Ubuntu 16.04 Plugins grayed out

Audacity Help Forum GNU/Linux
1

My first post. Running 2.12 on Ubuntu 16.04. System is an Asus Z97Sabertooth Mk1 driving a pair of M Audio BX5D2’s. Audio info is as follows

==============================
Default recording device number: 7
Default playback device number: 7

Device ID: 0
Device name: HDA Intel PCH: ALC1150 Digital (hw:0,1)
Host name: ALSA
Recording channels: 0
Playback channels: 2
Low Recording Latency: -1.000000
Low Playback Latency: 0.008707
High Recording Latency: -1.000000
High Playback Latency: 0.034830
Supported Rates:
32000
44100
48000
88200
96000
192000

Device ID: 1
Device name: HDA Intel PCH: ALC1150 Alt Analog (hw:0,2)
Host name: ALSA
Recording channels: 2
Playback channels: 0
Low Recording Latency: 0.008707
Low Playback Latency: -1.000000
High Recording Latency: 0.034830
High Playback Latency: -1.000000
Supported Rates:

Device ID: 2
Device name: HDA NVidia: HDMI 1 (hw:1,7)
Host name: ALSA
Recording channels: 0
Playback channels: 8
Low Recording Latency: -1.000000
Low Playback Latency: 0.008707
High Recording Latency: -1.000000
High Playback Latency: 0.034830
Supported Rates:
32000
44100
48000
88200


When I installed Audacity first went in and disabled all effect plugins. Re enabled Compressor, Limiter and Eq. These enabled plugins are grayed out under the Effects button so I am assuming there is no way to use them uless there is an effects buss setting or some other config I am missing?

Couple of other facts. My primary player is VLC. I am running the audio output module setting for this under Auto which uses Pulseaudio. I notice I can not record default system sounds unless under the Pulseaudio volume control panel when I press “start monitoring” under on the input VU meter on Aud (at which time the “ALSA plugin Audacity” appears in the Recording tab), I have to tell the control panel to record from “Monitor of built in analog stereo” rather than “Built In Analog Stereo”. The other device in the stack is the system wide PulseAudio Multiband Eq. I use this to make up for room acoustics and speaker deficiencies. Note that since upgrade to 16.04 I am not running JACK. Also note that with nothing going on, i.e. no audio playing back, I note when connected to “Builtin Analog Stereo” that the VU meters in Audacity paint a fair amount of noise although its not readily audible. A disappointment in my motherboard (uses Realtec audio chip and the stock Uby 16.04 kernel modules).

My first objective with Audacity is to be able to record system sounds, streaming music and so forth.

Any help or suggestions would be very appreciated.

Regards from Quito Ecuador

Expat

2

There is no 2.12 version of Audacity. There is 2.1.2. Please tell us where you obtained Audacity.

See this FAQ: Why can’t I use the effects or other menu items?. You can’t run Audacity effects while recording. With most third-party effects, such as LADSPA or LV2, you can adjust effects while previewing them. You cannot do that with most shipped Audacity effects.

What are you trying to record - a VLC stream? You can dump raw stream output to disk with VLC.

Gale

3

Gale

Please accept my apologies for a mal formed post.

I obtained Audacity from the Ubuntu store. The error on the version was mine as was not including the origin.

Additionally, I did not think to look under editing FAQ for an answer which would have obviated the need to join the forum or post. My past experience with both digital and analog recording has been that compressing, limiting and equalizing have been many times done when mastering.

Many thanks for your assistance.