Audio Clicks and Pops appearing in clips

In the final stages of editing a project that truly tests your machine, I am now running in to a mysterious problem.
I am nearly completely finished with a semi-complex project. Just in recent hours, certain clips have started developing "Clicks" and "Pops" that are very, very distinct. This might be fine.... if I were able to correct them. But conveniently, it appears that Final Cut Pro X does not give you this capability.
Is there a way to correct Clicks and Pops in FCPX? If not, is there some explainable reason why my audio is creating these problems slowly and surely? (the source media does not have the clicks)
Thank you for your insight!

I'm having the SAME EXACT ISSUE! Been driving me crazy! I had FCPX on SL, then upgraded to Lion a few days ago and it's been hit or miss with the renders. Some of them render properly, some clips sound fine inside FCPX and then render incorrectly, and some are fine until FCPX decides to analyze the clips and then it introduces all the clicks and pops which are then clearly audible inside of FCPX. I've done transcoding on clips that have come out OK in Compressor and they seem to come out fine. I'm not quite sure if there is any work around for those of us who have FCPX and Lion...
P.S. A lot of people are talking about importing everything as .AIFF and all this stuff, well, how hard can it be to handle MP3s or Waves? I used Waves for all of the audio and they were perfectly fine until Lion, so this stuff about .AIFF just doesn't seem like a good solution. I'm going to try to create a random track and import stuff as .AIFF and other as .MP3 and .WAV and see what happens. It'd be curious to see if the cracks appear in some parts and not in others (for me they appear so long as there is audio, but stops in between the clips where i've put a 1 second silence)...
Message was edited by: djoliverm

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Strange Problem - iTunes audio clicks and pops when connected to internet

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Since writing this article I read that there is a problem with the airport update for tiger 10.4.11, which is exactly what I'm running. This is a pretty serious issue because I can't even listen to streaming music off the internet (via my firebox) without major clicks and pops. I wish I turned my updater of when things were stable

Audio clicks and pops using Safari, no problems using Firefox

iMac 27 inches , late 2012, Processor 3,4 GHz Intel Core i7, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680MX 2048 Mo, OS X Mavericks 10.9.1
Digidesign MBOX2 PRO Firewre 400 audio interface to a thunderbolt adaptor through a firewire 800/400 cable.
I’m on Apple.com via Safari 7.0.1 (latest version) watching the christmas add. (http://www.apple.com/#video-tv-spot)
All is ok.
I launch Garageband 10.0.1, (latest version) the ad’s audio is full ok clicks and pops.
I quit Garageband and tthe ad’s audio plays correctly.
I launch Logic Pro 9.1.8 (latest Logic 9 version) ,the ad’s audio is full ok clicks and pops.
I quit Logic Pro and the ad’s audio plays correctly.
I launch Reason 6.5 , the ad’s audio is full ok clicks and pops.
I quit Reason and the ad’s audio plays correctly.
I launch Quicktime 10.3 (latest version) , the ad’s audio AND the Quicktime audio is full of clicks and pops.
I quit Quicktime and the ad’s audio plays correctly.
I relaunch Quicktime the ad’s audio is full ok clicks and pops.
I quit Safari and the Quicktime audio is ok.
NONE OF THE ABOVE IF I USE FIREFOX (latest version)
NONE OF THE ABOVE TOO IF Safari runs with the Firefox agent selected!
So, it is not a MBOX2 PRO issue or a firewire cable issue or a thunderbolt adaptor issue.
So it's Safari or Mavericks or ...

Strange. Now the problem is inverted. If Quicktime is running alone, now I get some audio glitches no matter if I choose the aggregate device or the Saffire Le as audio interface. If I launch Logic, the audio is clean.
(As usual all is fine if I use the built-in audio no matter waht sofwares are running)
The problem is really inverted.
The only way to get clean audio with Quicktime alone is to destroy the aggregate device!
The good thing is that I have the control now. I can get rid of the audio glitches while running Logic.
Oh an btw my firefox is 15.0.1.Latest version. Under Activity Monitor/Disk/Kind, it show Firefox 32 bits.

