Having a Popping or Clicking Issue

Hi, I’ve been using Audacity for our podcast the last two years. My version is 2.1.2 for Mac. There is a phenomena that I experience usually every 10-20 episodes. There is no set pattern so I can’t discern exactly how often it occurs, just that it is infrequent. The issue is that at a certain point (different in each of the problem recordings) there begins a popping or clicking noise in the background. This issue will go on for about 20 or so minutes and then disappear as suddenly as it appeared. I’ve tried using click removal but it doesn’t seem to to do the job. I was curious if anyone had any insight as to why the popping or clicking might occur, why its so infrequent and why it isn’t for the entire episode, just a portion of it? Any help would be greatly appreciated so that I can either prevent it from happening again or if you have inside in how to get rid of the pops/clicks that would be great as well. We have a D&D podcast that lasts for about 1.5 hours, so it’s not the majority of the track, but it is distracting. Thank you!

Do you have the game running while you do this?

Audacity is not crazy about sharing sound services with anything else, games, Skype, chat, etc.

So the natural response to interference problems: is, yes, that’s correct.

As you found, interference problems don’t have to be constant. They can be “Moon Phase” problems which is what the developers call them. You can have a variation on this where they happen all the time but only when they interfere with actual sound do you hear them.

I’ve tried using click removal but it doesn’t seem to to do the job.

Click Removal tries to corral short, skinny, sticky-up blue waves—probably clicks. Then it figures out how to suppress them without affecting the rest of the show. But you can also have tiny portions that are just missing. There’s a hole in the show where sound used to go. Magnify yourself down to one of the clicks in your show and see if there isn’t a hole there.
Screen Shot 2018-06-30 at 11.47.23.png
https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/zooming.html

Koz

No games running. This mac doesn’t have the video card to run something as simple as hearthstone. The only other thing running is itunes because we look at the reviews for the end of the episode and give them a shout out. For the first 30 minutes there was no pop or click, and it stopped with around 10 to 15 minutes left. Nothing changed before or after the clicks in terms of programs opening or closing either. Nothing in the environment changed either. Thank you for telling me what the click removal does. I have never had need of it outside of these situations, but again it doesn’t happen very regularly. But when it does happen it is noticeable in playback and the finalize exported version. Someone sent me an article about static electricity could possibly be a cause? I have not had the chance to go through it yet to see if it might be whats affecting us. Thank you for the response so far though!