No Playback on MacBook (loud click instead)

[kmarty]

I'm still trying to find out. Did you make any more progress?

Sorry, not (yet). I'm on slow way to do through VM with Mountain Lion installed.

If you reduce or increase Audio to buffer in the Audacity recording preferences, does it make any difference to the click problem?

Preferences: Recording -> Audio to buffer (default value 100ms):
When I change it to >= 300ms then it seems that it works properly*.

When I change it to i.e. 50ms then audio clicks and sound goes very quiet from right speaker only (it doesn't have to be right speaker, it could be "subwoofer" which outs also on right side. But at this moment audio is quiet and without any bass. Only middle or rather treble).

*) When buffer is at 300ms or more, there becomes another (understandable, but annoying) issue - waveform progress is visibly shifted against hearable audio. I don't know real usage of Preferences: Recording -> Latency correction, but it doesn't seem it helps in any way and progres is still shifted in unchanged form)

[Gale Andrews]

Thanks for letting us know, kmarty.

When buffer is at 300ms or more, there becomes another (understandable, but annoying) issue - waveform progress is visibly shifted against hearable audio. I don't know real usage of Preferences: Recording -> Latency correction, but it doesn't seem it helps in any way and progres is still shifted in unchanged form)[/i]

No, all that Latency correction does is shift a recorded track backwards when recording against playback of other tracks. See Recording Preferences - Audacity Manual .


Gale

[kmarty]

No, all that Latency correction does is shift a recorded track backwards when recording against playback of other tracks...

Oh, ok. That explains everything.



It seems that it works too when Audio to buffer is set to 30ms. For playback (I didn't tried playback nor recording through USB yet - at this moment all tests are through internal speakers and mic).

When buffer is less than 10ms an audio dropouts appears (which is normal, I think). But it still plays.

These tests are sometimes hard, because when it starts playing then it works until cold reboot. Also when I'm in critical range (somewhere between 50-200ms) then it sometimes works too (like every second cold reboot or so). So when I say it works, it doesn't have to be necesarily 100%. It means that few (about 5) cold reboots it still works without click issue when buffer is 30ms or >=300ms.

[Gale Andrews]

It seems that it works too when Audio to buffer is set to 30ms.

That doesn't completely surprise me. Someone on Mavericks who was setting Audacity output to Soundflower (for sending to another application) found that the audio had repeated fast clicks unless Audio to buffer was reduced.

Perhaps something changed with audio buffering in Mavericks, but I am OK on Mavericks with the default 100 ms Audacity buffer.


Gale

[roarth]

i am watching this with interest as i am experiencing the same problem, i don't know if this helps or confuses matters but my parallels install does the same thing but i found a way in their forum to fix it http://forum.parallels.com/showthread.p ... ling-Noise doesn't help for audacity though.

[Gale Andrews]

i am watching this with interest as i am experiencing the same problem, i don't know if this helps or confuses matters but my parallels install does the same thing but i found a way in their forum to fix it http://forum.parallels.com/showthread.p ... ling-Noise doesn't help for audacity though.

It's not probably not relevant thanks, unless there is some fix for this in Apple Audio MIDI Setup, which I doubt.

Have you tried all the known solutions? Adjust the buffer in Audacity and in your sound device (if buffer is configurable)? Does the "click-instead-of-playback" stop happening if you play a file twice in QuickTime?


Gale

[roarth]

having not being able to use audacity at all yesterday when i start it to try your suggestions today it is working fine but i did use quicktime several times last night which may have helped? if it starts again i'll give them a go, thx.

[Gale Andrews]

having not being able to use audacity at all yesterday when i start it to try your suggestions today it is working fine but i did use quicktime several times last night which may have helped? if it starts again i'll give them a go, thx.

I don't know if you saw it but I posted more detailed suggestions at http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic ... 95#p236095 in reply to your post there.

The possible Audacity issue on MacBook Pro is that you can launch Audacity without interfering with system sound, but if you play something in Audacity then Audacity playback just clicks. If you then play audio once in QuickTime, it will just click. Play the audio a second time in QuickTime then it will play and so will Audacity.

I don't know if playing a file in iTunes has the same restorative effect as QuickTime.


Gale

[waxcylinder]

I don't know if playing a file in iTunes has the same restorative effect as QuickTime.

Since iTunes uses QuickTime as its underlying player, I suspect that it might

WC

[Krakatoa]

I have this same issue. It is solved bu uninstalling 2.0.4 or 2.0.5 and installing 2.0.3. This issue started since I upgraded the OSX last night. Even when I uninstall the app, I get the click. Something is incompatible with the latest Mac OSX and 2.0.5 (and 2.0.4) but is fine with 2.0.3.