AUDIO CLICKING - HELP!

Hi there - and yes i've checked the FAQ!

I'm using AIFFs not mp3s, and the audio render mixdown does not remedy the clicking.
It clicks primarily at the start or end of an audio cross fade, usually both. On a previous project the audio was clean, the clicks seem to come and go, or come and stay.

any suggestions on how to irradicate these annoying audio spoilers would be greatly appreciated.

also if anyone knows how to turn off the 'audio not rendered' beeping in FCP5.1.4 that would also be usefull

Many thanks, J

are you mixing sampling rates? Audio needs that much rendering... are there audio filters on the clips as well?

Thanks for the reply

as far as i'm aware i am not mixing sampling rates, in some cases i am using a reverb filter, but the clicking does not appear to be confined to clips with or without filters . . .

is your sequence set to the same sample rate as your audio clips? Preferably they should all be in 48k. You might want to thrash your audio render files and rerender. Audio renders pretty fast, so that's a plus.

>also if anyone knows how to turn off the 'audio not rendered' beeping in FCP5.1.4 that would also be usefull

that would be in your FCP > System Settings >> Playback Control tab ... uncheck the "Beep When Paying Unrendered Audio" checkbox

There is an extraordinarily annoying bug in FCP6 where renders (including audio) sometimes flat-out refuse to complete, even if a certain section does require a red render or Audio Mixdown. I render all the time, and I know it's not a human error because I work around it by simply turning the clip on and then off using Clip Enable/Disable (CONTROL-B), and after I do so the render usually goes through, without me changing render settings or making any editing changes. Sometimes I have to use Make Offline (SHIFT-D) and then reconnect the clip, and other times I use Render Manager to flush all the renders.

I haven't figured out the logic of this problem yet, nor do I know which of the three workarounds would work at any given time. I haven't seen this in FCP5, though...have you already tried dumping preferences?


www.derekmok.com

Derek, i haven't yet encountered the problem of audio refusing to render. Assuming render files from an old rendered position, yes, and it doesn't render over those portions. That's a stupid bug all the way from version 5 that usually forces me to disable and reenable the clips affected. That said, i haven't been able to trust final cut for its audio filters yet, so I use very little of it.

Thanks again for the ideas,

I've checked all settings mentioned and tried out these suggestions but still no success. My several layers of audio with db transitions have so much crackling and pops that it sounds like mild vynil noise in places

any other reasons or remedies out there?

A bit of a dumb question, but do you have a mic on?

no, i don't have a mic on!

another editor in the studio here also gets this audio clicking problem. I'm currently working in DV, my last project was HD though and that was fine, no clicks.

anyone experienced problems with the latest quicktime update regards audio?

> I'm currently working in DV, my last project was HD though and that was fine, no clicks.

This is useful information. In troubleshooting you always look for inconsistencies and anomalies -- the solution usually lies within. So I'd do a cross-reference:

1. What are the audio settings for your DV timeline? And what are the settings in your HD timeline? I know you've already been asked about sample rates, but unfortunately your answer doesn't help us much. Don't just say "As far as I know I'm not doing this"; list the actual settings so we can rule them out. Remember, we're troubleshooting long-distance and it's a lot harder to rule things out. In fact, you may want to post a screen-capture of your Sequence Settings and other pertinent audio settings. Other people might see things that you're missing.

2. What's different about the way you're monitoring your DV timeline vs. your HD timeline? What's the signal path?

3. Are the master tapes clean? Are you certain that the noises aren't actually on your tapes?

4. How many tracks of audio are on the DV footage? How many on the HD?


www.derekmok.com

I'm monitoring both timelines using AJA Kona and a Mackie 1202-vlsPro mixer.

The master audio is clean, the noise is not on the tapes.

I'm working with 6 to 14 audio tracks, using wavs as well as aiffs, some audio effects have been exported to quicktime with FCP audio filters then re-imported.

The origin of the clicking seem to stem from the beginning and end of audio cross fades . .

[s270.photobucket.com]

Have you tried increasing the number of real time audio mixing tracks? Default is 8 I believe. With 6 - 14 tracks plus filters you need to constantly render. Also you might want to make sure audio playback is set to low for this many tracks and filters. Worth a try, but clicking almost always mismatched audio rates

Michael Horton
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Thanks for the reply Michael,

I've tried increasing the number of real time audio tracks and have adjusted the audio playback settings to no avail, the audio rates of the sound files and sequence settings are also the same . . .

Then the Kona or Mackie is fiddling with this is my guess. I'm stumped. Look on the Kona forum at Creative Cow and see if anyone is having same problem. Need to nail this down to either a FCP problem or Kona or Mackie


[forums.creativecow.net]

Michael Horton
-------------------

I have noticed as well this bug...this is what i do.

I select the clips in question and select
Render Only...choose color.

So usually I select the reds, then the oranges, then the greens.

I like my smaller movies 10 mins or less to be all blue on the timeline.

does this help?



Andy Mees Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> >also if anyone knows how to turn off the 'audio
> not rendered' beeping in FCP5.1.4 that would also
> be usefull
>
> that would be in your FCP > System Settings >>
> Playback Control tab ... uncheck the "Beep When
> Paying Unrendered Audio" checkbox

Weird! Your settings look alright. I'm wondering if it's the captured footage that's mucked, or is it the playback from the kona, or if final cut is mucking that part up... Does all audio output from the mac go through the kona? Can you monitor direct from the mac headphone outputs?

Check your rushes from the finder. Are the clicks present?


Hmmm... What is your dv transfer? Firewire (the aja board i was on didn't support firewire)? Or is it on analog out?

Speakers OK? Connections all tight? I had a Mac a while ago that clicked randomly outside of FCP, so could it be a cause unrelated to your project? Can't remember which Mac it was though, sorry.

Maybe do a search for Mac audio click - something to do with the OS.

There are a lot of reasons for audio to click coming out of FCP, actually out of any such system. I just finished an FCP-edited/Pro Tools-posted project for a new indie film that had clicks all over it. Every time they'd send over a new output file, same old clicks & a bunch of new ones. Turned out the old ones - the ones on every version they sent over - came from the original FCP output, while the new ones generated with each new file iteration were coming from a Pro Tools system that had drive timing and processing issues. Often this points to drive or throughput issues. Playing through a crossfade live is a processor-intensive thing to do, and audio is low on the totem pole of a video editorial system. Put a bunch of fades at the same place on several tracks - say, at a scene change -and the system can click. As an aside, playing through a fade is SO intensive that this is one of the reasons ProTools creates a separate file for each fade rather than playing them through live, as happens in Nuendo or Sonic systems. It's actually easier & less intensive on their engine to pull a fade file from the drive & play it as a separate event than play it through live. Anyway, it this is happening a lot as far as I can tell on FCP-edited projects.