No, this is not a joke. It’s not a pop, not a click, but a very short term “fart” which is usually impossible to edit out, as it is usually embedded in legitimate sound. We record audiobooks, using Audacity for a long time. We use a Samson CO3U mic, which we are very happy with. We have tried turning off all peripheral equipment while recording, and still get this annoyance often enough to be a problem. In a typical chapter, about 30 minutes of record time, there will be usually 2 or three noticeable ‘farts’. very short term, embedded in a syllable. Any thoughts? And yes, we are Monty Python fans. And no, it isn’t the narrator.
Can you make it worse?
This is the posting where you should have found the computer type forum and post there because we’re just going to start asking you which kind of computer you have, OS, version numbers, etc. etc.
Pretend I’m trying to build your computer and need to order the parts on Amazon.
Are you going through a USB hub? That’s exactly the kind of sounds you get when the USB microphone is struggling with other USB devices to reach the computer.
Let’s see…you said you closed everything else down… Do you close Skype and not leave it running in the background?
How is the hard drive space? Is it defragmented and well-behaved? Are you trying to connect over a network?
What else can you tell us about the problem? The shortest and longest between events?
Is the performer wearing good headphones?
Post a WAV of one event.
https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/how-to-post-an-audio-sample/29851/1
It should be a WAV. MP3 covers up some symptoms.
Koz
Have you tried connecting the Samson to another computer with Audacity and just let it run for an hour? Do you need a performance to have it occur?
Koz
Sorry about that, chief. I just wasn’t sure where to post. Duh. But here are my specs:
Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit SP1
CPU AMD A10-5800K Trinity 32 nm Technology
RAM 16GB dual channel DDR3 @ 664 mhz
Motherboard Gigabyte Tech F2A 55M-DS2 (po)
Hard Drive 932 GB Seagate
We don’t do skype on this machine. The mic was plugged into a USB port on the front of the tower, so no hub used. However, the USB cable to the mic is about 12 ft., two connected together. The cable runs next to a house current line into sound booth. The PC is not in the booth. I monitor the session by listening to software playthrough, and the headphones are excellent, Sony. Narrator prefers not to use headphones, and the Samson doesn’t have that ability.
The frequency of occurrence is often enough to be annoying, at least twice in 30 minutes, requiring re-recording.
I am planning to run a test with an alternate mic, same type, but on much shorter cable.
I am a novice at this, and would appreciate whatever suggestion you can offer.
You could give Audacity higher priority so other processes (e.g. anti-virus) do not interrupt it.
Also see the other strategies to avoid skipping which may also avoid farting … http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/FAQ:Recording_-_Troubleshooting#How_can_I_record_without_small_skips_or_duplications.3F