Audacity Forum

first off... i'm sorry if i've posted this in the wrong place.

operating system: Linux Ubuntu 9.10
audacity version: 1.3.9

problem: i've set up to record with my USB webcam's microphone and once it starts recording it records for about 0.45 seconds then simply stops recording. the sound that it does record is perfectly fine so i'm pretty sure i've set the mic up correctly. i don't know why it stops recording any further.

other notes:
- if i click anything other than the "record" button (eg play or change cursor position) it will not record.
- i cannot import files (such as mp3 instrumentals) and then record.
- once it records the first 0.45 seconds the cursor continues moving but no further sound records.
- if i record once i cannot then record again without re-opening program.

and lastly: thanks for your time. if you can help me it would be much appreciated!

budgiebreder wrote: i'm sorry if i've posted this in the wrong place.
operating system: Linux Ubuntu 9.10 audacity version: 1.3.9

So I've moved it here to the correct Beta forum for Linux.

budgiebreder wrote:problem: i've set up to record with my USB webcam's microphone and once it starts recording it records for about 0.45 seconds then simply stops recording. the sound that it does record is perfectly fine so i'm pretty sure i've set the mic up correctly. i don't know why it stops recording any further.

other notes:
- if i click anything other than the "record" button (eg play or change cursor position) it will not record.
- i cannot import files (such as mp3 instrumentals) and then record.
- once it records the first 0.45 seconds the cursor continues moving but no further sound records.
- if i record once i cannot then record again without re-opening program.

If you upgrade to Ubuntu 10.04 which has long-term support you can get Audacity 1.3.12 which is the current Beta version.

You can only play and record simultaneously by setting Transport > Overdub and then recording.

What sample rate are you recording at (Project Rate bottom left of the Audacity window)? Try other rates especially 48000 Hz if you are not already.

Some people on Linux find that Transport > Software playthrough causes recordings to stop (though I think the cursor usually stops in those cases). So turn software playthrough off. If you need software playthrough you should be able to achieve this If you use PulseAudio, install Pulse Volume Control and the Pulse Device Chooser (if you have not already). You can then use the Pulse Volume Control to allocate where playback streams are sent and which streams are recorded. See http://www.pulseaudio.org/wiki/PerfectSetup .

If you read the Ubuntu bug reports of this problem it would appear that toggling software playthrough on and off may be almost as much of the problem as having it turned on - i.e. if you turn it on then off, recording will still stop. There are also strong suggestions there that if you go back to Audacity 1.3.5 (which presumably has an earlier version of the PortAudio Audio I/O library that Audacity uses), these issues go away.



Gale