Faster Audio Waveform Draws

I sync up my video clips by the waveforms. FCP takes a long time to do this. I have 6 GB of RAM in a G5 Quad but it's still slow. Anybody know any tips to speed up FCP in drawing the waveforms?

And if I'm not mistaken, the actual drawing of the thumbnails & waveforms on the timeline is done more by the GPU than anything, so it's possible a faster graphics card could help.
I know that was the case back in my days of editing in Vegas.

Similar Messages

Audio waveform does not draw

Since upgrading to CC 2014 we have been experiencing a few issues. One such issue is audio waveforms not drawing. We have this issue on 5 different machines.
When opening a project the audio waveforms of 1 or more clips does not draw. This seems to be random. An example: I finish editing for the day. Save the project. Shut down the mac. Come in the next day, turn on Mac, launch PP, open project. At this point some audio waveforms may draw, some may not.
I've done a bit of exploration and it seems that PP is having trouble reading the .pek files. If I shut down and delete the .pek files and then relaunch – PP regenerates the .pek files and the audio waveform draws again.
Anyone else having this issue?

I don't know if it is related but I know there is an issue with CC 2014 resetting the preview file location to default on some projects.

Audio Waveforms Not Showing In Timeline - Bug Report

When I send P2 Footage from Prelude to PP, the audio waveforms on the timeline do not show, even though the settings are correct. I have to close PP and then reopen it and then they show. It is some sort of a bug. I'm on Mac OS 10.9, latest version, fast computer. Anyone else having this issue?

There are three kind of audio tracks, stereo, mono and 5.1. Mono can only be placed in a mono track, stereo only in a stereo track and 5.1 only in a 5.1 track. By default a new sequence has three stereo tracks, so when you enter mono material, a new mono track is created in track 4.
In your case you probably have 6 audio tracks of one kind and the 'lost' one is another kind of track and that is the reason it ends up in track 7. You can of course delete empty audio tracks, which will cause track 7 to move up.

Is there a better way to re-render audio waveforms (after changing media files)?

I'm shooting documentary footage on RED cameras at 6K resolution. That generates a large amount of media. The RDC format records R3D media files in 4GB chunks, which is actually relatively short compared to my hours-long media captures. I've discovered that it's very handy to simply delete the R3D files from the RDC folder in cases where nothing is actually happening at that moment. Since each R3D media file is timecode stamped, these actually stay in sync with my master audio track. And Premiere Pro sensibly places gray diagonal bars where the underlying R3D files are missing. All good.
What's not good is that Premiere Pro confuses itself about the starting point of the PEK files. Instead of simply greying out the part of the audio waveforms that are missing due to the missing media, it shifts the *waveform* to start at the location of the first R3D clip that is present, which is wrong. If I clean the cache, quit the project, restart the project, and let it rebuild the cache, the audio waveform is correctly drawn.
An ideal fix for this problem would be for Premiere Pro to recognize that if it re-links media it should re-render the audio PEK file. An OK work-around would be to make it easy to just re-render the PEK file for a given media clip.

A slightly quicker way to do what you described for an images is to select 'Duplicate version' instead of 'New version from Master' and then 'Remove adjustments' from version 1. This will leave you with the first version as the 'before' and the second version as the 'after' without having to use L&S.
If you need to do this for 108 images, it might be quicker to do the following:
Export Masters for all 108 images.
Reimport these into a new project (called 'before', for example)
You will then have a new project with the 'before' images and your original project with the 'after' images. You could then build an album to group all of these together. When you've finished with the 'before' & 'after' images (build your web gallery or emailed them or whatever), simply delete the 'before' project.
Regards,
Steve
Message was edited by: Stephen Ives

How do I synchronize multiple *sequential* clips using audio waveforms in Premiere Pro CC?

