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Topic: Problem with Audacity (Read 4270 times) previous topic - next topic
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Problem with Audacity

Hi,

I've been using Audacity for recording/editing and love it. It has worked fine, including after I upgraded to Windows 10 a few months ago.

However, Windows just installed a big update today and now Audacity won't see any of my devices, rendering it useless.

The devices are visible and selected as default in the Windows 'playback and recording devices' control panel. I can play audio as normal in Foobar2000 and WMP. I can also record with TotalRecorder.

But Audacity is the best for me when it comes to editing, and I'd like to be able to keep on using it.

I have tried using Audacity's 'rescan audio devices' without succes. In 'audio device info', I get the following message:
Default recording device number: -1
Default playback device number: -1
No devices found

Any idea where I should start trying to fix this problem?

Or can you recommend any good alternative (free) audio editing software?

Problem with Audacity

Reply #1 –
Oh, panic over! I uninstalled Audacity (current version) and installed version 2.0.0 from their website's legacy downloads section. Everything back to normal.

Seems like lots of people have had this problem, and it is being worked on for a new version.

Phew!

Problem with Audacity

Reply #2 –
Try by installing latest (native) drivers for your audio device(s) and if it does not help then maybe VB-Audio's Voicemeeter Banana could be used for I/O handling.

An alternative ... maybe Acon Digital's Acoustica Basic Edition suites for you.

Problem with Audacity

Reply #3 –
Quote from: Juha on
Try by installing latest (native) drivers for your audio device(s) and if it does not help then maybe VB-Audio's Voicemeeter Banana could be used for I/O handling.

An alternative ... maybe Acon Digital's Acoustica Basic Edition suites for you.

I have the latest drivers, as far as I can tell; this seems to be an Audacity-specific problem. Updating drivers made no difference.

As my audio editing needs are modest, using an (not very much) older version 'til Audacity sorts things out is fine by me. I'm just glad they keep downloadable older versions available on their website.

Problem with Audacity

Reply #4 –
Audacity 2.1.0 here, on Windows 10 up-to-date (i.e. november update included). Not having any issues. Soundcard an integrated Reatek.

Problem with Audacity

Reply #5 –
My internal PCI Express sound card "Asus Phoebus" doesn't work with Audacity with it's drivers unless you you have device manager search for a driver in the unzipped folder up until the last beta version, but still has other issues.

On the other hand my "M-Audio M-Track Plus" USB device works just fine depending on what you use it for.  In fact they just rebranded the same exact drivers for Windows 7 and 8 for Windows 10.  It came with Pro Tools 10 Express disc but I hated that on Windows 7 after making me use a USB dongle and making me sign up for iLok account (basically a rootkit)...  They wanted $80 for tech support.  I'm like hell no.  So I don't know if that works on Windows 10 at all, but this USB sound card does work fine in Audacity, although foo_record should be used if using a SPDIF input function to record something digitally to avoid missing sample issues and yes actual noise at -90 dB when there is supposed to be complete digital silence for whatever reason which was also present in Windows 7 annoyingly as well and manages to affect every single DAW software program as well unless it's using WASAPI interface for whatever stranger reason.  I hate having to flip the analog / digital switch to avoid another kind of issue every time I start a new recording that causes even more samples to be omitted at a ridiculous rapid pace which was also present on Windows 7.  What a nice $140 spent.

Problem with Audacity

Reply #6 –
Quote from: [JAZ] on

Audacity 2.1.0 here, on Windows 10 up-to-date (i.e. november update included). Not having any issues. Soundcard an integrated Reatek.

My Audacity was the current version (2.1.1) and worked as normal in W10 'til today, when there was an update that was more than just a regular one. Full reinstall over a couple of hours or more, plus new MS software added that I hadn't had before, like MS Sway and some new messaging/telephony apps.

Problem with Audacity

Reply #7 –
Quote from: JabbaThePrawn on
Quote from: [JAZ] on

Audacity 2.1.0 here, on Windows 10 up-to-date (i.e. november update included). Not having any issues. Soundcard an integrated Reatek.

My Audacity was the current version (2.1.1) and worked as normal in W10 'til today, when there was an update that was more than just a regular one. Full reinstall over a couple of hours or more, plus new MS software added that I hadn't had before, like MS Sway and some new messaging/telephony apps.

