A CRY FOR HELP! - trying to download a working copy of Audacity onto my iMac!
James Warner here: [removed to protect your privacy]
27” iMac (mid 2011)
Running: High Sierra 10.13.6
Security update: 2019-004 (Aug. 7, 2019)
2.7 Ghz (Intel Core i5)
8GB Mhz DDR3
AMD Raedon HD 6770M 512MB
Dear Steve and/or billw58:
This is a long story:
I have had Audacity 2.1 on my iMac (above) for over five years now. I have not used it in depth, but I have found that, even with downloading and ostensibly successfully installing ‘Lamb’ (several times!), my copy would not produce .aiff, or .wav format conversion to .mp3 - no matter how much I tried to integrate ‘Lamb’ into Audacity!!
I recently dumped (erased w/Trash) that version in hopes that downloading the newest 2.3.2 iteration, with its now built-in conversion abilities, to solve the above issue and take advantage of the newest features.
ACUTE PROBLEM!!: Carefully following your detailed down-load and installation instructions - ie: after double-clicking the “audacity-macros-2.3.2.dmg download and ‘click-dragging’ the Audacity icon into the Applications Folder, I still cannot get the program to open to a properly working screen! The displayed screen is essentially blank and totally incomplete - devoid of almost all of the necessary operational tools to get even started with the program! Referring to your “Guide to the Audacity Project Window # from the screen-display shown in the Manual, the screen display on my computer (#14 Audio Track) was missing ALL of the following numbered operational tools that should be part of the display as a working copy! ie:
1 Menu Bar, 2 Transport Toolbar, 3 Tools Toolbar, 4 Recording Meter Toolbar, 5 Playback Meter Toolbar, 6 Mixer Toolbar, 7 Edit Toolbar, 8 Play-at-Speed Toolbar, 9 Device Toolbar, 10 Unpinned Play/Recording Head, 11 Timeline, 12 Scrub, 13 Track Control Panel, - 15 Label Track, - and 17 Status Bar!!
None of the above items appear with the (#14, and #16 Selection Toolbar) screen on my computer. In addition, even though I was able to access the drop-down ‘Preferences’ menu to make an ‘Interface’ selection, and choose “Classic” from the Theme drop-down choices, = still NOTHING!! no change or improvement!
FURTHER ISSUES!: Accessing your FORUM, and the “Mac OS X” entry concerning a ‘Strange audio error’ entry, while that issue wasn’t actually germane to my problem, I opened to read it anyway to find directions on how to”Re-set” Audacity by eliminating three .cgf files from a (hidden?) ~/Library/Application Support/audacity Folder. So I followed the process - and ‘voila!’, the screen now does display several of the missing tool icons such as: #’s 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 (partly dimmed), 8, 9 (differently titled), 10, 11, 14 (as usual), plus 16, and 17.
YET, STILL MISSING!: Critical # 1 Menu (drop-down) Bar (and blue Label Bar above)
#12 Scrub Bar (and empty horizontal space for it)
#13 Track Control Panel (missing whole Panel left of #14)
#15 Label Track (missing horizontal space below #14).
Also, I went again through the process of selecting different display Themes (some change of #14 colors without gaining any of the above missing tools. As a follow-up, I closed out Audacity, rebooted, relaunched, and rechecked the ~/Library/Application Support/audacity Folder, to find again the three .cgf files still listed, dumped them again, re-launched to once more find the opening screen as above!!! Is this dumping operation now a consistent requirement in launching Audacity each time, even in its current crippled condition? I note also MANY (too many to list) items under the Basic Top (drop-down) Menu Bar are dimmed out and not available - especially under ‘Effect’ (only 4 out of 42 available!). and all under ‘Analyze’!??
I am still essentially dead-in-the-water!
HELP PLEASE! What can be done to be able to obtain a properly working upgraded copy of the Audacity program?? Is this a corruption in the transmission and/or download process (can you instead slo-mail me, at my expense, a programed DVD/CD disc that I can directly mount Audacity 2.3.2 on my still valid, if not completely up-to-date, iMac?). Is there something I am missing in the installation process? Is the 2.3.2 not designed for my older machine? Is this so-called Alpha version not yet ready for prime time for current Apple products?
My musical operational future with this is in your hands. Thank you for any and all help you can provide.
My sincere gratitude,
Jim Warner