Hi, only for the last few days I’ve had this problem.
I use audacity to record guitar, mainly song covers, I do this my importing the song I want to cover and just record a second track over the top, and recently for no reason I’ll record like 4 mins of the song and in the last 30 seconds there are MASSIVE drop outs, the log tells me it’s the DLL file and I’ve downloaded and installed the lame stuff and tried every other suggested fix in all other questions but it just won’t work, my PC is a high end gaming PC so I don’t think it’s that, only thing worth noting was I recently reset my PC, is there a basic application I’ve forgotten to download (e.g Java, although I have that) to make this problem go away?
LAME is NOT related to your problem. LAME is ONLY for exporting to MP3 (after recording) and it’s no built into Audacity so you don’t need to download or install it.
my PC is a high end gaming PC so I don’t think it’s that
Some application, process, or driver is “hogging” your system. Your multitasking operating system is always multitasking even if you are running only one application. The digital audio stream comes out of the analog-to-digital converter at a smooth-constant rate. It goes into a buffer (like a storage tank or a long-pipe). When the operating system gets around to it, the buffer is read in a quick burst and the data is written to the hard drive. If the buffer doesn’t get read in time, you get buffer overflow and a dropout. Whatever is hogging the system doesn’t have to be using lots of total CPU power/time, it just has to hog if for a few milliseconds too long and you get a dropout/glitch.
A bigger buffer helps and a faster computer helps but “something else” is the root problem. There is a free online book called [u]Glitch Free[/u] about optimizing your computer for audio.