Waveform puzzle – can’t Intel read PPC waveforms in the timeline (and vice versa)?

[Jeff Carpenter]

Intel vs. PPC should have nothing at all to do with this. You should focus on Final Cut itself.

Both computers are Final Cut 5.1.2? Is Final Cut set to display waveforms on the Intel Mac or are they turned off? Have you seen them anywhere else in the project or are they missing from everywhere?

[Bill]

Been there… done that. I found it to be an issue between 5 and 5.1. I never updated my old g5 box to 5.1.2 but when my new MacPro was installed wavform from prevous projects refuse to show up unless zoomed all the way in.

[Jaap Verdenius]

Waveforms are on on both computers, and both are 5.1.2, Jeff. I should add that I noticed this problem since 5.1.
I am doing projects with timelines containing 6 tracks of 1 hour. Creating a wavefom is some kind of a background process and it takes some time for a waveform to be fully available at all levels of detail. For me it is really without doubt that the regions of the waveforms that are created by my PPC machine are neither displayed nor regenerated by my Intel machine (EXCEPT when I zoom in the timeline to the very max – but when I zoom out the little crosses reappear). It seems to ignore these regions.
I have no explanation, and it is very annoying to work without waveforms – I’d be happy with any solution

[Jaap Verdenius]

I don’t think it is something between 5 and 5.1. Both my computers have 5.1.2 and the problem is still there.

[John Pale]

Try increasing the size of your waveform cache in your preferences. They wont have to redraw as often.

[Jaap Verdenius]

How do I enlarge the waveform cache, John?
In System Settings > Memory & Cache I can find settings for Memory Usage and Thumbnail Cache, but no Waveform Cache. I also can’t find it in the manual.
Can I do it somewhere else?

Jaap

[Dana Anderson]

I had this same problem and spent an hour on the phone with Final Cut support and we finally figured out to fix the problem we had to trash both the Thumbnail Cache and the Waveform Cache.

This is found under the user preferences on your hardrive – mine happen to follow this path:

my hardrive/users/fcp_user/Documents/Final Cut Pro Documents/

– here you should find the “Thumbnail Cache Files” folder and the “Waveform Cache Files” folder
– drag them to the trash and make sure to empty the trash
– Do this while Final Cut is not open
– Launch Final Cut and it will rebuild the image and waveform cache which should solve the problem

Hope this helps!

[Jaap Verdenius]

Thanks Dana, I will try that! And I hope things will get better at 5.1.3 or 5.2 or 6.