Mac Audio Problem does exist

[Peter S]

I have recently made three sequences 2 very short ones and the third just over 3 minutes. I added sound files to each one. On the PC all play perfectly. On the Mac one of the short ones works OK the other two the music seems to play at a very slow speed.

All music files are MP3 produced from Adobe Audition. I was careful to ensure they are NOT MP3Pro.

If I put the music files on the Mac on their own they play perfectly so it is not a problem with the music file itself.

I have tried removing the music and putting it back but so far that has not worked.

I feel sure there is a bug somewhere in the conversion.

Can anyone help please?

Kind regards

Peter

[Guest Yachtsman1]

I have recently made three sequences 2 very short ones and the third just over 3 minutes. I added sound files to each one. On the PC all play perfectly. On the Mac one of the short ones works OK the other two the music seems to play at a very slow speed.

All music files are MP3 produced from Adobe Audition. I was careful to ensure they are NOT MP3Pro.

If I put the music files on the Mac on their own they play perfectly so it is not a problem with the music file itself.

I have tried removing the music and putting it back but so far that has not worked.

I feel sure there is a bug somewhere in the conversion.

Can anyone help please?

Kind regards

Peter

I know nothing about Macs, however if you use audacity, import one track into audacity export as MP3 and try it in your show

Yachtsman1

[Peter S]

I know nothing about Macs, however if you use audacity, import one track into audacity export as MP3 and try it in your show

Yachtsman1

I don't currently have Audacity on my PC but Audition should do as good a job if not a better one. I tried converting the original wav using nero encoder but that still resulted in a very slow version of the music.

Kind regards

Peter

[Peter S]

In another post Bill wrote:

Well, it seems I have been the one asking for much help here on this forum and have been graciously helped so much but this time I hope I can perhaps help someone else.

Here is the problem I had and how I solved it:

I just built a 30 minute presentation of our recent trip out West and had added 7 individual song tracks in "project options" and then saved it as a PC executable and it worked fine on my pc. Then I made one as a Mac executable and played it on my MacBook Pro and found two of the songs had horrible distortion and the others were fine. All were MP3 files. I removed them several times and re-ran them again through my sound editor only to have the same problem over again. I then removed all the sound tracks and made them into 1 continuous song in my song editor software and then re-installed it in my presentation as "one song" and now it works beautifully. Our trip was to Glacier, Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons and watching it on our Sony HD tv connected by HDMI from the MacBook Pro is astounding and just couldn't be better and the sound likewise is very dynamic. Igor and all others, thank you for such a great product!

Bill

I tried using 3 other pieces of music to replace my original piece. The show worked fine on both PC and Mac using the 3 separate music files. I then joined all 3 files together in Audition and the show worked just as well on both PC and Mac. So it seems as if the problem may not have been the fact that Bill used 3 pieces but that the music file changed in some way. I don't know enough about the music files to understand what might be happening.

Any thoughts Bill?

There seems to be a problem with some particular music files but so far I can find no common cause.

My original problem was using a piece of music I recorded from a web page using Audition on the PC but I think the 3 replacement pieces were done in a similar way.

This maybe something that only Igor or Dmitry can resolve.

It is quite frustrating as it means trying different pieces of music, creating the Mac files and then copying them across and just hoping it works. If it doesn't start again with some other music.

Kind regards

Peter

[fh1805]

Perhaps, when we get the improved audio handling in the next PTE release, some of these problems will either not occur or will be found during build rather than after creation and export.

regards,

Peter

[Peter S]

Yes. Let's hope you're right Peter. I have tried several more audio files and it does seem that those recorded from web sites using audition create problems on the Mac although they are fine on a PC. I tested a show for which I recorded a voice over using Audition and that was OK on both platforms so just a few particular files that will not work as yet.

It will be interesting to see if anyone else has a similar difficulty.

Kind regards

Peter

[fh1805]

...My original problem was using a piece of music I recorded from a web page using Audition on the PC...

...I have tried several more audio files and it does seem that those recorded from web sites using audition create problems on the Mac although they are fine on a PC.

Peter,

Twice now you have implied that you have recorded direct from the web into Audition (i.e. that you have recorded the sound as it was streamed). Is that what you mean? Or have you downloaded and then opened/imported the downloaded file into Audition?

I have not yet found a way of recording streaming sound using Audacity so have nothing to compare it with. Nonetheless, I am left wondering if this technique is, in some way, fundamentally flawed?

regards,

Peter

[Peter S]

Hi Peter,

Yes that is exactly what I mean. It is quite easy to do in Audition. I have not used audacity for some time but a google search soon provided a solution to do the same in Audacity see below.

There may be something that has an effect when these files are used on a Mac but I have no idea why that would be the case. They are mp3 files and they work fine on my PC.

If you want to have a go using audacity have a look at this:

http://www.brynmawr.edu/llc/help/multimedia/RecordStreamingAudioAsMP3.htm

Kind regards

Peter

[Ken Cox]

Peter,

Twice now you have implied that you have recorded direct from the web into Audition (i.e. that you have recorded the sound as it was streamed). Is that what you mean? Or have you downloaded and then opened/imported the downloaded file into Audition?

