Audacity error

[barryjh]

Hello all,

Hoping someone might be able to help with this...

I have been using audacity for years in conjunction with a Focusrite 2i4 2nd generation with no problems ... until now.

I bring a sound file up as normal and everything looks ok but when I press the play button I get the message "Error opening sound device" 

I have all the settings WASAPI, process rate 44100 rate, Focusrite  is the selected in and out device etc, etc also checked the preferences and the recording options are selected except for "playthrough" 

?? any help would be appreciated ... my next step was going to be to reload the Focusrite software ...

Regards,
Barry

[George Lewis]

Hi Barry,
There are all sorts of things that can cause this error including soundcard drivers but the first thing to check is that the Windows sample rate and bit depth are the same for both recording and output devices and match the Audacity project values.

Even though the error occurs when record is attempted, for some reason both Windows sound input and output sample rates have to be the same.

These are accessed through Windows sound settings for the device under "Advanced Settings".
Try setting them all to 44100 and 16 bit.

My guess is that will solve the problem but let us know if it doesn't work.

Regards
George

[barryjh]

Hi George,
Thanks for your help. The rates were set at 48000 and 16 bit so I left them alone because I am thinking this rate was chosen by the initial Focusrite download and it has run ok for 2/3years now. I did check out the front screen on Audacity and the the same "actual" rate of 48000 is showing in the bottom right hand box when a file is running ... and the "project rate" shows in the bottom left hand box and that is 44100 and although Audacity loads ok and looks ok and I could load a file but it just refused to play. I checked out all the sound setting permissions and they were all giving focusrite priority for inputs and outputs. so, in my journey around the WIN10 screens my path was Control Panel>System and Security>Security and Maintenance> then at the bottom of that page is a "Recovery Button" with a "Refresh" option ... I didn't create a restore point or anything but just followed "Refresh" and ..... it worked ... Audacity is behaving normally again. I use this PC for running Audacity and internet only so I guess there is little or no damage done as I can see so far. I did notice that "Refresh" is safe in that it doesn't delete the files you put onto the PC. But I am no expert and I just got lucky with this one.

Thanks again George. It's good to know you were holding the other end of the rope!!!.

Regards
Barry

[George Lewis]

Hi Barry,
Great that you now have it working again.
Since "refresh" supposedly re-installs Windows files without affecting user files there must have been some Windows file that wasn't working properly. Windows audio is such a mish mash it's surprising that anything works !!

Just as a matter of interest what is your normal recording setup ? Are you using BT's and are they 44.1 or from MP3 which almost certainly will be 44.1 ?
Are you just recording a single guitar track either via mic or direct ?

No problem with leaving Focusrite at 48 kH as that's probably it's default setting.

With the project rate at 44.1, when you make a recording via the Focusrite when it's set at 48, does the recorded track show as 44.1 or 48 ?
However since the Audacity project rate is 44.1 kH, in theory Audacity will resample any new recording to 44.1 regardless of the interface setting and that's what any export will also be at.
Any pre-existing tracks at 48 will show 48 but be played and mixed down as 44.1.

Is your Audacity on the latest version 3.xx ?

Regards
George

[barryjh]

Hi George,

Yes, mp3 BT's are coming in to Audacity at 44.1 and I just re-loaded a mastered track that I exported a while ago as .wav and this track is showing 48 both "actual" and "project" rate ... so, I'm guessing that happens normally when exporting as .wav etc? but I must say I'm not fully conversant with PC based DAW's and only started using Audacity a couple of years ago. It does what I need and I'm learning live with it. Right now everything still seems to be working ok and the error as not replicated. It seem to be a very good package.

The Audacity version I have is 3.0.2

Regards,
Barry

[George Lewis]

Hi Barry,

As far as I can tell both from the Audacity manual and personal experiments this is the situation.

The default sample rate in Preferences/Quality determines the project rate for a new empty project. Audacity "strongly" recommends this be left at the default of 44.1 .

