Audacity Forum

I have been experiencing a sudden and mostly random loss of sound in areas where there is obviously audio informnation that exists. This began to happen randomly after a long editing session. The computer was restarted and the headphones and other external variations were double checked. It is definitely the program. Has anyone experienced this sudden loss of sound?

Oh yes. It happens all the time. We assume you're working on an Audacity Project. Audacity projects stand on all the original capture clips and imported files whether or not you "Save A Project." If any of the original sound files are missing or misplaced, the show turns into a pile on the floor.

This almost always happens when somebody "cleans up" all those "unused" sound files. It drives people nuts because the blue waves on the screen don't vanish, just the show. The blue waves come from a couple of files, they're not regenerated each time you play the show, so it's possible to get them really out of step.

It's possible but unlikely that some of the clips have become damaged or corrupted, but in OS-X, it's much more likely something got moved...like you disconnected a FireWire drive and sent it home with the singer who owns it.

Koz

So once you lose the sound it's gone forever?? That kind of instablility makes me want to move to another program. I don't have control over file corruption! Do other programs like Garageband or Pro Tools have this problem too?

<<<That kind of instablility makes me want to move to another program.>>>

Go.

Audacity is working exactly as it was designed to work. During management of a Project, Audacity is fast and efficient because it doesn't have to load and play giant music files. It just has to manage appropriate tiny fragments and clips.

The downside of that is nobody understands it. The first time Audacity gives you one single sound file is when you Export. Export As WAV or Export As MP3, or one of the other common music file formats. That will give you one single sound file that you can email or copy for safety.

I never save Projects. After every live performance capture session, I Export As WAV and then much later, after everybody goes home, I edit those. Then export another WAV for delivery. If the client wants an MP3, I export WAV anyway and then export again as MP3.

We were disappointed that the programmers decided to not put WAV creation in the Save menu. That kills a lot of people, but it's not unusual in high end editors.

Koz

your response evoked the name of the program! The forum is a learning tool. At least I thought it was. Some of us are novices and need more hand holding I guess.

Y'all are much more useful than you think you are. We keep lists of all the things that burn average users. "How come pieces of my show vanished" is right up there at the top of the problem list.

Unfortunately, Audacity hit the perfect storm of inexperienced users encountering dangerous high-end features.

We just don't know until we put it out there and see what breaks. "Why don't you test it?" With whom? Remember, Audacity is an all-volunteer effort. There is no corporation. There is no "staff" and very little or no field testing. You are the field.

Koz

pica wrote:The forum is a learning tool. At least I thought it was

Yes it certainly is. I've learned loads about Audacity since I've been coming here.

pica wrote:I don't have control over file corruption! Do other programs like Garageband or Pro Tools have this problem too?

Random file corruption is pretty rare - new users inadvertently deleting, moving or renaming project files and/or data files/folder is far more common.
ProTools uses a similar method to Audacity's project file + data files. In ProTools, if you remove data files, just like in Audacity, the data will no longer be available for the project. The learning curve for ProTools is much steeper than it is for Audacity, which usually forces the new user to read the manual or go on a course to learn how to use it. Most things in Audacity can be done fairly intuitively, or by trying out some of the tutorials http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php?title=Tutorials .

Cubase and Sonar use completely different systems, with multiple file types. For example, in Sonar you can save as a .CWP file, .CWB file, .WRK file or a .BUN file, or export as WAV, or .MID or .... This frequently confuses new users.

The down side of learning by your mistakes is that you will initially make mistakes, but it doesn't take long to get the hang of it.

Back to the original question:
It is very important that you do not move, delete or rename either the project (.AUP) file, or any of the data files that the audacity project uses. More information here: http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php? ... ement_Tips

Also, be aware that beta versions (1.3.x) are not fully tested and may (do) contain a few bugs. Audacity 1.2.6 (stable) is rather old now, but we are all looking forward to the release of the next stable version of Audacity which will be version 1.4.