Record stops after 0.6 seconds. [Solved]

[steve]

I updated from CVS and tried the patch you linked, but no luck.

The patch is for 1.3.7 - it partially works with 1.3.8 alpha (the current cvs version) but it has been made specifically for the 1.3.7 version.

[person]

Downloading http://sourceforge.net/project/download ... .7.tar.bz2 and applying patch. I wish there was more that users could do to provide some useful debugging information for this problem

I still get the same behavior. It takes longer for it to happen (16 seconds?) with 48khz/24bit than with 32 bit float and/or 96khz, for what it's worth.

[steve]

Try changing the selected recording and playback devices in Audacity - If I select "ALSA: pulse" then I get the 0.6 second recording problem, but it works fine with (hw: 0,0)

[person]

Does anyone else still get this? I just checked out a fresh copy from CVS and the problem's still there, though I haven't seen any mention on the -devel mailinglist and 1.3.8 was just released. I'm using ALSA and have no "*pulseaudio*" processes going (I don't think it's used by default in Debian testing yet, is it?)

This doesn't happen with the 1.3.7 release. However, both seem to play/record unusably slow. So I guess something's changed in Debian. Will try to get OSS working again and test with that.

[BobbyYoupla]

Hi !

I m having a similar problem. I run Audacity in Ubuntu Studio Jaunty, using a EMU 0404 external USB soundcard. The default sample rate is set to 48K.
The problem only occurs when i try to record a second track. The first track gets recorded completely fine, but recording stops after less than a second whenever i try to record something else.
Does anyone know how i could solve this? do you think it could be caused by my machine's performances (i have a HP laptop with 256 RAM)?

Thanks!

[steve]

Probably not a good place to post your question BobbyYoupla since the topic says "Solved", but anyway, I spotted your new post by chance.

The problem is almost certainly to do with the device set-up and Pulse Audio.
The sound system was changed in Ubuntu with 9.04 (Jaunty) to take full "advantage" of Pulse Audio. Unfortunately this has caused headaches for many Audacity users that run Ubuntu Jaunty.

• Install "Pulse Audio Device Chooser".
• Restart (or log out then back in) your computer.
• Do not open any web pages that contain Flash as this can upset things.
• When you run Pulse Audio Device Chooser there will be a "jack plug" icon appear in one of your panels.
• Left Click on the icon and select "Volume Control"
• Open Audacity and select "Pulse" for both playback and recording.
• Click on the Recording meter in Audacity to activate it
• Click on the "Recording" tab in the Pulse Volume control - you should see an item listed for "ALSA Plug-in (audacity)" (see picture below)
• The button to the right with a "v" opens a menu with the option to "Move Stream" - set this to your USB device.
• Click on the recording meter in Audacity to stop monitoring (the item disappears from the Pulse Volume Control)
• Click on the recording meter in Audacity to restart monitoring (the item reappears in the Pulse Volume Control)

Audacity should now be set to record from the USB device using Pulse.

If you are unable to hear any playback from the USB device, Pause (not "stop") the playback and go to the "Playback" tab in the Pulse Volume Control and move the stream to your USB device. You will need to Stop playback and then start it again for Pulse to reroute the audio stream to your USB device.

[person]

Probably not a good place to post your question BobbyYoupla since the topic says "Solved", but anyway, I spotted your new post by chance.

The topic's incorrect then - it's never been solved if my machine is anything to go by

I might have a separate problem to the ubuntu people, but the symptoms are the same. Also, the OP was using Mandriva, not Ubuntu.

[BobbyYoupla]

Thanks a lot Stevethefiddle for replying. I apologize for posting in a 'solved' topic, but it didn't look like someone had found a satisfying solution to the problem.
I will try pulse audio device chooser today and let you know about the outcome.

[BobbyYoupla]

I just tried with pulseaudio. It didn't work. I managed to record successfully once, but there was alot of distortion (sounding like the wrong-sample-rate type, but changing the sample-rate in audacity afterwards did not fix it). Then it stopped working. It seems like audacity gets stuck everytime i stop recording (using the stop button) and click on the record button again.
I ve read here and there that the best version of ubuntu studio to this day is 8.04. Do you think that getting rid of jaunty and moving to 8.04 could solve my problem?

[steve]

I ve read here and there that the best version of ubuntu studio to this day is 8.04. Do you think that getting rid of jaunty and moving to 8.04 could solve my problem?

It could. I've used Ubuntu 8.04, 8.10 and 9.04 and Jaunty (9.04) was the most difficult to get the sound system working properly. The funny thing is that now that I have got it working, I now find it better than previous versions.

The big difference with Jaunty is that it uses Pulse Audio to manage all sound, which creates a complex inter-relationship between Pulse, ALSA, Portaudio and your hardware. With Ubuntu 8.04 you should be able to just set Audacity Preferences to use "ALSA default" for the recording and playback devices and have it working.

I had started to write a guide to setting up Audacity with Pulse, but then some things changed so I need to update it. For now it may be easiest to go with the LTS version of Ubuntu (which is currently 8.04).

You may also be interested in looking at "Studio 64" (despite the name there is a 32bit version of this).