Audio cutting out in Premiere - it's killing me.

[CCS18]

So this problem has seemed to have ramped up over the past month or so and it's getting increasingly difficult to edit.  I've tons of searching, and there seem to be a lot of people having similar issues - but all have different possible causes.  I'm trying to edit interviews, and basically I can't work.  Some of the obvious questions I know I'll get:

Was happening on the last version of 2018, and I'm now on 2019 - 13.0.3.

System:

I'm on a Mac Trashcan - I know it's getting up there in age, but it's handling the video fine - it's just the audio cutting out.

3.5 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon E5

64 GB 1866 MHz DDR3

AMD FirePro D700 6 GB

I've had this happen on multiple projects, with multiple types of media and multiple hard drives.  (Predominately Lacie Rugged which we've always used).

In this case files are 4K MXF - although I have proxies attached which seems to have exasperated the audio situation.  Although I rarely have needed to use proxies, so my other projects had problems using the original footage.

I always make my sequences from the clip, so matching settings should not be an issue - except iI guess potentially in this case where I have proxies attached.

I've cleared my cache, I've upped my buffer size to the max, and made sure my sample rate matches. 

I've been editing over 25 years, linear tape to tape, Avid, and I've been using Premiere since 2012 and CS6, and I've never been more frustrated. 

Anyone else?

[rodneyb56060189]

I have a custom built editing thing. On top of case are jacks for headphones and microphone. On back of computer are outputs (mobo sound 5.1 stuff ). At first audition would have problems if I unplugged stuff on top of board, replacing with another device.. e.g. from headphones to a line going to stereo aux.  If audition was ON during the plugging it was fine ( would see unplugged and new plugged in thing). If audition wasn't on it normally wouldn't know what was going on and I'd have reset preferences. So that was one weird thing. Then no matter what I did sound was cutting in and out on the whole computer ( including editing). I am not sure but I THINK the stupid mini stereo jack on top of computer was simply getting loose wire inside. At any rate I bought external speakers for the computer and they have a headphone jack on them, and plugged THAT into the rear of computer,, so I never have to unplug or plug anything in and out anymore re: the computer.

Sometimes hardware is getting old and worn out and not working right and it's the LAST thing we suspect as our problem. Sometimes it's the software.  Who the heck knows ???

Good luck finding answer. If a lot of people have same problem at least there should be a lot of solutions coming your way.

[CCS18]

Interesting thought.  I have Genelec speakers connected to a PreSonus Audiobox... but I've got two setups and they've both done it so I doubt both went bad at the same time.  But it doesn't mean that Premiere isn't all of a sudden deciding it doesn't like that config... but I kinda doubt it.  When I get more time I'll try to test that. 

[CCS18]

So, a little more testing... - if I just load the clip into the source window, video plays fine, but audio repeatedly cuts out.  I lose the audio meter levels visually as well, so Premiere is just choking on the audio for some reason.  If I pause, and play again, it will play audio for a little bit and then cut out again.  I even tested taking my speakers out of the equation, and just playing through the Mac's internal speaker.  Same result.

[Ann Bens]

Check audio hardware in the Preferences and set input to none.

See how that goes.

[CCS18]

Nope, no change.  I was really hoping it could be something as simple as that!

I've managed to work around it for now by dropping entire sections on a timeline and rendering both audio and video - then it seems to play ok - but besides being ridiculously time consuming, the fact I can't play a clip in my source window before applying to a timeline and rendering is crazy.  For now, I just keep taking notes as to what the files types are as I come across them to see if it's a specific type causing the problem.  I know I used to have to convert all avi files to something else to be able to edit in Premiere because it would just choke on them... but since being on a Mac I haven't had problems til very recently.  These are mxf's. 

[Kevin-Monahan]

CCS, make sure your sequence settings for sample rate matches the sample rate of your footage_precisely. Trash any audio previews, render audio and see if you have the same issues.

Thanks,
Kevin

[CCS18]

Sequences made as always from dropping the clip on the new item icon which should produce an exact set of sequence settings as the clip... but I'm having trouble playing in the source window as well which would theoretically take any sequence settings out of the equation.

[rodneyb56060189]

I wonder if it's worth using mediainfo or something like that (tree view ) to show what the source stuff is to begin with ??

[Kevin-Monahan]

Sequences made as always from dropping the clip on the new item icon which should produce an exact set of sequence settings as the clip... but I'm having trouble playing in the source window as well which would theoretically take any sequence settings out of the equation.

• Please first check your Audio Hardware settings and set those to default for macOS.
  • Use standard speakers, not bluetooth or wireless speakers of any kind.
  • Is audio playback normal now?
• If you have updated your OS, please check your folder permissions.
  • How is playback now?
• If neither of these things work, have you tried rolling back to an earlier version of Premiere Pro?
  • If you have too many cuts since you updated, you can always try a XML file to roll back with.

Hope we can help you,

Kevin

[Guest]

Have the same problem, mostly caused by the audio being on an external hard drive (i guess), which is still not a reasonable excuse for the audio to be cutting out... Premiere is trash and it's time to go has come.

[danielw88228524]

I'm jumping ship to Davinci because of this bull .... I can't edit on Premiere anymore, its unusable but I have to somehow deliver a video tonight when the audio cuts out every 4 seconds.

