Causes

Audible input monitoring usually causes a delay (latency) of the live recording input due to the time it takes to reach your headphones.

Fixes

To prevent this, turn input monitoring off. This can be done by choosing Transport > Transport Options > Enable audible input monitoring and clicking it to remove the check (tick) mark.

To listen to the live recording input without playthrough latency requires hardware monitoring - that is; the input signal must be routed directly through the audio device from the input to the output rather than being passed through software from input to output.

Causes

• Your microphone gain may be reduced. To fix this, see: Setting recording and playback levels

• You may be attempting to record a Bluetooth device at an unsupported sample rate. To fix this, see Audacity records silence when using a Bluetooth headset as a recording device

• You may be attempting to record a device which doesn't produce any sound. To fix this,

  • ensure that all parts of the device are connected properly (cables, microphone, interface, etc),

  • that microphones in need of phantom power are provided with that,

  • that no mute switches on any devices are turned on,

Causes

By default, Audacity doesn't play back the input.

Fixes

Go to

Causes

The default project sample rate in Audacity (and, indeed, most other devices) is 44100 Hz, whereas most Bluetooth headsets utilize different sample rates: 8000 Hz, 16000 Hz and, rarely, 24000 Hz.

Fixes

Causes

Most microphones are mono microphones, so they by default record on the left channel only.

Fixes

To hear your audio on both speakers, make sure you record in mono, and that the track is center-panned.

Causes

If you connect an external audio device (such as a USB microphone or USB headset) to your computer while Audacity is already running, it won't be detected automatically by Audacity.

Fixes

Causes

If you hear crackles, pops, or distortion when the recording is loud, or if the waveform is clearly touching the top and bottom edges of the track, you probably have clipping, which means that the signal has exceeded the maximum allowed level.

Fixes

Try lowering the recording level using the recording slider or the slider in the operating system.

You can also check to see if you can lower the volume on the input source itself (such as the tape deck, record player or microphone). Many sound cards and USB turntables or USB tape decks have an independent volume control for the playback signal level. See Recording with USB turntables or USB cassette decks for more help with USB turntables or tape decks.

When recording, try to aim for a maximum peak of around –6 dB in the Recording Meter so as to prevent the meter's red clipping warning coming on. If the meters are set to linear, the equivalent level to aim for is 0.5. Clicking and dragging on the meter's right edge lets you expand the meter to gauge levels more easily. After recording, you can boost the level safely using the Amplify or Normalize effects.

Causes

This is a visual indication that your recording has clipping. See Crackles, pops and distortion in the recording for more information.

Fixes

The vertical red lines show where the clipping has occurred; these clipping indicators can be turned on and off (Audacity default setting is "off") by selecting View -> Show Clipping in Waveform.

Causes

The recording slider is purposely disabled if it cannot directly manipulate the operating system's slider for the sound device, or if that device has no system slider. Turning down the Audacity slider to prevent distortion would be inadequate unless it also turned down the system slider. It would only make existing distortion quieter instead of removing it.

Fixes

• If the slider is disabled, check first via Audio Setup -> Recording devices that you are selecting the correct device. Audacity should be able to control the recording level of most built-in sound devices subject to the device having appropriate Sound Device Drivers.

• External recording devices such as USB turntables or tapedecks or interfaces may not have an operating system slider, especially on Mac. For all cases where there is no system slider, try to adjust the playback level on the recording device itself.

• Sometimes, switching the host via Audio Setup -> Host may help.

Causes

Recording gaps are typically caused by an overloaded computer, or by broken cables and connectors.

Computer load

Measuring latency in your system

Step 1: Adjust your Audacity preferences

1. Set your Devices Preferences

• On Windows open the Edit menu and select Preferences... or press Ctrl + P in your keyboard. On macOS open the Audacity menu and select Preferences... or press Cmd + P

• Select Devices in the left pane of the Preferences window

• Select the preferred Interface Host:

2. Set your Recording Preferences

• Select Recording in the left pane of the Preferences window

• Enable Overdub: Check Play other tracks while recording (overdub)

• Make sure Software playthrough of input is not checked

3. Set your Selection preferences

At the bottom of the Audacity window you will find the Selection toolbar

• Disable snapping, if you have it enabled

• Select Start and Length of Selection as your selection format

Step 2: Measuring the latency

Hardware Setup

To measure the latency you will need to record the audio from your playback device using your microphone. To do this place your microphone next to your speakers/headphones

Recording while playing a test track (Overdub)

• Open the Generate menu and select the Rhythm Track... option. Set Number of Measures (bars) to 2 and set the Beat Sound to Ping (short). Click OK to generate the track.

• Press Shift + R to record a new track. The rhythm track will be played back and recorded on a new track.

• Zoom in so you can see the clicks on the top track and its delayed version on the bottom track

• Create a selection that goes from the start of one click to the next

You should see something like this:

You can read the latency directly from the second panel of numbers. In this case it is 0.184 seconds or 184 milliseconds.

Click on Edit > Preferences, click on Devices tab and enter the negative of this number in the Latency compensation box. In this case it would be -184. Press OK to save your preferences.

Step 3: Checking the result

• Delete the second track by clicking the close box in its Track Control Panel

• Click in the Track Control Panel of the remaining track to select it

• Press Shift + R to record a new track

After the recording is finished Audacity will apply the Latency compensation by pushing the newly-recorded track back by the Latency compensation value.