Audacity Freezing randomly during record but not the program

[sambates123]

Hi,

I have a client who is using Audacity a lot. Most of the time during a recording the timeline stops and so does the rest of the program. You can use the buttons but they don't respond. The only way to resolve is to close and reopen. I have attached the logs and an image of the issue to this topic. Any help or ideas would be appreciated.

[kozikowski]

Stopping in the middle of a musical note or a spoken word is many times the recording system failing, such as ratty USB cable or other digital delivery system that can't maintain constant connectivity.

I have a client who is using Audacity a lot.

What's a lot? If this is a general purpose laptop and is constantly on the move, the USB connections may be wearing out. The gold plating on the little connecting pins inside does eventually fail with constant motion.

Maybe they should stop recording on the computer. We put an enormous forum effort solving computer recording problems. "Have you turned off all the Windows Enhancements?" "Is Zoom in the background waiting for a call?" "Was it OK until the last System Update?"

Maybe a sound recorder is the best device to record sound rather than forcing the computer to do it.

Koz

[kozikowski]

Thank you for the high quality post, but the log file is complaining that Audacity couldn't find the FFMpeg add-on program.

FFMpeg is installed when you need Audacity to open and manage many more different types of sound files that it does normally. Some sound recorders save files in advanced sound formats that Audacity doesn't know about.

Not installing FFMpeg produces a log file that looks at first glance like the world is ending. It's not.

Koz

[sambates123]

Thanks for your reply.

I understand what you are saying about USB or recording devices however I have ruled this out. The program is freezing not stopping. I thought this was the problem too but after some testing by pulling the cable out purposely it just stopped the recording. When it locks up the timer still runs at the bottom but the timeline gets stuck. It does not just stop the recording. None of the buttons work but you can click them. The only way to get it working is to restart the program.

We are going to trial another program to see what the results are. I think there is some driver/software incompatibility with my particular system and Audacity. I will let you know how I get on. Any suggestions on alternative programs? I don't mind paying. Its for professional use.

[steve]

Which version of Audacity are you using? (Look in "Help menu > About Audacity")

[jademan]

I understand what you are saying about USB or recording devices however I have ruled this out. The program is freezing not stopping. I thought this was the problem too but after some testing by pulling the cable out purposely it just stopped the recording. When it locks up the timer still runs at the bottom but the timeline gets stuck. It does not just stop the recording. None of the buttons work but you can click them. The only way to get it working is to restart the program.

Also, double-check that the project rate being used by Audacity is the same as that for the Scarlet Solo.