NB This is not strictly a problem with Audacity but also occurs when recording videos. I’m using windows 10 on a Toshiba laptop. Been using Audacity for many years to edit recordings, but haven’t much experience in making recordings. Using currently lockdown to learn more!
The sound quality of the first 8 seconds of any recording I make is poor. When I look at the waveform I can see periods when the sound level drop off to zero for a very short time. After 8 seconds everything is fine. Always the same. Can obviously work around this but it’s annoying and I’d like to try and fix it, or at least understand why it happens.
Update: this only happens using the internal mic. Selecting external and recording from guitar amp line out it’s fine.