Audacity Forum

Really odd sound output
by MetalMilitia » Tue Feb 08, 2011 4:18 am

For some reason Audacity 1.3.12 started acting up on me a few weeks ago. When I import Wave files it makes a very odd distorted gurgling noise when I play it back, and the cursor appears to be moving slower than normal, the slower speed is seemingly more noticeable when I make a click track as well, no matter what tempo I set the click track to be, it's always the same fixed tempo and a gurgling/distorted sound. See the attached .mp3 for what it sounds like. To give you a clue, those 3 seconds of audio in that mp3 took several minutes to playback in Audacity.

I'm running Windows 7, and recorded the original Wave files in Edison in FL Studio, at 41 kHz, 32-bit float. I use an IK Multimedia StealthPedal using ASIO4ALL drivers. (I've tried unplugging the StealthPedal, as well as making sure ASIO is not running, but this did not help.)

I tried opening the files in the 2/5/11 Nightly Build as well, and the same problem occurs.

However, the files ARE able to be played properly in the 1.2.6 build, it seems only the beta releases are the problem, and this problem only started happening a few weeks ago in the 1.3.12 build, which I've been using without a problem since its release (and frankly, I'm not sure what I did to cause the problem.)

What happens if you try to open, not import, LRMono, piano2 or organfinale wav files from here:

http://www.kozco.com/tech/soundtests.html

They're all very short.

Koz

I've tried both importing AND just opening each file, as well as my original .wav files and every one still has the odd playback.

What settings do you have in:
Edit menu > Preferences > Devices

It says:

Interface: Host is Windows DirectSound.

Playback Device: Primary Sound Driver

Recording: Primary Sound Capture Driver
Channel: 2 (stereo)

I've previously switched the playback device to both other options both in Audacity and it's matching counterpart under the actual Windows Sound Playback options, which were Headphones, and Digital Audio S/PDIF, and it still plays back abnormally.

Do you have an option for MME in the "HOST" option box?
If you do, try that.
The Recording and Playback options should switch automatically to "Microsoft Sound Mapper"

I presume that other applications (such as Windows Media Player) are playing files correctly?

I tried switching it to MME, playback is still messed up.

And yeah, all other programs, including Windows Media Player play these files as they should sound, it's only the Audacity Beta.

This is a weird problem.

Does Audacity 1.2.6 record correctly?
What settings do you currently have in Audacity 1.2.6 in "Edit menu > Preferences > Audio I/O"

Audacity 1.2.6 plays back correctly,

It says:

Playback: "Microsoft Sound Mapper - Output"

Recording: "Microsoft Sound Mapper - Input"

Channels: 1 (mono)

And neither "Play new tracks while recording", nor "Software playthrough" is checked.

Can you record with Audacity 1.2.6?