Crackling popping sound on mono recording

Audacity 3 Help Forum Windows
1

I’m recording using ElectroVoice RE20s through a UA Apollo twin on a Windows 10 home machine.

I record in mono, have 150ms buffer, and am using a top of the line 2019 gaming laptop so resources shouldn’t be a problem.

But with the newest release version of Audacity I’ve been having problems with crackling distortion to my voice, usually starting after about 30-60 seconds after the recording has began. Also, for some reason, audacity fails to record any sound for about 3 seconds when I start recording even though my monitor shows that sound is clearly coming into my system via the UA Apollo Twin.

Any advice on what might be causing this?

2

resources shouldn’t be a problem.

Your symptoms are screaming the computer is too busy to pay attention to you.

Does changing the buffer settings change anything? The goal is to note the change.

Take the computer off-line completely. Unplug the network and/or shut down WiFi. Shut down any applications not Audacity. Shift-Shutdown the machine (not Restart) wait until it gets done and then Start. Shift-Shutdown resets more things than the other two shutdowns.

Also see:

https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/faq_recording_troubleshooting.html#skips

Is the interface going through a hub or splitter? Can you try a different USB connection?

While the network is disconnected, temporarily defeat the virus software.

Have you ever defragmented the hard drive? Is it an SSD?

Koz

3

Try both larger and smaller buffer settings. You need to look for a sweet spot that gives reliable recording (no dropouts) without unreasonable delays.