Hi all! I’m new to the board but I just started using audacity to record the sermons for my church and I’ve come up with a strange issue. I’m running a 12 channel board with (please bare with my really terrible technical knowledge) stereo outs into the mic input on my 2009 macbook pro running mavericks (8 gb ram etc) The first part of the recording always starts off fine but then somewhere in the middle the sound goes kinda wonky and continues that way till the end. I’m going to try and attach a clip right at where the sound transitions from fine to distorted so you can hear the difference. Thanks in advance for any advice on this!
Also, I’m using audacity 2.05
I hear some clicking. Not exactly horrible distortion, but annoying for sure. I can’t see any clipping.
You should not be going into the microphone input of your MacBook. Are you sure you’re doing that, or are you using the line input? [I can’t keep up with which models include line inputs and which don’t!]
Also, the recording level is very low, but your noise level is very low as well. Generally a very good recording until the clicking starts.
– Bill
BIll,
thank you for the reply! I believe the mic input/line input is one and the same on the macbook pro and can selected as to which the computer uses it for. The clicking gets much worse as the recording goes on (it seems to escalate quickly) I just wanted to get a sample of the before and after in that particular clip. Any thoughts on what might cause that clicking sound?
Thanks for the help!
Generally a very good recording until the clicking starts.
I’m not sure I agree. It’s too good. If you listen carefully to the leading phrase, it has compression/noise reduction artifacts on it (pre-gargling) and the area between that and the second spoken phrase is eerily quiet. Nobody doing a straight recording from a large mixer in a church can get that kind of studio performance.
It’s being processed, possibly quite heavily and I would be looking very carefully at that processing.
Newer Macs come with noise reduction processing that you can access in the System Control Panels. It used to be it only worked on the built-in microphone, but now, who knows?
After you produce a clip without all the help, then we can start to analyze the problem. As a fuzzy rule, storage/drive problems can cause clicking. Are you trying to use external USB drives? You can do that trick with FireWire, not USB.
I’ve never gotten Garage Band to work right, but that’s a second way to record a clip and see if it still clicks. How full are your drives getting? When was the last time you did a Disk Verify and Repair Permission – on everything? The video people have a fuzzy rule of maintaining 10% to 20% free space at all times. Not a bad idea for any live production.
Koz
Also see this topic https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/random-distortion-after-upgrade/32129/2 . Can you paste in the Audacity “Audio Device Info”, attach the “audacity.cfg” settings file as it is, then edit it down to “NewPrefsInitialized=1” as described there?
Gale
Sure thing! Here’s what I have. I looked over and over again for the config file where you said it should be but I can’t find a configuration file at all for audacity. (No audacity folder under application support)
==============================
Default capture device number: 0
Default playback device number: 2
==============================
Device ID: 0
Device name: Built-in Microph
Host name: Core Audio
Input channels: 2
Output channels: 0
Low Input Latency: 0.002766
Low Output Latency: 0.010000
High Input Latency: 0.012925
High Output Latency: 0.100000
Supported Rates:
==============================
Device ID: 1
Device name: Built-in Input
Host name: Core Audio
Input channels: 2
Output channels: 0
Low Input Latency: 0.002766
Low Output Latency: 0.010000
High Input Latency: 0.012925
High Output Latency: 0.100000
Supported Rates:
==============================
Device ID: 2
Device name: Built-in Output
Host name: Core Audio
Input channels: 0
Output channels: 2
Low Input Latency: 0.010000
Low Output Latency: 0.005238
High Input Latency: 0.100000
High Output Latency: 0.015397
Supported Rates:
8000
9600
11025
12000
15000
16000
22050
24000
32000
44100
48000
88200
96000
176400
192000
352800
384000
==============================
Device ID: 3
Device name: Soundflower (2ch)
Host name: Core Audio
Input channels: 2
Output channels: 2
Low Input Latency: 0.010000
Low Output Latency: 0.001451
High Input Latency: 0.100000
High Output Latency: 0.011610
Supported Rates:
8000
9600
11025
12000
15000
16000
22050
24000
32000
44100
48000
88200
96000
176400
192000
352800
384000
==============================
Device ID: 4
Device name: Soundflower (64ch)
Host name: Core Audio
Input channels: 64
Output channels: 64
Low Input Latency: 0.010000
Low Output Latency: 0.001451
High Input Latency: 0.100000
High Output Latency: 0.011610
Supported Rates:
8000
9600
11025
12000
15000
16000
22050
24000
32000
44100
48000
88200
96000
176400
192000
352800
384000
==============================
Selected capture device: 1 - Built-in Input
Selected playback device: 2 - Built-in Output
Supported Rates:
8000
9600
11025
12000
15000
16000
22050
24000
32000
44100
48000
88200
96000
176400
192000
352800
384000
==============================
Available mixers:
==============================
Available capture sources:
0 - Line In
==============================
Available playback volumes:
0 - PCM
==============================
Capture volume is native
Mac hides the user Library but it is there. You actually have to choose the Go menu at the top of Finder, choose Go to Folder then physically type:
~/Library/Application Support/audacity/
Gale
They did that to keep all us delicate Mac users from hurting ourselves. Koz
We’ll wait for the current audacity.cfg and the result of resetting it.
The only thing I noted in your audio info was that you had Soundflower installed. If no other explanation transpires you could consider temporarily uninstalling it.
Gale
Sorry that took so long. (Works been crazy) But I’m really grateful for you all trying to help me with this! It’s very very appreciated!
I tried the reset. That didn’t seem to change anything btw.
audacity.txt (1.96 KB)
The only suggestion I have from your audacity.cfg is to turn off Transport > Overdub in Audacity.
Did you uninstall Soundflower?
Have you been into the Sound section of the System Preferences and turned off any audio processing options? I agree the pauses between the preacher’s words sound un-naturally quiet.
If you are not the audio engineer, have you spoken to him or her?
Have you tried quitting as many other programs as possible before recording?
Gale