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Severe audio distortion/noise coming through speakers
Has anyone experienced anything like this before?
For the last few weeks I’ve been editing along in FCP, not a care in the world, when suddenly an intense amount of very loud audio noise comes roaring through my speakers/headphones/whatever external audio device I’m using. I throw my headphones off and take some ibuprofen, then the problem disappears until the next unexpected opportunity.
It’s one of my unsolved mysteries, and it’s causing me ear damage.
It only happens in FCP, and only when I’m listening through an audio device plugged in to the headphone jack of my MacBook– it hasn’t ever happened when using the built-in speaker.
Any ideas? Anyone else have this happen? Thanks for any advice.
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27 Replies
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I don’t have a solution for you … Just know I have the same problem on my 24″ iMac using FCP. It sets my dogs into a fit and gives me a huge headache but I’m just using the built in speakers in the iMac — nothing connected to the headphone jack.
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Wow, that’s really helpful to know. Okay, so it can happen on a laptop or an iMac, and it’s not linked to external speakers… I think I’ve only experienced it in FCP 7, but I’m not 100% sure. What version are you using? What type of footage are you working with when it happens? It mostly happens when I’m cutting HDV, but I’m not sure if there’s a correlation.
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I’m having the same problems. MacBook Pro, 2.5 Ghz. It really destroys my workflow, and i cant relax thinking that at any moment this hell-noise is going to give me a heart attack. It happens through headphones and internal speakers. A complete deal-breaker.
Anyone?
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Found this, if it’s still of anyone’s interest:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=10597203�
In short: no idea.
This is terrible.
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well if anyone’s still reading, i found in apple’s site that i shouldn’t be using 44.1K audio files with video. didn’t know that
changed everything to 48K and so far so good. hope this helps
fede
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Some more thoughts:
Today, when the hell-noise came, and it lasted abnormally long (3-4 seconds) there were hints of other audio tracks coming through. I haven’t needed to render the audio in this project (my source audio is all 48 KHz, 16 bit), but I wonder if it has to do with the way FCP is handling audio render files? Another thought is that the distortion comes from simultaneously playing all of the audio in the project file, or something like that.
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I found something out!!!
=)
I was just editing a clip where the luma channel suddenly peaks well above 100 IRE, and right when it came on the hell-noise came in full-force, then disappeared as soon as the clip ended.
Repeat several times, and it’s consistent! The weirdest part is that the noise came through my speakers, even when I had the OS volume down to zero.
That tells me one thing: it’s the video signal itself that’s creating the noise.
I added the “extremely conservative” setting on the Broadcast Safe filter and voila, the noise stopped happening.
I don’t know if this covers all cases, but it certainly is fascinating.
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So glad to have found this post, having the exact same problem — and “hell noise” is the perfect description. Did the broadcast safe filter fix the problem for good for you? If so, does that mean you now always apply the filter before you start editing now?
I am feeling very gun shy about putting my headphones back on, as my ears still hurt.
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