Hi CubeAce,

thank you very much for the info - I did not try that. I will check with this setting and let you know the results.

Regards,

Mladen

I have checked my settings and wav was already chosen. The only thing I changed was to increase Preview size from 4096 to 8192 (the other was already set to 16384). I have opened my project and several clips are muted (my workaround helps, but I do not want to do this all the time).

Never mind. Eventually it will be fixed - till then I will pay more attention to this behavior.

Thank you very much. Do not waste more time on this.

@EstMladen

Hi.

That's actually a low sample size if you are running multiple audio tracks as all sound files get loaded ahead of the video onto physical ram memory to help keep it in sync. If there is not enough memory then the files get sent to disk which is not ideal and can cause further problems.

There may also be some problems with mts files regarding the ability for the program to play sound files if there is more than one audio stream in the file. Especially if they have different sample or frame rates or use different codecs. I sometimes see ram usage go above 8GBs with a committed charge of use of over 12 GBs with just a few of individual sound tracks running at the same time.

If you do run into further problems, the users on the forums are here to help out but may need more detail to give an accurate diagnosis. Video editing is possibly the most demanding thing anyone can do on a computer. What plays easily on a computer can often be troublesome in a video editor.

Typically replies here are within 24 hours whereas a technical support answer from a Magix staff member can take several days and they may well ask similar questions you would get here.

Ray.

Hi Ray,

thanks again for the explanation. I forgot to mention at the beginning that I did not have this issue on Magix Movie Studio 2023 Platinum Edition.

To add some technical details - my PC has 64 GB RAM, ATI Radeon 5600G 8GB RAM, 512 GB SSD + 2 TB HDD so I believe that should do the work 😉

However, maybe, the number of files used to create the final movie could be the reason of this behavior (but, it worked on Platinum edition) - around 300 files all together around 35 GB of mts files. The final movie is around 9 GB in size and it lasts 1 hour.

I have added small video capture of how it looks - it can be seen how many tracks are used (sometimes more than 1 audio track - the original + added background music). There is audio on the first clip but it gets lost on another. Later on (which I did not record) the sound is back.

So far I could not find a pattern for this. I will pay more attention during editing and use my workaround. At least I now how to solve it 😉

Thank you once more!

Regards,

Mladen

@EstMladen

Thanks for the additional information Mladen.

You definitely have more than enough physical ram. It is worth noting that few people have the same computer system specs to edit on and the program has an amount of flexibility built into it to help fine tune the performance.

Most people (although not all) have Intel nvidia based systems to take advantage of the GPU hardware video encoders they possess.

AMD systems tend to have more processing cores and more parallel processing lanes for faster data throughput.

Therefore, some amount of experimentation on the programs setup on how it handles the various processing options can gain performance benefits.

When you install the program it will automatically choose settings based on your hardware but it may not make the best choices.

In the same settings area you made your last changes to the sound samples there is another tab for the device options for the component selection. There are options for choosing what components will mainly be in charge of which bits of processing the computer will use for which operation.

Those operations are broken down into three groups.

Importing the files into the project.

Processing the imported files.

Exporting Encoding and rendering the exported file.

There are drop-down boxes associated with each section. Some components will give a better performance than others in a given system.

Depending on the strength/capability of a given component at a given task sometimes using just one component for all tasks would be the better choice.

For components that are not as good at one task but may be excellent at another, it may be better to choose that component for that task alone.

Unfortunately sometimes the programs choices when the program installs can be the optimum setup but sometimes it isn't.

Make a note of how the program has set up your program and then try changing things around. You can't break a project, your system, or the program by trying different combinations but you may find a better more reliable setup. How many different options you see may depend on the components installed. All of the options should be visible in all the boxes. Some choice settings may result in much worse playback or rendering performance. At worst you will be no better off after trying. At best you may find a substantial performance boost.

The length of the project may have some amount of hit on the performance. Longer projects do tend to bog down performance but projects of up to two hours should be possible. The longer a project is the more free space there should be on the C: drive of your system for the program to produce temp swap files while the program handles the alterations to assemble the final editing choices for the render. That amount of free space could be more than the total of files used in the project. Less space could result in a slowdown of the program or dropped actions such as your dropped audio or in my instances a failure to render the video content on a given clip correctly.

