Sound Skips at the Beginning of Playback

Audacity Help Forum GNU/Linux
1

Hi,

I’m running Audacity on Linux Mint 19.3 I just updated from the 3.0.2 version from the now defunct “Panda Jim” PPA to 3.1.3 from Flatpak. The new version has a slight but noticeable skip at the beginning of playback (audio file attached). Also, in one instance the playback became scratchy and illegible, something that I frequently experience years ago with an earlier version of Audacity.

I messed around with ALSA and Pulseaudio, but haven’t found anything that fixes the problem.

Any suggestions.

Thanks

2

So when I play this file, I hear a noticeable skip on my computer, too. The problem is with the file you sent, not with the playback system.

3

The file was captured during Audacity playback using a sound recorder app. I replayed the same section three times to show that the problem is repeatable.

4

The file was captured during Audacity playback using a sound recorder app. I replayed the same section three times to show that the problem is repeatable

5

This may not help, but obligatory question: are you able to try the AppImage build from the download link at the top of the page? It’s the only Linux build directly from the developers.

6

Thanks for the tip. I tried the Appimage version and found the same problem.

By the way, the problem occurs on two different computers running the same version of Linux Mint.

7

Probably this bug Linux: Playback stutters at start · Issue #2427 · audacity/audacity · GitHub

8

Yes, that’s it. Thanks for pointing out it’s a known bug.

9

Transport → Transport options → “Software Play-through - On” fixed the problem on my side (Linux mint 21), no more stuttering at the beginning, (Works in 3.2.3 both in the Official AppImage and flatpak versions).

Hopefully this workaround works for everyone until they fix the main bug.

10

That’s interesting. “Software Playthrough” shouldn’t have any affect on playing back tracks, but clearly it does now.
Thanks for the report.