MP3's & WAV's massively clipped in Audacity

[kozikowski]

Oh, this is good. I have a problem over on the Mac side like this one. It can't be happening, but it is.

Koz

[steve]

I edited audacity.cfg then tried opening and closing previously reliable wav's (From TrackItDown) with Audacity 1.3.12 but again same symptoms - close track waveform by clicking on X but clearly actual track is still there (its name still in top LH corner of screen where it should say 'Audacity'. Closing audacity brings up 'Save changes before closing?' message, indicating that track is still there,though wafeform is not.

Click - click - click - thump.
Dawning realisation

I think I've just twigged part of what is going on -

<<< close track waveform by clicking on X but clearly actual track is still there (its name still in top LH corner of screen where it should say 'Audacity'. Closing audacity brings up 'Save changes before closing?' message, indicating that track is still there,though wafeform is not.>>>

I don't think this is a problem - I think it's just a misinterpretation. On my part I was misunderstanding what you meant.
Let's see if I've got this right:
1) Open Audacity
2) Import a file called "<filename>.wav"
The word "Audacity" at the top of the Audacity window now says "<filename>"
3) Click on the X in the top left corner of the track:
The track disappears completely, but at the top of the main Audacity window it still says "<filename>".
4) You either (a) Select "Exit" from the File menu or (b) click on the [X] in the top right corner of the main Audacity window.
Audacity pops up a message asking "Save changes before closing?"

Is that what's happening?

[JohnSilver]

Steve
Your description is exactly right.
For me this is a 'problem' as over past3 yrs clickin X would have closed track as well as waveform so top LH corner would alwways return to 'Audacity' label
Baffled and puzzled,j

[steve]

As seen in this image, there is the word "aircraft" at the top of the window, but there are no tracks.
I imported a file called "aircraft.wav" into Audacity and then deleted it. The name "aircraft" remains at the top of the main window. That is normal - I've just tested it in multiple versions of Audacity (including Audacity 1.3.12 and 1.2.6) and the this happens in all cases.

fullwindow000.png (27.96 KiB) Viewed 552 times

Assuming that is what you mean then we can disregard this "feature" and start looking at the other problem of the clipping.

(BTW - I'm not certain of all the rationale behind this feature, but I assume that it is to do with another "peculiarity" which is that the first file that is imported sets the Project Rate so that it matches the sample rate of the first imported track. This is quite useful if you are only working on one file at a time, but can be a bit confusing with more complex projects).

[JohnSilver]

Steve,

I do feel rather foolish - could have sworn my version 1.2.6 previously returned to 'Audacity' label when track deleted. As mitigating circumstances, your honour, the defendant claims he finds it confusing to have a track label in the absence of a track.Also, he's 60 next week so brain not what it was. THANKS for sorting this out, Steve

Still puzzled, though, why commercially bought MP3/WAV have in last week or so suddenly become badly clipped in ALL editing software - Audacities, Sound Forge, Wave Studio (Creative) . I can record the same tunes direct from vinyl using suitable recording levels, no prob. There are so many ways to alter settings I wonder whether I've accidentally altered a setting last week that has upped the volumes of all files in 'My Music'. Endless possibilities. Happy days

Many thanks once again Steve for your (and Koz's) efforts to sort out the track label prob. Have good weekend
J