Your project doesn't look that complex but is using a lot of short clips.

By comparison here is one of my one minute projects.

If you continue to have problems try the above when you have time to experiment as the amount of options can take some time to get through.

Ray.

@EstMladen

Hi Mladen.

One additional thought as you said (and I overlooked) that you had no problems with your earlier version of the program. In that case make sure any video drivers are up to date by visiting and checking at the AMD site. Sometimes not having the latest video drivers can cause problems with video editing programs.

The same can be said of the operating system. Always make sure you are within an update or two.

Ray.

Hi Ray,

thank you very much for the comments and hints you gave me. Really, you did not have to spend so much time on this - I really appreciate it! 👍

Since I do have more projects to render I will certainly experiment with the settings are carefully observe the behavior of Movie Studio. Maybe I will find either the pattern or the settings which will work without this issue.

Thank you so much and all the best!

Mladen

@EstMladen

Hi

The timeline image and video you have posted above does not show us what is happening on the timeline, which may give us a clue as to the cause of the 'missing' audio issue.

Can you make the following changes

• Select 3 - 4 consecutive video clips including the one where the audio disappears and press Ctrl+U to get the video and audio on separate tracks.
   
• Zoom in both horizontally and vertically so the video and audio objects header information is visible and the video/audio objects are clearly visible - see the example image below.
   
• Make the timeline pane full screen - select the small square top right of the timeline pane, and take a screenshot holding down the Alt key and press Print screen (PrtScn) key. Paste the image into an image editor, save as jpg and upload in a comment.
  
  

John EB
Forum Moderator

Hi John,

here is what I have encountered when tried to do what you said - when I selected option "Video/Audio on separate tracks" (I believe this is what you wanted, since CTRL+U means "Video/Audio on the same track" and they are already on the same track), audio is gone on the same clip where it was a moment ago. After I changed the option back to "Video/Audio on the same track" audio is returned.

I have put 2 short captured video - the first shows tracks where the audio is present (994), then comes several small clips where audio is lost and finally audio is returned in clip 1008.

The second captured video shows what is happening with audio if I separate it from video and return back - it disappears and is restored after is shown on the same track with video.

You said that I can put here a screenshot, but I think it would not show valuable info since the audio is gone even at the beginning after separation is clicked.

It looks like a bug to me 😕

 (clips with and without audio)

 (what is happening when separation of audio is chosen)

@EstMladen

HiMladen.

Somehow when you produced a separate audio track you also muted that audio track. Click on the speaker symbol to unmute.

You also don't seem to have your program set to display the waveforms of your audio track which would give a visual indication of whether there is any sound to be heard in the clip.

Go to your setting and do the following to show waveforms on the audio tracks on importing the files.

Last but not least, there is more than one volume control within the editor.

Pulling down the volume manually on a clip will over-ride any other settings you make to either the sound volume curve or mixer setting. I think this is what @johnebaker was trying to see in your video clip.

Applied sound volume curves can also stay in the same place on the timeline on that track if the file is cut, or moved and replaced by another clip so the volume will still behave on the new clip in the same place as if the volume had been altered where the original was at the place it was altered when using the volume edit tool or automation from the audio mixer. I think of these as 'ghost settings' and I often delete that track to be sure if there seems to be a problem. If there are other clips on that track move them up or down a track before deleting the current track. Create a new track is necessary. All the clips can be moved with one mouse move if the mouse is in single track mode.

Sometimes to see these things clearly you need to enlarge that portion of the timeline both in width and height.

As you seem to be losing audio at your clip fade crossover points you may be accidentality lowering or muting that clip somehow with that volume slider you see on the audio track in my example above. Even when the audio video is combined onto one track, those sliders remain on the tracks. One is for the transparency of the video and the other the volume setting for that clip. I don't see how that could be done accidentality easily but not beyond imagining it could happen.

[Edit]

I normally have sound and video on separate tracks but have combined them for this image and enlarged the track to show the relevant positions of each control on the video object. I have pulled down on the transparency setting slightly to make it more visible.

