My projects will not open

[keen]

Hi

I have installed audacity today on my Dell PC running Windows XP SP2. I am using it to import and digitalise my vinyl collection through Ion Urecord.

The problem is I cannot get it to work!

It imports the music OK, I can put effects on the music eg for clicks and background hiss, and it all plays OK when I've got the project open. I then save the project to My Music. So far, so good.

But when I re-open audacity and select the project from My Music or from 'recent files' it does not load the project, ie there is no waveform on the screen and no sound - nothing! If I try to open the project again, it says it is already open. But where is it?

Help!

[Gale Andrews]

Are there any .au files in the _data folder for that project? Have you moved or renamed them?



Gale

[keen]

Thanks.
Have checked the data files and in one case it is empty and in the other there are totally unrelated sound files.
I hadn't moved any - simply saved each project after naming it and then clicked close in the drop down menu.

I have tried using audacity to work on an lp imported using EZ vinyl converter and it finds that project by importing the mp3. So that works fine. But I don't want to work on mp3s.

What could be wrong with the audacity files?

[Richard Lewis]

I have same similar problem.
Version 1.2.6, Windows XP.
Recorded 45 minutes of music, saved project as... to My Music file. All that I can find there relating to my project is an ".aup" file of 321 bytes and an ".aup.bak" file of 145kb plus two empty data folders. The audio track is the right length of time, but the music is just a straight blue line! Where's my music?
Regards
Richard

[Gale Andrews]

Have checked the data files and in one case it is empty and in the other there are totally unrelated sound files.
I hadn't moved any - simply saved each project after naming it and then clicked close in the drop down menu.

This doesn't seem to be the case here, but for others' benefit, never save to Audacity's temporary folder (Directories preferences in Audacity will tell you where that is). Audacity won't delete .au files out of there, but file clean-up programs might.

Consider exporting a back up WAV as well as saving a project. Projects are great for coming back to your work later and retaining envelope points, labels and so on, but they are a dual entity of an .aup file and a linked _data folder containing small .au files. So they aren't forgiving if the .au files get moved or deleted.

If you think the correct .au files may be somewhere else, search the computer for *.au to find all the .au files and the folders they are in.




Gale

[keen]

Thanks Gale.

Have just wasted another hour or so transferring and editing an lp - and when I saved the project - it was lost, i.e. no data in the data file.

The only way I seem to be able to get round this is to save one project at a time, completely shut down audacity and then restart it for a new project. If I try to run two projects at once, then at least one is lost. This will cause me a problem though in that I will want to stitch projects together, eg two sides of an lp if recorded at different times.

Should I try the beta version with XP? Will that be better?
Or what about a different programme? I've heard of Goldwave; would that do the job?

Thanks.

[steve]

Should I try the beta version with XP? Will that be better?

Yes, try Audacity 1.3.12 (I use it regularly on Windows XP and find it to be very good and reliable).

This will cause me a problem though in that I will want to stitch projects together, eg two sides of an lp if recorded at different times.

When I used to use Audacity 1.2.6 I would sometime run into problems with having multiple projects open at the same time, so the way I got round the problem was:

Open one project - "Export" (from File menu) as WAV.
Open the other project - "Import" the file that you exported from the first project.

[Gale Andrews]

Rather than use 1.3.12 I would suggest the Nightly Build 1.3.13 alpha and redownloading it regularly (say, every week). To use it, extract the contents of the zip to a new folder and double-click audacity.exe from that new folder to launch it. It will not affect any installation of 1.3.x Beta you may already have.

I have seen more than a few reports even in 1.3.12 of multiple projects becoming corrupted with .au files from one project in the _data folder for the other project. If this happens, 1.3.12 will report "orphaned" or "missing" blockfiles when you re-open the project and ask you what you want to do (1.2.6 does not perform these checks). It is important in 1.3.12 not to delete orphans or permanently replace missing blockfiles with silence, although the dialogue says this is safe. Currently, it isn't safe to do that. Choose the option to work around (or "ignore" in the current wording) the orphans and to temporarily replace silence.

These problems do not happen to everyone in 1.3.12 by any means, which is the crux of the problem because until the way to make this happen is found, we cannot fix it. If you can use 1.3.13 then you have our latest code which will make it a lot easier to make reports and test possible fixes.

Sorry for the problems, but I strongly suggest you export WAV files before closing projects (and if you can find steps to reproduce issues, that would really help us).



Gale

[keen]

OK. Thanks both.
Will give it a try.

[waxcylinder]

I use Audacity a lot for transcribing LPs - and I never bother to Save an Audacity project in the process. Instead I record one side of an LP do all the processing I need, including setting up a label track to identify the song/track breaks - and then I just use the Export Multipe to export a set of WAV files. Then repeat for side 2.

See this tutorial for a fuller worklflow: http://manual.audacityteam.org/index.ph ... gitization

WC