I’m using Win 10 and Audacity 3.0.3. Audacity hung up while I was editing and I had to force an exit. But after I recovered the file (without error), it started doing some strange things.
I have a macro (that has been working for quite a while) that takes the space between two sections of a talk (which I first highlight) and either expands or reduces it to 1.2 seconds and does a fade-out and fade-in on the surrounding audio. So I use it between sections of the audio I am editing to provide a consistent transition throughout the audio.
As I mentioned, Audacity got hung up and when I restarted and recovered the file, the program started doing some strange things. The macro seemed to work the first time I used it after the recovery but then with each successive use, the time period to execute it got considerably longer until it ended up hanging the program again (after maybe 3 uses). And then I noticed that when I selected the track, I got a saw-tooth looking selection in the spots where I used the transition macro and the sound in the audio now has some static in those sections.
I exported the audio as a 32bit .WAV file and then deleted the track and re-imported it. The macro now works fine but the imported file still has static in those same areas but doesn’t show the saw-tooth look when I select it.
I haven’t had any problems with the Macro before so it seems to be related to the program hanging up and then using the recovered file.
See the saw-tooth effect below and my macro that follows.
Audacity got hung up and when I restarted and recovered the file, the program started doing some strange things.
Did you restart Windows? Whenever a program behaves badly or outright crashes, it can leave smoldering trash and debris all over the place, not just in the program environment. If you offended the data angels, unstable Windows can make a second crash much more likely.
I would clean shutdown Windows. Shift+Shutdown > Wait > Start. Not Restart and not regular Shutdown. I might do it more than once if it takes forever to start. That’s Windows sweeping up the wreckage and wiping down the machine.
You didn’t seem particularly upset that Audacity crashed. Does it do that all the time?
There was a recent post from someone whose Audacity crashed constantly. The only reason he posted for help was the one time that an important show didn’t recover.
No, constant crashing, or any crashing is not normal. You have something broken.
Thanks Koz - I’ll try that clean shutdown. Audacity does not usually shutdown or hang up so I wasn’t too worried - but the strange behavior of Audacity afterwards was a concern. Other programs were acting normal but Audacity was not.
