record from the internet via Audacity, on playback in Audacity it’s distorted.
However, if I ignore the distortion & go to File/Export/MP3 the resulting MP3 plays back faultlessly in say, Foobar 2000 or any other app.
I’ve run ‘Troubleshoot Sound Problems’ to no avail.
It seems to be nothing to do with levels or hosts or recording devices.
When Audacity is playing back or recording the cursor (or the vertical line with the green triangle at the top that moves left to right) is visually jerking rather than smoothly traveling across (hence the 'burbling distortion).
So what can possibly cause that?
So, this is strange. I’ve been trying to record the problem with a screen recorder.
However, when I capture the Audacity screen & sound it plays perfectly normally & the resulting screen capture video is also normal.
Close down the screen recorder & playback the sound using Audacity & the distortion returns.
Driving me nuts!
Any ideas?
OK, the only way I can find to illustrate the distortion is to record my PC with a microphone.
It’s not a great recording but it’s enough to show what I’m getting. Hear attached:
No, it throws up an error: ‘Error opening recording device. Error code - 9999 Unanticipated host error’.
But then I alwways used Windows WASAPI previously without problems.
What were the other settings in the device toolbar when you got that error?
What is the “Project Rate” set at? (lower left corner of the main Audacity window)
Other settings were:
Recording device: Line (AudioBox USB)
Recording channels: 2 (Stereo) Recording Channels
Playback device: Speakers (AudioBox USB)
Project Rate (Hz): 44100
Oops.
Should have read: Recording Device: Speakers (AudioBox USB) (Loopback)
I also notice that when recording speech , during the worst of the distortion speech seems to slow down.
You can see this on the cursor as it moves along the recording. It’s plainly ‘juddering’ & not traveling at a steady rate.
If only I could do a screen recording of this. But as I said, once you start recording the screen the distortion disapears.
OK, this is getting weird.
Most times when I select MME I get the error as reported above.
However, occasionally I can select MME and it works fine.
But this is only about 10% of the time.
So it would be useful to find out exactly what the error code means.
I just realised that if I record using WASAPI but play back using MME then it seems to work.
All other combinations either distort or throw an error.
I suspect the problem is caused by mismatched sample rates.
Look in your Windows Sounds control panel and locate the AudioBox USB device in both the Recording and Playback tabs, and set the sample rate to 44100 in both.
If only, I looked at that - they’re both at 44.1Khz
Let’s take a step back…
Imagine that you’re telling me how to create exactly the same set up as you have, and describe, step by step, what I need to do to reproduce the problem.
OK. On a Windows 10 64bit PC you would need a Presonus AudioBox USB audio interface, the output of which would go to amplifier/speakers, the input via USB socket.
In Windows settings/Sound:
Output device: Speakers (AudioBox USB)
Input device: Line (AudioBox USB)
Device properties/Spatial sound: Off
Speaker properties/enhancement: All disabled.
Speaker properties/Advanced: Bit depth/Sample Rate: 24bit 44100Hz
The AudioBox driver comes with a ‘Universal Control’ in which you can set:
Sample Rate: 44.1 kHz
Clock Source: Internal
Block size: (Options to set this at anywhere between 16 & 2048. Mine’s set to 512
Firmware & driver are up to date.
Installed Audacity ver 2.3.2
Settings 1:
Audio host: Windows WASAPI
Recording device: Line (AudioBox USB)
Playback device: Speakers (AudioBox (USB)
When clicking Record this throws up the error: Error opening recording device. Error code: -9996 invalid device.
Settings 2:
Audio host: Windows WASAPI
Recording device: Speakers (AudioBox (USB) (Loopback
Playback device: Speakers (AudioBox (USB)
This records OK but playback is distorted using Windows WASAPI
Playback using MME is fine.
Settings 3:
Audio host: Windows MME
Recording device: Line (AudioBox USB)
Playback device: Speakers (AudioBox (USB)
When clicking Record this throws up the error: Error opening recording device. Error code: -9999 Unanticipated host error.
On all above settings the Project rate is 44100.