Worst editing software of 2019 by a long shot.

[danielw88228524]

can you help me get my money back? I'm sick of this audio problem that EVERYONE seems to have, but nobody has an answer, unless you try two dozen different things. That right there is a sign that the software is simply broken. So yes, can you help me get my money back? A client needs a video yesterday, but here I am still trying to watch more than 4 seconds at a time.

[R Neil Haugen]

The vast majority of users aren't having the issue. At the same time, if you're having this, it's a massive problem. Like so many computer bugs.

Which is why those questions about what your system are, med, and practices are so important. Both to try and get you working and to get data for where/when this happens.

Neil

[CCS18]

Sorry I didn't get back here sooner, as I managed a work around and life goes on.  Based off the issues I have had and others I know have had - this problem affects audio playback, morph cuts and a range of performance problems.  Commonalities seem to be mov and mxf files in CC2019 on older Macs 2013 trashcan etc, but some also on last round of imacs.  In every instance, transcoding the original footage to high quality mp4s got us through the job.  I've since gotten a brand new imac and am not experiencing those same problems, but I haven't worked on that same exact footage again either.  I also did not experience these problems on the trashcan prior to cc2019.  Bottom line, if you're struggling try transcoding to high res mp4s. 

[shayk69508833]

So, I spent HOURS today trying to figure this out and I FINALLY found the answer (at least for me). The audio kept cutting out in the timeline (only) and it was because the sequence settings didn't match. I shoot in 60fps and have always dropped my footage into a 24fps timeline with no issues before this latest update. So, I just created a new seq and the kept frame rate at 60 and the audio was seamless. Then I went back into seq settings and adjusted it to 24 and it seems to work perfect (for now)!   

[gavinb3729535]

Since I was matching on board camera audio in the 'Audio 1' track to my .wav's in the 'Audio 2' track, I simply deleted the on board audio in track 1 after I had synced sound. No cut outs after that and its not like I was going to use the camera audio anyway. 

[elio243]

I can up with the same problem,

I first renedered, cleared the cache, updated premiere and nothing...then I saw that this worked for others so I tried moving my files to the computer rather than my works server. I then deleted the audio clips from the camera that I was not using, and then rendered everything. Not sure what out of all those things fixed the problem.

[Kevin-Monahan]

Elio,

My advice is: Don't place media on any "server" unless it is expressly built for serving video streams.

Thanks,
Kevin

[Kevin-Monahan]

While I would recommend transcoding, I'd do so to an editing or "intermediate" codec, like ProRes, not H.264 files. You probably should never refer to a .mp4 file as a "high quality" file. It is definitely not that. .mp4 is a delivery codec, not one you should edit with or transcode to.

Cheers,
Kevin

[flatstyle]

I've been having this issue as well, and the responses here made me think, so I dug in. In my case, I'm editing a multicam clip, with both in camera and off-camera audio tracks, synced. I tried deleting the camera audio to see if I could play the timeline for more than 2 seconds without the audio cutting out. It worked. Now and again there's a little "blip" of the audio cutting out, but nothing like before. Not a great solution, but I can finally press on with my project after almost throwing my computer through the wall in frustration 🙂

fwiw I tried everything I could first - clearing the cache, rendering audio, etc. Nothing had any effect on the problem until I deleted tracks. There were originally 6 audio tracks. Now I have 2, and have a working scenario. I also have a very capable editing PC.

[mknebel]

I got around this problem by opening the original clip in Adobe Audition, then exporting it (using same as source settings), then importing it into Premiere Pro.  Horrible workaroud, but it gets me going again.

[MattSmalls]

yep. i've been trying to fix this same issue for days now on a project from a year ago, as well as a brand new project with just prores media. Just got Resolve installed... fingers crossed.

[PlanDesignBCC]

This is a longshot, but there is a problem with the EQ tool in Premeire (or in Essential Sound). Say you're using multicam and you drill down to the underlying audio file and apply some EQ to it. Then when you start making cuts in the multicam, the glitch will grab whatever is at the start of your underlying audio and insert it at the cut. So, if you were using EQ with an audio file that didn't have any sound at the very beginning, you'd get a frame of silence at each cut.

One work around to this, render out the audio with the EQ on and bring it back in and replace the original audio. I'm just doing all my audio cleanup in Audition first, and then editing my videos, but not everybody has both.

Again a longshot, but if it isn't your problem, maybe if will help somebody else.

[arcadian]

I struggled with the issue too and this was my fix:

Premiere Pro > Preferences > Media Cache

1. Under Media Cache Files;

• tick the box on to save .cfa and .pek files next to original media. 
• hit browse so that it re-routes storage of these files next to source, and navigate there if need be (mine defaulted to the right place).
• delete media cache to clean up any old space.

2. Under Media Cache Database;

• hit browse so that it re-routes storage of these files next to source, and navigate there if need be (mine defaulted to the right place).

3. Restart Premiere

This worked for me, by surprise. Hope it works for you!

[arcadian]

False excitement - Adobe is back to its old ways after teasing me for a solid minute. Nothing like going through heaps of interviews a couple seconds at a time.