Note the designated ≑ style handles only appear towards the centre of the length of the clip. At the very top of the video section and mid way of the height of the audio section. No matter how deep you enlarge the combined video audio object, the audio portion does not get any higher.

Ray.

@EstMladen

I'd try a short test project with the same files but with the audio displayed on separate tracks (Settings, as above or CTRL H). You (and us) will then plainly see if any track has been muted (as you have done to track 2 in your 2nd video, shown by Ray above). Also make sure you have the waveform displayed. Enable that in Settings too, or if the clip is already on the timeline, right-click on the audio part and choose "Create Waveform Display".

I'd also reset and get rid of those track curves for the test; interestingly, there is nothing in Help or the PDF about the purpose or use of track curves.

The audio is coming and going on clip 994.MTS because when you choose video and audio on one track ie track 1, the mute that you have applied to track 2 no longer applies because there's nothing on track 2. When you go CTRL H to display the audio on a separate track, the audio drops into track 2 and is therefore muted. The mute button colouring isn't active until there is something on the track.

@AAProds

G'day Al.

Thank you for adding one additional way of adjusting a sound track I was not aware of.

The addition of a sound mute button is something my older version doesn't have but it does have a general mute button. I hadn't thought about having a track pre-muted from previously having had some other clips on the track.

This just adds to the many ways one can mess up audio levels in MEP and VPX (The latter of which does already have a separate audio mute button).

Think of the central volume control in an audio object as the pre-gain adjustment in a normal audio mixing desk. You can right click an audio object (clip) and select a plus or minus figure in dbm to set the level of the recording should you not reach an average volume of 0dbmm in the main mixer panel. This ensures (or tries to) that all volume sliders in the mixer have an equal amount of travel to help during an audio mix down.

So far, so good.

Then comes the volume curve tool which can be a way of accurately adjusting the volume or pan (and a few other options) which is independent of the volume slider in the mixer. You can hear the sound increase/decrease and see that the mixer slider does not move. However. If the mixer slider is pulled down to off, that will negate you hearing anything.

Then to top it off you have the auto button on the mixer. This will lay down a third audio curve that while the auto button is left on will control the volume and the slider position during playback and thus can override or combine with the drawn volume curve. Of which version of events actually happens I need to do further investigation of. That audio curve is only visible when the auto button on the mixer is turned on. It does not replace the the curve made by the curve drawing tool.

@EstMladen

Hi Mladen.

This is what Al, @johnebaker and myself are talking about. Do not worry about our continued discussions as we often gain new knowledge ourselves while investigating other users problems.

All of this additional information may just confuse you but I hope not. We keep going so that other people browsing the forums for answers may also learn more about the way MMS MEP and VPX works.

This one shows Al's concerns about prior muted tracks.

This video is about all the variations that can occur other than the previous problem described by Al.

I hope that is most of it and one of those adjustments may help to solve your ongoing problems.

Ray.

Hi guys,

thank you so much for all your replies and comments and also sorry for not commenting sooner. I was busy with some other things and did not have time for answering sooner.

I have compared my settings with the suggested ones and also displayed waveforms to see if there was an audio on muted clips. Yes, the audio was there.

However, the behavior of Movie Studio has surprised me again. I have created a small captured video which shows the following steps:

1. the clip with sound is chosen and played (clip 810, waveform displays a sound)
2. Video/Audio on separate tracks is chosen. Pay attention that the audio is automatically disabled on the second track even though no explicit action for this has been taken!
3. no sound can be heard! (of course, when the sound is disabled)
4. enabling the sound and playing again works well - the sound is back
5. Mute option is selected on the same clip - there is no sound, expected behavior, and Mute prefix is added to the clip name in the second track. This prefix was not added when the sound was disabled.
6. Activate audio object and play restores the sound
7. Display is returned back to one track - the sound is also there
8. Separation of track (as I did it in the step 2) works, surprisingly, well - there is no sign that the audio is disabled as it was in the step 2

To conclude this - I do not see any other logical explanation than a bug in the program. A clip which normally plays audio and has an audio (as can be seen on the waveform) suddenly mutes audio ONLY after first separation of tracks.

