Audio recording misses a second here and there

[Elrich]

Recently when I record on my Mac (on OS X 10.11.6) -- using Audacity 2.1.2 or other apps like Audio Hijack -- sometimes a second here, a second there is missing, as if the software is pausing at times. The recording I'm currently editing, which ran about 90 minutes, was fine for the first hour but has this problem more and more frequently in the last half hour, suggesting to me that it happens more the longer the recording gets.

This has only started happening in the last six months or so, on a MacBook pro I've had about five years. Is this a problem of harddrive space, or something else?

Not sure if this is the best place for this question, but I posted on the Audacity forums and got no response...

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello,

Check Audacity > Preferences > Recording and see if you have Sound Activated Recording enabled. Also, check  > System Preferences... > Energy Saver and make sure Put hard disks to sleep when possible is unchecked, and review your Screen Saver settings.

-How much hard drive space do you have free?
-Do you have any third-party utilities installed that may be activated in the background during recording?
-You could try updating Audacity to the latest version 2.3.0 here: Audacity: Mac Downloads

C

 

[Elrich]

Sound activated recording wasn't on, but "Put hard disks to sleep" was. I just unchecked it.
Currently 58 GB of hard drive space
What kind of third-party utilities are you talking about? I don't think there's anything...
Since it's not an Audacity-only problem, I don't think changing versions will help, but unchecking that box in system preferences might. We'll see if it makes a difference. Thanks.

 

[Cory Cooper]

OK, thanks.

I mean utilities like MacKeeper, CleanMyMac, antivirus apps, etc.

"Since it's not an Audacity-only problem, I don't think changing versions will help" - Are you having the same issue in GarageBand or other apps?

You could try the suggestions here: How can I record without small skips (dropouts) or duplications?

C

 

[Elrich]

Thanks, this looks useful! This is the kind of problem where I try to google an answer, but can't figure out what the keywords are...