I run Windows 11 on a Dell XPS 8950. RealTek Audio. Latest version of Audacity, newbie default options but with my recording and playback device selected. I have a USB cassette player, trying to digitize some old audio. What is happening is, I see and hear it record for 5-10 seconds. Then it will go silent and flatline but resume after 3-15 seconds. Repeat. While listening on the USB player ear buds, the sound does not interrupt. I’ve used Help and FAQs and Google and tried different property settings but I cannot get it to record without these gaps of silence that are also present once exported to MP3. I cannot figure out if it’s hardware or settings. I should have all the bandwith and capacity needed. Any help is appreciated.
We know that if Audacity encounters a data interruption or error, it will just stop. So chances are good this isn’t a USB or other data error.
This problem fails a personal troubleshooting trick. If somebody wrote me a big check and told me to force a computer to do this, I’m not sure I could.
So we’re left with generic troubleshooting. Disconnect or shut down the network. I’m not kidding. If you have wired network, pull the CAT5 cable. If you connect with WiFi, you’ll need to find the Windows Preference that deals with this. Best of luck.
If an application or setting complains bitterly about either of those, write down the complaint. That’s important. Losing the network is pretty unusual and the machine’s reaction can be instructive.
Do a Clean Shutdown.
– Clean Shutdown –
Restart or Shut Down Windows doesn’t stop everything. There is a Clean Shutdown. Hold Shift while you Shut Down . Then OK, Wait, and then Start. That will close and reset all the little settings and oddities that applications can leave lying around. Do not let anything automatically start when the machine wakes up. That may take some doing.
Run Audacity and see if the problem gets better or changes.
~
We are also on guard for a different Audacity complaint although it’s not that popular. Someone will post an Audacity complaint that seems impossible…because it is.
Koz
Thanks Koz. I tried that but it did not make a difference. So I also tried:
-Use Win 11 Sound Recorder (which I didn’t not know, up to now, exists)
-Use a USB Record Player/Turntable (which years ago on older Windows let me record without the interruptions)
-Use rear USB ports
Nothing makes a difference. But now, it is not an Audacity problem, but something going on with my USB data input stream. It just constantly silences out while recording then comes back for a bit. Not sure what to do next. The devices are working and the drivers are up to date. Here is what it looks like (example from Sound Recorder). The flatlines are not silence on the cassette tape.
OK, so that puts us in “The Computer is Broken” territory. But that still doesn’t explain why the missing segments fail to raise alarms. That’s a very unique broken.
Drag-select ten seconds of music and gap, File > Export it as WAV, and post it on the forum.
Koz
Here is a WAV example from Audacity:
This is actually “not that bad”. Other attempts I’d almost get more flatline than wave.
The computer is just about a year old. I’ve also just posted in the Dell Community.
We progress. It’s not flatline. It’s flat-ish line. There’s actually sound there.
I selected a segment of the first dead zone and boosted it 1000 times. It didn’t throw up blood. It just boosted harsh white noise. There’s real sound down there. The system is either switching between two different sources of USB or the USB manager is doing something naughty to the show. That last one is harder to believe.
As we go.
Koz
This is where a different forum elf drops in and solves everything.
Koz
Audacity gets its sound from Windows, not the connected device. Isn’t there a Windows Sound Manager or something like that? You should be able to see that service sound meter bouncing in time to the show. I’d be curious if the sound dies before or after that sound service.
Koz
I’m now able to hear the white noise also (Amplify…).
There is the Sound Devices control applet. Active for Recording is “USB PnP Audio Device”. It has a meter and that moves continuously with the cassette sound.
On the Playback side is the “Realtek Audio” Default device (5.1 speakers) with all the other devices disabled or not plugged in. The playback meter tanks when the recording goes to white noise, in sync with the Record and Playback Meters in Audacity (although those are more sensitive and flicker slightly hence I guess the white noise).
Interesting thought about it switching USB ports. I pulled all the other USB devices except mouse and keyboard (UPS, 2 external HDs) but nothing changes.
I wonder if it’s a Realtek thing of sorts. That’s been giving me grief from the start with the surround rear speakers until I found some setting in a Dell-bundled “MaxxAudio Pro” software.
the two tracks are identical: dual-mono.
You could just be recording the left channel duplicated on both tracks,
on a track where the sound is sometimes hard-panned, (mostly coming out of one speaker)
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