Playback skipping ahead

Audacity Help Forum macOS
1

I use Audcaity 2.1.2. I recorded an interview using Audacity and when I play it back, there are certain chunks of time that skip ahead. Essentially, the recording is completely out of order.
Is there any way to fix this, or am I out of luck? Does anyone know what may have caused this or how I can prevent this from happening in the future?

Thank you!

2

certain chunks of time that skip ahead. Essentially, the recording is completely out of order.

It’s not “essentially.” Those two are different. Does it skip around or are there pieces missing?

Koz

3

Please fill in the necessary details. What are the makes and model numbers of the equipment used and how does that equipment connect to the computer?


Gale

4

It skips around-- there are no missing pieces.

My computer is a MacOS Sierra version 10.12.3.
I used Audacity 2.1.2 and a Blue Yeti mic, which uses a USB to connect to the computer.

5

I think Koz had this problem just once a few years ago. Does it happen every single time for you?

If all recordings are like that, try “Mac OS X DMG - version: 2.1.3rc2 (for Testing Only)” from https://www.fosshub.com/Audacity-devel.html/. It is an unfinished pre-release of 2.1.3. It should be safe to use, except don’t hand-edit your AUP files. If you do and you make a mistake, you could lose all your data.


Gale

6

It only happened this one time. Do you know what the cause may be and if there’s anything I can do to prevent it from happening in the future?

Thank you for your help!

7

I think Koz had this problem just once a few years ago.

  • Oh, I remember that. I made an important voice recording of someone giving me detailed instructions that I was never going to remember any other way. The recording started out clean and over time started to to repeat repeat words words. Further in, it started to repeat whole phrases to repeat whole phrases and the repetitions smashed into each other. It wasn’t a loss because I had a rough idea the direction the conversation was going, so I played it repeatedly on headphones until I squeezed out the meaning.

Over the duration of the recording the error reached a peak and started going away. By the end of the presentation, the error was almost, but not quite gone.

It happened once and not since. I never found what caused it. That’s a problem with a very tiny portion of errors. Unless you can recreate them at will, you’re pretty much dead trying to solve them. A very early servicing technician called them “Tough Dogs.” Developers call these “moon phase” errors.

Does that sound like what you have? It is truly scary if your task is to make a recording others have to listen to.

Koz