Audacity Forum

Hi Gale,

You're right: the screenshot of the mp3 was at the time when I had set Audacity to 'make a copy' and therefore had never seen the stripes; the current problem with the large aif happens when I set to 'read uncompressed audio directly'.

MP3s are compressed, so would import with the normal progess dialogue irrespective of the Preference setting for reading directly/copying in uncompressed audio. Anyway, the on demand should not be hanging so I've asked Michael to drop in. Does it help though if you turn off any memory hog apps like iTunes or Firefox (if you use it)?


Gale

No, it happens with no other apps running, too. On the other hand, I never saw it happen with 'make a copy', so there's definitely an improvement.

George13, thanks for the info.

Thu, Aug 14, 2008 at 11:50 AM was a change that fixed some issues. I wonder if the build you tried had those?

So if I understand this correctly, the only currently open problems are with aiff files, and only certain ones are giving you trouble, and the problematic behavior is repeatable? If this is the case, is it a large percentage of aiff files you've tried it on, or just one? I don't have many aiffs on my computer - I tried it out on 6 with ranges from 1 minute thru 2 hrs and couldn't replicate the problem.

My suspicion is that the file is corrupted at the beginning - if you turn 'make a copy' on and load it without on-demand, does it work fine? If so, I will need to find a similar file to test on.

Hi mchinen,

The version of Audacity I'm using is dated 16.08.08 4:23. And this problem is happening with all kinds of uncompressed files (not just very long aiffs, that was just the first I happened to try). I had it occuring with short wavs (50 seconds), and aifs created by Quicktime and Audacity itself, 16 bit as well as 24 bis, so I don't think there's something wrong with the files.

I'm on a ppc under Mac OS X Tiger, maybe this could be the reason?

george13 wrote:The version of Audacity I'm using is dated 16.08.08 4:23. And this problem is happening with all kinds of uncompressed files (not just very long aiffs, that was just the first I happened to try). I had it occuring with short wavs (50 seconds), and aifs created by Quicktime and Audacity itself, 16 bit as well as 24 bis, so I don't think there's something wrong with the files.

I'm on a ppc under Mac OS X Tiger, maybe this could be the reason?

I don't see how the ppc part would be affecting it, although I've been testing on an intel mac. I still haven't been able to create the stall, or figure out why it would be occurring on your machine. Can you answer me this:
1.I'm assuming the problem only happens for some files. In your opinion, about what percentage of the files you load run into this problem?
2.I know that you've noticed it with wav and aiff. Any others?
3.Does the problem happen repeatably and consistently for those files, or do they sometimes load alright?
4.Can you point me a link to one of these files - if you can't load one, perhaps from freesound: http://www.freesound.org/searchText.php
I'll try to get my hands on a ppc and try it out. Thanks again.

1. It happens only with uncompressed files (aiff or wav) with others it doesn't happen at all (mp3, flac). But with aiffs or wavs I'd say it's over 95%. Actually, the only files which it does NOT happen with are very very short snippets (5 seconds or so) which load instantly.

3. Yes, repeatably and consistently. I even tried running from a fresh install of the OS (which I keep on an external disk), so I'd think if you can get hold of a G5 running Tiger you should be able to reproduce the problem.

Hi George

And can you go Audacity > Preferences: Import/Export and set the "When importing audio files" button to "make a copy..", then try some of these AIFFs that froze up. If they import OK, then that may tell us there is some issue between those files and the new type of loading.

Thanks


Gale

george13 wrote:1. It happens only with uncompressed files (aiff or wav) with others it doesn't happen at all (mp3, flac). But with aiffs or wavs I'd say it's over 95%. Actually, the only files which it does NOT happen with are very very short snippets (5 seconds or so) which load instantly.

3. Yes, repeatably and consistently. I even tried running from a fresh install of the OS (which I keep on an external disk), so I'd think if you can get hold of a G5 running Tiger you should be able to reproduce the problem.

That's horrible and definitely needs fixing. At least it sounds easy to debug. I'll be able to get a G4 running 10.4 tomorrow and try it out. Hang on till then.

I fixed a bug that was causing crashes/freezes on my PPC. However, it looks different from yours, since on mine it always fully summarizes the waveform and then freezes.. I'm still wondering if your aug 16 download included my aug 15 changes, since the text you gave for the status bar message is different than what it should be. The current version says "Import Complete. Running an on-demand waveform calculation. 99% complete" etc. I know that your build information says Aug 16, but that doesn't necessarily mean that's when the source was downloaded - I have to check up on this.

In any case, if you can download the build that comes out with the changes from today, that would be very helpful.