Audacity freezes during Export to Nero AAC

[bobaroger]

OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
Audacity 1.3.9 (Unicode)
Nero AAC Encoder version 1.3.3.0 (build date Sep. 17, 2008)

I am exporting files using the External Program feature.
Here is the command that I use for the external program:
C:Program Files (x86)EditingaacneroAacEnc.exe -ignorelength -q 0.5 -if - -of "%f".mp4
Show Output is checkmarked.

The problem:
If I try to export a file longer than 138 seconds, Audacity freezes. The only solution is to kill the neroAacEnc.exe process, then Audacity recovers.
I have checked the Task Manager while Audacity has frozen, and the neroAacEnc.exe process is using 0% CPU, while Audacity is constantly chugging along at 49-50% on both of my cpu cores.

It is possible to successfully export files that are shorter than 138 seconds.

Here is what Audacity shows in the Command Output window after I killed neroAacEnc.exe to un-freeze Audacity.

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*************************************************************
*                                                           *
*  Nero AAC Encoder                                         *
*  Copyright 2008 Nero AG                                   *
*  All Rights Reserved Worldwide                            *
*                                                           *
*  Package build date: Sep 17 2008                          *
*  Package version:    1.3.3.0                              *
*                                                           *
*  See -help for a complete list of available parameters.   *
*                                                           *
*************************************************************

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Here is what the Show Log option in the Help menu contains:

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22:58:52: Trying to load FFmpeg libraries
22:58:52: mLibAVFormatPath is not empty, = C:Program Files (x86)Audacityffmpegavformat-52.dll. Loading from it.
22:58:52: Looking up PATH...
22:58:52: PATH = C:Windowssystem32;C:Windows;C:WindowsSystem32Wbem;C:WindowsSystem32WindowsPowerShellv1.0;C:Program Files (x86)MKVtoolnix
22:58:52: Checking that C:Program Files (x86)Audacityffmpeg is in PATH...
22:58:52: not in PATH!
22:58:52: Appending ;C:Program Files (x86)Audacityffmpeg ...
22:58:52: Loading avformat from C:Program Files (x86)Audacityffmpegavformat-52.dll
22:58:52: Loading avutil from C:Program Files (x86)Audacityffmpegavutil-50.dll
22:58:52: Loading avcodec from C:Program Files (x86)Audacityffmpegavcodec-52.dll
22:58:52: Returning PATH to normal...
22:58:52: Importing symbols...
22:58:52: All symbols loaded successfully. Initializing the library.
22:58:52: Retrieving library version.
22:58:52: AVCodec version 0x342000 - 52.32.0 (built against 0x342000 - 52.32.0)
22:58:52: AVFormat version 0x342400 - 52.36.0 (built against 0x342400 - 52.36.0)
22:58:52: AVUtil version 0x320300 - 50.3.0 (built against 0x320300 - 50.3.0)
22:58:52: AVCodec version mismatch is 0
22:58:52: AVFormat version mismatch is 0
22:58:52: AVUtil version mismatch is 0
22:58:52: Libraries loaded successfully!

Why is this happening, and how can I fix this?

I also just tried Audacity 1.3.10-alpha-Nov 1 2009
The problem exists in that version as well.

[kozikowski]

Can you Export As WAV or Export As MP3? It appears Audacity is preparing the work for export (the core numbers are too high) and failing when it runs out of hardware memory. The sound never gets to the external coder.

What happens if you try it manually. Start with the exported WAV file (close Audacity) and run the coder from the command line.

Koz

[bobaroger]

Export as WAV works fine, along with using LAME to export.
The command line (cmd.exe) to encode with Nero AAC also works fine.

So I currently encode using Nero AAC by exporting the file as a WAV in Audacity, then using the command line with Nero AAC.
I'd like to be able to skip the step of exporting a huge WAV file of course.

I checked what happens with Resource Monitor and there are no spikes in RAM usage. I have 2 gigs of ram with 1385 MB available for Audacity.

[kozikowski]

It's official. I'm out of ideas.
Koz

[steve]

Have your tried Exporting as AAC using FFMpeg? (directly from the Audacity Export options)?
I don't know if that will work - it depends on whether it is enabled in your version of FFMpeg, but if you've not tried it, give it a go.

[bobaroger]

Have your tried Exporting as AAC using FFMpeg? (directly from the Audacity Export options)?
I don't know if that will work - it depends on whether it is enabled in your version of FFMpeg, but if you've not tried it, give it a go.

Yes that works, but I heard FFMpeg's AAC quality is worse than Nero's? I've always used Nero AAC.
Anyway, I was wondering if there was some sort debug build where it would be possible to see what is causing Audacity to freeze?
This is a strange issue.

[steve]

Anyway, I was wondering if there was some sort debug build where it would be possible to see what is causing Audacity to freeze?

I think you need to build that yourself. You also need to build a debug version of WxWidgets in order to build a debug version of Audacity.
Funnily enough I've just built a debug version today but on Linux - sorry I can't help with Windows, but there is information about building Audacity on Windows here: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/index.php? ... On_Windows

[Gale Andrews]

Does changing the q value in the command or changing default sample format in the Audacity Quality preferences change the length of file you can export?


Gale

[bobaroger]

Does changing the q value in the command or changing default sample format in the Audacity Quality preferences change the length of file you can export?


Gale

OK I tried all of that, different q values and different default sample values - still hit the 138 second limit.
However, on a whim, I used Task Manager to set Audacity to use 1 Core out of my Core 2 Duo, and it went past the 138 second limit and completed the test file which was about 3 minutes in length. Then I tried a 41 minute file and it also succeeded.
So basically, if both CPU cores are used, the export fails if the file is longer than 138 seconds. If one Core is used, the export succeeds.

I wonder why this happens?

[Gale Andrews]

Does changing the q value in the command or changing default sample format in the Audacity Quality preferences change the length of file you can export?
Gale

OK I tried all of that, different q values and different default sample values - still hit the 138 second limit. However, on a whim, I used Task Manager to set Audacity to use 1 Core out of my Core 2 Duo, and it went past the 138 second limit and completed the test file which was about 3 minutes in length. Then I tried a 41 minute file and it also succeeded.
So basically, if both CPU cores are used, the export fails if the file is longer than 138 seconds. If one Core is used, the export succeeds.

If you use both cores for the Nero export, how is the load spread between the two cores? Does that differ from how it behaves with an FFmpeg export? And if you use lame at the command line (it should find lame.exe in C:Program FilesLame for Audacity automatically) does that work OK?


Gale