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audio waveforms do not correspond to actual sound
Hi all – I am experiencing issues of the audio waveforms not corresponding to their actual sounds in the timeline. Everything is fine in the viewer, but dragging a clip to the timeline will render unusable waveforms. I tried throwing away all waveform caches and audio render files, restarted repeatedly, repaired my hard disk, whatever I could think of. Working off a dedicated Glyph drive with plenty of room. Tried the project on someone else’s computer, and the problem still occurred, so shouldn’t be a problem with my version of FCP 7.0.2.
I am working on a project that combines 2 different components: A) individual chapters (separate sequences) made up of still images and sound captured on a mini disc or Zoom H4n external recorder, 44.1 kHz. and B) an introduction mixing these formats with additional Canon 5D HDSLR footage.
Things were going swimmingly in the audio/still category at first. I had set up the stills only sequences as 29.97 HD (1440×1080) (16:9) files, and everything worked fine.
Then I created an easy set-up of a PAL framerate to be able to sync my 5D footage to the external audio recordings of the Zoom H4n. This step was recommended by Apple — https://support.apple.com/kb/TS1256 — and this user forum: https://brucesharpe.blogspot.com/2010/02/dslr-sync-drift-in-final-cut-pro.html
Within those sequences, no problems at first, either, with the sequence settings at 30 fps.
Then, eventually, problems began to appear when audio from the stills chapters that I imported into the video sequence began showing signs of slipping away from its waveform representation. I initially fixed that by creating a new sequence at 29.97 fps for a part of the intro that doesn’t use any video, and figured I’d deal with it later. But then a new stills/audio only chapter I created started showing the same issues. It only contains external audio at this point, it’s set the same as all my other 29.97 stills sequences, which worked fine.
Researching this issue, I came across this recent thread and work-around: https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/8/1067267#1092226
I did follow instructions of creating a PAL Easy Set-up again, and restarted, and re-imported the audio into my bins. Creating a brand new 25fps sequence allowed me to work with the clip I was having the issues with before. But I am concerned about consistency, and having several half-finished sequences at 29.97 that I still need to work with. I will also have to work in the 30fps 5D video sequence, where importing stand-alone audio all of a sudden became an issue. looking to create some sort of set-up that can work for both scenarios, and could even split up the stills and video parts into two projects, if that seems helpful.Also wondering whether it might be an issue of 44.1 vs 48 KHz? I didn’t convert the files initially, and now have tons and tons of subclips I created to build my edits, and understand that I wouldn’t be able to reconnect the media to those if I now converted.
Very confusing. Any thoughts??? Very much appreciated……. thanks. Katja
FCP 7.0.2. — Snow Leopard 10.6.4 — Mac Pro 2×2.66. GHz Dual Core Intel Xeon, 4GB 667 MHz DDR2 FB-DIMM
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3 Replies
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Hello Katja,
I had a similar problem recently with the same version of FCP. In a track I imported from a digital audio recorder, the audio did not conform to the waveform. In my case, the actual audio started in sync, but slowly crept away so it was later than the waveform.
I saw the link you mentioned, but it didn’t make sense to me because I wasn’t working in HD and there was no explanation of how to get back.
I thought it might have been a one off corrupted file or production, but we may have both git the same snag.
In looking further, the audio recorder I was using was set to stamp the file as 30ND. The production timeline was 29.97 ND. I used a small (free) audio program called Wave Agent. https://www.sounddevices.com/products/waveagent.htm
Within Wave Agent, I was able to change the 30ND to 29.97ND in the metadata. I opened a new production and reimported everything and with the altered audio file. It all worked.
Perhaps entering the frame rate of your production into the metadata with Wave Agent will make the file behave.
I’m still not certain it wasn’t a corrupted production.
Hope this helps, if for no other reason than to note a 2nd occurrence of this weird thing.
Regards,
Ty Ford
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Ty’s research turned up some very good info. Doing what he suggests hopefully addresses your issue. However, you mentioned some of the sound was recorded at 44.1kHz. FCP does not like that sample rate and it might be adding to your problem. Try converting a problem file to 48kHz and see how it goes. You can probably do that in Wave Agent, too. I’m not in my office, so I can’t look to confirm that. If not, use any external app like Quicktime Pro, Soundtrack Pro, MPEG Streamclip, etc. to do the conversion.
John
MacPro 8-core 2.8GHz 8 GB RAM OS 10.5.8 QT7.6.4 Kona 3 Dual Cinema 23 ATI Radeon HD 3870, 24″ TV-Logic Monitor, ATTO ExpressSAS R380 RAID Adapter, PDE enclosure with 8-drive 6TB RAID 5
FCS 3 (FCP 7.0.2, Motion 4.0.2, Comp 3.5.2, DVDSP 4.2.2, Color 1.5.2)Pro Tools HD w SYNC IO & 192 Digital I/O, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neumann U87, Schoeps Mk41 mics, Genelec Monitors, PrimaLT ISDN
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Thanks, John and Ty!
I will definitely bookmark the frame rate assigning option via Wave Agent.In the meantime, I had created a new project file and re-imported all of my external audio clips after setting the Easy Set-up to 29.97 and restarting. Then I dragged the actual interview subclips and completely built editing sequences that I had created using the non-corrupt audio interviews into the new project, and that worked fine. I checked the file that was dropping out of sync before, and it works in this environment now, too. So, I believe I’ll be working in this dedicated 29.97 environment for all my stills only sequences.
That leaves me wondering what to do about the parts of the project that have been shot on 30 fps Canon 5D, and have been edited already. I am thinking the best way to move forward and avoid future conflicts when I might be pulling short parts of the individual stills chapters into the introduction video sequence, would be to update the firmware and begin shooting 29.97 from now on. That way I’ll be stuck with three short clips in 30 fps, which I’ll have to just edit separately – or rebuild – which seems like a pain in the butt, but less hassle in the long run, as the bulk of shooting is still to happen. Unless there’s a magic trick I am not aware of, I am assuming there’s no way to convert the frame rate of edits that already exist on a sequence/ timeline, other than exporting the whole thing as an independent clip eventually, which could then be converted to 29.97.
Re: the 48 vs 44.1 kHz – I also feel like I am stuck, because I already built several sequences with the materials as they were, in 44.1 kHz. I tried before, as a test, and when I try to re-link my sub-clips to an updated master audio file that was converted to 48 kHz (via Amadeus Pro, in this case), things will un-link and go out of sync. So, stuck. But definitely something to consider moving forward – just not sure whether I should begin using 48 kHz in this project, or whether that will just create more hassles in the long run.
FCP 7.0.2. — Snow Leopard 10.6.4 — Mac Pro 2×2.66. GHz Dual Core Intel Xeon, 4GB 667 MHz DDR2 FB-DIMM
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