Clicks and Pops in Audio even with High Buffer Values

Dear Community,
I'm running into a problem with my Mac Pro 2008 for which I need urgent help.
I have a Mac Pro 2008 which I use to do some audio production and mixing.
I use 10.8 Mountain Lion for some time now, mainly with Avid Pro Tools 10 and Logic Pro 9.
My audio interfaces of choice are the Echo Audio Audiofire 8 and an Eleven Rack (USB) which I never use simultaneously. For tracking guitars and bass I use the Eleven Rack but for mixing and adding other instruments I use the Echo Audio because of its multichannel capabilities.
I had this configuration for many months / years without any kind of problem and being able to use very low buffer values (128, 64 and even 32 bits) with very low latency values (ideal for tracking guitar with software monitoring).
Now I'm running with problems with audio clicks and pops in all audio streams independently of the audio interface I use.
I've tried every tip I found on the web for optimizing my mac for audio with no success.
Independently of the buffer I establish in Pro Tools or Logic (or any other audio software, for that matters) I always get the same harsh, distorted audio, with permanent clicks and pops. It's the same with pre-recorded audio or when using just an armed track with software monitoring. Even when using just Amplitube 3 in standalone mode, I can't get audio working correctly. Raising the audio buffer to 4096 (!!!) or lowering to 64 is the same. The output get garbled, distorted, harsh, with permanent clicks and pops (on the Audiofire or the Eleven Rack).
I've already tried reinstalling drivers, mangled with all audio preferences possible with no success.
I'm considering, as a final option, to reinstall the OS and all audio software from scratch but this is the very final possibility because of the long long hours needed to do so.
Does anyone have some idea about this?
Could anyone help me?
Best Regards,
Luis Mota

Luis, the sound you're describing does not sound like a clock problem.
Sync set to "Internal"
To check you can go to Settings/Synchronization uncheck "Auto Enable external sync".
I'm guessing like most Mac users you have the operating system set to auto update, if so the system may have updated on it's own so you can't be sure you're running the same system that worked perfectly in the past.
I disable every "auto" b.s. Apple/OSX tries to force on users... for pro audio users, it generally causes problems.
Here's some things to try.
1. Set the Mac's audio preferences to use only built-in audio for both recording and playback. Do so in both System preferences/sound and Audio-MIDI Setup. Turn off the Mac, unplug and audio interface you have hooked up. Restart the Mac, Plug in an audio interfaces (doesn't matter which one) open Logic, go to Preferences Audio and select the installed interface, even if it's selected already, set buffer to 256.
Any difference?
2. Create a New User account and try running Logic from there.

FCPX + Lion + Cannot handle AAC or Apple Lossless audio in H.264! (Clicks and Pops)

This is a problem I've been having since I upgraded to Lion, and I've posted this response in other forums, but wanted to start a fresh one with a video I created of my findings. In a nutshell: FCPX in Lion cannot handle AAC audio in H.264 files since it will create audible clicks and pops when it subsequently renders the footage. This ***** because the iPhone 4 for example records as H.264 and AAC for the audio. Below are my findings:
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1. I tried doing exactly the same thing I was trying to do on my machine on a co-worker's Snow Leopard MBP, and it worked out fine (it was just importing an iPhone 4 .mov and exporting it in FCPX). The output file was pretty much the same as what came in.
2. I found out that only movies from my iPhone 4 were coming out all crazy in the audio, yet my Canon T2i files were fine. Both are H.264, yet the Canon T2i records audio as Linear PCM, while the iPhone 4 records audio as AAC.
3. So I got an idea to use screen flow to record a youtube video and record the computer's audio. Then I decided to export with different formats, both as HD NTSC standards and as web standards with H.264.
4. I found out that both NTSC and H.264 standards were perfectly fine, SO LONG AS THE AUDIO WAS LINEAR PCM (or uncompressed!).
5. I then exported the same clip (both times as H.264) and ONLY changed how the audio was rendered (either Linear PCM/Uncompressed or AAC) and VOILA, I got click and pop artifacts ONLY in the AAC version. The ones that were output as uncompressed audio were totally fine!
CONCLUSION:
Final Cut Pro X on OS X Lion has issues with compressed audio, MAINLY AAC and Apple Lossless! Anything that is Linear PCM/Uncompressed should be fine! For example, MPEG 4 AAC Enhanced Low Delay at 320K came out 95% OK, one or two clicks.
So if any of us are working with material where the audio came to us already as AAC (like an iPhone 4), then we have to rip the audio out somehow first (like through VLC for example) and import it separately as an uncompressed file.
Here's a youtube video showing exactly what I'm talking about:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDw4btShH0s
Anybody else have any thoughts on this before Apple comes out with a fix?

