Re: [Audacity-quality] "Latency Problem"

[Gale A. <ga...@au...>]

| From Steve the Fiddle <ste...@gm...> 
| Thu, 16 Jan 2014 08:39:49 +0000
| Subject: [Audacity-quality] "Latency Problem"
> "Latency Correction setting has caused the recorded audio to be hidden
> before zero.
> Audacity has brought it back to start at zero.
> You may have to use the Time Shift Tool (<---> or F5) to drag the
> track to the right place."
> 
> Probably not.
> 
> The ONLY time I have seen this message is when, for whatever reason,
> recording has stalled.

I think the only practical case this covers is where the user puts a
silly value in latency correction such as -1800 instead of -180. If that
happens then you can appreciate the value of the message. 

 
> If the audio is behind zero, then it can't be dragged, so the "advice"
> part of this message is worse than useless. When this happens, the
> Time Shift Tool is no use at all. <--> or F5 do not help.
> 
> This message is not uncommon and it regularly confuses users. It is
> misleading about the cause of the problem  and what to do about it.
> What can be done to improve this?

Stop the message displaying when no audio was recorded?

On my Win 7 x64 machine, as expected, the message only
occurs when recording stalls for a second track with overdub 
on. 

For example...

1 New project, 44100 Hz. 
2 Set "Audio to buffer" to 1 ms. 
3 Set Software Playthrough off (because it disregards Audio to buffer 
   setting) and Overdub on. These are the Audacity defaults.  
4 Record any input. A new track and the recording cursor 
   appear, but the cursor stalls at time zero.
5 Press Stop.  No audio is recorded, no message appears. 
6 Record again.  Another new track appears and the recording 
   cursor appears but the cursor stalls at time zero. 
7 Press Stop. The message appears, but as at step 5, there is no 
   audio recorded (zoom in to prove that). 

You can also cause the message to occur on a subsequent
recording with: 

* Default "Audio to buffer" of 100ms
* Overdub on
* Software Playthrough on or off

but cause the stall by recording a quiet stream with Sound 
Activated Recording on at 0 dB level. 

I assume a USB transport issue will similarly cause the message
if recording a second track with default Audacity settings. 



Gale