Studio Recording Software: The Audacity of Temptation

Last week as I was opening Audacity to demonstrate a few features to my Audition Ready Audio class, a window popped up stating version 3.4.0 was now available. I commented that, as usual, I’d be waiting a bit before jumping on the newest version. It’s one of the core ideas I have repeated for years: a slightly out-of-date system that works is a much better choice than a new one that doesn’t. We cannot afford unnecessary downtime in our home studio setups. I clicked “remind me later” and proceeded.

A few days later, I began seeing fervent messages in VO groups, asking if anyone else was experiencing issues with the new version. Sure enough, there was “unexpected behavior” which prevented audio from being recorded. That’s kind of a problem for us. Wading through the comments in various discussion boards, there appeared to be workarounds. But, it was clearly a bug. One which would cause most people’s studio workflow to come to a screeching halt.

This was not “inconceivable!” (as Vizzini would say)… It is the type of failure we might anticipate. In this case, it was a “point zero” version, indicating a more significant update. Most applications use a sequential numbering system. The first number – for example, RX 10, Twisted Wave 29, or Adobe Audition 24 – is the major release version. You’ll then see numbers trailing behind that, indicating various levels of updates and changes. I tend to worry about any version updates which end in zero. In this case, “Audacity v 3.4.0” made it clear that it was likely a more significant set of changes. (If it had been “Audacity v 4.0” I would have been even more careful about implementing the update).

Bear in mind that when you install a new version, it generally will overwrite the old one. You may get the option to save the old version (a good practice), or you can often rename or copy the older version to a separate folder to keep it around. It’s also possible to save the unextracted version (the “.dmg” file that ends up in your Downloads folder on MacOS) to a cloud storage location. To their credit, AudacityTeam does maintain a repository of validated recent versions on a separate site. That makes it easy to reinstall an earlier version.

While some may deride this as being overly cautious, there’s seldom a “need” to have the next newest version immediately. I’d much rather continue to get work out the door. In this instance, it just wouldn’t allow people to record. Sometimes, it can cause deeper issues and potentially corrupt files. There are few things I like less than the untangling involved with reversing an install and then methodically checking to make sure that everything is working correctly. Or worse, having to dig through backups to find a workable setup just be back up and running once again.

As with most solutions in the studio, there are other ways around this issue. One simple strategy is to have another recording application available. Having something like WavePad (which has a free, limited version) or Ocenaudio (which is donation ware) can be a simple backup option.

It does feel that I’m preaching to the converted. The best practice in running a home voiceover studio is to not take unnecessary chances. Hopefully, the flashy newness of the latest/greatest/newest version update has you sitting back in your chair and crossing your arms, rather than leaning forward and immediately clicking “OK”. That’s what keeps us up and running.

Audacity updated version 3.4.2 available

Since I published this post, AudacityTeam has addressed the bug I described above and brought out two quick version updates to address it and some other issues which appeared.
Version 3.4.2 seems to be working well on major OS platforms. Link to AudacityTeam download page.
As I encourage above, have a plan for what to do if an update causes your studio to crash!

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