The older Audacity was 2.0.?: the last release available with Ubuntu 14.04. When I upgraded that machine to 16.04 and got the subsequent updated Audacity, the problem began. I tried everything then: reinstalled several Linux versions on several machines: all with exactly the same problem. I then tried adding a second drive: used second drive just for putting the temp file on thinking that the HD would be freer to record on. Even looked for a 7,200 with the largest cache I had. Then, went to a fast SSD drive and verified the write speed. Still no luck.
Xubuntu 14.04 with Audacity 2.0.? worked on 3 different machines all with a single HD. 2.1.2 has not worked on 4 different machines.
Again, recording from the head phone jack is perfect. 2 tracks (or more) via USB gives me the same problem. 2 tracks or 18 tracks, same problem, same frequency of problem.
This all started out with the church wanting to put the weekly sermon on the website. At first, I recorded it analog since the mixer board was analog. Then we got the QU32 board which was digital. While reading the manual on the board, I saw where it had a USB port for outputting the first 18 channels in a digital format. I thought that was great and started looking for a program to use. Since I was already using Audacity, I figured I would try it. And it worked great. That is when I started to record the music just to see what I could do with it later, like mixing it to get better balance, adding effects when needed. Again, it worked flawlessly and even impressed the fellow that originally came out to set the board up for us.
Understand this is not something that I need to do, rather something I enjoyed doing. Now, there is no joy since it doesn’t work.
Steve, I thank you much for all your help. But, I am just going to give up for now. I don’t like getting frustrated at church, and that is what is happening. Time to forget about it. I can still do the sermon, and that is all that I actually need to do.
That would have been Audacity 2.0.5-1ubuntu3 (https://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/audacity).
There should be no compatibility problems for projects created with that version being opened in the current 2.1.3 version of Audacity (I was previously using Xubuntu 14.04 and now use Xubuntu 16.04).
A good indication that the problem is not due to speed. If it were, then one would expect 18 tracks to be MUCH worse than 2 tracks because there is 9x as much data.
So will you be doing that as a 2 channel recording through your normal sound card?
I’m pleased that you have a usable workaround, and I don’t wish to cause you stress, but as you said, it would be great if you could get the 18 tracks working, and there’s still a few things that we could look at if you are prepared to stay with us for a bit longer. If you’d prefer to just leave it, then no problem, just let me know and we can either carry on for a bit longer and try to identify the root cause (while you use your workaround for the actual sermon recordings), or I can close the topic.
“So will you be doing that as a 2 channel recording through your normal sound card?”
Yes: that works fine. And being a digital board, the background noise is negligible.
“I’m pleased that you have a usable workaround, and I don’t wish to cause you stress, but as you said, it would be great if you could get the 18 tracks working, and there’s still a few things that we could look at if you are prepared to stay with us for a bit longer. If you’d prefer to just leave it, then no problem, just let me know and we can either carry on for a bit longer and try to identify the root cause (while you use your workaround for the actual sermon recordings), or I can close the topic.”
I am willing to experiment with this. I have used the program for free and have put over 600 LPs and cassette tapes to MP3 files using it. So, since I have used it probably over 1,000 times for free, I am willing to try whatever you would like me to try in hopes of getting it to work for me, and hopefully getting it to work for someone else having the same problem. I know that after 4 different machines and 4 different installations, it is no longer something that is my fault.
Heh, I’d already come to that conclusion.
Glad to hear that you’re willing to help - there’s no rush with this, so at your convenience.
First, let’s gather some information:
With the QU32 connected to your computer, Audacity “Help menu > Audio Device Info”. Wait for the info screen to appear, then click the “Save” button, and save the “deviceinfo.txt” somewhere that you can easily find it. Attach the “deviceinfo.txt” file to your post (see here for how to attach files to forum posts: https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/how-to-attach-files-to-forum-posts/24026/1)
When you get the noise, is it the same noise at the same time in all tracks? If so, select a few seconds of that noise in ONE track, plus a couple of seconds from before the noise, then “File > Export Selected Audio” and export as a WAV file. Attach that WAV file to your reply. (the forum will accept WAV files at 44100 Hz sample rate up to about 6 seconds stereo / 12 seconds mono).
With the QU32 connected to your computer, Audacity “Help menu > Audio Device Info”. Wait for the info screen to appear, then click the “Save” button, and save the “deviceinfo.txt” somewhere that you can easily find it. Attach the “deviceinfo.txt” file to your post (see here for how to attach files to forum posts: https://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopi … 49&t=64936)
I will do that. Just keep in mind that it will be next week before you get it.
When you get the noise, is it the same noise at the same time in all tracks? If so, select a few seconds of that noise in ONE track, plus a couple of seconds from before the noise, then “File > Export Selected Audio” and export as a WAV file. Attach that WAV file to your reply. (the forum will accept WAV files at 44100 Hz sample rate up to about 6 seconds stereo / 12 seconds mono).
If you go back to the beginning of this thread, I did link in my previous post about this problem and I had uploaded 2 wav files than. You can listen to them because they are identical to what I get now. (I checked: they are still available for d-l.) It appears across all tracks. Fades in, fades out, repeats about every 2 minutes.
By the way, to quote a section from a previous post, the forum has “smart tag” buttons above the message composing box.
