waveforms lopped off at top - audio distorted

[rshaw]

I've used Audacity successfully for a couple of years with no major problems. All of a sudden when I try to input audio from an outside source (mp3 or wav files) the waveforms show up with the tops lopped off ... and the quality of the audio is distorted.

I've even (for comparison) tried to put new audio into existing projects and the same thing happens - without affecting the quality of the saved audio within the existing project.

Help!

[kozikowski]

More important than the tops being lopped off, is the middle of the waveform in the middle of the Audacity timeline?

Note the left of this wave is slighlty lower than the right.

pop2.jpg (39.98 KiB) Viewed 1261 times

Do you have an error like that but up rather than down?

Try downloading piano2.wav from here:
http://www.kozco.com/tech/soundtests.html

And see if that doesn't work without the top clipping.

Koz

[rshaw]

Koz, thanks for replying. Be patient because I am not technically versed at all - I am a writer, do radio commercials, need to input outside sources like music and sfx. Hence the following question, what IS the file you are suggesting I download and what do I do with it? Sorry - I just don't have any frame of reference on this at all.

Also, to answer your question, the waveforms are vertically centered as far as I can tell and, now that I really look at it, I think the bottoms are clipped, too.

What would cause this to start happening all of a sudden? And fyi, I uninstalled and reinstalled = no change.

Thanks for any insight you can share

[kozikowski]

piano2.wav is a technically perfect, six second piano solo. It's some of my best work. If that works and your sound files don't, your sound files may be broken. If nothing works, then we have an Audacity problem, and no, un-installing Audacity will not always clear a problem.

Click on the link on my web site and when it tries to play, right-click > Save As or something like that. I'm not in front of a Windows machine. Open that sound file in a fresh Audacity and it should not clip or distort. We can trouble shoot from there.

Windows likes to hide file extensions from you, so piano2.wav will probably just look like "piano2." It's still a wav sound file.

It's most unusual for Audacity to distort music like you have. It's highly likely you have damaged sound files.

Koz

[kozikowski]

Sooner or later we're going to push you over to Audacity 1.3.12 from 1.2. Audacity 1.2 is no longer supported, patched, or corrected. Did you get a new computer?

Koz

[rshaw]

Wow - I appreciate your time on this. Hope you won't get frustrated with me, but I am going to answer inconclusively because - I can't tell! It LOOKS like the waveforms are complete. But it doesn't sound as clear as it did when I played it thru WMP. (WMP being my default for audio files, I just clicked on your link and told it to "play<' rather than saving it first - don't know that that would make a difference, or would it? Let me know if I MUST save it first in order to have an accurate test.)

Is there a way I can email the .aup to you so you can look at/listen to?


Also, I did have 1.3 and it had other problems - perhaps related to my computer - which is relatively new (June) - I installed 1.3 as soon as I got it but I ran into problems with it. The computer is a Gateway NV59 with plenty of memory and space - however, one issue I have with it is that I can't seem to disable the internal mic without disabling the external mic -- I want to use the external without the internal -- creates feedback -- and that problem (the feedback) was much worse with 1.3. So I went back to 1.2.

Anyway -

[rshaw]

Koz, I thought of something else, maybe related, maybe not, but I'll mention it: when I was using 1.3, the BIG problem I had was that almost without fail, when I would be recording a voice track, at some point - maybe as little as two minutes in, sometimes as long as a half hour -- the waveform would start to slowly disappear - as would the audio when played back. It's like it crashed, only the program didn't actually crash, and it was not sudden, but rather gradual.

I mention this because a) you asked about 1.3 and b) perhaps there is a problem with my sound card - but - this has NEVER happened again once I switched to 1.2. I thought that you as the diagnostician ought to be aware of this.

[rshaw]

If you can't figure it out from what I've posted, thanks for your help anyway! I have a guy who can at least diagnose my sound card -- I assume that is what you meant by "sound files?" I will take it to him tomorrow - he doesn't know Audacity, though - is there anything I should tell him (in regards to the sound files)?

Thanks again for all your help.

[steve]

If he doesn't know Audacity, he should know the Windows "Sound Recorder" program.
Audacity can use the same sound services as are used by Sound Recorder, so if your guy can get Sound Recorder to record and play back correctly, then we should be able to tell you how to get Audacity 1.3.12 working correctly. At the moment it is really difficult to figure out where the problem is coming from, but I suspect that it is with the computer sound system set-up rather than Audacity, and your guy will be in a much better position to sort out such problems than we are because he will be able to see your computer. Let us know how it goes.

[rshaw]

I was able to record using Sound Recorder, using external mic, then played back in WMP and recorded into Audacity, and it sounds and looks fine! So, what does this tell you, if anything, please??