-
Audio not working on cell phone speakers
Hello everyone!
I couldn’t find anything about this problem I’m having, but hopefully some of you will know what’s going on.I edited and exported a video on Premiere Pro CC 2017, using the high bitrate h264 preset. Everything seemed fine but when the client posted the video on YouTube they realized the audio was not playing correctly through cell phone speakers. It works with earphones on the cell phone, and works fine on the computer. But on phone speakers it sounds completely distorted and low.
Here’s the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHubihu5GQs
And here’s what I’ve tried so far:
* Tested the video on vimeo and google drive
* Tested on multiple phones, both android and apple
* Exported using various video and audio codecs and settings
* Put through a converter (handbreak)
* Tested just the original audio to see if it was working, and it isIf you’ve seen this, please help me.
Thank you! -
6 Replies
-
It’s a phase inversion issue from mis-wired microphone. The recording on one channel is the opposite (inverted waveform) from the other. When you combine the two channels into a mono signal as phones do, the opposite stereo channels cancel each other out!
In Premiere, apply either FILL LEFT or FILL RIGHT to the stereo audio track. This will copy one channel to the other, so they are both the same rather than inverted. Export new clip. Fixes the issue.
Thanks
Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers -
Thank you so much! It worked!
If I may just ask this to try to understand, this is something that happened in the recording? Or is it the way the audio was mixed? (I would like to try to prevent this from happening next time I’m working with bands and audio professionals).
Thank again! -
Kind of depends, but usually in recording. I have a Zoom recorder that caught me once when it recorded with phase issue. Easy fix in Audition though. And easy to see in Audition – Phase Meter and Phase Analysis.
TC -
I’m not real sharp on the causes (since I’m a video guy, not an audio engineer), just know the easy fix in Premiere, but glad I could help. From what I’ve seen in various forums, a mis-wired mic or converter can do this, for instance XLR-to-Mini plug with wires crossed. Please see links below for more explanation of causes and fixes. The images are helpful to visualize what is happening to create the perceived “silence” when L and R channels cancel each other out.
https://behindthespeakers.com/fix-phase-cancellation/
https://www.soundshockaudio.com/how-to-fix-phase-cancellation/
https://www.waves.com/tips-for-fixing-phase-problems-in-your-mix
Thanks
Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers -
One thing that will happen when you “fill left with right” is you are no longer listening in stereo – you’ve duplicated the right channel and lost the left. Your video has fairly wide stereo imaging, so maybe this would be undesirable.
One solution might be to take your finished audio into Audition to reverse the phase polarity. I’m not an audio expert, but one way to do this is add your audio clip to a multitrack session and click the Phase Polarity button on the left of the track, then export the whole session. Here’s what the button looks like:
Audio experts, please correct me if I’m wrong.
John Heiser
Senior Editor
o2 ideas – Birmingham, ALiMac Retina 5k, 27-inch, 2017
4.2 GHz i7, 32GB RAM, Radeon Pro 580 8GB
G-Speed Studio TB-2 12TB RAID-5 -
John – excellent point! Definitely something to try to salvage the original stereo. Most of the time when I suggest the FILL solution it’s just for dialogue or whatever and stereo is not important, but I see here it definitely would be!
Thanks
Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up