If you click on the “Quote” button, it will enter “quote tags” into the message at the cursor position like this:
[quote][quote]
You can then paste the text that you want to quote between the [qu_o_te] and [_/_quote] like this:
[quote]quoted text goes here[/quote]
which then displays in a more easily readable form like this:
quoted text goes here
You can also select part of a previous post from the same page, and click the “Quote” button that is at the top right corner of that post, and it will insert that selected text into your message at the cursor position, like this:
[quote="steve"]1) With the QU32 connected to your computer,[/quote]
That’s interesting, and I think confirms that the problem is not related to speed of writing to disk. As you can see from this close-up of the waveform, there is corruption of the digital data. Those spikes are too abrupt to be caused in the analog domain, indicating again that it is most probably hardware or drivers.
What I would ideally want to do at this point is to connect either a Windows machine or a Mac so that we can confirm or rule out drivers. If the problem is not drivers, then I’d be hunting down my receipt to see if the Qu32 has any warranty. My feeling is that the problem is not drivers, as Google shows several Linux users with this desk, and no mention of this problem.
I have thought of that, too. But, why does it work in 2.0.? It worked in that until a month ago. In fact, it still works in that, but I am unable to record in 2.0 and reliably play it back and edit it in 2.1. That problem started a month ago.
It worked until I deleted it a month ago. That is when I could no longer edit a recording made in 2.0 in 2.1: when trying to play an area, the cursor would skip about 30 seconds forward and then start playing. I really needed it to start playing where I started it, not further ahead. I could edit it just fine in 2.0, but not 2.1.
The setup used for that was a 3.3 quad core, spinning HD running program, SSD recording, Audacity 2.0, Xubuntu 14.04. I had task manager running in the top bar: nothing close to maxing out: total RAM less than 800 meg, CPU usage less than 20%.
Was that also the time when you tried using Xubuntu 16.04 64 bit?
Probably irrelevant now that you no-longer have the 14.04 machine, but I can’t think of any reason why that would happen. There are no changes to the project format to account for it. The only thing I can think of is that there have been some updates to how Audacity handles bad (corrupt) data. It’s an outside chance that your old machine was receiving bad data from the desk but was ignoring it, but that your new machine is rendering the bad data as noise. I don’t think it’s very likely, but that ‘could’ account for it, and I can’t think of any alternative causes. Do you still have any old Audacity projects that were made with your Xubuntu 14.04 machine?
It ‘could’ still be a driver problem if 16.04 has updated drivers, but conversely I don’t think we can rule out a hardware problem without trying to record with a non-Linux machine.
Is there any chance that you could try recording with a Mac or Windows machine connected to the Qu32 (at some time - no rush)?
Was that also the time when you tried using Xubuntu 16.04 64 bit?
No. I tried last year about a month after 16.04 was released. I tried Xubuntu 32 & 64 bit, Ubuntu Studio 32 & 64 bit. 2 different machines, several different HDs. Sometimes one HD, sometimes 2.
Probably irrelevant now that you no-longer have the 14.04 machine, but I can’t think of any reason why that would happen. There are no changes to the project format to account for it. The only thing I can think of is that there have been some updates to how Audacity handles bad (corrupt) data. It’s an outside chance that your old machine was receiving bad data from the desk but was ignoring it, but that your new machine is rendering the bad data as noise. I don’t think it’s very likely, but that ‘could’ account for it, and I can’t think of any alternative causes. Do you still have any old Audacity projects that were made with your Xubuntu 14.04 machine?
I do still have some. The clips that you listened to were made last year. I still have a couple complete recordings that still play on Aud 2.0, but ship forward on 2.1. As for the quality, they are good: just the skipping when going from 2.0 to 2.1.
It ‘could’ still be a driver problem if 16.04 has updated drivers, but conversely I don’t think we can rule out a hardware problem without trying to record with a non-Linux machine.
Is there any chance that you could try recording with a Mac or Windows machine connected to the Qu32 (at some time - no rush)?[/quote]
Possibly, however I only have 2 machines with Windows: one with 7 and one with 10. The Win10 machine is my main computer that I am using right now: It is in a gaming case and too big (and expensive) to lug around. There is a chance of me getting the Win 7 one out to the church and recording.
Oh well, never mind.
If you want to go back into the post and try to correct it, there should be an “Edit” button near the top right corner of the post.
When the post is open for editing, select the text that you want quoted, then click the “Quote” button.
Note that the Quote button won’t work if you have an active script blocker (such as “No Script”) running.
Interesting. I just copied the last recording that I made. This is the third one in a row that I couldn’t edit on 2.1. Just for the heck of it, I opened and it plays fine now. Too late now though: the 14.04 and Aud 2.0 machine has been wiped and 16.04 installed. AAARRRGGGGHHHH!!!
It got worse today. I figured that there was no need to use Jack, since it had the same problem, so I recorded the sermon via analog and it was fine. I was then going to play around a bit with Audacity, but I now have this problem: the speed is way off when I chose the QU32 and 18 channels. I recorded 5 minutes (by the clock) but Audacity was only up to a little over 1.5 minutes! I tried reinstalling Audacity, but no difference. deviceinfo.txt (4.42 KB)
With Jack NOT running, try setting both the recording device and the playback device to “QU-32: USB Audio (hw:1,0)” in the device toolbar, and set the “Project Rate” (in the lower left corner of the main window) to 48000.
The project rate can be set to 48000 as the default in “Edit > Preferences > Quality”.
OK Steve. Let me tell you how well the Windows world isn’t going. Took a dual boot machine out this morning. Went to Allen & Heath’s website and downloaded the Windows driver that I needed. It says it should work with Win MME sound, but I can only choose 2 channels. With WASAPI sound chosen, I can then choose 18 channels. However, when I go to start the recording, I get an error saying that there was a problem opening the device. I have changed the recording frequency and everything else that I could find, but still get the same error. Any ideas?
Heh, I’d already come to that conclusion.