This is especially bad when working on multiple tracks at once.
Scrolling up and down, selecting and dragging the audio waveform, zooming in and out is sometimes just painfully slow. Also just clicking certain buttons there is a noticeable lag. Doing similar actions in other programs like Wavepad Sound Editor is a non issue
I’ve tried reinstalling Audacity and and few other fixes but it doesn’t seem to help. Even tried installing an older version. Same.
Audacity 2.0.3
Windows 10
Thanks!
I’m having the same problem. I mostly use Audacity to produce radio commercials. Even if I only have two tracks – a voice track and a music track – even a 30-second commercial can be so incredibly slow that Audacity is not really an option for use. There must be something wrong – this can’t be normal. Just mixing down a two-track 30-second commercial can take 2 minutes or more. Moving the cursor involves a 3 to 5 second delay. Select 1 second of audio and hit delete? 2 or 3 seconds before a response. Quite frequently, Audacity will show as “not responding” for up to a minute or two. No one would use Audacity if this was normal so I’m sure this is not everyone’s experience.
I’m using 2.3.3 on a Windows 10 machine with a Core i7 processor and 8gb of RAM. I’ve tried closing everything and only have Audacity running and it’s still unacceptably slow.
No one has any suggestions?
Glad I’m not the only one facing this issue. I also have a Core i7 and 16 GB of RAM with dedicated graphics. Audacity should NOT be running this poorly.
This forum is not incredibly helpful. I’m guessing it’s not regularly monitored by the Audacity “team”.
Audacity is developed, documented and supported by volunteers.
The vast majority of posts receive replies within 24 hours, and most receive replies much quicker than that (which is better than many commercial products where you can be waiting weeks for a reply).
In a few cases, such as this one, if none of the regular forum contributors can reproduce the problem, and there is no record of a bug that can explain the problem, the post may remain without a reply for a couple of days (in case someone comes along that can provide an answer).
Audacity 2.0.3 is a very old version. The first thing I would suggest is updating to the current 2.3.3 version to see if the problem still exists.
The current version is available via the Audacity website: Audacity ® | Download for Windows
You are correct. This is not everyone’s experience. It seems to be a pretty rare problem. I am not able to reproduce the problem and I don’t know what causes it. Perhaps worth checking that your video drivers are the latest version available from the manufacturer.
bump
Are you able to make a video to help us all understand where is Audacity falling short?
You can use Captura (https://mathewsachin.github.io/Captura/) on Windows to create your mp4 video and then upload it to youtube and share a public link here with us? If you are having this issue I believe more people might be having it.
Thank you.
Victor
So have you done as Steve suggested and updated to the latest version which is now 2.4.2 (things have noved on in Audacity-land)
You can get 2.4.2 here: Audacity ® | Download for Windows
I have two different i& laptops both with plenty of RAM and SSDs - I do nor experience such laggy behavior on 2.4.2 or any earlier version of Audacity and I have version going all the way back to 1.0 for QA-regression testing.
WC
Hi. I’ve been an regular Audacity user for well over four years now, recording and editing a weekly multi-hour, multi-member cast every week (just wrapped episode 236!) Audacity has mostly been great to me, but after a new system build, I’m encountering the same issue as noted above.
When running effects they take a considerable amount of time relative to how long they used to take. Running Compressor on a 2.5hr stereo vocal track took over 10 minutes. Last week, a single effect pass on a similar track took upwards of 45 minutes. (I don’t remember which effect it was, but it’s certainly never taken that long.) Additionally, while doing light editing on a project that contains two stereo vocal tracks, the program stutters and freezes constantly. Scrolling will cause hitching and freezing, sometimes for minutes, as does zooming in and out. Basically any interaction with the program at all is likely to come with a stutter. Trying to work my way through the tracks to cut out background noise is now quite laborious, due to all the stuttering and freezing.
In contrast, on my old system build, I had none of these issues. Zooming out or in quickly would cause a very light hitch, and same with scrolling rapidly left or right, but nothing like what I’m experiencing now.
I’m currently running 2.4.2 on Windows 10, installed on an NVME drive.
Previously I was running 2.2 or earlier (I would have installed it in 2015 or 2016) on Windows 10, with considerably less-capable hardware.
Is there a possibility that newer versions of Audacity are encountering this issue?
Ensure that Audacity, and “.AU” files are whitelisted in your antivirus. If your antivirus is checking every .AU file, that will have a massive detrimental affect on Audacity’s performance.