Recording from vinyl and speed of recording is off

Audacity Help Forum macOS
1

I have recorded numerous albums on Audacity with no problem. I moved and unplugged my turntable and set everything back up. Now when i record an album, the speed does not record in seconds but stops and goes. A 1 second recording may take 3 seconds and then when played back the recording just skips and sounds awful. I don’t know what is going on. When recording, the “pause” button and the section with the scissors (5 boxes) are flickering.
Do you know how to fix this? Thanks.

2

Check the Transport > Transport Options menu and make sure that Sound Activated Recording is not checked.

– Bill

3

Bill,
I tried that and it seemed to work. Thanks so much. On the old version I had there was a microphone that you would tap on and you would be able to hear it was on before you pressed “RECORD”. This new version does not have one. Is there something like that on this version that I’m just not seeing?

Thanks,
Thomas

4

If you’re running the latest Audacity (2.4.2) you can click on the recording level meter (where it says ‘Click to Start Monitoring’) to monitor the sound before you start recording.

– Bill

5

Thanks Bill. I’m sorry that I’m not technological at all so thank you for your patience. I have one more question. On playback of the song you can hear the background volume (what you can hear when nothing is playing) that I did not hear on the older version. Is there a way to turn that down/off?

Thanks,
Thomas

6

What do you mean by “background volume”? What are your settings in the Device toolbar?

– Bill

7

When you click on the recording meter level to hear the microphone before recording. When you play back the song you can hear that volume on the recording. On the old version i did not hear that. I was just wondering if there was a way to lessen that sound.

Thanks.

8

What are your settings in the Device toolbar?
– Bill

9

Interface:
Host=Core Audio
Using=Port AudioV19.6.0-Devel, Revision Unknown

Playback:
Device=Built-in Output

Recording:
Device= USB Audio CODEC
Channels=2 Stereo

Latency:
Buffer Length=100 Milliseconds
Latency Compensation= negative 130 Milliseconds

10

OK, so you’re recording from the turntable, the input setting is USB Audio CODEC. You click on the recording meter to monitor, and you hear something before you put the needle down, right? You’re hearing the turntable, not the Mac’s internal microphone, right?

After recording you play it back and hear some sound before the song begins, right? It may be that before you moved everything you had Sound Activated Recording turned on (it seems you did, since that was the cause the problem you initially reported) and Audacity did not begin recording until the song started? But that usually cuts off the beginning of the song, and can cut in and out during a song depending on the settings.

In any case, removing that sound before the song starts is all part of the editing process after you’ve recorded the vinyl.

See this tutorial in the manual.

– Bill

11

Thanks Bill for all your help. I really appreciate it!
Happy Labor Day!

Thomas