Audacity on Windows 7

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Audacity on Windows 7

Postby jon » Mon Nov 16, 2009 4:15 pm

Obviously, things will change over time, but as of yesterday, the following advice applies.

Audacity is very popular Open Source (i.e. - free of charge) audio editor (and recorder) software. It took some research and a little effort, but I got it to work on Windows 7, with a first time clean install.

At the moment, the trick is to use the Nightly Build. You can find it on this page:
http://wiki.audacityteam.org/index.php? ... s_Binaries
Under the Windows Binaries section, click on Unicode Release.

Unfortunately, that only gives you a Zip file. Extract it to C:\Program Files\Audacity (C:\Program Files (x86)\Audacity if you are using the 64-bit version of Win7) and then create a shortcut to "C:\Program Files\Audacity\audacity.exe" on your Desktop, Start menu or System Tray so that you can actually start up Audacity the next time you need it.

At the moment, the Nightly Build is 1.3.10. The so-called Beta version is 1.3.9, and it appears to work until you try to save some settings from a non-Admin user ID, then it blows up on a permissions issue.

The "Production Version" is currently 1.2.6, and it is strongly NOT recommended. It turns out that it was written for Windows 98!

Hard to say when it will happen, but the Audacity Project is working on Version 2, which will probably be 1.3.10, 1.3.11 or 1.3.12, whichever proves to be stable, and will fully support Windows 7.
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Re: Audacity on Windows 7

Postby PMC » Mon Nov 16, 2009 5:59 pm

jon wrote:At the moment, the trick is to use the Nightly Build. You can find it on this page:
http://wiki.audacityteam.org/index.php? ... s_Binaries
Under the Windows Binaries section, click on Unicode Release.


You forgot to mention that you are playing with fire, when using the nightly builds :)
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Re: Audacity on Windows 7

Postby jon » Mon Nov 16, 2009 8:19 pm

PMC wrote:You forgot to mention that you are playing with fire, when using the nightly builds :)

Good point, though I found the whole Audacity project "culture" weird:
  1. their production version was written for Windows 98;
  2. their beta version is in its 9th release, and they have been releasing Beta releases for (5 or more?) years;
  3. the latest beta version is months old, and was never (seriously) tested with Windows 7;
  4. all the support forms keep saying "use the nightly build, as it is less buggy than the Beta and the only one that has any chance of working in Windows 7"
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Re: Audacity on Windows 7

Postby jon » Wed Dec 02, 2009 7:29 pm

Update: the available Beta is now Version 1.3.10, which DOES work properly with Windows 7, so there is no longer a need to use the Nightly Build.
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Re: Audacity on Windows 7

Postby jon » Tue Apr 12, 2011 4:15 pm

The Audacity Team is pleased to announce the release of Audacity 1.3.13
(Beta) for Windows, Mac and Linux/Unix. This version now fully supports
Windows 7 and contains many bug fixes plus a few new features.

Please also use this version for Windows Vista and Mac OS X 10.6 rather
than Audacity 1.2.

The e-mail above just arrived. Link to the Download is http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download

As you will see, even though they call this a Beta version, the Production version (1.2 series) is not intended for, nor supported for, Vista or Windows 7.
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Re: Audacity on Windows 7

Postby skyvalleyradio » Tue Apr 12, 2011 7:01 pm

jon - let us know once you get this running - CFSI uses Audacity as it's primary production tool. I've been reluctant to upgrade our Production computer to Win 7 just because of the Audacity issue. A few of the CFSI programmers have told me they've had trouble running these 'nightly builds' on Win 7, so I've left XP Pro on our prod machine. Training 60+ volunteer broadcasters how to use a different program such as Pro Tools or Adobe Audition ain't going to happen. The simplicity of Audacity seems to be just right for many. Thanks for the tip...
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Re: Audacity on Windows 7

Postby jon » Tue Apr 12, 2011 7:15 pm

Preliminary testing went fine. I've been using 1.3.12 heavily since it came out, and have not run into any difficulties on the 64-bit version of Windows 7 Home Premium. Frankly, I have not been recommending the use of the Nightly builds since 1.3.10 came out in November or December 2009.

If you are really worried about Windows 7 problems with ANY software, the 32-bit version of Windows 7 is a much safer bet, in my experience. The 64-bit version doesn't really buy you much (but potential grief) until you have at least 4 or 5GB of memory (RAM) on a computer.

Nero is a good example. Some operations in Nero 8 or 9 (I forget which) were excruciatingly slow on Windows 7 64-bit, but ran perfectly on 32-bit versions of Window 7.

I also suspect that BSOD (Blue Screen of Death = a hardware STOP error) problems I've experienced with current drivers of name brand hardware just purchased, and returned, as a result, would not have happened with the 32-bit version of Windows 7.
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Re: Audacity on Windows 7

Postby skyvalleyradio » Wed Apr 13, 2011 10:45 am

jon - the issues I talked about were all on 32-bit versions of Win 7 and these are programmers I know have the skills to install Audacity properly and deal with config or crash issues. I haven't yet run into anyone successfully running the 64-bit version due to driver unavailability problems. When I got a new box for Sky Valley Radio last winter, I tried the 64-bit version of Ultimate but had too many problems with the 2 sound-cards installed so I junked it and installed the 32-bit Win 7 Ultimate. My automation software ("SAM Broadcaster") and 2 sound-cards (Creative SB Xtreme!) all work great. Had to turn off the "Aero-peek" function on graphics as there was sometimes a memory issue during 'cross-fades' causing "stuttering". (in spite of installing hefty RAM sticks) I haven't tried the new Audacity on any of my own W7 machines but will do a thorough work-out on these before unleashing it at CFSI
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Re: Audacity on Windows 7

Postby jon » Wed Apr 13, 2011 12:23 pm

Some comments on stuttering and other performance problems:
  1. Memory (RAM) is the most important, but 32-bit Windows 7 can only use about 3.3GB of RAM before it reaches the limit for 32-bit addressability
  2. Processor power is also an issue, so a minimum of Dual Core/Duo Core, i.e. - at least two processors, is a must
  3. Anti-malware programs of various stripes are famous for diverting Windows' attention away from what you want it to do, especially "Real Time" like recording, usually by using all available memory (RAM), forcing Windows to "page out" (to a hard disk) the memory associated with your real time process, but anti-malware programs can also hog one or more processors during (automatic = when you least want it done) updating of virus signatures or scanning; VIPRE is the only anti-malware that I have never heard of trouble with, but even it needs some config
  4. there is other software out there that can be a memory and/or processor hog, like BackBlaze which has settings to reduce loads during its "over the Internet" backup, but not for its periodic scan of your hard drives for changed files to backup. I've even seen problems shortly after startup with too many programs trying to check for updates at the same time.
It is not impossible to overcome these problems, but I still rarely do recording to a computer, using a Pro type digital recorder instead. They are now below $100. And about the size of a deck of cards. They can record to a digital camera type memory card in .WAV format, which you simply copy on to your computer afterward.
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