Mouse speed very slow in selecting recorded audio and recording is jumpy on the screen - any idea why?

[happy37]

Hi.

Using the latest version of Audacity. 2.4.2.

This issue doesn't manifest itself on one of my PCs and I regularly use it to edit audio mp3s and WAV files using Audacity.

The mouse literally glides across the screen when I select an audio waveform file on the screen to select and edit any section of audio.

On my other PC (this one); when I do the same thing, the mouse cursor moves across the screen in a much more jittery way and the speed of the mouse is very slow.

I'm able to select the audio fine on the screen. Having selected it, it takes an entire age for the mouse cursor to go from one side of the PC screen to the other.

And the mouse also jumps and is erratic across the screen when a live recording is made of audio from the Internet.

Any idea what could be causing these and why?

Thanks.

Happy37

[steve]

What are the specs for the problem computer and it's display?
Is there some improvement if you run Audacity in a smaller window rather than full screen?

[happy37]

Hi Steve.

PC specs.

32GB of RAM.

2.6Ghz Duo Core processor.

Display - NVidia G710 with 2GB of RAM.

I've unticked the overdub option.

Does that make any difference?

Thanks.

Happy37

[happy37]

Steve,

Made a test recording.

Mouse moves very erratically across the screen on a live recording.

On playback however, everything is fine and the recording plays back fine.

There might be a second missing here and there because of the jumpiness of the mouse.

Makes no sense that it's all erratic when recording but the playback of the recording is fine?

I'm puzzled.

Please help.

Thanks.

Happy37

[kozikowski]

When Audacity encounters a machine with limited horsepower, it has to decide what is the most important and do that first. Other tasks and processes are left until the machine has time. In Recording, capturing the work is the most important thing, so writing the progress video to the screen is left until later. In Playback, editing takes priority, so the screen comes first and the actual sound may or may not be pure.

Audacity, last I checked can't use multiple cores, so the machine isn't as powerful as you think.

On my other PC (this one)

This machine isn't up to the work or is too busy doing other things. Real time production isn't easy. Nobody will notice if the machine takes a split second too long to display a spreadsheet or print a letter, but that's deadly when you're trying to do real-time work.

You can take this upside down. A good test for machine speed is try to do audio (or video) production on it.

This one isn't up to it. Use the first machine.

Koz

[kozikowski]

Have you done the speed/health tests? When was the last time you defragmented this machine? Never? Is all your recording done from the internet? Does this machine have the same internet speeds that the other one does? Are you connecting via WiFi? How many others are trying to jam into the same service?

Are the machines on cloud storage? Audacity doesn't like that very much. External drives? That can cause problems.

Etc.

[happy37]

Hello kozikowski,

Both machines are identical as they have the same processor.

The only difference is that the first machine has an Nvidia GT610 video card.

I always close down all background processes, defrag the hard drive and an error check on the drive before I record on this machine.

So is it a processor limitation?

Would an i5 processor be better?

I5-3570K?

I'm playing back the recording I made and there's a noticeable skip in the recording.

Any other ideas please?

(I've only noticed this happening after a new build of Windows on a brand new Samsung Evo 1TB SSD after my last SSD gave up the ghost.) It didn't happen before that at all.

happy37

[happy37]

Have you done the speed/health tests? When was the last time you defragmented this machine? Never? Is all your recording done from the internet? Does this machine have the same internet speeds that the other one does? Are you connecting via WiFi? How many others are trying to jam into the same service?

Are the machines on cloud storage? Audacity doesn't like that very much. External drives? That can cause problems.

Etc.

I defragment before every recording.

The show I want to record is live on the Internet and I stream that through Windows Media Player.

Both machines are networked (hard wired) using Ethernet cables into the router.

I have a fast Fibre FTTC broadband connection.

I don't how many people listen to the service in this manner but other people listen to it using the phone app which is available on smartphones.

No cloud storage and no external drives at all.

Thanks.

happy37

[steve]

PC specs.

32GB of RAM.

2.6Ghz Duo Core processor.

Display - NVidia G710 with 2GB of RAM.

What about your display? How many pixels?

Is there some improvement if you run Audacity in a smaller window rather than full screen?

[happy37]

PC specs.

32GB of RAM.

2.6Ghz Duo Core processor.

Display - NVidia G710 with 2GB of RAM.

What about your display? How many pixels?

Is there some improvement if you run Audacity in a smaller window rather than full screen?

Hi Steve,

4K display. 3840 x 2160.

No improvement. It's the same if I make the window smaller.

happy37