Audacity Forum

I'm recording original music composed on a Casio WK200 keyboard with Audacity 1.2.6. I record and mix tracks on the keyboard, set Audacity to record and press "start" on the keyboard and let the software do its thing.

Well, when I record this way in Audacity and save projects in its native format, playback is flawless. But when I export to MP3 or WAV formats, playback exhibits a very irritating anomaly; for a tiny fraction of a second the song stops and starts. It doesn't skip, as I understand a skip to be a jump from one part of the recording to another as if it's dropped the intervening passage. I don't have that problem. In my problem, the song does seem to pick up in exactly the place where it left off.

I compress, I reduce gain, I normalize, I change the bit rate for MP3 export setup, change bit rate for uncompressed export for WAVs. I change the original sampling rate for recordings to 16 bit as well and go through the whole series of experiments again. I re-record at lower volume. I even downloaded Audacity 1.2.6 to a brand new Gateway laptop but no detectable difference in MP3 or WAV performance.

I also have these problems when playing back MIDI compositions I've converted to MP3s. I've played them back using Windows Media Player on the same PC as Audacity, so the glitch does not appear to be related to the keyboard.

I'm about to lose my marbles...what am I doing wrong here? If I can lick this problem, I'll be 100% satisfied with Audacity.

Before you even say hello, you need to tell us that you have at least 10% space left on your hard drive and you error checked and defragmented thoroughly. Audacity will not run in real time (without gaps) on a fragmented drive.

Audacity doesn't Play Well With Others. Audacity always assumes it's the only sound software running on the machine. It knows about Windows Media Player, QuickTime and iTunes, but if you start running other packages, you may run into sharing violations.

It's easy to run into speed issues. How much hardware memory do you have and how fast is the computer processor?

There is a posting from someone on a relatively modest Windows machine that found they couldn't mix any more tracks than about five or six. Past that, the computer just couldn't keep up. It's easy to assume that if you can have sixteen spreadsheets open, that you can cut sound. Spreadsheets do not run in real time and have strict speed issues. Accounts Receivable does not stutter.

So what are your machine specs? How many other things do you have open while you're trying to do these jobs?

I have a favorite computer user at work that never closes applications. Ever. I think the record is 23. I cure a lot of his problems by just closing everything and restarting.

We usually tell people in trouble to do production in 44100, 16-bit, Stereo. That's the Music CD sound format, it's dead standard, and everything supports it. If that works OK, then work up to other formats as you need. If that format doesn't work, then we need to deal with that.

Koz

Thank you for trying to help me.

The problem is not evident in the original recording, only in the exported MP3s and WAVs, so low system resources seem to be an unlikely culprit. Nevertheless, here is my configuration:

I have a Gateway ML6731 Laptop. I have 85.8 GB free out of 138 GB total. The disk is completely unfragmented. My processor is an Intel Pentium Dual-Core T2370 running at 1.73 GHz. I have 2 GB of RAM.

I always close everything before running Audacity. I only record 16 bit stereo at 44100. The only time another audio program is running is when I use Windows Media Player to play MIDIs I'm trying to turn into MP3s. I only record one track in Audacity. The track that I record is the already-mixed Casio keyboard output, so recording too many tracks can't be an issue...unless one track is too many.

Audacity records and plays back the songs flawlessly. The anomalies occur only when I export to MP3 or WAV formats and THEN playback the MP3s or WAVs. The anomalies occur even when I copy the MP3s to other devices like my phone and Palm T|X, both of which play other MP3s w/ no glitches.

The original Audacity AUP file continues to play back perfectly.

Thanks again, and let me know if there is any other info you need from me that might be helpful. I have thought about making a youtube video of a short snippet of song as recorded and played back by Audacity, and as played back as an MP3 after export. Perhaps hearing the anomaly would offer a clue?

Does your machine have a built-in microphone? The instructions aren't clear which models have and which ones don't.

If you do, set up to record the built-in microphone in Audacity. Set Audacity Preferences to 44100, 16-bit, Stereo (or maybe mono). Forget Windows Media, forget MIDI, forget the keyboard. Straight recording. Close everything else. Disconnect the network and WiFi.

You can put Audacity in diagnostic mode by launching it and clicking once inside the record meters (instead of pressing the red record button). They will bounce if you have sound present. No recording is made. Set it next to a radio, press the real record button and record a minute or so. Stop and export the WAV file. Does it have holes in it?

Alternately, record an external plug-in microphone. Something really simple. I'm after a setup you can describe clearly in six words or less. "Built-In Microphone. Press Record."

Koz

Yes, built-in mic. Located between the PgDn and End keys on the right hand side of the laptop keyboard.

I record directly from the headphone jack on the Casio keyboard into the external mic jack (line-in) on the laptop. This disables the built-in mic and allows recording of songs I've composed on the Casio keyboard w/o any of the losses or artifacts I'd get by recording from an external mic or the laptop's built in mic.

I'll try your suggestions. Thanks again.