Hi there!
I am using Audacity 2.1.0/Windows 8. I have checked the input/output devices and I have also exported the audio as WAV & MP3. Yet the sound - in the AUP and the WAV/MP3 files - stops at one point while the file is still playing, then picks up again for a minute or so and then stops again. Audacity displays a waveform throughout the recording and I should be able to hear all of it.
Any ideas what might be causing this?
-Dara
Audacity has a mode which used to be default where it wouldn’t make “personal copies” of the music you used in the show. It used to just go out and open up the music files when they were needed and then close them up when it was done. It was very efficient to do it that way and the shows were very small and fast.
The down side was when you moved the sound files and Audacity couldn’t find them any more, you would get a hole in the show. The blue waves wouldn’t care because they are created by their own graphic files but the show would get to needing that file and it just wasn’t there.
The other thing that would happen is someone would move the show. Same problem. Go looking for the sound files and they’re not around. They’re on the Other computer.
Did you “clean up” or move things around after production? Oddly, this killed the neat people because they would clean up and rearrange files and folders and so destroy their show. That mode isn’t default any more.
Audacity > Edit > Preferences > Projects.
The easiest fix is to put the sound files back.
Koz
Well, I use CCleaner on a regular basis but I haven’t moved anything on purpose. For each recording, there’s a folder where all the raw data is stored and an AUP file. Is there any way to recover the missing information?
Sometimes third-party utilities can destroy Audacity files. There’s a virus protection program out there which likes to do that as well.
The audacity files inside the _DATA folder do not follow conventional naming practices, so sometimes they don’t survive a good “cleaning.”
Did Audacity complain that it couldn’t find files, or it just created silent spots? At one time the show played from beginning to end, right?
I think you’re stuck, but I’m not a Windows elf. We can wait for one of those.
Koz
Another bit of bad news. Audacity Projects do not save UNDO, so there’s no such thing as Edit > UNDO until everything comes back.
Koz
Well, this is sad.
Audacity didn’t complain and it took me about a week to notice precicely because Audacity behaved normally. It just created the silent spots at the end of the recording.
If audio data is missing from a project, Audacity displays an error message “Warning missing audio data block file(s)…” and offers three choices:
The first option is the default.
Thank you all for your replies.
So the deed is done and there’s no way I can recover the missing data?
Koz, sorry but that is not the correct preference to change. That only sets Audacity to copy in when saving a project. It has no effect if you launch Audacity, import a WAV file then delete the WAV. The Preference to change which works at the point of import is at the top of Import / Export Preferences.
Gale
Did this project contain imported files or is it only a recording?
Is it a project with multiple tracks? Open the AUP file and do View > Fit Vertically to see all the tracks. If any tracks are muted, unmute them.
If that does not help, open Help > Show Log… after opening the project. Save the log file. Attach the log file and the AUP file here. See How to attach files to forum posts.
Gale
The project has just one track.
I also installed the FFmpeg Import/Export Library but the silent parts are still there. Maybe the log will provide some useful information. The FFmpeg libraries seem to load successfully, though.
log.txt (4 KB)
The log contains errors from Sequence.cpp about not being able to read samples. Do those errors occur only while you are playing the project? That is when you first open the project but don’t play it, the errors such as “22:27:19: Warning: Expected to read 137312 samples, got 0 samples” are not there?
The FFmpeg library is not relevant to reopening a saved project.
As previously asked, is the project a recording or does it contain imported files? If it’s a recording that you never edited and there is a problem with the AUP file but not the data, then you could try to recover the data manually from the project’s _data folder.
But as previously requested, I suggest you attach the AUP file so we can see that.
Gale
No, there are no such errors in the log when I first open the recording. The project is a recording and no data has been imported or edited.
I will try to recover the data manually and see how that goes. Thanks, Gale!