Hello,
I was recording and playing audio yesterday just fine with Audacity. Today, after making no changes to my setup I get no audio on playback at all.
When I try to play an audio file in Audacity the green cursor on the timeline jumps from it’s initial far-left position to “0” (zero) on the time line and just stays there. I can also click anywhere on the timeline and that cursor jumps to where I click but doesn’t play the audio.
This problem happens in the Audacity file I was working on yesterday and on all Audacity files on my hard drive.
I am on Windows 11, have Audacity version 3.1.3 and am using a Tascam 208i Interface connected to my desktop via a USB cable and that drives a powered studio monitor. Everything was working fine yesterday.
I’m able to play MP3 files using Windows Media Player just fine and I can play YouTube videos with no problem so I think it’s an Audacity problem where a setting (unbeknownst to me) somehow got changed.
I don’t know how to upload a screen shot of Audacity to this forum posting. If that is needed is there a procedure that explains how to upload screen shots?
I failed to mention in my original post that I did a Transport > Rescan Audio Devices. But per you suggestion I did it again with no improvement. Interestingly, when I do this I don’t see anything on my screen that it actually did something. Does that happen on your copy?
To upload a screenshot, click on the “Attachments” tab below the composition window.
Well, for example, if I had the Tascam selected as one of my input or output boxes in the Device Toolbar, then I unplugged the Tacam, waited a few seconds, then did Transport > Rescan Audio Devices, then the Tascam would be removed from the selection and something else (or nothing) would replace it.
That usually never hurts.
If I were at the point of pulling out my hair, I would exit all versions of Audacity, then start up a fresh copy. I would generate a simple sine wave, then try to play it on my default device. In other words, see if you can get the simple stuff to work, then gradually make it more complex.
Thanks to everybody who answered my call for help.
After much hunting, pecking and experimentation I may have solved my problem [at least for now]. In the spirit of helping others I’ll explain what I think I discovered.
The problem seems to be that in Windows 11 (and perhaps other interacting software) the audio setting is not non-persistent or can become unlatched. I learned that if I right-click the speaker icon and select “Sound Settings” a window pops up that allows me to see the “speaker” that is currently set to give audio output. In my case the “Speaker” is actually a Tascam 208i Interface (which in turn is connected to a studio monitor). In this window you can tell Windows to not allow this device to be used by apps and Windows. Then, because I do want my apps and Windows to use this device I then re-set it back to “Allow”. After doing this Windows Media Player, YouTube videos and Audacity all play my audio as it did before this problem arose.
I believe another issue at play here (and it may be the root cause) is that the Tascam 208i comes with a small Windows program that allows you to route audio signals and other things. This program has an “Information” tab which shows the revision of its software and firmware. I noticed that the firmware revision was blank. So I downloaded the firmware from the Tascam site and installed it and after doing the above my missing audio problem went away. I think the culprit was the non-latching volatility of the Tascam firmware.
And prior to all this, a Windows tab said that there is an update available even though I have the “update automatically” setting set. This update was 2022-02 Cumulative Update for Windows 11 for X64 based systems (KB5010414)" so I downloaded that and installed it.
I hope this may be useful to someone who experiences a similar problem in the future. Thanks again.
I’m glad to hear you got it working again. After reading the description of the things you had to do to get it working again, I’ll just tell the next person with the issue, “It’s not easy.”
