Audacity Forum

I have been using Audacity for about 3 years. My brain-box is a 450MHz (Equal to a 900MHz Pentium) G3 (blue & white) Mac. The OS is 10.3.9, and the memory is maxed out @ 1GB. Audacity has been a remarkably trouble-free and easy to use audio editing software program, with NONE of the problems I've looked at in the forum postings. I travel between existing audio files, aif files lifted from CDs, 45 & 33-1/3rpm vinyl spun on a Numark TTUSB turntable. "Things" have been remarkably too easy, for too long. There is now a fly in the soup. I have, up until this Labor Day weekend, been able to select a portion of a track– which is too soft, go into EFFECT > AMPLIFY and enter a "db" amount (such as 1db, 2db, 5db, 0.5db, etc) and bump the audio level for that "selected" portion. Conversely, by adding a minus sign ahead of that amount-- have been able to decrease the db level, IF it is too loud.

NOW… if I try to add a small amount gain, irrespective of whatever db gain-- or negative gain, when I click on "OK," the portion I'm attempting to enhance-- becomes DISTORTED, and and looks like I asked for 10 or 15db!

To compound matters, thinking that there is some corrupt file within Audacity, I moved the 1.2.6 to the other hard drive and disguised it as "OLD Audacity." Having done that, I downloaded 1.2.6a; tried (without success) a smaller portion of the (aiff) file. It was still distorting the selected portion of the music file. TRASHED the new download and proceeded with running Norton's Utilities (booting from the the CD). and running Disk First-Aid. There were problems found, and fixed. I then ran Speed Disk.

Having done all that, I downloaded another copy of 1.2.6a and proceeded to try what had has not been (so-far) successful. The problem still persists. I'd appreciate any suggestions/help anyone may be able to offer me. THX for "listening."

Nowhere in that process did you actually trash Audacity. You trash the program files and the plugins, but the guts of Audacity is held in the preference files.

Trash Mac Audacity Preferences
http://audacityteam.org/forum/viewtopic ... =10#p34670

<<<running Norton's Utilities (booting from the the CD).>>>

You hit all the exotic tools, did you run any of the normal ones? Start the machine from your startup disks and run Disk Utilities > Verify Disk and Disk Utilities > Repair Permissions.

Then either use MacJanitor or run the UNIX periodic tools from the Terminal...

jimmy:~ koz$ sudo periodic daily weekly monthly [enter]

If you've never done this, it could take several hours to manage the clogged up logging files.

I'm curious how you got Panther installed on a 450 MHz machine.

Koz

Nowhere in that process did you actually trash Audacity. You trash the program files and the plugins, but the guts of Audacity is held in the preference files. No, I didn't trash the PREFS. STRANGER STILL, the next day when I restarted the Mac, EVERYTHING was hunky-dory. TODAY, still is.

Trash Mac Audacity Preferences
http://audacityteam.org/forum/viewtopic ... =10#p34670

<<<running Norton's Utilities (booting from the the CD).>>>

You hit all the exotic tools, did you run any of the normal ones? Start the machine from your startup disks and run Disk Utilities > Verify Disk and Disk Utilities > Repair Permissions.

Then either use MacJanitor or run the UNIX periodic tools from the Terminal...

jimmy:~ koz$ sudo periodic daily weekly monthly [enter]

If you've never done this, it could take several hours to manage the clogged up logging files.

I'm curious how you got Panther installed on a 450 MHz machine. EASY enuff. I've updated from the original Panther version. Twice. No problem(s). I'll keep a copy of your response; THANK YOU for the response.

Koz

<<<I've updated from the original Panther version.>>>

Did the machine come like that? The minimum machine speed for a cold OS-X install is 500MHz. There are ways to force a slower machine to load and run OS-X, but it's not happy about it and it can lead to problems.

Koz

Koz…
Q: "Did the machine come like that? The minimum machine speed for a cold OS-X install is 500MHz."
A: YES. I bought my G3 B+W on eBay in 2004. I'd been looking @ G3's (really aqua & milk, NOT "blue & white") for months, building a profile of price vs. how they were configured. Was it a complete package - brain-box (with software), keyboard, monitor & mouse? Or just an empty box… and all the variations in-between the two extremes. A couple of weeks prior to my find, and subsequent buy, I had learned about the 450MHz Motorola processor installed randomly in B+W G3s grabbed off the line, and shuttled into a work area where the motherboard was swapped out with with one which had the faster Motorola processor. As I said, this was done randomly - as Apple received more of those processors. After the change-out, they were placed back on the line to be packaged & shipped. HOWEVER, the computer ID / description tag was NOT changed to reflect the change. Back to eBay. When I found my G3, it had the "Buy it now" banner, and the price was $350. For the price, it came complete with OS X, v10.1 and a lot of great software, plus the keyboard, mouse and all the cords. The party who had previously owned it, was involved with beauty products manufacture (his company). The software fit was testament to his involvement. I also learned that all his family members had G3's.

