I understand I have several variables here that could be problematic, but I’m not sure so here it goes: my friend and I are recording a podcast. She records on garage band, uploads it as a WAV file, and I download it to adjust with my recording of me on audacity. I get everything lined up, and have successfully lined up our recordings in the past. Now, it is doing a strange thing where I can get us lined up at the beginning of the track, and adjust the length of one of them so that the ends line up perfectly, but then the middle of the recording will go all screwy. It essentially speeds up and slows back down before reaching the end. I would just do it the hard way and keep moving little clips at a time, but now the time shift tool is gone, so I’m not sure how to even do that anymore. Any input would be appreciated…thanks.
That sounds like a problem with the audio device’s clock on one, or both machines. A small amount of variation is not uncommon as high precision clocks are generally only available on very expensive sound cards (it is expensive to make a sound card with a high precision clock).
If it’s only a small amount of difference over a long recording, then there’s probably nothing you can do about it (without spending a lot of money).
It has been replaced with “drag bars” (called “Clip Handles”). See: https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/new_features_in_this_release.html