Flutter or chopiness

Help for Audacity on Windows.
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sombunya
Posts: 90
Joined: Sat Jul 02, 2011 6:11 am
Operating System: Windows 10

Flutter or chopiness

Post by sombunya » Sun Oct 28, 2018 9:05 pm

Windows 10, version 2.3.0, decent Dell desktop, NAD pp3i

I've been using this setup for years now. Always excellent results.

Lately I've noticed what would be called flutter on a cassette deck playback. Trouble is, when I plug headphones in, the sound is perfect, to my ears anyway. The same when I use my Music Hall 9.1 turntable.

I've gone through the settings: Edit> Preferences> devices, playback, recording, MIDI devices. I've tried any number of combinations, including the default settings (which always worked well in the past) and I'm still getting substandard quality.

It does not act like I'm overloading the input. Quality is good except for this random and occasional stuttering/fluttering. I also notice a little crackle or static, very little but noticeable, like an old LP

Are there other settings I'm not

Trebor
Posts: 9954
Joined: Sat Dec 27, 2008 5:22 pm
Operating System: Windows 8 or 8.1

Re: Flutter or chopiness

Post by Trebor » Sun Oct 28, 2018 11:06 pm

sombunya wrote:
Sun Oct 28, 2018 9:05 pm
Quality is good except for this random and occasional stuttering/fluttering. I also notice a little crackle or static
Possibly skipping ...
https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/faq ... cations.3F

First thing I'd try is increasing Audacity's CPU-priority from the default "normal" to "above normal" , (and no higher) ...

Image

Raising its CPU-priority lowers the odds Audacity will be interrupted by other software.
Last edited by Trebor on Mon Oct 29, 2018 1:13 am, edited 1 time in total.

DVDdoug
Forum Crew
Posts: 9419
Joined: Fri Sep 10, 2010 11:30 pm
Operating System: Windows 10

Re: Flutter or chopiness

Post by DVDdoug » Mon Oct 29, 2018 12:11 am

Try not to run any other applications while recording, and try to minimize the number of background operations & processes. This is probably related to multitasking. The operating system is always multitasking, even if you are only running one application.

You can also try increasing Latency (Buffer Length). A larger buffer (more latency) gives more time for other operations to finish-up before the buffer overflows, giving you a glitch.

sombunya
Posts: 90
Joined: Sat Jul 02, 2011 6:11 am
Operating System: Windows 10

Re: Flutter or chopiness

Post by sombunya » Mon Oct 29, 2018 2:38 am

Thanks to both of you.

I will try these things and get back here to report one way or another.

sombunya
Posts: 90
Joined: Sat Jul 02, 2011 6:11 am
Operating System: Windows 10

Re: Flutter or chopiness

Post by sombunya » Mon Nov 05, 2018 4:42 pm

I did what you suggested.

I opened Audacity and set the CPU priority to above normal.

In latency I increased buffer length from 100 ms to 150 ms (I guessed at it)

I also opened msconfig and disabled a couple of processes I don't use like Microsoft One Drive.

Audacity seems to be working perfectly. Thanks very much for the help. You folks are life savers!!!

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