Audacity Forum

I am currently using audacity to create a simple drum loop. It repeats after only 4 seconds. I have noticed that after around 10 loops the playback position line (the thin vertical line that moves along the waveform as you play) is noticeably lagging behind the waveform. The sound will play before the line reaches the wave. If left for long enough the line and the waveform will eventually sync up again as the lag comes full circle, so to speak. It will then drift out again. This isn't a set delay, it seems to be more like a difference in speeds.

I have not noticed this happening when playing through a recording over an hour long, with no loops (church service). This suggests to me that what I am seeing is something to do with the looping. Any ideas?

Thanks,

Chris

I've not been able to reproduce the problem, but I'm also wondering why it matters?

It isn't overly important, but if there's something you want to edit it's helpful to be able to see where it is as the line passes through it (though not really an issue with a 4 second track). Stopping and hitting play again will reset it but then it starts to drift again.

If you want, I'll post a download link to the project. I've put it (aup and data) in a zipped folder and put that on rapidshare. I'd fully understand if you don't want to download something from a random stranger on the internet though.

If the problem isn't happening on your computer it's unlikely to be any different with my project, but it's there if you want it.

Download link: http://rapidshare.com/files/447211367/Drum_loop.zip

Chris

I can confirm that if a loop is played often enough the playback cursor position will gradually drift out of synch with the actual playback position. On my computer the loop needs to play well over 20 times before there is a noticeable difference. I presume what is happening is that the sound playback restarts instantly when it reaches the end of the selection, but it takes a small amount of time for the cursor to jump back to the beginning, thus a gradual drift out of synch with each repeat. I'm not sure if this would really be classed as a minor "bug" or just a minor "limitation". I'll raise the issue with Audacity QA anyway to see what they think.