Slight clicks in tracks problem

[BBQ P]

Hi!
I am new to this forum, but not new to Audacity. I have a Mac G3 that I use for recording (I know it's old.) The OS X is 10.2.8 and it runs pretty quickly. I have Audacity on it, and recently, when I record, the recording has little clicks here and there imbedded in it. It is not a connection problem, because while recording the track, I hear no clicks, it is only on the recorded track that I hear the clicks.
Can someone help me here? I have never had a problem like this with Audacity before.

Thank you in advance!! Any suggestions and help is wanted and needed!
Patrick


http://www.sonicbids.com/patrick3

[kozikowski]

If you Export a clicky segment as a WAV file and mail it to someone else -- or to you on another, larger computer, are the clicks still there?

Do the clicks appear at the same place always? Can you see them in the blue waves if you magnify enough?

My goal is to separate capture and playback problems.

How full is your hard drive and what's the capacity? Two numbers. You can get very serious capture problems if the hard drive is starting to fill up.

Koz

[BBQ P]

If you Export a clicky segment as a WAV file and mail it to someone else -- or to you on another, larger computer, are the clicks still there?

Do the clicks appear at the same place always? Can you see them in the blue waves if you magnify enough?

I will export then as a WAV file, and play them back on the same computer and they click. I'll try them on my Home Theater computer and see what happens. My hard drive capacity is 128 gig, and the available HD is 115 gig. The clicks are always in the same place in Audacity, and I have not tried to magnify the sound waves to the point where I could see them though.

Thanks for your help!
Patrick

[BBQ P]

OK, I tried to play back a WAV file on the other computer. The clicks were still there.

[kozikowski]

The view from 10,000 feet is you are capturing some work and the computer can't keep up with the data.

This is almost always a hard drive problem unless the computer is too busy doing something else. How many other applications are running at the same time as the capture? Minimizing them doesn't count, you need to actually close or Quit them. There is one person at work that complains of computer irregularities and I spend the first five minutes closing applications that they've left open and just stacked one atop the other.

Live Capture doesn't wait. If there's no place to put the packet, it will get stepped on by the packet right behind it.

What is the work? The current craze is to call capturing a stream from the internet "live." My idea of "live" is singing into a microphone.

Have you done...

Go > Utilities > Disk Utilities > Verify Disk
Go > Utilities > Disk Utilities > Repair Permissions

Ever heard of the Periodic Tools? I have to talk you through that one. That can slow you down -- especially on an older machine and particularly if you've never done it.

Koz

[BBQ P]

This is almost always a hard drive problem unless the computer is too busy doing something else. How many other applications are running at the same time as the capture? Minimizing them doesn't count, you need to actually close or Quit them. There is one person at work that complains of computer irregularities and I spend the first five minutes closing applications that they've left open and just stacked one atop the other.

I know what you mean, and before running Audacity and most programs, I almost always close all programs. (Not minimize or hide.)

Have you done...

Go > Utilities > Disk Utilities > Verify Disk
Go > Utilities > Disk Utilities > Repair Permissions

Will try...

Ever heard of the Periodic Tools? I have to talk you through that one. That can slow you down -- especially on an older machine and particularly if you've never done it.

Never heard of it.

I did update my RAM today, and everything is faster and better there is much much less clicks. I think in a 3:45 minute track there was only one small one. I'll try the hard drive verify disk and repair permissions stuff.

Thanks again!
Patrick

[kozikowski]

The real slowdown is the massive log files that are taken care of with Periodic. Let me know. The easy way around that is download and run the free Mac Janitor. That's basically a script file that automatically runs all the Periodic commands. If you've never heard of that, leave several hours for your computer to vanish while they run the first time.

Koz

[BBQ P]

OK, I got MacJanitor. Do I need to run a scan now?

I think that all of these problems came about when I updated the OS from 10.2 to 10.2.8. Is there a way to remove the update?

[kozikowski]

You can get back to "zero" if you have the original install disks. That won't hit anything in the middle. That will just give you then and now. I have stand alone licenses for Panther, Tiger, and Leopard, so I can step to 10.3, 10.4, and 10.5. I can't go back further unless there was something on my original iBook G3 installers.

Of course, "stepping back" is geek speak for wiping your drive and starting over. If you did any other software updates or installs since the update, stepping back without wiping will reduce your machine to rubble.

<<<OK, I got MacJanitor. Do I need to run a scan now?>>>

No. Wait until you go to bed or not need the machine for several hours.

The way it's supposed to work is for all the built-in tools to run by themselves at 3, 4, and 5 am. To get that kind of automation, the machine has to be awake, alive, lit up, and fully functional at those times. This is no problem at all for most linux servers or workstations. They never go to sleep, ever.

Most people's personal machines go to sleep or the owners turn them off. Then you need to run the tools manually, or run MacJanitor. It's only the first time that takes forever. It has three years of cigarette butts to sweep up and newspapers to throw in the bin. After that, the tools are much more snappy.

Koz

[BBQ P]

You can get back to "zero" if you have the original install disks. That won't hit anything in the middle. That will just give you then and now. I have stand alone licenses for Panther, Tiger, and Leopard, so I can step to 10.3, 10.4, and 10.5. I can't go back further unless there was something on my original iBook G3 installers.

Of course, "stepping back" is geek speak for wiping your drive and starting over. If you did any other software updates or installs since the update, stepping back without wiping will reduce your machine to rubble.

<<<OK, I got MacJanitor. Do I need to run a scan now?>>>

No. Wait until you go to bed or not need the machine for several hours.

The way it's supposed to work is for all the built-in tools to run by themselves at 3, 4, and 5 am. To get that kind of automation, the machine has to be awake, alive, lit up, and fully functional at those times. This is no problem at all for most linux servers or workstations. They never go to sleep, ever.

Most people's personal machines go to sleep or the owners turn them off. Then you need to run the tools manually, or run MacJanitor. It's only the first time that takes forever. It has three years of cigarette butts to sweep up and newspapers to throw in the bin. After that, the tools are much more snappy.

So, stepping back from 10.2.8 would not help anything?
I ran the mac janitor last night. It did not take more than thirty minutes when I ran the full scan. I have not been using the computer that long.

I'll try Audacity and see if MacJanitor fixed it.

Thanks!
Patrick