Audio problem in After Effects

[Lynoxe1]

Hello,

I'm on Mac. I've a problem to import my mp4 files: when I import it, only the environment noises like wind or birds are importing. The music is also importing (it's a scene from a film). But the voices aren't, and I need them. I don't know what to do, I've tried to convert it into a quicktime file (.mov) but it didn't work. I verified the audio type, it's AAC and on the Adobe's websites it's written that After Effects can manage with AAC. Can somebody help me?

[Mohammad.Harb]

Convert the Audio to wav file, then import it into after effects and mute the audio of the video file.

[Jose Panadero]

If you have imported a multichannel audio file you need to map the audio correctly in Edit > Preferences > Audio Output Mapping but if your audio device does not support multiple audio channels output, you can create a mix down for preview with Adobe Audition (if you have installed). The steps are:

1.- Select the audio/video file in the Project panel or the audio/video layer in a composition.

2.- Go to Edit > Edit in Adobe Audition.

3.- In Audition go to File > Export File. In the dialog window, change the audio export options to accommodate to a stereo mix down file (not maintaining the original audio channel configuration).

4.- Select a directory for exporting and you will get an stereo mix down file compatible for audio preview in After Effects.

[Lynoxe1]

I did that, and the problem is that even in Adobe Audition there aren't any voices, only the environment. I though tried to export it in .wav but that's the same in AE, no voices.

[Jose Panadero]

But when you import the audio file in audition, can you see all the audio channels? The problem with any software is that you can’t play a multichannel audio if you don’t have the correct audio device for output all those channels but even if you can’t play them in your Mac, you can export a stereo mixdown file without any problem. I did a test yesterday with Adobe Audition importing a 5.1 file for checking it and there is no problem at all after exporting as a stereo file and use it in After Effects

I suppose that when you play your file with quicktime Player you can hear all the audio channels because QT Player makes a stereo mixdown of mutichannel audio files por playback.

[Dave_LaRonde]

lynoxe1  wrote

I verified the audio type, it's AAC and on the Adobe's websites it's written that After Effects can manage with AAC.

Yeah, well, don't believe everything you read.

A good rule of thumb is to never, ever use compressed audio in AE.  There are so many variations of compression with it and mp3 that Adobe can't keep up with all the variants... and problems can ensue.  Always use wav or aiff files -- they're uncompressed, work just fine, and the file sizes are negligible compared to the size of video files.

[Lynoxe1]

Thanks Dave, I'll try but do you have a tip to convert the audio of the video in wav? A programme or anything?

[Jose Panadero]

You can use adobe Premiere, Adobe Audition and Adobe Medía Encoder to convert to an uncompressed audio file but as I said before if you are using a multichannel audio file bit you don‘t have a multichannel audio device for output you need to create a stereo mixdown of this file.