Jumpy Recording

[andrew12]

HI There
My problem is that when I make a recording from an LP and then on playback the music jumps every 5 secs. I think that this must correspond to the length of each file in he data folder. it seem that it cannot make the transition from one file to the next.
Any ideas? Thanks

[kozikowski]

It seems your computer isn't fast enough to do live capture. How full is your hard drive and when was the last time you defragmented it?

Koz

[andrew12]

HI again
Thanks for the quick reply, My computer is a bit long in the tooth. Its an AMD athlon 1Ghz with a 160GB hard drive. It says that it doesn't need a defrag and that there is plenty of space left on the drive. I have successfully recorded some LP's that are perfect. it seems to be random but there must be a logical answer. Just a thought, if there were other applications running in the background, say Ebay for example would this affect the recording process along the lines of the speed of the computer. By the way there is 2GB of ram amd I am running windows XP. Thanks once again Andrew.

[kozikowski]

Personally, I would defrag it again. Windows considers everything OK when most of the file structure is coherent enough to prevent system damage. You are after maximum speed. Your goals are different.

You may also discover this will take a while. Do the error test while you're down there.

<<<there is plenty of space left on the drive.>>>

Plenty is what in numbers?

I wouldn't be running anything else during live capture. Some people have troubles with their virus protection running at the same time. Live Capture isn't like anything else (other than live video capture). When the drumbeat arrives from the record, the computer can't say "Hang on a second I have to do file management." Even worse, "Hang on a second while I find a place to put this."

Not happening. You can do very complex Photoshop manipulations or recalculate an enormous spreadsheet and the computer will just make you wait until it gets done. I do this on very old Win2K machines. You usually get a new computer when it makes you wait too long. That same computer will fall flat immediately during live caputure.

Yours should be OK with a little housekeeping.

Koz

[andrew12]

Thanks for the info, I will have another go and do a complete defrag and error check as you recommended.
best regards Andrew

[aachannoichi]

Hi,

Awhile ago I was having the same issues and I was told to defrag my computer. I've done that several times over, I run minimal applications while recording and I'm still getting jumps. My computer is a Vista operating computer, but I've been having these problems since before I got it. I'm starting to get really frustrated with Audacity at this point.

[steve]

Windows (and Vista in particular) is notorious for running background processes. For example, if Windows Update starts checking your computer in the middle of your recording it can make a total mess. USB sound cards are particularly susceptible as they depend on the availability of the computers main processor.

In addition to running minimal applications, have a look at what background processes are running. I usually have Windows Update set for manual updating to avoid that particular problem. There are quite a few guides for optimising Vista for audio production: http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=optimi ... production

For USB audio devices it may be worth trying a different USB socket. Avoid using USB hubs.