Playback visual error

[Rosesforlily]

I've tried to use Audacity for editing several times, and each time I keep coming back to the same issue. The cursor can't keep up when I'm playing a song -- it doesn't roll smoothly, but jumps to catch-up every, oh, half-second or so. This happens no matter how far I zoom in or zoom out. This means that I can't accurately see where I'm at on the track, and I can't cut precisely.

Has anyone else encountered this? Our machine should be fast enough to run the program with no problems. The songs I'm editing are 6 minutes at maximum, mp3, so they're not huge files. Help! What am I doing wrong?

[kozikowski]

<<<Our machine should be fast enough to run the program with no problems.>>>

Because it is a what with how much memory; how large a hard drive and how full is it? Do you defragment and error check? Jumping cursor is classic computer can't do it all at once. You can have a perfectly huge computer and have Audazcity choke on a fragmented hard drive. Audacity will not work into a fragmented drive, nor will it work into one past about 80% full.

Live audio (and video) isn't like other computer tasks. It can't wait. Then the next note in the song comes along, the computer can't stop and wash up the dishes. It has to be right there, so it skimps on other services.

Koz

[Rosesforlily]

We're running Mac OSX, v10.4.11, so there's no defrag necessary (or possible). The stats I get while running Audacity with the visual error are:

1.09 G of free memory, 951 MB of used memory
11.39 G of space free on the hard drive (out of 55 G)
CPU is 18% user and 5% system

How much space can Audacity possibly need? Since the specs listed on the website say 64 MB of RAM (we have 2G) and a 300 MHz processor (we have 1.83G), I really don't see how that could be the problem.

[Rosesforlily]

(I should note that I've always had this problem with Audacity, even when our hard drive was only half full.)

[kozikowski]

Oops. Sorry. Wrong platform.

I do remember I had that on one of my machines and I don't remember which one to go back and see what the problem was.

I gotta think about that for a second. You might be stuck with the jumping cursor. I remember having to edit and see what I got and then re-edit because the cursor wasn't accurate enough and Audacity will not scrub.

You can select some audio and Audacity will play within that segment. Keep changing selections until you get the segment you want. Also, if you do this enough, you start to recognize the blue waves. Labels may be handy here. You can place a label and it becomes sticky or magnetic to the cursor.

Koz

[Rosesforlily]

Yeah, that's what I've been doing and it's a pain....

Now I have a new problem. I just finished a beautiful edit (after much trial and error) and it suddenly won't play and won't save. Please tell me I didn't just waste an hour. What can I do?

(edit) never mind, I just ound the crash recovery instructions. this is such a headache.

[kozikowski]

No, no, no.

You got a lot more problems than just Audacity. Audacity is the coal mine canary. If you try to use a marginal computer with Audacity, it will turn into a pile of mud in a hurry.

There might be another problem.

Apple > About This Mac > Processor and Version. Read me those two items. My MacBook is Version 10.5.8, 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo.

Koz

[Rosesforlily]

I'm running Mac OSX 10.4.11, with a 1.83 GHz Intel Core Duo processor and 2GB 667 Mhz DDR2 SDRAM.

[billw58]

I notice that you're in the 1.2 forum. Have you tried Audacity 1.3.9?

-- Bill

[kozikowski]

You can put Audacity 1.2 and 1.3 on your machine safely as long as you only use one at a time.

Still, my Mini is almost exactly your machine down to the Tiger version. I do multiple hours of production each week on this machine. I used to ......

Wait. I'm just waking up here. Are you using Audacity 1.2.5?

Koz