Audacity and Tiger (Macintosh OS X)

[ultimatepodcasting]

Since I upgraded to Tiger last week, Audacity has been misbehaving. Specifically, I'd been using my Plantronics USB headset for recording and playback. Now, Audactiy will not allow me to record a stereo track with the headset and it will not allow me to use the headset for playback. Anyone else having problems?

George Colombo

[pwfenton]

Tiger appears to treat USB audio a little differently. Users of "Peak" and "Deck" are experiencing this problem as well. Bias has published a work-around which may work with Audacity as well. When you read it just substitute "Audacity" everywhere you see "Bias Peak". Here is the link...

http://www.bias-inc.com/support/faq/cView.php?faq_id=75

[ultimatepodcasting]

PW,

Thanks for the reply. I'll give it a shot.

I'm wondering, though, if there's a more structural problem here, i.e. that USB is not the best way to move audio in and out of a Mac. I say that because I've had a few issues even beofre the Tiger upgrade.

I'm seriously thinking about giving my iBook to my son and getting one of the new iMacs.

G.

[ultimatepodcasting]

Well, the BIAS workaround doesn't seem to work in Audacity. A friend of mine says that Apple is working on the problem but nothing is expected for at least a couple of weeks.

G.

[Craig]

I'm seriously thinking about giving my iBook to my son and getting one of the new iMacs.
I think this is definitely the best solution, especially since it comes with a line in jack. (I just ordered one of the new 20" models as the best solution for upgrading to Tiger :wink:)

You might also consider switching to GarageBand, which is what I've been using. I've had no problems using it with a Griffin iMic for USB input under 10.3.

Craig

[ultimatepodcasting]

Craig,

Thanks for the reply. I didn't have any problems with either Audacity or GarageBand under 10.3; I'm having the same problems with both of them under Tiger. Our mutual friend, Paul F., tells me that he expects some sort of fix from Apple in a week or two.

Well, a glitch for me may yet prove to be an opportuntiy for my son!

One last thought: Given that the entire iBook series can only get audio into the machine via USB, it's somewhat unconscionable for Apple to have let a bug like this get past QC. iBooks aren't exactly an exotic configuration.

G.

[Craig]

I've had a few issues even beofre the Tiger upgrade.
Sorry, I was basing my GarageBand comment on this statement. I know Apple's rushing to get 10.4.1 ready to address the VPN issues so perhaps that will take care of this as well. Better hurry up and order the iMac before it does!

Craig

[ExtraLife]

Works 100% on my iMac. No problems at all, but not using a USB mic is the big diff for me.

[Version3]

I just don't like recording on my iMac (17" Superdrive) that much because I've got one of those **** noisy fan iMacs (something like 1/3 of them?!?) and have not yet had it in to Apple for repair (they replace the midplane). If you get one of these that whines really loud when the processor is really busy (or set to highest) don't get dependent on it at all... get it repaired or swapped out in your 30 days. It is not only annoying when you are sitting there using it, but if you record via Skype or any of that kind of stuff, you'll quickly get sick of hearing "what's that noise?". I like the iMac G5's quite a bit, but I'm super dissapointed with the fan in mine.

I record the shows on my iBook and it performs really well. I use a FireWire breakout box though, so I don't expect any problems if I decide to upgrade to Tiger. I do however, use Peak... so I hope that is correct. I also use Logic Express at times, but can't figure out how to A) show me recording length in minutes and seconds, and B) how to get rid of the roughtly 1hr 7min limitations I keep ending up with. It must be free space related, since it's always a bit different in terms of time available.

[SFEley]

Since I upgraded to Tiger last week, Audacity has been misbehaving. Specifically, I'd been using my Plantronics USB headset for recording and playback. Now, Audactiy will not allow me to record a stereo track with the headset and it will not allow me to use the headset for playback. Anyone else having problems?

Coming in a little late, but yes, I've had that exact problem. There is no way to convince Audacity to play back through the USB headset. I tried the tip from the BIAS site listed below (creating an audio "Aggregate Device") and that didn't work either.

Garageband does play back correctly, but I'm not inclined to fool with it any more because the microphone on my Plantronics headset produces unbearable digital static that nearly overwhelms my voice. I believe this is a separate issue. I'd only bought the thing a few days ago, so I'm returning it today and getting another solution.

[surfbits]

I'm using OSX 10.3.9 on a 800 PB with 1 gig of ram and audacity has been crashing when I import an audio file over a couple megs in size. I received CubaseLE software when I purchased my Alesis USB mixer so I'm trying to use it in place of Audacity. It's been a real tough program for me to learn.

I record in Garageband. Anyone ever have Audacity do that to them on a regular basis?

[s]

Hmmm, I haven't upgraded to Tiger yet but Audacity has been a pain for me all along. Well, it might not be Audacity -- I also use Soundflower & Soundflowerbed, they might be the culprits -- but periodically, I will start having apps routing the sound to all the wrong places, Soundflowerbed would no longer send monitor feed to any device, etc, and I have to go into the Audio-Midi setup to reset things. One time the only fix was to reinstall the latest OS X update. I suspect Audacity because I actually record with AudioHijack Pro and then edit in Audacity, and things didn't get glitchy till I'd be playing with Audacity. (Funny enough, launching GarageBand and playing a song also fixed things quite often.)

Anyway, having said that, I'm here to advocate for AudioHijack. It's really handy to record things in multiple tracks, apply different filters to different tracks, and record direct to MP3. I'm going to abandon Audacity for even post-show editing because I'm tired of winding up with a folder full a gigabyte of crap just to produce a 15MB show. I just need to find a similar multitrack spectrum-viewing editor....

[ultimatepodcasting]

I thought I'd take a moment to update my situation. I reinstalled Tiger using the "Archive and Install" option. Now, everything seems to work except Audacity. (I can still use Audacity for mixing, just not for recording or listening via USB.) Until there's an Audacity upgrade, this'll do.