[NTLUG:Discuss] sound issue with audio editing and cd burning

[Fred James]

Mike Hart wrote:
> The default sample rate on unconfigured Audacity is frequently 48000 or 96000, depending on the distro and audacity version you have. 
>
> The default (and likely hardware restricted) sample rate on your off the shelf audio sound card is likely 44.1khz.  The error message you are quoting is audacity telling you it can't play audio at sample rates higher than the hardware supports (it doesn't do dynamic downgrade from the rate you specify in the file.)
>
> Create a new audio session using 44khz as the sound rate, and you should not get this error. or (if you're doing pro sound you intend to sell or broadcast on production TV or radio) -- Go get a sound card capable of 192kbps audio, then pretty much any bit rate will be supported.  
>
> If I read your message a different way, You already have a "RIPPED" CD that you are trying to open with Audacity. If this is the case, the issue I describe above is the same, but you must find the default sample rate in audacity and make it lower.   I've forgotten how to set the default bit rate, but you should be able to find it in the settings. If you're changing the default rate like that, you may need to quit/restart audacity or even the X session before it takes. 
>
>
> Importing from CD media into digital media on a Hard drive -> RIPPING
> Writing digital media on your drive onto a CD -> BURNING
>   
Mike Hart
I continue to follow this one out ... trying to nail a specific pattern 
... what I did exactly was ...
    (1) used Grip to rip CD tracks to hard drive (resulted in *.wav files)
    (2) used Audacity to modify (raise pitch and lower speed) specific 
tracks
    (3) export the results (to *.wav files again)
    (4) use K3b to burn an audio CD of those *.wav files
... what I have been able to pin point so far is that all is well 
(including audio output) until I use K3b.  After K3b, all payback works 
except within Audacity - for example I can use any of the following and 
hear the sound just fine ...
    Gnome-cd (2.20.1)
    a Youtube video in Firefox (2.0.0.16)
    Totem (2.20.1)
but not Audacity (1.3.3-beta)

Audacity opens automatically in 44100 Hz, but I have tried every setting 
available to no avail (8000, 16000, 22050, 44100, 48000, 96000)

The only two fixes I have found so far ...
    Reboot ... works every time, of course
    (as root) killall -9 artsd (if 'ps -ef | grep artsd' shows it to 
exist) - I haven't caught this often enough to be sure of it as yet, but 
it seems to work - I thought it might be esd for a while, but I am 
leaning away from that at the moment.

By the way, for those who might be interested ... we have found the 
following combinations to produce slowed down audio with a pretty good 
likeness to the original sound - instead of sounding like a 78 played at 
33, if you have ever experienced that.
    -20.0 percent of speed; +3.0 semitones pitch
    -25.0 percent of speed; +5.5 semitones pitch
    -30.0 percent of speed; +7.0 semitones pitch
or your might try +7.5 semitones pitch with the -30.0 percent speed - I 
personally think the +7.0 semitones is better, but we had at least one 
vote here for +7.5 semitones.
Just sharing that in case it helps anyone?  I can send a short *.wav 
sample to show what I mean if anyone want to hear it - probably better 
do that off list though.

Thanks again
Regards
Fred James