Sound tracks going mute after video clip transitions / edges

Buergmhe wrote on 12/21/2017, 3:22 PM

After I could bypass a previous problem with sound recording described in this thread, I have worked more on my sound, adding narration. I now encounter a different problem. Additional sound clips like music or the narration skip or go mute (during preview, haven't tried rendering) where two video clips meet.

E.g. in the section shown in the screen below the music in track 7 will briefly "skip" at each of the clip edges seen on track one (video threre has sound as well). It's worse at the place with the yellow sound clip containing narration on track 2: Here the narration and music cut out completely where the clip below the chapter marker starts, up to the point where you see the time marker, from this point on they are both back. There are similar cases at other locations in the video. Any ideas what could cause this?

Additional info:

- It think this first appeared after I started adding the narration.

- The cut-out seems to be linked to the video: if I move the sound around it will always cut out at the same position relative to the video track. If I move the video track just a short bit to the right, it still cuts out at the clip edge. Interestingly, if I move it a larger distance, there is no longer any cutting out in this section (either the original place in the timeline, or the clip edge where it previously occurred.) . If I move it back, cut-out reappears as before.

- I used auto-ducking, that's where the thick green volume curves come from.

- I tried increasing audio buffers (from 4 to 6) it didn't seem to change anything.

- I tried different audio devices (in preferences) - no change

- Win 10 64, i5-2500 @3.3GHz, 8GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce GTX 560 Ti, Focusrite scarlett 2i4 & REaltek HD sound, MEPP 17.0.2.159,

If you can help me solve this before christmas (it's a present) it would be much appreciated...

Comments

johnebaker wrote on 12/21/2017, 3:46 PM

If you look at the image below, as you have said the tick green line indicated by red arrow is the auto ducking curve, however the audio clip shown also has a volume curve applied visble in the region between the tip of the red arrow and the blue arrow.

Is the volume curve on the audio object meant to be there?

If so is it mean to increase the volume later than the auto duscking?

If not I suspect the issue may be caused by this second volume curve applied to the audio object.

HTH

John EB

Buergmhe wrote on 12/21/2017, 4:47 PM

Right, that's a clip volume curve that was created manually earlier. I don't think that that should per se cause the issue, i.e. I had other places where there was no such overlap, but the same cut-out effect occurred.

However, I am now wondering if I am not encountering some glitches related to low memory or processing-overload. After reloading the project after a restart I still encounter similar problems, but not necessarily at the same places. E.g. I don't get a cutout now at the place I described in so much detail above. Is that possible? Is there any recommended way to cut memory demand down so I can finish the project?

Somewhat unrelated question. Is there a way to edit these autoducking (= mixer automation) curves with the mouse, like the object volume curves? I don't seem to be able to do this from the track view?

johnebaker wrote on 12/21/2017, 6:29 PM

@Buergmhe

Is this issue in exported video or on playback in the MEP?

Is the video on the timeline Full HD ie 1920 x 1080?

Is the Program settings, Import/Export tab, Hardware acceleration for playback if possible option checked - if it is not set it and try playing the timeline.

If the preview playback is still an issue try the following:

Set a range slightly longer than the entire timeline - 1 in image below.
Click the lightning symbol - 2 in the image below
Select Range - 3 in the image below
Once the render is complete a green bar will appear just above track 1
Play the timeline
If the rendered range plays back smoothly then the processor is not powerful enough to handle real time rendering and playback simultaneously.

HTH

John EB

Buergmhe wrote on 12/23/2017, 9:49 AM

Yes, 1920 x 1080. You had the right idea, the issues occurred only during playback in MEP. Doing some test renders confirmed that the audio problems were apparently performance related in some way. This was a bit annoying for getting the final editing done (turns out things are OK for a while on a fresh restarted PC and freshly loaded project, but eventually these problems always cropped up after some time). I ended up loosing the track volume curve when I moved tracks around to clean up a bit - but I recreated them as clip volume curves relatively easily. I was eventually able to export my video successfully and the render has no sound glitches. Yay!

Thanks and Merry Christmas, everyone!

johnebaker wrote on 12/23/2017, 9:52 AM

Thanks for letting us know and the seasons greetings to you as well.

John EB