Hi. I had recently updated Audacity since a recent windows update seemed to make my version of Audacity crash constantly.
Upon downloading the most recent version of Audacity i could find, audacity 3.2.5, this version is incredibly laggy during playback.
I use a focusrite solo interface, windows 11 PC. I close out of every other application when using Audacity, and this laptop is only two years old. I also save all my projects on an external hard drive, so as not to overload my storage and memory.
I admit my project is big. With a lot of tracks, but my god, i can barely get it to play through once without lagging up the playback. This is frustrating, as im trying to add new tracks by live recording, and cant get the timing right because the system lags while im recording too.
I dont know what “improvements” were made in the last update, but this is almost completely obsolete now.
I do find that the longer i have the project window open, the less severe the lag tends to be (like its loading the project or something). But i had the same project before the update, maybe even with less tracks, and it never lagged.
I can’t be the only one seeing this issue, right? I really want to stick to Audacity to finish what im working on but its almost impossible now.
In this case, here is something to try - no promises. Exit Audacity. Download the new 3.3.0 Beta, and open a copy of your project. Now copy ALL of the tracks from this OLD project to a NEW project: Ctrl+A (Select All), Ctrl+C (Copy), Ctrl+N (Create New Project), Ctrl+V (Paste into newly created project), specifying “Selected Audio Only”. Finally, save the NEW project. Exit Audacity, then see if 3.2.5 will load your newly created project. Is it a different size? Does it still exhibit the playback lagging ?
I tried uninstalling/reinstalling, still had the issue. But, i found that the issue is apparently due to the amount of tracks in my project. I wanted to work nondestructively, so i had copied most of the tracks and did effects to them after.
I found that when i started a new project with not as many tracks, it doesnt quite lag anymore. So for now, my workaround is to export the mostly done project and record whatever else i need in a new project.
Its just frustrating. The same project, with honestly even more tracks, did not have these playback issues in the older version of Audacity.
Unfortunately NONE of this is the same as the NEW option in the 3.3.0 BETA, specifying “Selected Audio Only” when you do a paste. This resolves a bug introduced in 3.2.0 which I believe is causing your misfortune.
I know it sees like hokey magic, but unless you give it a try, it won’t work.
I know, I feel the same way about some of the posters here.