I recorded a concert at my kids' school. I ended up with:
Video in six separate clips (video+audio) from my Canon 5D Mark III camera
A single audio clip from my Zoom H4n recorder
The 5D Mark III can only record clips of up to 4GB in size, and clips 30 minutes in length. The clips broken up by the 4GB size limit are adjacent to each other, but the clips broken up by the 30-minute limit have a stop-pause-restart gap of a few second.
On past such projects, I have used PluralEyes 3.0 to synchronize the clips. But PluralEyes converts each stereo audio track into dual mono tracks, which I don't like.
I just happened upon this video: http://tv.adobe.com/watch/learn-premiere-pro-cc/merge-clips-automatically-using-audio-wave forms/?t=0 It shows how to synchronize a single video+audio clip with another audio clip. It also shows how to synchromize multiple concurrent video+audio clips with another audio clip, for multi-camera editing. But it doesn't show how to synchronize multiple sequential video+audio clips, as I got from my Canon 5D Mark III.
It seems that every time I select multiple video clips, the Synchronize item in the pop-up menu is disabled. When I select only the first video clip and the full-duration audio clip, I can synchronize them with audio waveforms. But then when I try to select the second video clip and the full-duration audio clip and synchronize them, it breaks the sync of the first video cilp
Can Premiere Pro CC synchronize multiple sequential video clips using the audio waveform method?
I am running Premiere Pro CC version 7.2.1 (4).
Thanks.

I'm an editing newbie but this was the very first task I needed to do, i.e. align multiple video clips with a single audio track. My setup is similar. I'm shooting with a Canon 70D, which breaks up video into 4gb clips, which are continuous and easy to align end to end. But the 70D like the 5D only shoots for 30 minutes continuously, so a second or two is lost hitting record again. My external audio was recorded continuously with a camera mounted Tascam (like a zoom) with a line in to the camera. So, in theory, the audio should be the same on the external audio and the audio associated with the video clips, which probably helps the software identify the identical wave forms.
I found that I could roughly align the video clips based on the audio wave forms and then "synchronize" the audio as shown in the video (Merge clips automatically using audio waveforms | Adobe Premiere Pro CC tutorials). I found that this aligned the audio perfectly but separated the video from its associated audio track. But it's easy to select the video and snap it back into alignment with its audio. While it would be nice to have everything merge automatically, using synchronize sequentially did not take much time.
Hope that all makes sense.

Audio waveform will not display

I just bought a new iMac and have opened a previous FCE4 file with it. The sequence will not display the audio waveform at all... it used to do fine displaying the waveform on my Powerbook G4. I've toggled the preferences to display audio waveform globally and also for the individual sequence, to no avail. The audio does play back, just no waveform display.
Any help appreciated.
Jeff
Message was edited by: Jeff Morgan1

First, make sure the track settings aren't too low. If the track height is too small the waveforms won't show. If that's OK then quit the application and trash the waveform cache. If you don't know where that is look in your FCE system settings. It'll be at the bottom of the first panel.

Audio waveforms not showing up in viewer

Using Final Cut Pro 6. When double clicking an audio track, it doesn't show up correctly in the viewer. The top half doesn't come up at all and the bottom doesn't look right. No idea why this is happening or how to fix it. Tried dumping the audio waveform cache, but that did nothing. Help ASAP would be much appreciated as this system needs to be used to edit something with audio right away. Thank you!

I am having the same problem. I am running FCP 6.0.4 and when I double click on an audio clip in the timeline, there is no waveform in the viewer. Just a big black box.
In the past I have deleted the waveform cache folder and trashed preferences. But this isn't working anymore.
DKG

Editing audio waveforms

Is it possible to edit waveforms? I've only been able to create a start and stop point. What I'd like to do is make custom edits in the audio that will be added to my project.
If anyone is familiar with the editing features in Cooledit/Adobe..this is what I am trying to accomplish.
Thanks for your help.

Photoshop CS6 Beta is not supporting audio waveforms.
This request represents a significant amount of feature work, though.
Thanks for the suggestion, we're tucking it away for a future version.
Meredith

