Static over playback

Help for Audacity on macOS.
Forum rules
ImageThis forum is for Audacity on macOS 10.4 and later.
Please state which version of macOS you are using,
and the exact three-section version number of Audacity from "Audacity menu > About Audacity".


Audacity 1.2.x and 1.3.x are obsolete and no longer supported. If you still have those versions, please upgrade at https://www.audacityteam.org/download/.
The old forums for those versions are now closed, but you can still read the archives of the 1.2.x and 1.3.x forums.
Post Reply
kgagne
Posts: 24
Joined: Thu Mar 20, 2014 5:54 pm
Operating System: Please select

Static over playback

Post by kgagne » Sat Jan 03, 2015 11:38 pm

After editing a one-hour podcast, I add the intro and outro music. At this point, playback becomes unusable, as it is accompanied by deafening static. This buzz does not get exported, so I can still export the final MP3 that listeners will hear, but it makes it difficult to QA the final cut while in Audacity.

I recorded my latest experience with this issue here:

http://youtu.be/oMWP9G0gHb0

I'm using Audacity 2.0.6 in Mac OS X 10.9.5.

-Ken

billw58
Forum Staff
Posts: 5565
Joined: Wed Aug 12, 2009 2:10 am
Operating System: macOS 10.15 Catalina or later

Re: Static over playback

Post by billw58 » Sun Jan 04, 2015 12:09 am

This is a known issue. It has been fixed (we hope!) in the latest alpha builds, leading up to the release of 2.1.0 later this month.

You could help us out by downloading and installing the latest nightly from the top of this list:
http://www.audacity.homerow.net/index.p ... order=desc
and telling us if this cures your problem.

You can put it in a separate folder inside Applications (perhaps call that folder Audacity-alpha) so you can keep the stable, release version separate.

When you added the intro and outro music, did that create some tracks with "white space" at the beginning? "White space" means areas in a track where there is no audio, not even silence.

-- Bill

kgagne
Posts: 24
Joined: Thu Mar 20, 2014 5:54 pm
Operating System: Please select

Re: Static over playback

Post by kgagne » Sun Jan 04, 2015 12:13 am

Bill,

Oops! Sorry for not checking the fora to see if this was a known issue. :( I'd searched on a few keywords, but apparently not the right ones. My bad.

I did make sure none of the tracks started with silence, as that proved a workaround for a previous issue I was having.

I just downloaded Audacity 2.1.0-alpha-Jan 3 2015 and am unable to replicate my issue with this build. Looks like it's been fixed. Thanks!

-Ken

billw58
Forum Staff
Posts: 5565
Joined: Wed Aug 12, 2009 2:10 am
Operating System: macOS 10.15 Catalina or later

Re: Static over playback

Post by billw58 » Sun Jan 04, 2015 12:57 am

kgagne wrote:Sorry for not checking the fora to see if this was a known issue. :( I'd searched on a few keywords, but apparently not the right ones. My bad.
Not a problem.
kgagne wrote:I just downloaded Audacity 2.1.0-alpha-Jan 3 2015 and am unable to replicate my issue with this build. Looks like it's been fixed.
Thanks for trying it out and reporting the results.

-- Bill

Gale Andrews
Quality Assurance
Posts: 41761
Joined: Fri Jul 27, 2007 12:02 am
Operating System: Windows 10

Re: Static over playback

Post by Gale Andrews » Sun Jan 04, 2015 3:55 pm

Hi Ken,

You actually reported the issue before and it was one of your projects you kindly posted that helped us find the playback problem. ;)

Can you please double-check in 2.1.0-alpha that the exported files are OK? In your previous project you managed to save the distortion in the exported file so that it could be heard even on Windows (and still can, even in 2.1.0-alpha builds). It's not clear that we have fixed any problem there may be in rendering data to disk, so please check.


Gale
________________________________________FOR INSTANT HELP: (Click on Link below)
* * * * * Tips * * * * * Tutorials * * * * * Quick Start Guide * * * * * Audacity Manual

kgagne
Posts: 24
Joined: Thu Mar 20, 2014 5:54 pm
Operating System: Please select

Re: Static over playback

Post by kgagne » Sun Jan 04, 2015 4:06 pm

Hi, Gale —

Ah, I thought my previous report was a different but related problem.

I was able to use Audacity 2.0.6 to export my podcast without the static heard in the YouTube video above.

-Ken

Gale Andrews
Quality Assurance
Posts: 41761
Joined: Fri Jul 27, 2007 12:02 am
Operating System: Windows 10

Re: Static over playback

Post by Gale Andrews » Sun Jan 04, 2015 4:36 pm

kgagne wrote:Hi, Gale —

Ah, I thought my previous report was a different but related problem.

I was able to use Audacity 2.0.6 to export my podcast without the static heard in the YouTube video above.

-Ken
OK, thanks. Please let us know if you encounter any more problems with playback or export in the upcoming 2.1.0 release (it will be a few weeks yet).


Gale
________________________________________FOR INSTANT HELP: (Click on Link below)
* * * * * Tips * * * * * Tutorials * * * * * Quick Start Guide * * * * * Audacity Manual

Post Reply