No sound in saved project on Panther

[hoodsmom]

This seems pretty strange to me.
I tried upgrading from Audacity 1.2.4, which works fine on my Panther (10.3.9) system to 1.2.6a.
I can import an .aiff file and save it as a project, but when I try to play it back I get either no sound at all or no sound in some places. The waveforms look like they're all there. If I open the same project in 1.2.4 (which is on the same drive), all is well.

Any ideas?

[kozikowski]

Can I assume you have a PowerPC G-something? That's important.

You can install one 1.2 and one 1.3 as long as you never actually launch and use more than one at a time.

You can't install two 1.2s or two 1.3s.

You may have trouble opening up projects now that you've scrambled the system a little. Can you Export As WAV all the work in the one Audacity that's still working? WAV files are actually stand-alone sound files and open up anywhere on anything. Audacity Projects are complicated and brittle.

Koz

[courtenayredis]

I'm having a similar issue. Open .wav files in audacity 1.2.6 on mac OS 10.4
Edit and save as .aup project, then close.
all seems good
then when I either reopen just to listen to it or copy and paste selection into another project, silent spots occur even though waveforms look fine

Is it the version I'm using? Internet down, so I can't download an update at the moment

[kozikowski]

<<<even though waveforms look fine>>>

Welcome to Audacity Projects. The wavy blue lines in the timeline are created by two (or more) files inside the Audacity Project. They're picture files. If you damage an Audacity Project, it's perfectly possible for the two picture files to draw the blue lines for a part of the show that's missing.

And the pieces get missing by not understanding that Audacity Projects are not one file. They stand on hundreds or thousands of individual files including all the original sound files, imports, snippets, and pastes.

Once you save a Project, you can't move anything, or delete, rename, manage, organize, or clean up.

For example, if you use a short sound file on your computer as part of your show, that sound file in its original location becomes part of the Project. Save the Project and then delete the sound file "because you don't need it any more" is fatal. You do need it. And you'll continue to need it until you Export a final WAV file of your show.

Another favorite trick in Mac Land is to use a Music CD selection as part of a show....and then eject the CD to put it back on the shelf. That's the end of the music in your Project until you put the CD back in.

Koz

[courtenayredis]

thanks Koz, this makes sense. too bad I didn't understand this before!
so i supposed the only thing I could have done differently would have been to open all of the various wav files in one audacity project and edited within there, ehh? Now all the editing I've done is useless.

OTOH, couldn't I export them as .wav and then reintroduce them all into one, new project?

[kozikowski]

<<<OTOH, couldn't I export them as .wav and then reintroduce them all into one, new project?>>>

Yes, that's the recommended way to travel.

Export Early, Export Often.

In my case, I record live voice performances and Export WAV files on a regular basis. Then I copy them to Someplace Else as backups. I edit with the first WAVes and if Audacity drill itself into the dirt, I copy the backup files back to the computer and keep right on going. There's no such thing as a reshoot because I destroyed the original captures.

Assuming I'm not trying to produce a multi-channel show, I Export safety copies regularly during the edit session as well as regular Save.

Capturing a Live Performance, Saving it as a Project and then editing it to the final show without Exporting anywhere in the middle is loudly begging for trouble. Many people try to do that and arrive on the forum wondering how to put their thousand file shattered Project back together.

Koz

[courtenayredis]

now that i know better how to roll in audacity, i hope to avoid the same speed bumps.

too bad i'll now have to put the pieces of my project puzzle back together again...

thanks for the "sound advice"

[hoodsmom]

Can I assume you have a PowerPC G-something? That's important.
You can't install two 1.2s or two 1.3s.

Yes, I have a G4 PPC. I tried putting my 1.2.4 in the trash but I am still having problems with the 1.2.6a.
This time I got error messages saying that it couldn't create temporary files in the /tmp directory. I tried changing the location of the temporary files directory, but I still got silent spots after I saved the project. I pulled the 1.2.4 out of the trash and it had no trouble playing the project that had been created in 1.2.6.

Are the differences between 1.2.4 and 1.2.6 that big? If not, I think I'll just stick with 1.2.4

[kozikowski]

Did you keep the 1.2.4 installer? The .dmg file? I keep all those in an archive folder against the time when I need to reinstall something from zero.

I did the upgrade to 1.2.6 on my G4 PowerBook and never noticed any trouble at all.

Have you ever done a Verify Disk and Repair Permissions on your machine?

Tiger, right? Oh, wait. You said you were running Panther. That could be a problem. There was a vast difference between Panther and Tiger. That's when they went from QuickTime 6 to QuickTime 7. This was the jump when they made you get a new license for QuickTime Pro. It was their first support for H.264 compression. It was a big deal.

There is a Panther machine at work. I'll see if I can get it to work there.

Koz

[kozikowski]

All is good. Our one remaining Panther machine has Audacity 1.2.6. 12 NOV 2006.

What sort of sound files do you have that get stuck and how do I get the same ones?

How long is the show? Does it do this if you simply generate 30 minutes of white noise on the timeline?

Have you ever done a Repair Permissions?

Koz