1.3.4 Stutterring sound

[orgelquaeler]

Hello All,

I have been experiancing alot of stutterring during playback of audio files. It sounds like there are "blips" in the recording, but if I play back over the audio, the blips will be in different places. It's not a serious problem, but it's difficult to tell where there are actual recording blips and just blips from playback. It doesn't matter the filesize. I'm running an AMD Turion 64x2 with 2GB RAM with Vista. The Sample Rate is 44100kHZ 32bit float. Latency is set to 100ms with 0 correction. Hope this helps.

Regards,
DS

[kozikowski]

You left out "My hard drive has 50% free space and I error check and defragment regularly."

Is there a reason you didn't say that?

Koz

[orgelquaeler]

I assumed that as a given...lol, though it is true. I have about 80% free disk space, and I run a scan-disc and defrag once a week, and every time I end a large project.

[steve]

You have also missed out "I am recording from an ION USB turntable". (hopefully this statement is false).

It would appear that something is causing a data bottleneck, or is hogging the CPU at inconvenient times. Check to see what other processes are running. Any processor intensive application can cause recording glitch's - ones to watch out for in particular are Windows Update, and security products such as anti-virus programs.

See here for tips on how to optimise your computer for audio work. http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php?title=Tips

[orgelquaeler]

Ooh ooh yes yes and I have the ION turntable setting on my refridgerator because it enhances the bass!

But seriously, I will try closing (even more) programs and see if that helps.

[steve]

And seriously, are you recording through an external USB device?
USB is particularly prone to this sort of problem because access to the USB port is dependant on CPU availability. Also, we have seen a lot of people have this sort of problem with USB turntables - it seems that some of them have rather poor USB ports.

[orgelquaeler]

No, and the problem isn't with recording. That goes just fine. The problem is with playback. When I am listening to the pre-recorded audio file, the sound "blips" during playback, although there are no such artifacts in the actual recording. When I record I always use the line-in on my computer. Though older computers have had alot of noise using the on-board line-in port, my computer does very well, having little or no detectable noise floor. When I record tapes, I go directly into the machine, though when I record voice, I always use a tube pre-amp. The result is pretty good, though I am currently attempting to turn one of my closets into a recording booth to eliminate ambient noise.

Thanks for the hints so far.

[steve]

Just a thought - in the Audacity Preferences (Edit Menu) - in the "Quality" settings, do you have
"Conversion: Real time" set to "Fast Sinc / None"

[waxcylinder]

"I am recording from an ION USB turntable". (hopefully this statement is false).

Steve,

don't be too hard on the poor old ION - the electronics on the ION iTTUSB and the USB services were absolutly fine and produced good recordings - it was only let down by having a lightweight plastic platter that led to noticable wow&flutter. The friend that I sold the ION on to (at a bargain basement price!) is still delighted with it. Don't forget that on this forum we mainly get visibility of the ones that don't work

WC

[kozikowski]

Every so often we get somebody doing everything right and it still doesn't work. Those are rough. What happens when you play a CD, a DVD, YouTube? Does your computer get fatally upset if you start it without the network?

Can you play any or all of these sound clips without damage?

http://www.kozco.com/tech/soundtests.html

Koz