Audacity stops recording for no discernible reason. The behavior is as if I had clicked the Stop button (I can export the partial audio recorded before the stop), but I didn’t touch anything.
This random stoppage occurs several times per day. The timing seems random, with only 2 exceptions: on one occasion, the stop coincided with a Software Updater notification popup; on another occasion, it coincided with me holding down the speaker volume button and causing a rapid series of volume-change events.
Setting the running instance of Audacity to Very High priority (niceness -20) via System Monitor doesn’t seem to help.
I close all other apps and go to Airplane Mode when recording.
Nothing about the stoppage appears in Help > Diagnostics > Show Log…
Is there any kind of verbose logging I can activate that would help me learn why the recording stopped?
Audacity (AppImage) 3.0.5, build date Sep 28 2021, launched via AppImageLauncher
Ubuntu 21.04
Kernel: x86_64 Linux 5.11.0-37-lowlatency
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 4750U with Radeon Graphics @ 16x 1.7GHz
32GB RAM
Input: Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 connected via USB
Output: Laptop built-in speaker
SSD with 200 hours’ worth of free space for recording
Perhaps not connected but, could it be an ALSA thing?
I’ve noticed that over prolonged periods, sometimes ALSA stops responding (crashes), especially at higher sample rates and any
application making use of it therefore stops recording or playing back.
Have noticed this on both Debian 9 and 10 (64 bit).
Personally I’ve never experienced ALSA crash in all the years that I’ve used Linux, though I did experience PulseAudio crashing quite regularly when it first came out (much more stable these days).
If it is an ALSA problem, is there a log I could watch that would show the failure occurring?
If an ALSA problem can cause Audacity to stop recording, would it be possible for Audacity to notify the user (for example, “Stopped recording because ALSA connection was lost”), instead of failing silently? Ideally, I’d love to see a notification from Audacity any time recording stops for a reason other than the user clicking the Stop button.
Personally I’ve never experienced ALSA crash in all the years that I’ve used Linux
You are lucky, do a google search, you will be surprised how common it is.
For example, I often use JAPA, when using the Alsa option, guaranteed it will crash within the hour.
However when using the Jack option, same computer and same interface, it carries on for days on end.
Another example, Ardour using Alsa, xruns galore until it gives up the ghost after a short while.
Switch to Jack and all good.
mikemorr wrote:
if it is an ALSA problem, is there a log I could watch that would show the failure occurring?
Good question, I’ve never been able to find one, Steve knows Linux better than I do, perhaps he can suggest something.
Lately, I use Jack audio exclusively, find it to be very stable, extremely versatile and plenty of logging
for when when something does goes wrong, very rare though.
If I’m not mistaken the AppImage of Audacity does not support Jack audio as yet, is that correct Steve?