Hey gang, I think I may have an unfixable problem, but here goes. At a certain point in the recording, all of a sudden there are tons of these terrible micro clicking noises whenever the guest talks. I’ve looked everywhere and it seems like it might have been a thing where Audacity couldn’t write to the hard drive properly and instead of noise its actually bits of missing audio. That seems to fit with what’s been going on, but is there any way to repair it? I’m gonna have to basically narrate what happened in this episode rather than play it which is breaking my heart.
As for how to keep it from happening again, it’s pretty scary to think it could happen again and I’d have no way of knowing. All the ways to prevent it seem fairly easy, except for the fact that I have to use a usb hub since my dumb mac can only access two of the four ports (an unfixable problem, according to Apple). So now I have an analog backup just in case, and cross my fingers in hopes that it doesnt happen again. It’s the worst problem to have cuz you have no idea its happening until its too late.
now I have an analog backup just in case
Grand idea. This seems like an insanely complicated sound shoot because it’s actually two shoots, main and backup. It’s for a radio broadcast interview. I’m on the left with Audacity on a Mac and the client brought his own recorder with him and that’s it on the right.
Both shoots succeeded. The radio producer loved it.
I’ve been known to set my iPhone/iPod down on the table in Voice Recorder as a backup. However bad the sound is, it’s going to be better than the trash you made this time.
Set the recorder on a book sitting on a towel. That will keep the table noise out of the show.
This is a larger version.
I’ve been oozing closer and closer to recommending that everyone stop recording on the computer. There are too many things to watch and avoid.
Are you on Windows and did you turn off Windows Enhancements…etc.
There is pop and click filtering and one recent success. I need to look.
Koz
As for how to keep it from happening again, it’s pretty scary to think it could happen again and I’d have no way of knowing.
Yeah… Back in the analog days we had 3-head tape recorders. You could monitor the playback head a fraction of a second after the tape was recorded. The current version of Audacity (2.3.2) will detect dropouts but you can still get problems you don’t know about until you listen-back.
All the ways to prevent it seem fairly easy, except for the fact that I have to use a usb hub since my dumb mac can only access two of the four ports (an unfixable problem, according to Apple).
It’s not always that easy, and the hub may not be the problem. I don’t know about the Mac, but Windows computers usually have a “hub chip” inside and that’s how they get multiple USB ports.
Glitches/dropouts are usually related to the multitasking operating system, and your operating system is always multitasking even if you’re only running one task. There are some simple things you can start with like increasing the buffer size, reducing the sample rate if you’re recording at higher than 48kHz, and minimizing the number of “things” your computer is doing (some people get better results turning-off the Wi-Fi) but it can get complicated and there is an online book about optimizing Windows PCs for audio. It’s a short book, but it is a book! Maybe you can find some kind of similar audio configuration guide for the Mac…