I was having the same problem and spent several hours on the phone with apple working with one of their 3rd level support guys. Their is deffinatley a issue with Lion and FCPX. I was told they would escalate to a FCPX engineer and they would get back to me in two days. In the mean time I went to my local apple store and was able to recreate the issue on every machine I tried. Apple did call back and confirm that there is an issue with the way FCPX and Lion handle the import and export of AAC files. They said there would hopefully be fixed in a future update.
The best work around I found is to take your AAC file and convert it to a WAV. I used compressor to do this and it seems to have solved the problem.

Click and Pops in Audio Playback

I am using a MOTU 824 Mk3 with L7P 7.2 and a Dual G5 tower. This system worked very well for quite awhile but recently there are click and pops in the audio on playback only, meaning the clicks are not in the actual audio files and they do not get recorded.
The clicks were occurring randomly, maybe 1 or 2 per minute. I increased the buffer size to the max of 1024, now the clicks occur every so often, maybe I'll hear 1 while listening to 10 minutes of audio.
I am not using L7 in demanding applications right now. Normally 1 stereo track with 2 or 3 plug-ins, though the number of plug-ins does not seem to matter. I could have no plug-ins running and still would hear the occasional click.
I don't think it is the MOTU interface because I do not have this problems with other programs. For example, if I run Waveburner playing back identical audio, Waveburner never clicks or pops.
Anyone have any ideas? It's starting to drive me crazy. It's possible this all started when updated from 7.1 to 7.2 but I do not know that for sure, it could have been happening before I upgraded.
Thanks in advance!!

I believe this problem is due to having the plug-in Soundflower from Cycling 74 active through an aggregate sound driver. When I changed the sound driver to another aggregate sound driver w/o Soundflower, thereby de-activating Soundflower, the problem seemed to go away. I need to do some more checking though to make sure it really is gone and it was Soundflower.

Analysis not working.. Clicks and Pops, etc.

I'm trying to remove clicks and pops, clipped signals and power line hum from an audio track (registered using an iPod mic in a big room so it's full of noises) with the latest Soundtrack Pro 2-
I did a Noise Reduction then applied the following Analysis: Clicks and Pops, Power Line Hum, Clipped Signal. After the processing, I click in each item in the list and fix it. The problem is that 90 per cent of the times the Click/Pop/Clipping is not fixed. I can see it alters the waveform but you hear pretty much the same thing as before...
Do you have any experience on that?
Thanks

This is a tedious process you're trying to do. What it really comes down to is zooming out the audio until you have clicks and pops of about .5-1 sec. Then you really have to go over and over the really bad ones until you've covered it from all angles. What ultimately happens is you reveal layers of the pops. As you take out one layer another appears. When you isolate the problems they all begin to fix easier. The program is really very adept at finding the rest of a pop that only appeared partially on the surface at first.
Good question - patients is a prereq. virtue here: Good Luck.

Clicks and pops for no apparent reason

Old Today, 05:17 PM #1
USCRash
New User
Join Date: Apr 2008
Posts: 12
Default Clicks and pops, audio dropouts
I don't know if anyone else has this problem, but it's driving me crazy. I can't have any other program open while running soundtrack pro, even Activity Monitor, without getting clicks and pops and the occasional audio dropout. These issues are not present in the audio file -- they are digital artifacts that seem to only be an issue in STP.
The multitrack project I'm using was created from a sequence in FCP, and when playing the original sequence in FCP, there were no audio problems.
It doesn't appear to be an issue with my amount of RAM (2GB) because Activity Monitor was showing over 70% free. The processor (2.66 Intel Core Duo) doesn't look like it's being taxed all that much. Is there some kind of buffer setting that I should change? It's obnoxious. Every time I use some other application (Mail, Firefox, Acrobat reader etc.) I have to restart the computer before opening up Soundtrack again.
Also, has anyone noticed that it takes a loooooong time to save a project?

I notice quite a bit of issues with RAM as well. I just went up to 7 Gig to have some extra for the OS and my project just hit 3.7G of RAM which of course STP couldn't handle and it wont save and sometimes beach balls.
So, I've split my project into two projects for now and will continue to do so even more if the memory footprint keeps increasing. There is some really poor memory management happening related to duplicate clips. Hopefully they are aware of it and do something OR figure out how to use 64-bit memory space like EXS in Logic.

Clicks and pops with flex time and fades

I am getting clicks and pops on tracks using flex time and fades. Any suggestions?
Thanks

Probably the simplest solution to this bug (it appears to not be creating zero crossed edits when creating a fade over flexed audio) is to cut the area to be faded into small region and render (or bounce in place) the small section, then fade it.

