Various Issues with Audacity 2.x

Audacity 3 Help Forum Windows
1

Dear All,

Having happily used v. 1.2.6 for years, I was thrilled to see that finally a new (non-beta) version (2.0) was released.

Regretfully, since I upgraded (via Installer, in-place in the Folder that had v. 1.2.6 in it), I am encountering various issues with this new version (incidentally, all issues are still valid for the freshly released v. 2.01), namely:

  1. The whole start process of the application takes for ever (used to be nice & quick);

  2. For most part of the starting process of Audacity, the computer’s other activities (including mouse movement) are practically FROZEN! (they recover functionality after Audacity actually starts)

  3. At times, an error message appears, stating that library libfftw3f-3.dll could not be found (OK-ing the message enables Audacity to continue loading).
    That library resides however in the AudacityPlug-Ins folder!
    (for whatever that is worth: I placed a copy of the DLL in the Audacity folder, and the message stopped appearing)

  4. Almost each time Audacity starts, it also performs a lengthy VST scanning, despite the “re-scan for VST” option being NOT marked in the effects preferences (the only way I found, so far, to prevent this is to also prevent VST effects from loading at all and – of course – from being graphically presented).

Should anyone have an idea as to how to deal with each of the items above, I will surely appreciate her/his enlightening input.

Thanks in advance for your help,

Cordially,

Rougena T.

P.S.: Working on MS-Windows XP-SP3-Home

2

I would suggest you just start from scratch by removing any file related to Audacity and reinstall it again.
Even when you uninstall the program its settings are still present so please look at the Wiki: http://manual.audacityteam.org/help/manual/man/faq_installation_and_plug_ins.html#win_uninstall
If you still have problems then it’s something to look at your computer hardware or software, but believe me the program works and after installation you can start using it as I did.

3

Thanks Audino,

While I guess that starting from scratch might do the trick, I am kind of reluctant to lose all my years-long settings for the program.

I was hoping for a more “surgical”-precision suggestion.

So, should anyone have more ideas, I will more than welcome them (along with many others that – according to the info in this Forum – “enjoy” one or more of the issues I raised in this posting).

Thanks again,

Rougena

4

Start-up is slower than in 1.2. Audacity is looking for, and if found, loading LAME and FFmpeg. See Help > Show Log… .

If your computer is “practically frozen” during Audacity launch, what are the computer specifications for RAM and speed (MHz)?

Unwanted rescanning for VST plug-ins “might” occur on some machines where there are no VST plug-ins in the locations where Audacity looks for them. This does not seem to happen to everyone who has no VST plug-ins (or their computers are too fast to show the scanning), and I assume from your comment that you do have VST plug-ins?

I cannot reproduce what you write, but libfftw3f-3.dll or some other .dll on your system could possibly be causing unwanted scanning. Where did you get libfftw3f-3.dll? The only valid place you should have got it from is by installing the LADSPA plug-ins for Windows, and the only LADSPA plug-ins in that require it are imp_1199.dll, mbeq_1197.dll, pitch_scale_1193.dll and pitch_scale_1194.dll.

If you quit Audacity and open Documents and SettingsApplication DataAudacityaudacity,cfg in Notepad, what do you see for [VST]? If you want VST plug-ins enabled with GUI, .cfg should say:

[VST]
Enable=1
GUI=1
Rescan=0

If Rescan says “1”, set it to “0” as above, or if there are multiple (or no) VST entries, make one [VST] entry as above. Save the file in Notepad and restart Audacity. This should change nothing but the VST settings.

If Audacity still rescans, delete all copies of libfftw3f-3.dll from the Audacity folder or Plug-Ins folder, then reinstall the LADSPA plug-ins (which will restore libfftw3f-3.dll) from http://audacity.googlecode.com/files/LADSPA_plugins-win-0.4.15.exe .

If Audacity still scans, please attach plugins.cfg (it’s in the same folder as audacity.cfg), and give us a listing of all files and folders in the Audacity installation directory and in the folders inside the installation directory. If you need help running the command to do that, please ask.



Gale

5

Dear Gale,

Thank you for the extensive & clear reply.

As to your concerns:

  1. The CPU is an Intel T2300 (1.66GHz) and there are 2.5GB of RAM (besides the large Paging File); still there is quite a large number of apps running in the background. Today however the Laptop refrained from frozing (an improvement, if I may say).

  2. VST:

a. I have no idea what these plug-ins actually are;

b. Still, I checked the couple of locations pointed to by the Registry HKLM & HKCU keys: sorry to report but in both locations, under Software. there are NO VST subkeys! (So surely Audacity didn’t try looking there);

c. As for the Audacity and its Plug-Ins subfolder, I attach a listing of their content for you to inspect.

Incidentally: the whole Audacity install resides on drive “E:” (meaning that if Audacity has hard-coded “C:” somewhere, that might explain part of the problem).

  1. At your request, I reinstalled the LDASPA plugins (after removing libfftw3f-3.dll from both locations), but – regretfully – the superfluous scanning, as well as the “Application failed due to component (libfftw3f-3.dll not found” during the start of Audacity continue to appear (see screen captures attached).
    This, despite the scanning clearly listing this library during its scan!

Incidentally: after eventually starting, Audacity seems to work correctly.

Hope you’ll find this information (along with the files inside the ZIP archive I attach) useful for further debugging the app.

Thanks again for your help,

Regards,

Rougena
AudacityIssues.zip (181 KB)

6

I don’t want to be pessimistic but I think your Windows needs some extensive cleaning.
If possible remove some useless applications you don’t really need those that usually pretend to work in background, STOP useless services such as outgoing calls including Windows’s auto updates, stop screensaver, reduce desktop’s resolution and defrag the hard disk.
After I remove an application I always check with CrapCleaner (also others tricks too) and it always find left overs.
Those are just the basics needed to keep the operative system “alive”.
The suggestions Gale gave to you are very “specific” to Audacity and can save you the hassle to reconfigure all its settings, but at the end the operative system is still slow and overloaded.

7

@Rougena: Do I assume you are running Windows installed in Hebrew?


Gale

8

Hi Gale,

Thanks for the inquiry; sorry for the delay of my answer (have not seen your input, and there was no Forum notification to my e-mail to this effect …)

Indeed, my Windows environment IS in Hebrew (though most apps are run with an English GUI, just as Audacity is).

Thanks again and Happy Weekend,

Rougena