Error on playback or recording

Hi,

I have asked this question elsewhere without success but now I have found this forum I’m hopeful!

I and running 11.2.1 Big Sur on a 2017 Macbook Pro with 16gb of RAM. I use Logic Pro as my main DAW and Audacity as my audio editor. I have relied on Audacity for many years for any audio work even before I used logic. A few months ago I started getting 2 errors on recording and playback.

Recording - Error opening recording device. Error code -9997 Invalid Sample rate
Playback - Error opening sound device. Try changing Audio host, playback device and sample rate.

I have deleted Audacity, including the library files, and reinstalled no change.
I have reset Audacity manually deleting audacity.cfg, pluginregistry.cfg and pluginsettings.cfg.
I have used Tools/ Reset Configuration.

My Audio host is Core Audio, the only option
My playback device is a Behringer UMC 404HD, although I have unplugged everything and just use built in audio but still nothing.
My sample rate is 44.1 throughout audacity, logic and Audio/Midi setup

It’s a while ago now and I can’t be sure as there would have been a gap in time but I think it might have been after I was changing settings to do some streaming on Twitch with voice over zoom. I have checked every setting I can find and everything else works fine. Logic Pro is still working perfectly and I’ve use Zoom and Teams extensively for meetings all with no audio problems.

I’ve also searched this forum but no luck. Anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks

Pete

First thing to try:

  1. Reboot the computer (with the UMC 404HD connected)
  2. Launch Audacity (do nothing between steps 1 and 2 other than wait for step 1 to complete)

Any difference?

If not:
3. “Help menu > Diagnostics > Audio device info”
4. Save the info somewhere convenient
5. Attach the info text file to your reply (See: https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/how-to-attach-files-to-forum-posts/24026/1)

Hi Steve,

Thanks for replying.

I rebooted and no difference and I’ve attached the file. I looked in that log this morning and it all looks fine to me.
deviceinfo.txt (3.49 KB)

I suspect the problem is due to one or more of the “virtual audio devices” that you have installed.

I’ve noticed that in recent versions of Audacity (since “PortAudio” was last updated), that if a virtual audio device creates an error in PortAudio, it locks out all audio devices. (PortAudio is the software that Audacity uses to connect to the sound system).

Your system appears to have 6 virtual audio devices installed :open_mouth:

BlackHole
Soundflower
EpocCam
Apowersoft Audio Device
ZoomAudioDevice
Screen recording

It could be any of those causing the problem, but if asked to guess, I’d go for “Apowersoft Audio Device” (simply because we recently had a report that confirmed that a similar problem was caused by that software).

If you want to try running with my guess, uninstall Apowersoft completely, then reboot the computer. Check that Apowersoft has gone. Check that Apowersoft does not appear in “Sounds and MIDI”. Then try using Audacity.

If that doesn’t fix it, or you want to do this the “proper” way, uninstall all of the virtual devices, check that Audacity works, then install the virtual devices back one at a time, checking after each that they have not broken Audacity.

Sounds good. I’ll give it a go and let you know. Thanks for the help.

Seems that’s harder than it seems!

Of the 6! Soundflower I had used before upgrading to Big Sur for recording internal audio so that is now gone. Blackhole is what I replaced it with and I loaded that way after this problem occurred so I am assuming that is ok. EPOC is gone, Screen recording is an aggregate device so should be ok. Zoom is Zoom and then we get to Apowersoft. A quick Google will tell you that it is very difficult to get rid of but I have followed all the instructions I can find and deleted all evidence of it across all libraries. It looks to have gone from the Audio Midi setup and yet I still have the problem. I am away for most of the next days so if I don’t post for a while, I will be back on Friday.

Thanks for all the help!

Pete

Hi, Sorry for the delay, it has taken ages to find every file and delete it.

I am now down to 4 Audio devices, 2 x built in, Displayport from my Philips monitor and the UMC404HD interface.

Audacity still doesn’t work. I’ve uninstalled it and reinstalled it but no luck.

I have attached the Device Info file again.

Thanks

Peter
deviceinfo.txt (1.31 KB)

Is that the complete output?

On my Mac I see this at the bottom:

==============================
Available mixers:
==============================
Available recording sources:
==============================
Available playback volumes:
0 - PCM
==============================
Recording volume is emulated
Playback volume is native

Hi Steve,

Yes, that’s it. I’ve just checked it again and there’s no more. I also checked the original device info file and it was the same.

Pete

This is peculiar:

Device ID: 3
Device name: UMC404HD 192k
Host name: Core Audio
Recording channels: 4
Playback channels: 4
Low Recording Latency: 0.01
Low Playback Latency: 0.00455782
High Recording Latency: 0.1
High Playback Latency: 0.0147166
Supported Rates:

I’ve never seen a real hardware device show up as both a Recording device and Playback device as one device. Usually real hardware shows up like “Built in” device, with separate entries for recording and playback:

Device ID: 0
Device name: Built-in Microphone
Host name: Core Audio
Recording channels: 2
Playback channels: 0



Device ID: 1
Device name: Built-in Output
Host name: Core Audio
Recording channels: 0
Playback channels: 2

I’m not sure where to go from here…

If you shut down your computer, disconnect the UMC 404HD, then reboot the computer, can you get Audacity working properly with the Built-in sound card?

