mysterious gaps in recording using external microphone

[toad]

Hi,

I've used audacity on and off for conversion, but now I've got to do a one hour radio show on Linux for the local station - audacity seemed the way to go.

Unfortunately I get mysterious gaps of about one tenth of a second when recording. The recording picks up again but the result is not usable. Below are some specs to kick off.

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[email protected] 32516 ~ > alsactl --version
alsactl version 1.0.19

[email protected] 32617 ~ > kde4-config --version
Qt: 4.5.0
KDE: 4.2.2 (KDE 4.2.2)
kde4-config: 1.0

[email protected] 32618 ~ >  uname -a
Linux deskarch 2.6.29-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Wed Apr 8 12:39:28 CEST 2009 x86_64 Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E8400 @ 3.00GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux

[email protected] 32619 ~ > lspci|grep Audio
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) HD Audio Controller

This stumps me. I've tried oss instead of alsa but cannot get recording to work at all

If anybody has any pointers I'd be most grateful for this show has got to be handed in in ten days time

Many thanks in advance

[steve]

Are you using a USB microphone by any chance?

[toad]

Thanks for replying

Nope, plugging it straight into the onboard sound card.

[steve]

Does this problem only happen when recording from the microphone. or do yoiu get the same problem when recording from other sources?

Are you able to upgrade to a more recent version of Audacity (for example Audacity 1.3.7)?

[toad]

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[email protected] 100310 /var/log > pacman -Q audacity
audacity 1.3.7-1

I haven't tried to record from other sources. What I can say is that audacity functions perfectly on ArchLinux system on an IBM T41. I am not sure where that leaves me apart from that audacity is in the clear.

[steve]

My suspicion is that the problem lies with the sound card / drivers. It sounds to me that for some reason the sound card is running very inefficiently when recording and is simply not keeping up with the necessary data stream.
Have you tried recording with any other application on this machine?

[toad]

Nope, I haven't. Mainly 'cos I'm reasonably familiar with audacity and don't know any other apps. Will look into it and report back, although I concur with your analysis.

Thanks very much in the meantime for your time and help!

[toad]

Well, it so happened that the mobo conked out and I am waiting for a replacement. Keep hanging on (as I am)