audacity freezes when editing large files
Forum: Multimedia
Topic: audacity freezes when editing large files
started by: noordinaryspider
Posted by noordinaryspider on June 26 2005,16:22
Hi,I've been having problems with sound editing that I really need to get straightened out so I can delete my windoze partition.
Please don't hesitate to ask me for more specific details if I am not expressing myself well enough for you to understand what is happening.
I have an HDD install of DSL on a reasonably fast (2.5 GHz) machine. I have tried reinstalling audacity.dsl and the problem remains.
I am able to open a .mp3 of the song I want to take clips from and convert it just fine. I am then able to select the section of the song I want and play it, but somewhere in between pasting it into a new audacity window and saving it, audacity freezes. I have yet to be able to save a single clip.
I'm a newbie, so I'm hoping that I'm just missing something painfully obvious here.
Thank you for your time.
Posted by mikshaw on June 26 2005,19:23
What version are you using? There were some bug fixes from 1.2.1 to 1.2.2.Are you running out of memory?
Are you trying to save as an mp3? Although there is support for this format, you will need libmp3lame in order to write mp3s.
Posted by noordinaryspider on June 26 2005,20:48
| Quote (mikshaw @ June 26 2005,15:23) |
| Are you trying to save as an mp3? Although there is support for this format, you will need libmp3lame in order to write mp3s. |
Ah; now we're getting somewhere.
Thank you so much for your quick reply.
I've managed to save three clips as .WAV now; sometimes when I paste a clip, it does not play at the correct speed, but I seem to remember that being a problem with audacity when I was using the windoze port.
Posted by noordinaryspider on July 01 2005,16:01
ALL RIGHT!!!! I'm making major progress here, playing with my existing files, cutting and pasting, almost there.I think I'm ready for some advice on setting up my my microphone; I am a bit of a distro slut so I know from reading the KRecord handbook that this isn't going to be easy.
Please don't hesitate to ask me for more information if I'm not making myself clear. If I take awhile to answer/update it's because I take awhile to learn. ;)
'kay, the first thing that happens is that I click on the same little red record button I click on in my windoze port of audacity and I get this error message:
"Error while opening sound device. Please check the input device and project sample rate."
Not having a clue how to do this and always on the lookout for back doors, I start playing around with the "Generate" menu, go to Generate>Silence, and once I have successfully created my nothing, I pick up the microphone and click on the record button again to see if anything happens.
Amazingly enough it does! No error message and the little red level shows that the microphone is picking up the sound and recording.
There are only two catches: The volume (too low and using the "amplify" effect just makes it so scratchy as to be unintelligible) and the speed (too slow and the"change speed" effect appears to have no effect).
I greatly appreciate any and all suggestions on the appropriate next stage of my incredible journey.
TYA
Posted by mikshaw on July 01 2005,19:09
There's an input volume slider to the left of the input dropdown list. Maybe that will help. You might also want to check the input volume on your mixer (e.g. wmix)...might be listed as 'mic' or 'line' or 'aux' or something else, depending on how your system is wired and configured
Posted by ke4nt1 on July 01 2005,22:02
I have instances here where certain soundcards have some finicky settings, ports, or are just stubborn.
My SB128 works flawlessly with stock DSL.
My onboard 6 ch super-duper soundchip only
works well with alsa, not oss drivers..
Even worse with my Delta 1010 or Delta 66.
They are ALSA only, no OSS support at all..
Have you tried loading alsa, and using the alsamixer?
What soundcard or chipset are you working with?
I find that the type of soundcard makes a big difference
to the audio response and performance of Linux/DSL ..
73
ke4nt
Posted by noordinaryspider on July 02 2005,18:28
| Quote (ke4nt1 @ July 01 2005,18:02) |
| I have instances here where certain soundcards have some finicky settings, ports, or are just stubborn. What soundcard or chipset are you working with? I find that the type of soundcard makes a big difference to the audio response and performance of Linux/DSL .. 73 ke4nt |
Ah, that may be my whole problem; my current main PC is a cheap but fast Compaq Presario S5000NX with an onboard soundcard.
< whine > but xmms sounds GREAT when it plays my MP3s and I've never had any problem with audio in multimedia playback! It isn't fair!!! < /whine >
I'd prefer a desktop for audio editing, but maybe I'll have more luck recording files on my laptop. I know what you mean about picky soundcards, since my best crappy OEM machine has a Sound Blaster Live! WDM card which refuses to do anything with any Debian-Based distro even with the ALSA drivers. It's running Slackware until I can track down a new sound card, but I'm having even more problems with audio editing over there than I am on my DSL box, where at least I'm making SOME progress thanks to Mikshaw.
I haven't found the input volume on wmix yet; I'm running DSL 1.0.1 until I break it but I will be putting whatever's freshest on the lappy.
*edit; it's a WDM series, not a WMD series....whatever....