IMovie volume meter shows much red peaking but audio waveform shows none

When I play my movie, the volume meter in iMovie shows peaking in the red (distortion) all over the place, but in the audio waveform there is not one place where it peaks into the red (or even the yellow). The whole wave is very close to the 0db line. It sounds great when I play it and still great after I export it. But, once I upload it to YouTube, there is awful distortion all over the place just like the volume meter in iMovie indicates. I can't find any place to turn down output so the volume meter doesn't peak and I don't want to turn my audio waveform down below 0db and lose all of my volume. I already tried clicking on the Normalize Clip Volume in Audio Adjustments and that didn't seem to change anything, still peaking like crazy in the volume meter. What can I do to get rid of the red peaking and distortion?
Here's a little more info for anyone who can help with my problem. I am using iMovie 11 on an i7 iMac with Lion. I turned the audio of my video all the way down and imported another audio that had been compressed in Pro Tools to show no red peaks whatsoever. Can someone please help?
Thanks,
Loribella

When I play my movie, the volume meter in iMovie shows peaking in the red (distortion) all over the place, but in the audio waveform there is not one place where it peaks into the red (or even the yellow). The whole wave is very close to the 0db line. It sounds great when I play it and still great after I export it. But, once I upload it to YouTube, there is awful distortion all over the place just like the volume meter in iMovie indicates. I can't find any place to turn down output so the volume meter doesn't peak and I don't want to turn my audio waveform down below 0db and lose all of my volume. I already tried clicking on the Normalize Clip Volume in Audio Adjustments and that didn't seem to change anything, still peaking like crazy in the volume meter. What can I do to get rid of the red peaking and distortion?
Here's a little more info for anyone who can help with my problem. I am using iMovie 11 on an i7 iMac with Lion. I turned the audio of my video all the way down and imported another audio that had been compressed in Pro Tools to show no red peaks whatsoever. Can someone please help?
Thanks,
Loribella

Audio Waveforms (On Certain Clips Only) Not Displaying

Long time forum-lurker, first time poster.
Here's the situation: The nighttime assistant editor created a sequence of B-roll clips for an editor. On both the editor's and the assistant editor's computer, the audio waveforms for these clips are not displaying correctly. Specifically, the symptoms (on both computers) are:
- Waveforms do not appear in timeline unless zoomed in to maximum or second-to-maximum zoom. When zoomed out farther than that, the "X"es appear.
- When viewing the clip in the viewer's audio tab, either by double-clicking the sequence clip or match-framing from the sequence, the waveforms do not appear at all until I zoom in to near maximum level. When zooming out after that, the remnants of the zoomed-in waveforms remain on the screen.
- The waveforms of other clips display correctly.
I have tried deleting the waveform cache on both computers, changing the location of the waveform cache and restarting, and deleting the preferences on the editor's computer. I have not tried recreating the sequence from the original clips because the daytime assistant editor has more sequences to create and needs to use her computer.
If anyone can help me, that would be great.
Here are the specs:
Assistant Editor's Computer: eMac running Final Cut Pro 5.0.1 and Mac OS 10.4.something (I haven't gotten a chance to run software update).
Editor's Computer: Dual Processor Power Mac G5 running Final Cut Pro 5.0.4 and Mac OS 10.4.8.
Both computers are sharing the same media which is located on our SAN. The Editor's computer (along with two other G5-based editing systems) is connected via FibreChannel. The Assistant Editor's computer (along with a whole bunch of other computers) is connected through our server, which serves the SAN drives as network volumes. Assistant editors create sequences on the eMac and upload the project file to the server, where they are available for the editors to download.
Power Mac G5 and eMac Mac OS X (10.4) SAN: Xserve RAID, CommandSoft FibreJet (not Xsan). Server: Xserve (Intel model)

Don't know what's going on, but tell us the format of
the audio.
It's the audio track from a video clip. All video on this project is DV NTSC. The audio is 48.0 Khz, 16 bit, 2 mono channels.
Also, try copying
one audio clip to a local drive and see if the
problem persists.
Copied one of the offending clips onto the desktop. Dragged it into the project. Opened it in the viewer and hit the Audio tab. Whaddya know, the waveform appeared.
I cut a chunk of it into the sequence that is full of clips whose waveforms don't work and turned on "show audio waveforms". Waited for a long time and I still just got the Xes unless I zoomed in really close to the new sequence clip.
But then I cut a chunk of the newly copied clip into a brand new sequence, turned on audio waveforms in the timeline, and they showed up.
I don't know if any of this will help to solve my problem, but hopefully it will give someone an idea. I've got an editor who says he's used to editing from waveforms and needs the ability to see them. (Unfortunately, copying media to local drives is not a viable workaround. The media must stay on the SAN.)
Power Mac G5