A while after I purchased my G3, I went shopping (again) on eBay and found an OS X v10.3.3 install disc. I installed that update with absolutely NO problems. Later, I installed the incremental updates - up to where I am now, @ 10.3.9; for the moment, this is as far as I can go. To move up to Tiger, I need to buy and install a faster processor. Since I do not like the aluminum box G4's and cannot really afford a new 24" iMac "all-in-one," a faster Sonnet processor is the answer. Also, my 450MHz G3 is "outfitted;" while it did come with 2 ~ 12GB internal Apple drives, it now has 2 ~ WD HDs: a 120GB primary and an 80GB; there is a temptation to install a 3rd internal. There is a place for it. The memory is maxxed @ 1GB. I bought a WD 320GB external for $89… now, 1TB externals are almost down to $100… and 2TB externals are being advertised in the mid-hundreds. Why do I need all that capacity? My (ex-iTunes) music library occupies 55GB of space, only bc I opted to have full size "aiff" tracks (for the ease of creating custom music collections). I am up to 1947 titles; @ 1950 I will back up all that music onto dual-layer DVDs, and expunge all the tracks from my internal. I installed the iTunes software on the 320, along with all the music. Since I have a vinyl LP collection of about 2000 albums, there are theoretically 2000 tracks available to digitize. There might only be one track in each album I like, or there could be 2 to 5 tracks. The extra(?) HD capacity also is home to many avaition and car pix, and other things as well.

You said… "There are ways to force a slower machine to load and run OS-X, but it's not happy about it and it can lead to problems." Other than the glitch I originally described, there has not been a reoccurrance… starting with the next "start-up" after that occurrance. I am not denying that there could be another occurrance. However, the Mac works quite well.

One last thought; I have been an Apple/Mac person since the mid 80's. After looking @ the Apple OS and Willie's DOS, there was NO doubt in my mind which OS was better. User FRIENDLY better. DOS was NOT that. My first computer was an Apple 2e. I never read a manual, to know how to use it. About 4 or 5 years into the 2e, I bought & installed a 20Meg laptop HD and a 1Meg memory card. That doesn't sound like much today, but it was then - considering that the two Steves never designed the 2e with those things. I still use it, off-and-on. Owned a Mac desktop and then an 8100 beige tower. Also fitted with 2 (4 Gig) HDs. And maxxed memory. Considering all the updates and changes, Mr. Mac (my G3) works quite well. For the money, a Mac will take you a long way down the road. Dependably. AND, you can't say the same for Willie's OS… never mind all the WinBlows hype. THX & TC.

People on the video forums have reported heat problems when they tried to jam large hot hard drives into the older cabinets. Have you looked inside a G5 cabinet? It's a wind tunnel, with variable speed fans thankyouverymuch.

The OS-X transition was a revelation. All of the Systems people including the director of engineering run Macs now, especially once they figured out they could set the machines up entirely from the UNIX command line.

My (1999 build) G3 has 2 fans… one on the left side, and one on the rear– sucking air from/thru the power supply. But then, I'm not really telling you anything new. I have, from-time-to-time, monitored the exhaust air temperature with a dial thermometer… mainly out of curiosity. The air has never been hot. The hulking 21" Dell (Sony) Trinitron flat-screen monitor connected to my antiquated G3 is a lot hotter running-- about 89ºF. I have had, on occaision, the side open and felt the 2 Western Digital hard drives; they are nowhere near being hot. Unusual? SOP. Previous hard drives-- a pair of Hitachi / IBM "Desk Stars" did run hotter… but I never experienced problems with them either. And NO video play-back problems with either brand.

Have you looked inside a G5 cabinet? It's a wind tunnel, with variable speed fans thankyouverymuch.

NO, and I probably won't be able to afford one of those aluminum boxes-- for a while. And their noisy disposition preceeds them… afterall, with those Intel processors (made really for WinBlows), what do you expect? They work harder and get HOT. Keep bumping the current to get them to run faster… produces more heat. OH, And BTW, just WHY do you think they (Apple) chose alumiunum? It wasn't all about looks, or weight. If I could afford a G5, I'd be very tempted to find another "box" to stuff the "works" into. Maybe… that's why I'm hesitant (in the first place) to take the plunge into an aluminum box. Besides NOT liking the "looks." TC

<<<And their noisy disposition preceeds them>>>

If they're happy and cool, they're dead quiet. Even if you do extreme processing and leave them cranking, they might pick up their fan speed a bit.

It's only when you mess with them that they get noisy. If you do anything to disturb the watchdog processor, the fans will gracefully accelerate to ear splitting volume to protect themselves. I have to run some of the more serious diagnostic programs when there's nobody else in the office.

If you have a noisy G5, it's broken.

I have no experience with the Intel Mac Pros. Just the smaller MacBook and Mini. Both of them are dead quiet, too.

Koz