However, the project rate (bottom left drop down) will change to the sample rate of the first audio track imported. So if you import a file that is 48 then you will see the project rate change to that. Any export will be at 48 even if subsequent imported files like BT are 44.1

Similarly, if the first file was 44.1 then that will be what the project rate is set to.
If you then import a 48 file the 48 k track will still show as 48 k but the project rate will remain at 44.1 and any mix down and export will be at 44.1

Also, it is the project rate that determines the sample rate of any new recordings and any exported audio and this is regardless of the audio interface setting.

So, if the interface is set to 48 but the project rate is 44.1, the recorded track will be 44.1.
If it is set to 44.1 but the project rate is 48 then the track will be automatically upsampled to 48 !!


So, the project can quite happily contain tracks with different sample rates but when exporting it will be the project rate that determines the sample rate of the exported file(s).

Hope that's clear, though you may have to read it slowly several times !!


For most of us who record with a BT and guitar and export only to Wavs for CD or mp3's it is probably simpler just to follow Audacity's recommendation to set everything including AI to 44.1

The only time I use 48 is when exporting a video audio track as this is more or less the standard for video and DVD.

However, since both 44.1 and 48 exceed the range of normal young human hearing, there is in practice no audible difference except for the "placebo" effect !

Regards
George

[barryjh]

Hi George,

Yes, Quality defaults are still at 44.1 also noted the project will "self adjust" and I have seen 44.1 file come in at 44.1 and switch to 48 ... never questioned it though and just thought that Audacity was taking care of business for me. I also recall the program auto switching rates 44.1 / 48 but did not understand the relevance. My main concern has been to get the mastered file converted to .wav asap in order to retain quality. as you mentioned, I am only recording simple projects maybe 1x vocal and 1x guitar track to an existing BT. I don't do video and... I'm with you fully on audible range and your placebo analogy is spot on!!
Well you gave me a bit to chew on there George and I thank you very much. I will need to read this over a few times... hoping a new bug doesn't strike in the meantime.
Thanks again,

PS. Pls send some spare sunshine ... it's raining again here in Manchester!!

Regards,
Barry

[barryjh]

Hi George,

Yes, Quality defaults are still at 44.1 also noted the project will "self adjust" and I have seen 44.1 file come in at 44.1 and switch to 48 ... never questioned it though and just thought that Audacity was taking care of business for me. I also recall the program auto switching rates 44.1 / 48 but did not understand the relevance. My main concern has been to get the mastered file converted to .wav asap in order to retain quality. as you mentioned, I am only recording simple projects maybe 1x vocal and 1x guitar track to an existing BT. I don't do video and... I'm with you fully on audible range and your placebo analogy is spot on!!
Well you gave me a bit to chew on there George and I thank you very much. I will need to read this over a few times... hoping a new bug doesn't strike in the meantime.
Thanks again,

PS. Pls send some spare sunshine ... it's raining again here in Manchester!!

Regards,
Barry

[George Lewis]

Hi Barry,
It's been quite interesting trying to understand how Audacity deals with sample rates both in mixing, playback and particularly in recording where the Windows sound host and the audio interface drivers both also do their own thing before handing off to a DAW like Audacity.
It's quite complicated but fortunately happens in the background.

I hadn't quite realized how the project rate setting really brings everything together as usually my projects and tracks are 44.1 or occasionally 48.

I'll see your rain in Manchester and raise you days of drizzly rain and fog with temps around max of 10-14 C for the last week or so here in Sunny Wagga Wagga !
Plenty of great Aussie Sunshine but at this time of the year in Wagga it's sometimes a bit shy and hides behind clouds !!

Cheers
George

[barryjh]

Cheers George,

One thing I forgot to mention...it might be of interest to any members reading this, ... "audio host" set to "WASAPI" seems to give me the least latency of around 62ms (usng a condenser mic>Focusrite>PC>Audacity) and much less than MME or Windows DirectSound settings I think the numbers will change with different setups/PC's though.

Regards,
Barry

[George Lewis]

Hi Barry,
Yes, WASAPI is a significant improvement especially in the latest versions of Win 10.
There doesn't even seem to be any practical difference between exclusive and shared mode, though I set mine to exclusive as in theory it is better.

Anyone using Audacity and Windows 7 and above should try WASAPi as first choice.

Regards
George