Audacity hanging when selecting audio segments

[shmerls]

I have a new Mac Pro Quad Core 3.2 GHz with 6 GB RAM, using lastest Audacity 2.0.1

I am working on an AIFF file that is 10 songs strung together and I have to separate them into separate files and export out each one to MP3 format. Simple enough.

However I not that when I select each song from within the AIFF file of 10 songs, Audacity, or my computer, hangs and it takes about 30+ seconds before I regain use of my computer and can then copy the selection, create a new file, paste, and export to MP3.

I've checked Activity Monitor and note that during the selection, I have 4+ GBs of RAM free, so I'm thinking it is not a lack of RAM issue. Being a brand new computer using Lion OSX 10.7.4, I hope this is enough computer to do a simple select, copy, paste of an audio file. It is certainly not heavy rendering of any kind.

I have spoken with Audacity tech support who is admittedly baffled and AppleCare tech support too and suggest I bring it into a Genius Bar. UGH. If anyone wants to see the hang, and view Activity Monitor visible below the Audacity window, I made a .mov file here: http://www.sasnet.com/files/audacity.mov

Anyone have any ideas or suggestions what could possibly cause a hang on what I would assume to be a fairly non-intensive computer action? PS. this happened in 2.0, then I updated to 2.0.1 yesterday and got same result.

Many thanks

[kozikowski]

Probably the first problem is Audacity doesn't have tech support. We're it. Did you get your Audacity from here?

http://audacityteam.org/download/

Koz

[kozikowski]

I've checked Activity Monitor

While you're in there, see what the drive reads and writes are doing during the failure.
How big is your System Drive? Did you get one of the new 4TByte drives in your machine? It is the video people's experience that putting OS-X on a small, fast System Drive and leaving the rock crusher large drive for data is many times a good idea -- two different drives.
Koz

[shmerls]

MORE: I think it's a bug after all. Here are my observations and troubleshooting steps:

1. When I select a section from the file I'm working on from around... :30 to 0 like if I was going to apply "Fade In" for example, Audacity hangs for 30 seconds up to a minute before I re-gain use of my mouse/computer within Audacity. I can click to other applications and work so it is not systemic. While in hang, the cursor looks like a capitalized "I" When the hang stops, the cursor goes back to being a hand.

2. But if I select a section within the audio file, example at 4:00 to 4:30, no hang, or anywhere else. The hang seems specific to selecting a section at the beginning of a file.

3. I checked RAM and have 4+ GB free with Activity Monitor so it's not a lack of RAM. Here are all the particulars. All of which produced the hang:

4. Tried launching Audacity first, then opening the .aup file I was have been working on. But this hang happens from the start like if opening Audacity, then opening the AIFF file and then saving to .aup.

5. I tried double clicking the .aup file to launch Audacity and the file I was working on

6. Computer: new Apple Quad-Core 3.2 GB processor, with 6 GB RAM

7. OSX Lion 10.7.4

8. Source file: AIFF file, 46 minutes, 494.2 MB.

9. Mouse: Wacom wireless from Bamboo Fun. The Wireless is not bluetooth. I believe it is magnet based as you must use the mouse on the Wacom drawing pad only or it doesn't work.

10. But I A/B tested with the Apple wireless mouse that comes with my computer with no improvement or change.

11. I upgraded from Audacity 2.0 to 2.0.1 - no change/improvement.

12. PS. When I launch Audacity I get the beachball for about :20 seconds. Is that normal?

13. When I upgraded, and probably previous upgrades too, I don't remember ever uninstalling or deleting any pref or Library files and wonder if any are corrupt?

14. The computer I'm using is a Mac Pro, as was the computer I replaced it with. All I did to switch over, was pull my hard drives from the old MP and inserted them into the new MP since the drive sleds were the same. Could I have permissions problem maybe?

That's all I know... hope this is helpful.
Steven


So.. for some reason, selecting a section at the beginning of the file I'm working on causes the hang. No where else in the audio file.

Doesn't that sound like a bug? Hope this helps.

[kozikowski]

It's possible you're using legacy Audacity Preferences, never a good idea. Scroll down in this page to see how to reset Audacity.

http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/Preferences

Koz

[kozikowski]

When I launch Audacity I get the beachball for about :20 seconds. Is that normal?

No, it's not. If you open a Project which doesn't have local sound, it should launch in seconds. I think I tested opening an hour off-air recording a while back and it appeared in four seconds.

Could I have permissions problem maybe?

Did you repair permissions?
Go > Utilities > Disk Utilities > Select Drive > Error Check, Repair Permissions.

I don't know anybody who's tried that swapping drives thing. It rings all sorts of bells with me, but I'm professionally paranoid. In the particular case of Apple, the OS can be wedded to the hardware and seriously magic things can happen if you mess with the relationship.

Koz

[kozikowski]

The computer I'm using is a Mac Pro, as was the computer I replaced it with. All I did to switch over, was pull my hard drives from the old MP and inserted them into the new MP since the drive sleds were the same.

Why did you do that? More memory? Faster Processor?
Koz

[kozikowski]

When OS-X starts a process, it publishes an expected time to completion. If the process unexpectedly takes longer than that, you get the SBBOD, Spinning Beach Ball Of Death. If the process is expected to take a long time, you get the crawling worm thermometer. So something very serous is wrong. I didn't see where you watched the hard drive reads and writes during the error.
Koz

[shmerls]

Probably the first problem is Audacity doesn't have tech support. We're it. Did you get your Audacity from here?

http://audacityteam.org/download/

Koz

Hi Koz, Yes. got 2.0.1 there. Can't remember where I got 2.0 from though. Do I need to remove any 2.0 pref or Library files now that I've upgraded to 2.0.1?

Steven

[shmerls]

I've checked Activity Monitor

While you're in there, see what the drive reads and writes are doing during the failure.
How big is your System Drive? Did you get one of the new 4TByte drives in your machine? It is the video people's experience that putting OS-X on a small, fast System Drive and leaving the rock crusher large drive for data is many times a good idea -- two different drives.
Koz

Koz,
What should I be looking for?
The Reads in: stay the same at: 40971, and the Writes out: increase slowly now up to 36223
Data read (1.72 GB): and written (970.7 MB) didn't change.
Data read/sec and written/sec: go from 0 bytes/sec to around 24.0 KB/sec
Reads in/sec: stayed at 0
Writes out/sec: ranged from 0 then 1, 0, then 26, 0, 15.

My drive is a Seagate Baracuda 1.5 TB

Any of this help?