File displays waveform, but plays silence.

Report · Nov 16, 2023

mac OS 12.4, Audition 23.3
This has happened a few times, and I'm at a loss as to "why."
A student records a podcast on my SD MixPre. Copies the file onto an external hard drive for editing. Imports the file into Audition. Uses it to create a multitrack session. Edits the podcast. Saves, exits, hands me the hard drive.

When I open their multitrack session in Audition, I can see the file(s) on the timeline. They clearly have waveforms, good levels, should definitely have audio. But when I play it, there is only silence. Nothing moving on the meters, either on the individual track(s) or the main output. If I double click one of the files on the timeline, or from the Media bin, it opens in the waveform editor. Again, the waveform is there, but when played, only silence. No flicker whatsoever on the meters.

Using "reveal in Finder," it shows the file on the hard drive in a subfolder called "Imported Media." If I preview that file, or open it in other media players, only silence.

But, there's another copy of the file, the one the student manually copied, elsewhere on the drive. If I relink the project to that file, everything works as expected.

It seems that when they use the import function, Audition is creating a copy in a new subfolder. And it obviously works at the time, because students are editing. However, when reopened, that copy no longer works. The waveform is still there (probably because the .pkf file is still there), but the imported duplicate .wav file plays only silence.

What's up with this?

Report · Nov 16, 2023

I don't know for sure, obviously, but it sounds as though the warning messages have been switched off. The specific one in this case would have been the one about the audio not being stored in the project folder (with the .sesx file) and would you like to store a copy of all of it there?

But on the face of it, there's still something wrong, because the .sesx should be able to cope with a reference to another location. What may be happening is that this is indeed the case, but the fact that you've put the external drive into your machine maybe affecting the path, which is then perceived to be different, and not exactly what the .sesx expects. What's wrong with that scenario is that you shouldn't have been able to open the session at all without relinking the tracks - why are those .pkf files opening without valid waveforms? They should have all been stored in the same place as the files they relate to, and not open at all without the audio.

Can you get a solid reproduce case on this?

Report · Nov 17, 2023

Aloha SteveG!

Reproducing is hard. I have a somewhat indirect relationship with my students. I've only got their word as to how they proceeded, which may not be accurate. Still, I will try!

As you say, even if warning mesages are disabled, this isn't expected behavior. I consistently edit multitrack projects without migrating assets to the multitrack session folder, and haven't ever had an issue (other than acknowledging a warning message).

The path changing as a result of hopping computers could well be a part of it, except... how would that create an "empty" copy of the file? It's almost as if the copy is a shortcut...

Report · Nov 17, 2023

That's an interesting idea about the shortcut. But unfortunately the only thing I know of that can absolutely grab the devs' attention is a guaranteed reproduction case, so it's worth persevering. What helps perhaps slightly is that other people are also reporting 'strange' happenings with .sesx files. What I'm going to try to do is get them to look at several threads - I'll probably collate the info over the weekend.