Audacity Forum

Can anyone advise? I began with version 1.2.6 several months ago, which worked fine. A few weeks ago I downloaded version 1.3.9Beta, which worked fine as well, up until a few hours ago, when it simply stopped recording. I can import items into it and play them, but can't record. Nothing is being picked up from the mic.

I re-booted my PC, but that didn't help. I then uninstalled 1.3.9Beta and downloaded and installed 1.3.10Beta.
Same thing. I'm not able to record. All I get is the straight blue line across the window.
I can, however, still record and do everything in version 1.2.6.

Can anyone suggest what might be happening here?

Thank you.

Donna

Open Audacity 1.2.6 and go to:
"Edit menu > Preferences > Audio I/O"
What options are set there?

Close Audacity 1.2.6

Open Audacity 1.3.10 and go to:
"Edit menu > Preferences > Devices"
What options are set there?
What options are available?

Steve, in 1.3.10 the preferences are:
devices
playback
recording
quality
interface
tracks
import/export
projects
libraries
specrtograms
directories
warnings
effects
keyboard
mouse

Playthrough: overdub; software playthrough
Latency: audio to buffer (it's at 100)
latency correction (it's at -300)
Sound activated recording: I've ticked the box.

Now I don't even get the blue line going across.

In 1.2.6, I get Playback device: logitech USB headset (and others)
Recording device: Logitech USB headset (others are microsoft sound mapper and sigma tel audio)
Channels: 1 (mono) 2 (stereo), etc.
And tick boxes for Play other tracks while recording new one and Software playthrough

I also get tabs for Quality, File Formats, Spectrograms, Directories, Interface, Keyboard, Mouse.

In 1.2.6 now, however, I'm no longer able to activate the Effect menu for a recorded item. The entire list remains grey.

In Audacity 1.3.10 set the following in the "Devices" section of Preferences:

Host: Windows Direct Sound
Device / Playback: Logitec USB
Device / Recording: Logitec USB
Channels: 1 (mono)

In the "Recording" section of Preferences:

Overdub: yes (selected)
Software Playthrough: No (not selected)
Sound Activation: No (not selected)

In the "Quality" section of Preferences:

Default Sample Rate: 44100
Default Sample Format: 16 bit

Leave everything else as it is and click "OK"

Cross your fingers and try recording something.

DonnaMarilyn wrote:In 1.2.6 now, however, I'm no longer able to activate the Effect menu for a recorded item. The entire list remains grey.

Most of the menus are greyed out when Audacity is in Play, Record, or Pause. Make sure that Audacity is "Stopped" (not just paused) and the menu items should be available.

Thanks so much! That did the trick for 1.3.10. I don't know why the settings suddenly changed of their own accord yesterday, but all's well that ends well.

With 1.2.6, however, the Effect menu remains greyed out, even after I've pressed the yellow Stop button.
(Mind you, as long as version 1.3.10 works fine, I'll have no need of 1.2.6.)

Donna

DonnaMarilyn wrote:With 1.2.6, however, the Effect menu remains greyed out, even after I've pressed the yellow Stop button.

In Audacity 1.2.x you also have some audio selected (either a whole track, several tracks, or part of a track).

In Audacity 1.3.x, by default (can be changed in Preferences), if you use an effect and there is no audio selected, Audacity will automatically select ALL audio in all tracks. If you have a selection, Audacity will apply the effect to the selection, but if there is no selection, Audacity will apply the effect to everything (if it is possible to do so).

DonnaMarilyn wrote:(Mind you, as long as version 1.3.10 works fine, I'll have no need of 1.2.6.)

Quite true

Okey-doke, I've sorted out the 1.2.6 Effects situation now as well. I'm a happy camper in that regard.

A further question: This time about Noise Removal. Everything I record (only vocals) always has noise (constant hissing sound) in the background. Is there a standard Noise Removal setting that would be reasonably effective without causing too much of the vocal volume to be lost? (I use a Logitech USB headset.)

Donna

I wonder why a USB microphone should be hissing. Is this a headset or desk microphone?
Sorry. You answered that already.

The noise removal in Audacity 1.3 is much better and useful than the one in 1.2.

Hiss is hard because anything that takes that out will also take out your s sounds in Sister Suzy Sells...etc.

It's critical that you select a portion of the performance that has only noise and nothing else for the Profile. Audacity will try to subtract everything in that profile from the show.

Noise Reduction value is the amount of effect. The higher the number, the more effect. Frequency smoothing gets rid of bubbling, gargling as you go up. You know you went too far when each word starts leaving little tailssss onssss themssss..

Leave delay at the default value. I sometimes put it to zero.

Keep experimenting, but I would try and get a quieter microphone or increase the quality of the one you got. Are you relatively close to it? There's nothing like a pure, clean recording. You can never totally cure problems in post production. Unless you spend weeks on it, it always sounds like a patch job.

Koz

We had troubles when we were shopping for headset microphones. Most of them were very quiet and didn't sound all that good. We settled on the Labtec headsets, but we were using the analog connections, not USB.

Koz

Thank you for that feedback, Koz. I'll keep experimenting. Perhaps a better quality headset/mic would help as well.

Donna