Page 1 of 1
If i uninstall and re-install will I lose my audacity files?
Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2010 10:34 am
by LP Recording
I have Audacity 1.2 installed but more and more recently it crashes on pressing "stop recording" and i lose the recording. So if I uninstall and reinstall it might improve it. If I do this will I lose my current audacity files?
Re: If i uninstall and re-install will I lose my audacity fi
Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2010 4:59 pm
by bgravato
Short answer: No.
Saved files on your hard disk will stay there regardless you have audacity installed or not...
Reinstalling it might not be the solution for your problem though...
What operating system are you running? If it's recent MacOS-X or Windows 7 you might want to install Audacity 1.3, despite being tagged as beta, on recent systems, it is actually more stable than the older 1.2 stable-tagged version.
Beside the files on your hard disk, audacity's preferences is another thing that will remain if you reinstall it. This means that if you suspect that the reason of your crashes might be related to some option in your preferences that you might have changed, reinstalling it won't reset the preferences to the default settings... your previous settings will prevail... If you think that's the case other procedure are required to reset the settings to default (those procedures will vary depending on what operating system you're using)
Re: If i uninstall and re-install will I lose my audacity fi
Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2010 5:02 pm
by steve
Uninstalling/reinstalling Audacity 1.2.6 will not affect existing audio files/projects on your hard drive, but it is also unlikely to cure any problems that you may be having.
Upgrading to Audacity 1.3.12 is more likely to solve problems as the old 1.2.6 version is now very aged and known to have multiple problems on modern systems. Audacity 1.3.12 is not 100% bug free, but virtually all of the forum regulars agree that it is vastly superior to the old 1.2.6 version.
You do not have to uninstall Audacity 1.2.6 before installing 1.3.12, they can co-exist on the same machine, but you can't run them both at the same time. Audacity 1.3.12 can open projects made with Audacity 1.2.6, but projects that have been saved by Audacity 1.3.12 can not be opened by Audacity 1.2.6.
Recording made in any version of Audacity should be backed up as audio files, for example by exporting as WAV files. Audacity projects can go wrong for all sorts of reasons, so backing up as a WAV file is a sensible precaution that can save many tears.
Re: If i uninstall and re-install will I lose my audacity fi
Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2010 5:39 pm
by LP Recording
Thanks, the system is Windows Vista.
I am aware that it's a problem that 1.2 version has but in experimenting I have found that bizarrely the 1.2 version gives a better noise removal than the 1.3. With the 1.3 version there is a background hum after the noise removal which I don't get with the 1.2 version. That's why I need to keep the 1.2 version.
So does anyone know why the problem of it crashing on pressing stop recording has become more and more frequent?
Re: If i uninstall and re-install will I lose my audacity fi
Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2010 5:52 pm
by bgravato
I'm not a windows user so I can't comment on the crashing problems.
The noise removal in 1.3 is supposed to be much better than in 1.2... So that's really bizarre that 1.2's noise removal works better...
Re: If i uninstall and re-install will I lose my audacity fi
Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2010 5:53 pm
by steve
LP Recording wrote:
So does anyone know why the problem of it crashing on pressing stop recording has become more and more frequent?
Not really, though you can set Audacity 1.2.6 back to a fresh installation by resetting the Audacity Preferences. Unfortunately the preferences in Audacity 1.2.6 are buried in the cursed Windows Registry, but fortunately there is a small tool to assist with the job safely. See the "Safe Solution" on this page:
http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Audac ... o_defaults
LP Recording wrote:I have found that bizarrely the 1.2 version gives a better noise removal than the 1.3
It's not necessarily "better" but it IS "different", and on certain types of noise it can give better results, though overall (over a large range of noise and music types) the Noise Removal effect in Audacity 1.2.6 removes more of the music signal along with the noise.
There is a little "trick" ("technique" if you prefer) that enables the Noise Removal effect in Audacity 1.3.12 to behave more like the effect in Audacity 1.2.6 (useful for those cases where the old version works better). The trick is to amplify the noise by a few dB (say around 8dB) before creating the "Noise Profile". Use "Undo" (Ctrl+Z) to undo the amplification (you will need to press Ctrl+Z twice) before applying the noise removal.
Re: If i uninstall and re-install will I lose my audacity fi
Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2010 6:16 pm
by bgravato
To describe the trick steve mentioned here in more detail here is a step-by-step guide, in his own words, from
another thread:
stevethefiddle wrote:If you want to try the Noise Removal effect in Audacity 1.3.11, here's a "trick" that may help to achieve some effective lowering of the noise level without introducing horrible side effects:
1) Record a few seconds of "silence" (and of course record the guitar)
2) Use "Normalize" to remove any DC offset.
3) Amplify the "silence" by +10dB
4) With the "silence" still selected, open the "Noise Removal" effect and press the "Get Noise Profile" button. (The noise removal effect will close)
4) Select the guitar recording and open the "Noise Removal" effect again.
5) Set the "Noise Reduction (dB)" setting to about 6 (other settings at default), then click the "OK" button.
6) Trim off the "silence".
The "trick" here is step 3 which in effect changes the noise detection threshold (in combination with a low Noise Reduction (dB) setting in step 5).
Without this trick (or a user setting for the noise detection threshold) you will probably hear the noise reduction cutting in and out.
The figures used here are a guide - tweaking the settings may give improved results.
The Noise Removal in Audacity 1.2.x is not up to the job at all.
That thread was about classical guitar recording but it can apply to any other recording...