Opening The Same Project

[Astro-Xana]

I noticed that when having the same project open in two windows like I always do which is useful for me (but causes that error which I always ignore), when working on a portion of audio by using the effects, an error came up which said that my system couldn't find a specific data fragment pertaining to this specific portion of audio that I was working on and I noticed that as I zoomed in on this portion of audio, the end portion of that audio became silence. Of all the times I have had same projects open in different windows, this is the first time this has happened to me and I'm wondering if having the same project open in different windows was the cause of this.

Also, pertaining to a completely different project I was working on (which I'm not sure involved me having it open in another window), there is this portion of audio (which is stereo) in that if I were to make both the left and right channels mono, they cancel each other out in which they cannot be heard at all while being played. But if I were to apply an effect on one of the mono channels, they can be heard again (and I did look and see that the waveforms in both of the channels were different from the start, so I don't understand why I had to apply an effect on one of them in order for them to play). Therefore, what could be the cause of that? Also, even though it can be heard as a stereo track on my computer (including other computers) where both the left and right channels are heard, when I listened to it on one other computer which was a Windows 2000 desktop computer (in Audacity and Windows Media Player), the left and right channels canceled each other out just like the mono ones did on my computer (but again, applying an effect on one of the channels makes them play again). Therefore, how can I be sure that any audio that plays on my computer doesn't get canceled out on another computer? Also, just to let you know, all my audio is recorded in 48000 Hz Stereo 32-bit float from episodes of anime/cartoons I downloaded.

[steve]

I'm wondering if having the same project open in different windows was the cause of this.

Quite possibly. You should only have one instance of Audacity open at one time. Sometimes you will "get away with" having two or more instances, but that is just down to luck and should be avoided.

A possible reason for the other problem that you mention, is that the two tracks may be identical, but in reverse phase (upside-down with respect to the other). This should not normally happen unless you do it deliberately. Is it just a one-off file that has this proble, or does it happen with many of your recordings?

[Astro-Xana]

I only had a problem with that one specific portion of audio. Also, what are all the errors/problems that could happen when having the same project open in different windows because I did that with almost all of my projects (for comparison purposes when doing things in one file and comparing it to the original as well as doing some things in the original file to compare with the other file as well).

Now even though all the audio plays in my projects just fine, does that still mean there are missing fragments I don't know about or that the audio is somehow bugged up and will play strangely on other computers (like get cut off or something) since I have had those same projects open in different windows?

[steve]

what are all the errors/problems that could happen when having the same project open in different windows

Audacity can lock up. It can disappear off the screen (minimize) and refuse to restore/maximize. Portions of data can get mixed up so that parts of one file end up in the other. Portions of data can get lost. The project file(s) can get corrupted. The computer can crash/lock up. Probably other things as well. Some set-ups seem to be more vulnerable than others, but the potential for problems is still there.

Now even though all the audio plays in my projects just fine, does that still mean there are missing fragments

You're talking about the one project with this strange sound cancelling problem? I suspect what happened there is that some of the data got mixed up and resulted in the data from one channel ending up in the other, but inverted.

Audacity projects are very complex and may contain thousands of data fragments , held together by the project.aup file. If any of the data fragments gets changed, deleted, over-written or otherwise changed without Audacity knowing about it, then it can trash the project. Exported audio (WAV, MP3 etc.) is just a single file and either it's there or it isn't - there's a lot less that can go wrong with the exported audio.