Memory issues

[wombat99]

opening files
by wombat99 » Tue Mar 03, 2009 6:14 am

Often if I open a long mp3 file with Audacity, even one that was created with Audacity previously, only the first 50 seconds or so appears.
wombat99

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Re: opening files
by kozikowski » Tue Mar 03, 2009 7:16 am

But if you open the same file up in Windows Media, you get the whole two hours?

Koz
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Re: opening files
by wombat99 » Tue Mar 03, 2009 3:42 pm

Yup.
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Re: opening files
by stevethefiddle » Fri Mar 06, 2009 11:14 pm

How much free disk space do you have on your C: drive?
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Re: opening files
by wombat99 » Mon Mar 09, 2009 2:44 pm

41.5GB
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Re: opening files
by kozikowski » Mon Mar 09, 2009 6:07 pm

I got nothin'.

You're on Vista, right?

Do the zoom tools work? Control-1, 2, and 3. Control-F for full screen and Control-E to zoom into selection?

Which version of Audacity exactly?

Koz
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Re: opening files
by kozikowski » Mon Mar 09, 2009 8:19 pm

Just a note.

You say MP3 files made in Audacity won't play, either. Did they play seconds after you made them? You can mess up Audacity Projects to the point that they don't export a working sound file in any format.

For example, if you capture a long live performance and export to WAV immediately, that should produce a perfect working sound file. Then you do some production on the show, cutting and moving things around and applying different effects and filters. Save the Project, close Audacity, and go through the machine cleaning up after the work and organizing the show files.

If you then load the Project and export an MP3, I practically guarantee the show won't all be there.

Does any of that sound familiar?

One more item. How large is your total hard drive that you have 40GB free?

Koz


Koz
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Re: opening files
by wombat99 » Tue Mar 10, 2009 2:31 pm

Using 1.3 Beta Unicode on XP machine with 111GB drive. And this mp3 file works -- I've played the whole thing on my iPod. Maybe I don't have enough RAM (512MB) -- but then how would I have been able to record this in the first place? I recorded and then exported to mp3 without saving it in any other way previously.
Maybe Audacity creates temp files when you record the first time, so you don't run out of RAM, but when you open it again it puts it all into RAM? Could I increase virtual memory -- not sure how to do that.
Thanks for your help.
wombat99

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[Gale Andrews]

Often if I open a long mp3 file with Audacity, even one that was created with Audacity previously, only the first 50 seconds or so appears... Using 1.3 Beta Unicode on XP machine with 111GB drive. And this mp3 file works -- I've played the whole thing on my iPod. Maybe I don't have enough RAM (512MB) -- but then how would I have been able to record this in the first place? I recorded and then exported to mp3 without saving it in any other way previously. Maybe Audacity creates temp files when you record the first time, so you don't run out of RAM, but when you open it again it puts it all into RAM?

Please look at Help > About Audacity and upgrade to 1.3.7 if you are not already using it.

By default Audacity will not use RAM to store audio data. Recordings and imported files will both be written to disk as 1 MB sized blockfiles in the Audacity temporary folder. If you have the "Audio cache" option checked on the Directories tab of Preferences, then RAM will be used for all audio data except that in saved projects. Make sure that option is unchecked. This will be improved in 1.3.8, so that even if caching is on, audio data will be written to disk once free memory falls below a user-specified level.

If 1.3.7 has the same problem with caching turned off, please post the shortest example MP3 file you have to yousendit.com or similar file transfer service, and post the link to the file here.


Gale

[wombat99]

"Audio cache" was not checked. I was using 1.3.6, will try 1.3.7. Thanks! Good to hear from someone who knows something!

[wombat99]

The file opened this time. Could have been because I upgraded from 1.3.6 to 1.3.7, or perhaps, now that I think about it, on the previous attempt the file may have been on a USB drive & this time I copied it to the internal hard drive before trying to open it. In any case, thanks!

[Gale Andrews]

The file opened this time. Could have been because I upgraded from 1.3.6 to 1.3.7, or perhaps, now that I think about it, on the previous attempt the file may have been on a USB drive & this time I copied it to the internal hard drive before trying to open it.

That's quite possible - always make sure you use a spare USB port (not a hub) for a high bandwidth USB device like a hard drive or a sound card/interface. USB hubs are only really suitable for peripherals like mice or keyboards. Also don't use a USB drive as the location of the Audacity temporary folder - use the hard drive for that. You can change the location of the temporary folder on the Directories tab of Preferences too.


Gale