major feedback/distortion while recording

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Audacity 1.2.x is now obsolete. Please use the current Audacity 2.1.x version.

Mac 0S X 10.3 and earlier are no longer supported but you can download legacy versions of Audacity for those systems HERE.
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benji
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major feedback/distortion while recording

Post by benji » Sun Jan 11, 2009 11:29 am

I have been running Audacity 1.2.5 for about 2 years now on mac osx 10.4.11.
I started with a USB deck to record all my vinyl which sounded awful so I purchased a USB mixer & play/record my vinyl through a quality deck & stylus.
On occasions while recording huge distortion & feedback can start very randomly.
Sometimes it does not happen at all & now it is happening more & more frequently!
Any ideas?

kozikowski
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Re: major feedback/distortion while recording

Post by kozikowski » Mon Jan 12, 2009 2:27 am

Too vague.

Model numbers. Which Mac? Who made the original turntable? Who makes your current one? Which Cartridge? Who made the current USB mixer? Exactly which Audacity? What's the capitol of Kentucky?

Koz

benji
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Re: major feedback/distortion while recording

Post by benji » Mon Jan 19, 2009 11:05 pm

Mac Book Pro 2007 - Numark TT USB was my deck the Audacity software came with - I am using Technics 1200 with Ortofon DJ concorde cartridge - Mixer is a Gemini PS-02 USB - Audacity I am running is 1.2.5 (program built October 24 2006) - The capital of Kentucky is Frankfort!

kozikowski
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Re: major feedback/distortion while recording

Post by kozikowski » Mon Jan 19, 2009 11:58 pm

Change USB connections and restart the Mac. Another version of this is unplug and replug in the existing socket several times. This kind of distortion can happen if the USB bitstream gets ratty enough long enough for the sound transmission to fail. There's no provision for advanced error correction, so Audacity starts making up audio out of the shards and fragments that do manage to arrive.

When you plug a hard drive into the USB connection, it just keeps trying until it gets everything right. Nobody notices a ratty connection. A live sound bitstream fails spectacularly and immediately.

We assume you're not filling up your System Drive, right? That will make Audacity crazy. How big is the drive and how full is it? A production machine should never go over 90% full.

Koz

benji
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Re: major feedback/distortion while recording

Post by benji » Wed Jan 21, 2009 6:42 pm

No, My system disk is very very very nearly full - I am running a 2GB processor... I think that may be the problem then ?
Benji

kozikowski
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Re: major feedback/distortion while recording

Post by kozikowski » Wed Jan 21, 2009 7:02 pm

Audacity will not run into a full or badly fragmented drive (in the case of Windows). If you have an 80GB hard drive, you start looking for other places to put stuff at 72GB. One or two GB left free is just this side of having OS-X crash.

You would not like that.

However, I would still exercise the USB connection.

Koz

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