distortion during needledrop...Leopard issue?

[rinso white]

Hi.

I'm new to the forum. I've been using Audacity to make needledrops from my lp's, and have a problem that's only cropped up since I've moved to Leopard. I've noticed the "save dialog box controls the program" issue noted elsewhere, but haven't seen this mentioned anywhere...

As I record, I've noticed that about 70% of the time I start to get what sounds like a digital distortion. Often the track will be fine until a certain point when the distortion kicks in. I can't find any rhyme or reason for it. I'm taking the line out from my stereo, running that through a USB-powered ART Accessories box with the signal going through USB. I'm using a MacBook Pro running Leopard. I've tried every configuration I can think of: I've switched cables, tried a different USB port on the computer, switched all of the settings in Audacity...nothing seems to help. As I said, sometimes it works fine, but usually I get the distortion. Last night, I recorded three separate 12" singles with no problem, but then tried to record an lp side and got the distortion thirteen minutes in.

Any thoughts? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Mike

[kozikowski]

<<<a problem that's only cropped up since I've moved to Leopard.>>>

As a fuzzy generality, Operating Systems never get smaller, so your system under Leopard is busier than it was before. Busy is not good when you're trying to capture audio (or video). Your system sounds unstable. I don't mean broken, I mean constantly running right on the edge. Before Leopard, there was enough machine available to do all the jobs. Now, there isn't. Anything could trigger this. Slightly more network activity, you have two or more applications open and hiding, the humidity went up. Anything will do it on an unstable machine.

These are the worst kinds of problems. This is the squeak that vanishes when you take the car in.

A servicing technique that sounds wacky is to make it worse. Leave a constantly updating web page open along with your email and run Photoshop and Microsoft Word and Excel all at the same time. Because of the way OS-X works, this is a perfectly valid thing to do, but I bet your Audacity will not capture anything any more although it should start and let you change settings.

Koz

[rinso white]

Thanks Koz. I assume you're saying that I could make it worse to check that the "busy-ness" of Leopard is indeed the issue I'm experiencing. I think I'll try dual-booting and running Audacity on Tiger rather than Leopard. Hopefully things will be back to how they used to be.

Thanks again.

[caractacus]

Hi,

i get the same sort of hollow sounding distortion after about 15 minutes of LP play. A right pita. Only thing that solves it for me is quitting audacity and then restarting it and, lo and behold, the distortion has disappeared.... for 15 minutes at least.
Any ideas would be welcome

Caractacus ap owain

[kozikowski]

<<<i get the same sort of hollow sounding distortion after about 15 minutes of LP play.>>>

I think we have enough data here for an actual bug. Multiple people have what seems to be exactly the same problem and they can all cause damage any time they feel like it. That's the definition of a program bug. That's the good news (believe it or not).

The bad news is nobody is going to fix it if we can't do it on the forums. The 'round the world, no time zone excluded, crack programming team is going nuts right now trying to push version 1.4 out the door and the last thing they're going to worry about is fixing a version of the program that's going to be dead in a month or so.

So hang in as we beat it up, or download and use Version 1.3 until version 1.4 comes out.

Or, see Rinso and dual boot into an earlier version of OS-X that didn't have this problem.

<<<I'm taking the line out from my stereo, running that through a USB-powered ART Accessories box with the signal going through USB. I'm using a MacBook Pro running Leopard.>>>

By the way, I know how to fix this particular problem. Stop using USB. I bet if you plugged an RCA to 1/8" cable directly between your amplifier Line-Out into your MacBook Line-In (and switch the Mac Preferences around as appropriate), the problem would vanish. The Mac Line-In is a lot better than everyone thinks it is. I've done master voice recordings with a small analog sound mixer and a PowerBook.

Koz

[scatman]

I have a similar problem, but it kicks in between 2:30 and 5:00 minutes into the track. My earlier version on OS10.2 and a Power Mac worked fine, but that motherboard is, sadly, sleeping with the fishes. I now have 10.4 in a Macbook Pro. Can I run the RCA cables from a Turntable into the mic port and get the same results? My MacBook Pro has no "line in" port per se.

[kozikowski]

<<<Can I run the RCA cables from a Turntable into the mic port and get the same results? My MacBook Pro has no "line in" port per se.>>>

If you have the usual connector on the side of a MacBook Pro that looks like a tight circle with two black arrows pointing in, that is the Line-In--both optical-digital and analog. Macs don't have Mic-In--and haven't had for years.

Some "USB" turntables have a switch on the bottom that can switch the analog outputs (the RCA cables) from "raw" phono to Line-Out. If you have that, select Line-Out and then it's a matter of patching an RCA to 1/8" cable between the two. Run Audacity. Record your brains out.

If you have a conventional turntable with the two RCA cables and one thin black wire, then you need to put one of these in the middle.

http://www.radioshack.com/search/index. ... reamp&sr=1

There was a spirited discussion elsewhere on the forum about using a Radio Shack device for this, but I know that works.

Koz

[steadyjohn]

Not just a Leopard issue. I use Panther and have the same problem. I can make shorter recordings fine but on longer takes, say after 15 minutes or so the distortion takes over. It reminds me of the distortion that occurs with free demo apps that allow you short trial recordings. I use the ION turntable and have used both the software included with the ION and the download for MAC from the Audacity site with similar results, or perhaps I should say similar problems. I have also had these problems using the Audio Hijack app.

[kozikowski]

<<<I have also had these problems using the Audio Hijack app.>>>

But not using the analog capture process in my other note?

Koz

[steadyjohn]

Well actually, I have checked back with Audio Hijack and have had perfect results with recordings of 30 to 35 minutes or so. I did 3 double side recordings in the last couple of hours with no distortion. This is with Audio Hijack and Ion in USB mode. So what I initially thought might be a USB problem may not be so.