Question on putting audio waveform inside a video clip

Hi,
I have a animation which I would like to modify by addiing an audio waveform to. Basically its just like having a robot speaking and not only do you hear the audio, but you see the audio as well.
Is there a way in FCP to import an existing animation, and take a video image of the waveform of the audio track and put it in the video and then output the whole thing?
have seen this done before, so am certain there must be a way...
thanks
'mark

The easiest way that I know of is to shoot the display of an oscilloscope with the audio that you want to use being fet into it. There are a few shareware/freeware O-scope programs available for the mac that will take the input from the audio in of your mac. Try versiontracker or tucows for the software. You may also do a screen capture during this process rather than shooting the screen.
Hope this helps.
Dave F

How can I zoom in to audio waveforms for precision edits?

In FCP 7, you can zoom into audio waveforms for precise edits. In FCP X, there seems to be a fairly coarse resolution to how far you can zoom into audio waveforms. I rely extensively on being able to see where subtle aspirants start and end, but I can't see the audio waveforms very clearly, no matter how far I enlarge the clips.
Is there some hidden window or command that I'm missing?

tonypatti wrote:
I'm assuming you mean in the timeline. So you trim your clips in the timeline, and not in the clips window? I've noticed there is no Viewer window, as in FCP 7, and I used to refine my clips in that window, setting in and out points with simple keystrokes. Is this how we do it in X? In the Timeline window?
It depends on my needs... Each event library-clip has its own timeline too...
All you need to do is right-click the clip in the event library and select "Open in Timeline"
There you can trim the audio or clip with much greater precision than in the event library itself...
In FCPx -- EACH clip in the event library is contained within its own mini-project... That is why you can "open" it in its own timeline... The event library is so powerful in this way. You could even select a clip and hit "Open in Timeline" and drag another clip into that.... That would automatically turn the clip into a compound clip (which is essentially a project)... the possibilities are endless... And so is the zoom ;-)))) If you do it this way !
PS -- You can create a short key for "open in timeline" should you find yourself annoyed with right-clicking all the time
PPS -- You state "no viewer window".... As of 10.0.7 FCPx has TWO viewers.. One for events and one for the project... Hit ctrl+command + 3 to show/hide it...
You should take your time with the app and NOT look at it as if it was FCP7
Also the user guide is very well written !

Audio Waveform does not appear

I'm having trouble with getting the audio waveform to show up in the project window. I want to fade out music, but the option is not available because my audio clips do not have a waveform, only a solid green line (see pic below) --no matter what type of audio I put in. Selecting the 'Show / Hide Waveforms' Option does not make a difference in the project window; it shows the waveform in the event window only. Any ideas would be great!

Hi,
Tobimusic wrote:
Well, I found the command but it was not applyable. Text is dimmed. Tried Update File Information but that made no difference.
The file (not the region) needs to be selected for the option to be appliable.
Tobimusic wrote:
The graphic is well shown in the imported files but not in the newly recorded file.
Yes, because the recording delay preference applies to recorded audio only.
Tobimusic wrote:
I´ll try the recording tip later today and come back on that. Perhaps that also fixes the tendency of delay in recording. (Forgot to write that earlier. )
Yes, it will fix both problems.
J.

Missing audio waveforms in GarageBand 10.0.1

My GarageBand 10.0.1 does not create audio waveforms when I record. I can record and play back my voice, but I don't see any audio waveforms when I record or playback. I must be missing some really elemental step, but for the life of me I can't figure out what it is. I am trying to record my voice to create a podcast. I know the podcast template is no longer available, but I should be able to use "empty project" for this, correct?

Phill85 wrote:
It really doesn't give the same effect it used to "when called automatic tuning"??
there are lots of changes in v10. if you want the same effects you had in v6, keep using it, installing v10 doesn't delete v6

How do I see the audio waveforms in the timeline

How do I see the audio waveforms in the timeline
G5 Mac OS X (10.4.6)

In Sequence Setting (cmd-0) set the "Show Audio waveforms" in the Timeline Options tab.

Faster Audio Waveform Draws

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