Strange Buzzing on Recording for One Track

Audacity Help Forum macOS
1

I’ve been recording with audacity for a short while and it’s usually worked fine, but I’ve had an issue arise a couple times.

Firstly, I’m using Mac OSX Mountain Lion, 10.9.5. I’m using audacity 2.0.3, and I can’t remember if I installed it from the dmg or from a zip.

Anyways, recording on three tracks with three separate mics, looks something like this. http://imgur.com/iQDC4K2 At some point along the recording, something happens, the bottom track now sounds like he was speaking through a fan; there’s a weird echo, a digitized echo of his voice. The track now looks like this. http://imgur.com/SP6dI84 This happened halfway through, and there continued to the end. http://imgur.com/tdsJGac http://imgur.com/8t2v4jI http://imgur.com/0CXPuQQ

I have no idea why this happened. It happened before, but it started at the beginning of the track. Is it a problem with the mic, or is this some problem I’m causing somehow? Is there a way to avoid this?

Thanks a lot in advance.

2

recording on three tracks with three separate mics

You must be leaving words out or something because you can’t do that. Audacity will only record from one device at a time. The illustration says you 're recording from the Built-In Microphone. Where are the three tracks coming from?

Koz

3

Sorry, the image isn’t from a current recording. On mac, I create an aggregate device to accept input from the separate mics, but it’s set as one device. Done with Audio MIDI setup.

4

Sorry, the image isn’t from a current recording.

We can only go with what you tell us.

I create an aggregate device

I’ve done that with two microphones, but never three.

I got nothing. If somebody said I had to guess at it, I’d say the machine wasn’t powerful enough to handle it. Do you have an SSD instead of a spinning metal drive? Serious memory and USB3? Live audio streams are rough and juggling three of them at the same time is likely to cause problems. USB is a timeshare system. It’s not like FireWire.

For one example, you can’t run a USB microphone through a USB hub with a keyboard and mouse. The sharing will cause digital trash in the sound.

Koz

5

I’ll have to assume something like this is happening for now. Thanks a lot for your help.