I have been using Audacity for several months w/o any problems. However, trying to record my current radio program the sound files I drop in have pops that sound like an old LP vinyl recording and various distortions upon playback. The same with my voice recordings. I downloaded a new file of Audacity on the possibility that the old one had some file corruption, but the same problem occurs. It’s bad. I can’t send this to the radio station for broadcast. I have played the source sound files for comparison and they are fine. I need help fast!!
When you play the damaged show, does the same damage occur at the same show time each pass?
Does it only happen when you export a WAV for broadcast? Like when you have the music and voice files stacked up in Audacity, it’s fine? If that’s not how you edit, describe how you construct the show.
Koz
Not sure what you mean. When I load a sound file, such as Miles Davis’ All Blues, which I use as the intro to my program, I can hear distortions, tiny dropouts, pops. I could not tell you if every one of them occurred at the same moment on each playback. However, I’m having the same problem with my voice recording. I use a Beyer Dynamic mic – excellent. This never occurred before yesterday. I downloaded a fresh program twice today. No improvement.
Now, I just listened to what I recorded yesterday and exported to my Music file. It sounds fine. Both the sound files of music and my voice recordings. Hmmm.
I’m just more puzzled. So, I can record and export a clean program, but while I’m working and editing and checking things these distortions and pops will drive me crazy. For example, if I jump to different parts of the file it will start with a ton of distortion, not cleanly as my downloaded CD files do.
I do a lot of editing at endings and beginnings of tunes and voice to eliminate dead air, bring down recorded applause, etc. I also bring music down under my voice for announcements at the beginning and end.
How do I construct the show? I download music files from my CD collection and drop songs into Audacity. I speak under the intro and outro music, so that music is edited to fade down and up. I adjust sound levels of very disparate music to try to let the listener keep the volume at the same setting throughout the two 26-28 minute segments. I speak into my Beyer Dynamic mic between tunes or short sets of tunes.
I hope this is useful info. I appreciate your interest in assisting me.
I could not tell you if every one of them occurred at the same moment on each playback.
Some tests would be very good to know. You have many of the symptoms of playback damage, not record damage. If the damage keeps moving, it’s probably not a part of the show.
I just listened to what I recorded yesterday and exported to my Music file. It sounds fine.
See? “For Some Reason I play back the work the next day and it’s OK.”
Can you play back the works on something that’s not your computer?
We are, as a broad group experiencing conflicts between simple production Audacity and Other Programs. Do you use Zoom, Skype, Chat or other communications and live conference programs? They work by making very serious changes to the sound system and sometimes the changes hang around after the program closes.
It is recommended that you close everything on your machine except Audacity while you’re producing the show. There is no leaving a comm program running or a browser open and waiting for notifications.
Koz
Wow. Thank you. Yeah, I probably had my browser open underneath, but maybe just email and Facebook open. But I will close everything except the access to files in the future. Thank you.
BTW, if you have the time you can check out my program, The Jazz/Blues Mashup, when it’s broadcast from noon to 1:00 Eastern Time on Mondays at www.WERA.FM/listen/playing-now.
Or at any crazy time go to www.Mixcloud.com and search Jazz-Blues Mashup for lots of shows produced at home or edited at home after live broadcast on Audacity. I think my last live show was March 9. Some day I hope we can get back in the studio. But I’ll still edit my live shows to eliminate public service announcements and news to post on Mixcloud.
Howard Blu
I had no idea Jelly Roll was really “Ferdinand.”
Koz