'Clicks and Pops' using Flex Time?

Has anyone experienced this? Whenever I use Flex time on a vocal, I get clicks and pops, at very random places. It happens more when the vocal is powerful, (although not overclipped),
has anyone experienced something similar, and knows of a fix or a solution?
thank you.

Probably the simplest solution to this bug (it appears to not be creating zero crossed edits when creating a fade over flexed audio) is to cut the area to be faded into small region and render (or bounce in place) the small section, then fade it.

Clicks and pops not fixing when I click...FIX!

so i selected a track from final cut pro and sent for soundtrack pro audio project. it all opened up in soundtrack pro, and i highlighted the part and click analyze under clicks and pops. It showed me a list of problems, but when i click fix, it does nothing. i tried highlighting the problems and clicking fix, still nothing. soundtrack pro isnt showing me any waveforms either, what am i doing wrong!?

I'm going to say to do this as a multiclip project, and do it at the end of the process, as you have your video edit all laid out. Then in the browser select the timeline and do your "send to STP multitrack project."
This kind of analysis has to be done one clip at a time. You do it only on the clips that need it. You can go through the analysis one at a time, or checkoff several at once. That should do it.

Clicks and popping with recording and USB interface-HELP!!!

I've submitted this twice, got some responses, but has twice been ignored into oblivion. I apologize for the reposts, but this is VERY IMPORTANT, and I've been struggling with this issue for MONTHS now dealing with countless hours of lost time trying to fix it to no avail.
I'll try to include as much detail as possible.
I use:
MacPro 2 x 2.66 Dual-Core Intel Xeon
3 GB memory
Logic Express 8.0.2
245.13 GB empty space on Hard Drive
THE PROBLEM:
When I record, I get computerized clips/pops
http://www.moogiex.com/clickpop.mp3
http://www.moogiex.com/morecackling.mp3
I record via a PreSonus Audiobox USB. This problem did NOT start when I got the AudioBox, but several months after.
When I simply monitor the sound going through the box, the sound is fine.It's something between the Box, and the computer output. My guess is some incompatibility with Logic Express or Core Audio and the AudioBox.
It is NOT the microphone or the cable (the pops occur with anything going in, 1/4", XLR, different inputs).
The clicks START with Logic Express. If there are any recording program open when Logic Express is open, and I record, I get the SAME pops.
It did this both under 10.5.6, 10.5.7, and now 10.5.8.
It is NOT clipping.
When I'm recording with LE:
—There's 1.27 GB of FREE Memory while I'm recording.
—Logic Express is only using 6.7% of CPU while recording (of only one of the four processors), and about 90-95% of CPU space is free on all four processors.
—This happens on ANY audio input, and it doesn't matter how many other tracks, how long it is. I just started a brand new file and it does it.
—This happens when I use ANY input into my computer, but is STARTED by LE.
Here are my Logic Preferences
Core Audio- ENABLED
System Memory Requirement 66.0 MB
Device: AudioBox USB
I/O Buffer Size: 1024
I/O Safety Buffer- UNchecked
Recording Delay: 0 samples
Universal Track Mode- CHECKED
24 Bit Recording- CHECKED
Software Monitoring- CHECKED
Independent Monitoring Level- Checked
Process Buffer Range: Large
ReWire Behavior: Live Mode (Higher CPU Load)
Maximum Scrub Speed: Normal
Scrub Response: Normal
There is *no* driver with PreSonus' AudioBox. It is simply "compatible." Here's what System Profiler says:
AudioBox USB (plugged into my Mac Pro's front bottom port):
Product ID: 0x0301
Vendor ID: 0x194f
Version: 1.08
Speed: Up to 12 Mb/sec
Manufacturer: PreSonus Audio
Location ID: 0x00200000
Current Available (mA): 500
Current Required (mA): 500
Here's what I've tried:
—Disabling CoreAudio, shutting LE 8 off, restarting LE 8, enabling CoreAudio again. This worked ONCE. It hasn't worked since.
—Disabling CoreAudio, shutting LE 8 off, SHUTTING DOWN, RESTARTING, opening LE 8, enabling CoreAudio again. This also worked ONCE. It hasn't worked since.
—"CPU Saving Mode"
—I/O Buffer to 256, 512, and 1024 (default) (IMPORTANT?—speed of popping actually INCREASES with larger buffer?)
—I/O Safety Buffer checked and unchecked
—Changing Recording Delay samples
—Pretty much fiddling with any of the controls
—Disabling Airport does nothing (was previously working fine with Airport running)
—Quit all applications, open up QuickTime (pro) or Audacity, and record something. It records perfectly. I go back to LE and the clicks and pops are gone, but only until I use anything with effects, then the clicks and pops return. This works SOMETIMES.
—Reset the preferences, and that has worked ONCE, and then the clicks and pops came back (albeit not as prominent, but they were still there).
—I trashed all files related to Logic and reinstalled. Worked ONCE.
—Restarting does help, but only temporarily, as soon as any pull is put on Logic, the problems return.
—Using a different USB port. I thought this was the solution because the problem shortly went away with regular use of Logic, but problem came back.
—Uninstalling Logic, Reinstalling Logic Express, same deal.
PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE HELP. I have a lot of money sunk into all this equipment that's practically useless with this recording issue.

