Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

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Foire Aux Questions (FAQ) Flag of Germany small.png

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The following are the FAQs copied in from the main SF site. They need re-reading and updating for 2.0 where appropriate.

22Sep09: (Peter) FAQs in manual updated to be in line with those on the main Audacity site (which had themselves been updated).

24Sep09: (Peter) FAQ page broken into one page per section - based on the pre-existing section headers in the FAQ. This page probably needs its layout changing now - maybe to just be a simple index with pointers to the relevant FAQ pages?

Gale 25 Sep09: I do want this page to link to both the index page for each FAQ section and to the individual questions in that section. But having the headings in this page as links to the pages for the FAQ sections is very non-standard. That means if we have headings on this page they need a link to the FAQ section index underneath (as per the "Recording" section here now). In that case we keep the Table of Contents (__TOC__) . Or, we use (__NOTOC__) to hide the Wiki-generated table of contents and mimic the Wiki TOC by having no headings, so it looks like "Opening and Saving Files" and "Editing" here now. I prefer mimicking the TOC.

About Audacity



Installation and Plug-Ins



Recording



Playback


Opening and Saving Files


Editing



Ideas for new FAQs

  • 'Peter 14Feb12: ToDo I plan to start work on these (the ones that are within my technical scope anyway) once 2.0 is out of the way i.e from 1Mar12.
ToDo develop responses for these proposed FAQs and migrate them to the published part of the page.
Steve 26Jul11: Perhaps there could be a section for using Audacity with other applications, such as Skype, YouTube, DAWs and Games
  • Why do I get the following error message when I hit the record button: "Error while opening sound device. Please check the input device settings and the project sample rate." What does that mean? (this comes up soooo... many times on the forum)


  • How do I avoid the echo when using my USB microphone? (software playthrough)
  • First track is being recorded onto the next track (Windows sound card set to record Stereo Mix).
  • Why is there a very low level hiss on Exported files? (dither)
  • How can I import WAV files from portable players?
  • How can I make my recording so it plays back in both speakers?
  • I recorded my tapes/LPs in stereo so why do I get only the left in both speakers?
  • Why does my recording keep pausing automatically, or pressing Pause has no effect?
Most likely you have enabled Sound Activated Recording by mistake and the recording input is below the threshold level at which recording is set to start (you will notice that the blue Pause button is depressed after you press Record). The "latency correction" message will only appear when you stop a recording that you were trying to start from time zero.

You can uncheck Sound Activated Recording either in the Recording Preferences as above (click OK to save the change) or in the Transport Menu.

May be better to generalise this as a "stalled recording" FAQ drawing from http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Troubleshooting_Recordings#stuck and http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/USB_turntables#freeze and also mentioning the Linux stall when recording from pulse with Software Playthrough.

  • When I try to record I get only a flat line and no sound. Why?
  • Can I use parts of Audacity source code in my school project?
  • Can I include screenshots of Audacity in my book, or link to Audacity on my web site?
  • How do I record Skype or other VoIP programs with Audacity?
  • Why does Audacity hang when I launch it?
  • Why do I have to ask questions on the Forum instead of getting help by e-mail?
  • Why do my longer projects always crash but not the short ones?
  • Do I have to uninstall the stable version of Audacity to use the Beta? How do I upgrade Audacity to a newer version? (or Do I have to delete the old version first before upgrading?)
    • Gale 18 Oct11 pasting verbatim answer just given on [email protected]:

      By default, 1.3.13 http://audacity.googlecode.com/files/audacity-win-unicode-1.3.13.exe will install into a different "Audacity 1.3 Beta (Unicode)" directory in Program Files. This gives you the option to either retain 1.2.6 or uninstall it from the "Audacity" directory in Program Files.

      As 1.2.6 no longer supports Windows 7, it is recommended to uninstall 1.2.6 and install 1.3.13 to its default "Audacity 1.3 Beta (Unicode)" directory. However the two versions have different groups of settings so in principle if you install them to different directories you can run one version or the other.

      We do not recommend installing 1.3.13 over the top of (in the same directory as) 1.2.6 because it will leave three duplicate plug-ins and two different uninstallers (unins000.exe for 1.2 and unins001.exe for 1.3) but it is not harmful if you really want to do it.

  • When I install Audacity the language is in Arabic (or whatever) - how do I change it back to English?
    • To change the language
      1. use: Edit>Preferences - Edit is the second command in from top left, then Preferences is the bottom selection in the drop-down list.
      2. Then you need the Interface tab, which is the fifth item in the list
      3. In the dialog box there should be three wide drop-down selector boxes. The middle one enables you to select the language – select English
      4. And then click the OK button – which should be the left-most button at the bottom right.
    • Gale: But we already have #language. And the 1.2 scenario of knocking the First Run dialogue onto Chinese won't happen in 1.3 because that dialogue has gone.
    • Peter 19Oct11: Ah yes, so we do. The reason I didn't spot it before was that I was looking in FAQ:Installation and Plug-Ins, as I regard it as an installation issue - whereas it currently lives in FAQ:About Audacity. Can I move it to the installation issues section please? This would also have the advantage of balancing out the two sections somewhat.
    • Gale: I understand the user logic of looking for this in "installation" but I don't think we should encourage the misapprehension this is to do with "Installation". Also users who decide later they want to change the language won't look in "Installation". I agree that "About Audacity" is less than ideal. How about a new "Interface" section? As well as the language FAQ we could move into it:
      • 5.1.1 Why can't I use the effects or other menu items?
      • 5.1.2 Why can't I select less than one second or click between whole seconds?
      • (TBC) Why does Audacity hang when I launch it?
      That leaves the "Editing" section short but we could add to it (TBC) "Why do my longer projects always crash but not the short ones?".
    • Peter 23Oct11: The immediate reaction of a lot of posters who unwittingly get the foreign language interface with Audacity is to straight away try re-installing, and they usually do that even before they post a query on the forum. That's one of the reasons why I tend to associate it in my mind with installation issues.

      I wouldn't really want to move 5.1.1 and 5.1.2 out of editing - nor do I really see the real need for a new Interface category.

    • Gale 26Oct11: These are the 1.3/2.0 FAQs, not 1.2. So there will not be lots of first-time users of Audacity who get a "foreign language interface" in 2.0 because 2.0 has no first run dialogue; Audacity simply uses the language the OS is running in. Even if 2.0 had this first run dialogue, by the time the user saw that dialogue they have already installed Audacity; the user's mistake is that they think the language choice in the Windows Audacity installer selects the Audacity language. It doesn't, as explained in the FAQ. We could rename section 2 of the FAQ "Installation, Configuration and Plug-ins" which is then suitable for the language FAQ and also lets us add a FAQ there about audacity.cfg if we want. But it would be wrong IMO to put the language FAQ in an "Installation and Plug-ins" section.


Old - need merging or deleting

    Old - need merging or deleting ToDo we need to merge or delete ...
    • I plan to start work on these (the ones that are within my technical scope anyway) once 2.0 is out of the way i.e from 1Mar12.
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