I have not yet found a way of recording streaming sound using Audacity so have nothing to compare it with. Nonetheless, I am left wondering if this technique is, in some way, fundamentally flawed?

regards,

Peter

PETER

using audacity, set it to record "what u hear "--- i have an Audigy 2Zs soundblaster card it takes some diddling to trim the front and back and the start record /stop record function and no mouse clicking etc during record

works no problem otherwise

ken

[Peter S]

This is getting very puzzling the more I work on it. I downloaded Audacity onto my PC. Streamed a small sample of some audio from the same site as my previous recording was made from. I followed the short tutorial from the link I posted above. Used it in place of my original music. Created a Mac executable and IT WORKED. I will try a bit later to record a longer piece using Audacity and see if it still works. Odd if a free programme works when a quite expensive one does not!

My audacity does not have a "What you hear" button!

Kind regards

Peter

[fh1805]

Unfortunately, all your advice re Audacity relates to version 1.2 and I'm now using v1.3.9. I cannot find any of these various options and settings that you suggest. I'll take another look into it tomorrow.

regards,

Peter

[Ken Cox]

Peter i think the settings/choices are from the soundblaster setup -- a plugged in board -- have used them on my desktop systems > 5 yrs

see

http://www.google.ca...4394be9571ea68b

http://vistadesktopt...-vista-fix.html

http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Recording_audio_playing_on_the_computer

Sun Feb 07, 2010 5:59 pm

http://forum.audacit...hp?f=12&t=25317

ken

[Peter S]

Peter,

I have just recorded the exact same piece of music I had the problem with using Audacity and recording direct from the web site. It now runs perfectly on the Mac.

All you have to do is set recording to stereo mix.

I used Audacity 1.3.11-beta (Unicode) which is the latest download from Source Forge. There is no Float command in the view menu as you can drag the relevant toolbar by grabbing its left hand edge. Look at View/Toolbars/Mixer Toolbar to check you have the correct one. I don't think you need to drag it anywhere actually, just make sure to select Stereo Mix in the right hand drop down.

I would suggest you just start recording and then run the music from the web site you want to record you can always delete the first part.

You should also be able to record radio programmes using this technique.

The left hand output slider adjusts what I would have thought was the input

Hope you have success. If not I'll try to post some screen shots.

Tom,

I think you must be right. I will see if I can determine any differences in the settings. The Mac must be more sensitive to whichever settings are causing this strange behaviour I guess. I am happy for now that I have at least found a workable method.

Audacity will not do the same job on a Mac and something like Audio Hijack has to be used I believe but I have not tried any of the mac specific software for this purpose yet. As it would have to be moved to the PC to include the music in a PTE file it seems a bit pointless for now.

Kind regards

Peter

[fh1805]

...All you have to do is set recording to stereo mix....

...just make sure to select Stereo Mix in the right hand drop down...

Peter, Ken et al,

I do have Audacity 1.3.11 but I don't have Stereo Mix. Indeed, as you will see in the attached screen shot, I don't even have a drop-down box. My sound-card is a RealTek. Is this a factor?

regards,

Peter

[Ken Cox]

Peter

i would pose the question on the Audacity forum

http://forum.audacit...hp?f=12&t=25317

mght be a simple thing to click

i lost the record what you hear one time and nearly had the big one -- got it back but dont know how

audio and video are very finnicky things and it does not take much to to upset the apple cart -- i have a special folder of various pieces to test things against whenever i update/install software

and a system restore button on the desktop

ken

[fh1805]

...but I don't have Stereo Mix...

I do now!!!!

The problem was that Stereo Mix was not Enabled in the Windows Control Panel for Sound. I found the info about this problem on the Audacity Wiki via the Audacity website.

Thanks for suggesting I try there, Ken.

...and it works! And since I don't do any recording within Audacity, I can leave it set this way. Yippee!

regards,

Peter

[Ken Cox]

PETER

can we expect a revised version of your audacity for dummies -- by the number of responses to the thread i dont think many people were aware of "record what your hear" feature. It is one of of the reasons i never updated -- was afraid i would lose the feature

tia

ken

[Peter S]

And since I don't do any recording within Audacity, I can leave it set this way. Yippee!

regards,

Peter

So why the questions in the first place? If I had known you did not want to know the answer I wouldn't have bothered to waste my time trying to provide answers.

Peter

[Ken Cox]

Peter S

your time was not wasted - you provided some information that will benefit all

ken

[fh1805]

So why the questions in the first place? If I had known you did not want to know the answer I wouldn't have bothered to waste my time trying to provide answers.

Peter S,

It was only when the subject of recording streaming sound was raised that I realised it was possible to do it with Audacity. All my previous use of Audacity has been as a sound editor and not a sound recorder. I rip music from CDs and record voice-over and sound-effects on a Zoom H4 digital sound recorder.

Thanks to your willingness to perform those tests (which confirmed that the feature existed in Audacity v1.3 and that it worked) I was then motivated to try and work out why I couldn't do the same. As a result of your efforts I now have an additional source of sound-track material. I'm deeply indebted to you.

regards,

Peter

[Peter S]

Sorry - I just felt grumpy.

Glad it might be of some use.

Peter

[fh1805]

Apologies accepted! We all have off days.

regards,

Peter