Man, I feel for you on this.
I would love to see what your pops and clicks look like in your waveform. If you can take a snapshot of it and post the pic here that might help the diagnosis.
Your audio files certainly SOUNDS like you have a clocking problem. It really sounds like your CoreAudio driver/MacPro and your USB interface are not locked up in sync - as in: which is master and which is slave? I know some interfaces include a software control panel that allows you to set the status of the interface clock to slave to the computer or to be the master. It sounds like yours doesn't come with drivers but is there any control panel for this Presonus device?
Another place to check is in Applications>Utilities>Audio Midi Setup
On the left under "Properties for <your interface>" what does it say for the clock source?
Also in this panel, to the right it should have a button for "configure device". What happens when you click it? For example in my case it automatically launches my Apogee Duet Maestro control panel. In your case it might launch something similar, although I think you mention that you never installed anything, which I find strange to begin with - that this thing should just work out of the box with no driver at all.
I've struggle with w similar problem with my Apogee Duet, although nothing of this magnitude, maybe 4 or 5 clicks per 3 minutes of audio and these turn out to always be sample drops where 5-10 samples in a row are all the same in the waveform, as if my interface and computer stopped talking for a milli second. I did find that if my Apogee Duet was chosen as the default or system output in the Audio Midi Control Panel I mentioned above then the clicking was more frequent, as if choosing the audio interface for any system output caused a conflict with choosing it for Logic. I thought this was strange but you might want to investigate that further too.
At any rate, it does sound like a digital clock syncing issue to me by the sound of your audio. What effect does changing the sample rate of the recording have on the problem?
Let me know if any of this leads to anything.

Upgraded to iTunes 6.0.5 sound now clicks and pops.

I've been using iTunes 6 happily up until yeasterday when I was prompted to upgrade to 6.0.5. I did this and now the sound of all of my purchased music is like an old scratched vinyl LP. At regular intervals there are clicks and pops in the music.
This did not happen until I upgraded. Strangely if I play the same tracks in QuickTime Player rather than in iTunes they pay without faults. I've tried changing settings to Safe Mode (waveOut only)and it makes no difference to the quality of the playback.
So, is there any way to revert to the old iTunes installation or is there a fix for 6.0.5?
FWIW, QuickTime Player isn't much of a solution since it doesn't support playlists.

just checking. have you tried working through the other possibilities (apart from the QT sound out settings) from this document?
iTunes and QuickTime for Windows: Songs and other audio don't play correctly

Fade audio in and out throughout a clip

Is thre any way to fade audio in and out throughout a clip, so say for example I want to fade it back just when someone is talking etc? it used to be so easy in previous imovies!

Audio in iMovie 09 is a pain. In order to do this, you have 2 choices...
1. Your clip must have a video fade effect of some kind then go into precision editor, select to see audio from the waveform button near the middle right of the screen and then slide the audio (without effecting picture) either earlier or later.
2. You can Split your clip in multiple places, lets say 6. Then double click on each of them in turn, moving the audio level lower and lower until you get to the part of the split clip that will be zero. In order no to have the edit point sound cut, either set the auto fade to be manual/zero, or go into precision editor and overlap the audio edit points slightly.
Message was edited by: Michele Gardner

Removing clicks and pops

I see the manual makes reference to the program being able to remove clicks and pops in audio but I can't for the life of me find this option in any filters that came with the program.
Can anyone tell me where to find this filter?
Many thanks.
Steve

drag the file onto your icon form your dock. soundtrack will open up, i think it might be in the actions tab on the left. try this out.

Audio Clicks and Pops appearing in clips

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