One more thing to point out - I am using a Suite version. I do not see from the screenshots you have posted that anybody else is using it. I have mentioned in my first post that I did not have this problem in Movie Studio 2023 Platinum - my previous version. The problem I have is in Suite 2024 (Magix software shows on their web pages three versions of Movie Studio 2024: Platinum, Suite and Ultimate).

I can live with this behavior (even it is strange). Maybe some future software updates will solve this.

I have more projects to render and will try to do things differently - maybe I will find a way which will work as expected and not as strange as this 😉

Thank you all once more.

Regards,

Mladen

@EstMladen

Hi Mladen.

The only difference between the suite version and ultimate version is the addition of the third party effects supplied as shown on this page.

The base program will be identical to your own so anyone here that has it could confirm your findings.

Sometimes people forget which mouse mode they are on and can do a change that will effect all tracks. I'm not saying that is what is happening in this case as I personally do not have that program to check up on.

In your video, the track two header is already turned blue which would not show whether that track was already muted before you separated the tracks or not. If you could do that experiment again without highlighting track two first so we can see the mute become enabled that would be very useful.

Thank you.

Ray.

@EstMladen

Hi,

The only difference between Platinum and Suite are third party plugins, otherwise, the programs are identical.

2. There is nothing on track 2. When you put V/A on separate tracks, I see that you have already turned on track curves - the green and white lines on at least track 2 - so you have already been playing around with this. The only reason that I can find to have the track muted is that the track was already muted beforehand. You can check this in the Mixer. Since there was nothing on track 2 when you started, the mute does not show in the track header even though it is M in the Mixer. Try this again, but first go to the Mixer and make sure that the track is not already muted. If M is not activated for track 2, then when you put V/A on separate tracks, the track should not be muted.

5. Muting the object the way that you did is like adding an effect; it shows up in the object name and before the name as it is important for you to know that the object has been muted, not the track. To see more, double-click on the audio part to open Audio Cleaning. Compressor tab, click on the box beside Compressor to put in a checkmark, increase ratio, OK. Now you'll see the object name with Compressor after it.

Another way to mute the audio on an object is to right-click the audio object, Set Volume, Sound off. You will then see MUTE in front of the object name.

Once you have put V/A on separate tracks, for adjusting the audio part, I suggest that you only right-click on the audio part as you will get just the menu for audio.

Always put V/A on separate tracks so that you can see what audio you are working with. Set this in the Program Settings - uncheck Video/Audio on one track.

EDIT: I see that Ray just beat me to it.

John CB

Hi,

thank you both for your very quick reply.

Here is another capture - this time without selection of track 2. The behavior is the same as it was before - the first separation causes no sound and then, after I enable the sound (by clicking on the crossed microphone on track 2), no matter how many times I play with separation (on One Track/on Separate tracks) the sound is always there. It is not there only when I separate them first time. And this happens on clip which initially has no problems with sound.

I do not see what is the difference in these cases - track 2 either has sound from the clip or is empty, but the behavior is different.

What is certain is that in the future I will separate the tracks from the very beginning of the project and use different settings than I now (see the picture) - the red one will uncheck and the green one will check. I haven't changed nor played with these settings after I have installed Magix Studio.

Mladen

@EstMladen

Hi Mladen.

Even though I have an earlier version of your program I have been able to replicate this problem but only on an existing project where the track had been muted before objects were cut prior leaving the track empty and then saving the project. Once the track that is muted and all objects deleted, that track no longer shows that it is muted. Once that project is then saved and subsequently reopened it does not show that effected track as muted until something is placed upon it.

This does not happen to newly created projects.

Ray.

@EstMladen

Hi,

I said essentially what Ray just said. You had the track already muted. Next time, open the Mixer (shortcut M) first and look to see if the track is muted.

John CB

@browj2

Hi John.

I was just checking that even if you set the movie settings to use the current project as a template for future projects that any altered mixer settings were not included. It wasn't, at least in my older version.

Unless it is a bug that has crept into the current version.

Ray.