Running slow with longer files.

[Jim50]

I'm a noooby here, and I've looked for hours on this forum for a reason why my PC runs slow while running audacity, but I can't find a similar thread.

Audacity seems perfect for my needs, and I love using it...for the most part.

I'm transferring cassettes, some more than an hour in length, then editing ( amplifying, and tweaking ... = tons of edits) then sending it out as a wave file.

I've noticed my puter runs slower, while running audacity especially the larger projects. When even a small task is asked, like zooming in or out... it takes about 30 seconds for it take effect... scrolling of the cursor is not smooth as it is for smaller files...it tends to be quite jerky and delayed and will only scroll a limited amount each time before it pauses again. It seems like everything is being bogged down, and of course, it's frustrating and verrrry time consuming. The puter runs fine when I close out of Audacity.

I'm running WIN XP 2000 SP 2, with about 12 gig free on C drive, 1.00 GB RAM ....

I've shut down programs that were running on task manager, and closed or exited any programs I can find, but it doesn't seem to free up the system. I have updated and scanned for viruses, adware, spyware, etc etc etc, and found none.

Are there any other things I can do that might help the program run smoother.

Help and suggestions appreciated.
Thanks in advance!

[waxcylinder]

It is possible that your virus software is interfering - can you set it to ignore/trust .aup and .au files? Or you could consider temporarily turning off you virus software while running Audacity - but you will probably want to disconnet from t'interweb and any other network before you do that (and don't forget to turn on the virus s/w later).

Also make sure that you are not receiving auto-updates from Microsoft etc. while you are using Audacity.

WC (temporarily in snowy Colorado)

[Jim50]

.... an additional note and update.

I forgot to mention that my pc is 1.09 GHz ....and with the mentioned 1.00 GB of RAM according to the download site, that should be more than enough to meet the MAX. recommended requirements to run LONGER projects.

UPDATE.. I went back to version 1.2.6 and checked to see if it was also running slow while trying to scroll etc...and with a 9 minute heavily edited multitracked (5 tracks) piece of music, it was scrolling somewhat choppy, in short segments with short pauses. So.......


I decided to do a test and start fresh, using Audacity 1 2 6 .... making a fresh track on a new project.... and then did the SAME test using Audacity 1 3 4 beta. Here is what I did, and my findings.

1. created a 30 second tone THEN scrolled the cursor and it scrolled very smoothly.
2. Amplify to - 20 DB, then added phaser, delay, and Gverb.
3. copy the entire selection and paste it several times to itself to make it a longer track.
4. I then scrolled as I built the track, noticing that it scrolled a bit slower.
5. I copied and pasted the entire selection several more times, making it about 20 minutes long, and noticed the scrolling took even longer with more pauses during the task.
6. I then DUPLICATED the track to a new track, and did that 3 times... noticing that the mouse would scroll verrry slowly.
7. I repeated the entire process on Audacity 1.3.4 and the exact same thing happened... the computer got slower and slower with the larger files during the same test.

Question...
Is my computer not able to handle the data fast enough?, and I need more RAM ?? GIGS,?? memory??, etc etc.... grrrrrr. (sorry, just venting, as I'm not a puter guy, and I just upgraded to my current system... I just want to edit my music)
or....
Is this just part of the way Audacity handles data, and can't produce it any faster... and that's the nature of the beast?

Please, any suggestions etc would be appreciated.
Thanks again.
Happy recording and editing.

[Jim50]

It is possible that your virus software is interfering - can you set it to ignore/trust .aup and .au files? Or you could consider temporarily turning off you virus software while running Audacity - but you will probably want to disconnet from t'interweb and any other network before you do that (and don't forget to turn on the virus s/w later).

Also make sure that you are not receiving auto-updates from Microsoft etc. while you are using Audacity.

WC (temporarily in snowy Colorado)

Thanks for the suggestion WC..... I disabled AVG, and I never work with Audacity while online... I did try what you suggested, retested, and no improvement whatsoever... but it was worth the time to try it.

Any other suggestions?? are most welcome.

Jim50

[waxcylinder]

Question...
Is my computer not able to handle the data fast enough?, and I need more RAM ?? GIGS,?? memory??, etc etc.... grrrrrr. (sorry, just venting, as I'm not a puter guy, and I just upgraded to my current system... I just want to edit my music)
or....
Is this just part of the way Audacity handles data, and can't produce it any faster... and that's the nature of the beast?

Just make sure that you have enogh disk space for where you told Audacity to place it's Temp files (you can see this in Preferences somewhere). Also when you record how much "recording Time Remaining" does Audacity show at bottom left? Some people do seem to have problems with 12hours-plus recordings - but yours is not that long.

Audacity should be able to handle large/long/multi-edited files - its somewhat complicated file structure is desined to handle recording and edits in very small chunks (the .au files) and them string them together with the "recipe book" the .aup file.

WC (temporarily in snowy, darkening, Colorado)

[Jim50]

WC wrote...
Just make sure that you have enogh disk space for where you told Audacity to place it's Temp files (you can see this in Preferences somewhere). Also when you record how much "recording Time Remaining" does Audacity show at bottom left? Some people do seem to have problems with 12hours-plus recordings - but yours is not that long.

Thanks WC for the input, I do appreciate your time and effort in helping with this issue.

Disc Space for Temp files is : 9 GB
Recording Time Remaining : 7 hrs

It's the same for both Audacity 1.2.6 and 1.3.4... so I guess this isn't just an "unstable" issue with the beta version, as it happens with 1.2.6 as well.

I can see how the program may respond more slowly as the rec time remaining approaches zero... this could easily happen when I think about a 60 minute program recorded in STEREO... (which I believe is actually 2 hours of data).... then duplicating the tracks and adding effects to each one separately... then adding a few more special effx tracks... the recording could approach zero...and this HAS happened in the past with longer (80 minute), multitracked projects with lots of edits... ( I have had the message in the past using Audacity 126, that I am "low on disc space") .... but its slow running even on a 5 minute multi tracked piece... just not quite as slow as when there's lots and lots of edits and multiple tracks.

I tried recording with my mic into Audacity 1.3.4 today, and got a good clean vocal through my outboard gear, into the line in of the computer..... but Audacity crashed, closed itself, and left and message on the desktop that it had to close due to encountering some problem, ...not exactly sure what the wording was...I tried to record 4 times, with only about ten seconds of recording before the program would crash.

So as a test, I switched back to Audacity 1.2.6, and imported the audio, tracked a vocal as a test, and it worked great...at least the recording didn't crash....and the playback is smooth ... but I still can't scroll smoothly with this 6 track recording of 4 minutes... the only additional edits I did was a fade in and out on each track, duplicated the stereo track of the dry vocals, and added reverb to the duplicated track.... pretty simple, ...so I wouldn't have expected to still have the mouse move so slowly scrolling the cursor.

I'm wondering if there is something I've missed, that could be running somewhere hogging resources, memory, etc. but I'm not familiar with the inner workings of the puter world.

I know there must be a solution, ... and I'll be patient hoping for an answer, suggestions, etc from anyone that may have had the problem too, or has insight into what might be done to help the program perform smoother.

Jim50