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Any way to fix stutter?
Posted: Thu Jun 09, 2011 10:46 pm
by PracticalShutIn
I have a recording that has audio stuttering every minute or so (it skips back and replays about 3 seconds worth of audio again).
Is there a way to automatically fix these? I tried doing it manually, but it was a VERY slow process for each, and still resulted in pops where the audio was cut out.
If there's no auto way to do it, is there a better way to do it manually?
Re: Any way to fix stutter?
Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2011 10:47 am
by steve
There's no automatic way to fix this, but I'm wondering why you have this problem in the first place.
Where have these recordings come from?
Which version of Audacity are you using and on what operating system?
Re: Any way to fix stutter?
Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2011 11:00 am
by PracticalShutIn
Oh the stuttering wasn't caused by Audacity. It was an internet stream that was stuttering while I was watching. I'm using Win 7 x64.
Re: Any way to fix stutter?
Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2011 11:08 am
by steve
I think this is going to be a slow manual job,
The "Repair" effect may help to eliminate pops
http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/Repair
Re: Any way to fix stutter?
Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2011 12:02 pm
by PracticalShutIn
Ok, thanks for the quick answer.
Maybe I can cut from quiet spaces and minimize pops.
This program really reminds me of Cool Edit Pro, which I used for years on my old computer.
When I play any section of audio in Audacity, there's a click sound at the beginning and end that sounds a lot like the clicks I'm trying to remove after editing. It is hard to isolate those clicks from the start-end clicks. Is there any way to turn them off?
Re: Any way to fix stutter?
Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2011 12:27 pm
by steve
PracticalShutIn wrote:Maybe I can cut from quiet spaces and minimize pops.
Yes that is likely to help a lot.
Where you can't find a suitable quite spot, try to start and end the selection at "Zero Crossing Points"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero_crossing
You will need to zoom in really close to see the zero crossing points, but the shortcut key "Z" will attempt to adjust the start and end to zero crossing points automatically. See here:
http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/Edit_Menu#zero
PracticalShutIn wrote:When I play any section of audio in Audacity, there's a click sound at the beginning and end
There's a couple of things that may cause that.
Some sound cards just click when the start/stop playing. If this is the case then it will not affect the finished recording so you don't need to worry.
The more serious possibility is called "DC offset" which is when "silence" is recorded slightly above or below the centre line.
Here's an example of bad DC offset:

- firsttrack000.png (8.14 KiB) Viewed 2154 times
This problem is due to a fault in the sound card (it's very common for on-board and very cheap sound cards).
To correct this problem, use "DC offset correction" in the Normalize effect before you start editing.
(deselect "Normalize amplitude" and select "Remove DC offset"
http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/Normalize )
Re: Any way to fix stutter?
Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2011 1:09 pm
by PracticalShutIn
It's not DC offset, I can see in the silent sections that it's good & centred.
But that Zero Crossing Points is awesome. That with choosing silent sections is preventing any popping/clicking noises after cutting.
I find identical spikes in the repeated portion to find out the space I need to cut, and then I select the same amount from I quiet spot, press Z, press Delete and that one's done. It's still work, but it's doable now.
Thanks for the help steve.