Ongoing issue with audio tracks while editing, see pic

[MatthewVanZandt]

What is this? It's making my life a living hell. Every week. Posts of one or more of the tracks do this. And if I silence or cut this section? Another section will change to this. It's pure static usually. Sometimes silence. Sometimes garbled noise. I want to murder it.

Please help! I recently upgraded to Windows 10 but had the same problem on 7. I'm importing multiple WAVs for editing ( it's a podcast). Sometimes it's my own track (not a wav) and sometimes it's one of the wavs. This has been an ongoing issue across multiple computers as well. Had the same problem on my laptop. It's BIZARRE! It jumps around and sometimes if I "undo" enough times it goes away entirely! Any ideas?

[kozikowski]

Did you intend to post a picture or sound file?

http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic ... 49&t=64936

Does the damage stay damage if you select the broken track > Export Selected Audio and then open it in a fresh Audacity?

How many sound tracks do you typically have and how long is the show?

Koz

[kozikowski]

You had an info split there. Was the laptop that used to be broken the same one that had Win7?

Do you use multiple audio applications and are they running at the same time you're trying to edit (I'm thinking Skype or Chat)?

Which numbered version of Audacity is it?

Was there ever a condition where everything worked perfectly (or missing this problem)?

Koz

[MatthewVanZandt]

Here is a link to the pic I tried to post. Posted it to Imugr instead.

https://imgur.com/a/7q5Xn

As for the OS question. Both my laptop and desktop started with 7 and were subsequently upgraded to 10. The laptop stopped working right so I started recording and editing on my desktop but I'm having the same issue.

As for the show, it's usually 2 or 3 wavs that I import into my .aup track. My co hosts upload convert and then upload them to Google drive and then I download and import.

[MatthewVanZandt]

I do not use multiple audio programs I actually use my phone for the video chat and record separately on my PC. But I can't say the same for my co hosts.

I'll try exporting the broken bits and see what happens. I HAVE imported The original wav track once I noticed the issue and the original wav track did NOT have the issue though it was unedited. Usually I don't find any broken pieces to ice been editing for awhile.

Audacity version is 2.1.2

[kozikowski]

My co hosts upload convert and then upload them to Google drive and then I download and import.

I can't quite get that....... Describe the entertainment.

You speak with two people over Skype. They each record their own portion of the show (rather than use ratty Skype sound) and move the high quality sound files to you.

You open all the files in Audacity, move them around, edit, filter, adjust as needed and mix down to a single show sounding exactly like all the people were in the room with you.

Cool. That's how I'd do it.

It's during the editing/compiling where Audacity spontaneously does that to a portion of one track or does one whole track do that?

Does it still do it if you restart the machine and Do Not Start Skype. Launch Audacity and try editing. Audacity does not Play Well With Others and never claimed to.

Koz

[MatthewVanZandt]

You've got it exactly right. And I don't use Skype or anything else on my PC. Portions of the track. Is I cut out mute, it'll move to a different portion of the track.

[kozikowski]

I can't tell from the time stamps, but did you intentionally post a message out of order? The forum occasionally has race conditions where two people post at or near the same time and the messages seem odd because they're out of step. We can deal.

I wanted to be clear that's the kind of detail we need to figure this stuff out.

So I'm still missing parts. I get where the two guests send you sound files. I assume you record your own high quality voice, load that into Audacity with the others and edit your brains out. No? That didn't seem to be what you said in your response.

Here's an odd question. If you select that one damaged track and play the damage in SOLO, what happens? Do you get the original voice or music, or do you get digital garbage with the volume of a jet taking off (which is what it looks like)? That would make it a graphic problem rather than a sound problem.

What sound format do the far performers send to you? Do you have FFMpeg installed?

You didn't restart the machine, did you?

Koz

[kozikowski]

Dueling posts. I'm going to go make tea and let it settle down.

Koz

[MatthewVanZandt]

Ok. I am at my PC now instead of trying to post from my phone.

So, you had it right. I record a track in audcaity and my friends do the same. I am recording on my PC and audacity is the only program running. I chat with my friends via the google hangouts app, on my cell phone. I dont even use the same wifi. When we are done they convert to wav, upload to a shared folder on google drive, and i download and then load those 2 or 3 (depending on how many other people recorded) into my .aup file (i convert MY track to wav first as well so i have a back up in case something goes wrong).

The issue starts during the editing process. The tracks are usually around an hour and a half to two hours a piece. I start by syncing all three tracks up time-wise and start cutting, muting, noise reducing, etc. to make it one coherent track.

The block in the picture that i posted is usually static, or garbled audio. This is true whether it's "solo'd" or not. Depending on what was happening in the recording i can usually cut around the screwed up block, but the weird thing is, when i cut that part or mute it, the block or bad audio MOVES. I can tell because if I UNDO the first cut or mute, the section that was affected reverts to normal and sounds fine. Until i cut that first bad audio again.

This doesnt happen EVERY time i edit, but it's been happening more and more frequently. I have edited about 15 episodes of my show and i can't remember the last time I didn't have to cut around sections of bad audio. It's been several weeks (or editing sessions) at least. It's not always the same person's track either. One week it's one guy, the next week it's my track, and last time it was MULTIPLE tracks alll doing the same thing. I just don't understand what's happening or how to resolve it. But, again, I am not using any other audio programs when recording or editing. At most I have Chrome open and not even always that.

The pic i posted is from a new episode i am editing. There are 4 tracks. That chunk happened to be in the middle of a big 30 min piece i had to cut anyway so it's gone now, but i am positive it's going to show back up in this session...