I have unplugged everything, just power left in and no change. Still won’t play or record!

File attached. There could still be a rogue from from Apowersoft, but I can’t find it. Or maybe a setting deep in MacOS or Logic Pro?
deviceinfo.txt (802 Bytes)

What is the full and exact error message that you are getting now? (including steps, in full, to produce the error)

Thanks for persevering Steve.

Audacity loads fine, when I hit record I get error code 9997 as per the attached image. I can load a but when I hit play I ger Error opening sound device, again I have attached an image.

Thanks
Playing.jpg
Recording.jpg

Look in:
“Applications > Utilities > Audio MIDI Setup.app”

What sample rate is your built-in audio device using?

I’ve checked the sample rates of every device and every part of Logic and Audacity and everything is set at 44100.

Is everything set to “2 channels” as well?

The built in Mic and Output are. The UMC404 has 4 channels, but i’m not using that when testing audacity.

The only think I have noticed is in the Audio Midi setup preferences/Info and click on CoreAudio.framework you get this:

"CFBundleName" = "CoreAudio";
"DTXcode" = "1200";
"DTSDKName" = "macosx11.2internal";
"CFBundleNumericVersion" = 83918848;
"DTSDKBuild" = "20D39";
"CFBundleDevelopmentRegion" = "en";
"CFBundleVersion" = "5.0";
"NullAudioDriverConfiguration" = {
    "can be content default" = 1;
    "can be system default" = 1;
    "clock domain" = 0;
    hidden = 0;
    latency = 2;
    name = "Null_Device";
    "preferred channel stereo L" = 1;
    "preferred channel stereo R" = 2;
    "ring buffer frame size" = 1366;
    "safety offset" = 0;
    "sample rate" = 44100;
    streams =     (
                {
            "basic description" =             {
                "bits per channel" = 16;
                "bytes per frame" = 4;
                "bytes per packet" = 4;
                "channels per frame" = 2;
                "format flags" = 12;
                "format id" = 1819304813;
                "frames per packet" = 1;
                "sample rate" = 44100;
            };
            "is input" = 1;
            "supported formats" =             (
                                {
                    "bits per channel" = 16;
                    "bytes per frame" = 4;
                    "bytes per packet" = 4;
                    "channels per frame" = 2;
                    "format flags" = 12;
                    "format id" = 1819304813;
                    "frames per packet" = 1;
                    "sample rate" = 44100;
                }
            );
            "terminal type" = 1751412840;
        },
                {
            "basic description" =             {
                "bits per channel" = 16;
                "bytes per frame" = 4;
                "bytes per packet" = 4;
                "channels per frame" = 2;
                "format flags" = 12;
                "format id" = 1819304813;
                "frames per packet" = 1;
                "sample rate" = 44100;
            };
            "is input" = 0;
            "supported formats" =             (
                                {
                    "bits per channel" = 16;
                    "bytes per frame" = 2;
                    "bytes per packet" = 2;
                    "channels per frame" = 1;
                    "format flags" = 12;
                    "format id" = 1819304813;
                    "frames per packet" = 1;
                    "sample rate" = 44100;
                },
                                {
                    "bits per channel" = 16;
                    "bytes per frame" = 4;
                    "bytes per packet" = 4;
                    "channels per frame" = 2;
                    "format flags" = 12;
                    "format id" = 1819304813;
                    "frames per packet" = 1;
                    "sample rate" = 44100;
                },
                                {
                    "bits per channel" = 16;
                    "bytes per frame" = 2;
                    "bytes per packet" = 2;
                    "channels per frame" = 1;
                    "format flags" = 12;
                    "format id" = 1819304813;
                    "frames per packet" = 1;
                    "sample rate" = 48000;
                },
                                {
                    "bits per channel" = 16;
                    "bytes per frame" = 4;
                    "bytes per packet" = 4;
                    "channels per frame" = 2;
                    "format flags" = 12;
                    "format id" = 1819304813;
                    "frames per packet" = 1;
                    "sample rate" = 48000;
                }
            );
            "terminal type" = 1751412840;
        }
    );
    "transport type" = 1853189228;
    uuid = "Null_Device";
};
"BuildMachineOSBuild" = "19A603013";
"DTPlatformName" = "macosx";
"CFBundlePackageType" = "FMWK";
"CFBundleShortVersionString" = "5.0";
"CFBundleSupportedPlatforms" = (
    MacOSX
);
"CFBundleInfoDictionaryVersion" = "6.0";
"CFBundleExecutable" = "CoreAudio";
"DTCompiler" = "com.apple.compilers.llvm.clang.1_0";
"CFBundleIdentifier" = "com.apple.audio.CoreAudio";
"DTPlatformVersion" = "11.2";
"DTXcodeBuild" = "12A8179f";
"LSMinimumSystemVersion" = "11.2";
"DTPlatformBuild" = "12A8179f";

Doesn’t mean great deal to me but there are 2 references to a sample rate of 48000.

I’m primarily a Linux user, so it doesn’t mean much to me either, but perhaps it’s worth trying with everything set to 48000 (instead of 44100) to see if that makes any difference.

Fair point, I’ll give it ` try!

I’ve looked everywhere but I can’t see anything set at 48000. Not understanding that file doesn’t help but I have checked every sound option in every program or interface I can find but no luck.