That's the November Update alright.  It installs like an upgrade and not a service pack or normal update.  It's why you can't receive it if you recently upgraded to Windows 10.

I'm using 2.1.1 and despite my above issues.  Only one device is one more actually finished driver away from working like it did on Windows 7 from it seems like and another hasn't changed a damn bit.

To note: If you have disabled any telemetry features you have to re-disable them again.  If you removed default apps with powershell (be careful with this), you'll have to re-remove them again.  You may actually have to reinstall your drivers for your sound card in order to get things working again, I had to actually do this with my mom's Lenovo laptop which has an onboard Conexant HD Audio driver.

Avast shot out my RAM for few hours and I ended up having to reboot the system before I could get picture on my monitor.  On my mom's laptop it never happened and she is also using the same exact version of Avast.  Why it happened on my computer is a mystery, but may have something to do with ISOBuster misbehaving, as removing it later on fixed a problem accessing a directory over 2GB in size and messing up the default actions for my optical drives that caused a memory leak which also disabled my computer's onboard video in the process forcing a cold reboot.

Problem with Audacity

Reply #8 –
Quote from: Chibisteven on
Quote from: JabbaThePrawn on
Quote from: [JAZ] on

Audacity 2.1.0 here, on Windows 10 up-to-date (i.e. november update included). Not having any issues. Soundcard an integrated Reatek.

My Audacity was the current version (2.1.1) and worked as normal in W10 'til today, when there was an update that was more than just a regular one. Full reinstall over a couple of hours or more, plus new MS software added that I hadn't had before, like MS Sway and some new messaging/telephony apps.

That's the November Update alright.  It installs like an upgrade and not a service pack or normal update.  It's why you can't receive it if you recently upgraded to Windows 10.

I'm using 2.1.1 and despite my above issues.  Only one device is one more actually finished driver away from working like it did on Windows 7 from it seems like and another hasn't changed a damn bit.

To note: If you have disabled any telemetry features you have to re-disable them again.  If you removed default apps with powershell (be careful with this), you'll have to re-remove them again.  You may actually have to reinstall your drivers for your sound card in order to get things working again, I had to actually do this with my mom's Lenovo laptop which has an onboard Conexant HD Audio driver.

Avast shot out my RAM for few hours and I ended up having to reboot the system before I could get picture on my monitor.  On my mom's laptop it never happened and she is also using the same exact version of Avast.  Why it happened on my computer is a mystery, but may have something to do with ISOBuster misbehaving, as removing it later on fixed a problem accessing a directory over 2GB in size and messing up the default actions for my optical drives that caused a memory leak which also disabled my computer's onboard video in the process forcing a cold reboot.

I know what you mean about having to go over your settings all over again, to make sure they are as you set them the previous time. It all seems okay so far, but it's best to be sure.

I had problems with Avast at my last job. It went on two very old PCs, as almost nothing else worked on Windows 98 by then. Those two machines were purchased on the same day - on one it worked like a dream and on the other it bogged the whole thing down to virtual uselessness.

On my current laptop, I'm using the free version of Avira. Seems decent, and has a shell menu scan option, which Windows Defender didn't have.
 

Problem with Audacity

Reply #9 –
Quote from: JabbaThePrawn on
I know what you mean about having to go over your settings all over again, to make sure they are as you set them the previous time. It all seems okay so far, but it's best to be sure.

I had problems with Avast at my last job. It went on two very old PCs, as almost nothing else worked on Windows 98 by then. Those two machines were purchased on the same day - on one it worked like a dream and on the other it bogged the whole thing down to virtual uselessness. Currently using the free version of Avira.


The weird thing was it being ISOBuster causing memory leak problems because Avast was totally normal after I let it do it's thing for a few hours and rebooted the system, figuring out keystrokes necessary to do so with black screen.  I had ISOBuster installed on Windows 7 about a couple weeks before upgrading to Windows 10 and the default actions got screwed up for all optical drives with the initial July upgrade as well, but Avast never misbehaved either.

Some people had a channel swap bug that starts with a popping sound with the Asus Phoebus, but I've never experienced it.  Although if they got rid of this Dolby Home Theater v4 thing (which I never found all that useful or beneficial) it probably work a hundred times better as the Windows 10 installer loves to remove it anyway and stuff it in the Windows.old folder (although a lot of people would complain about never buying another ASUS product again all over the ROG forums or that their setup now sounds like crap without it, when they could just get better speakers and headphones).