Audio Just All out of Sync Even in Recovery Projects

Report · Apr 29, 2024

This is the second time that this has happened to me and it is a disaster. Last time I assumed it was the text-based editing that caused it. I still think that is really what is causing it. I will never use text based editing again. What a nightmare.

I used text based editing in this project, but not on this sequence, and I am guessing that's why this problem is happening again.

What a disaster.

So as it stands now, I have a sequence that I was up editing for hours last night and into the morning, on a deadline. Today all the audio is wrong. It is synced audio from an audio recorder. The sound was all synced up. I did all my edits. At one point today. I adjusted the gain on one clip and then the audio did play at all. I restarted the computer and now all the audio is off in the entire timeline. I export from the timeline, the same thing. Even backups and earlier versions of the project. This sequence is consistently out of sync. The sequence is currently ruined.

I tried opening Premiere while holding down the option key to reset the preferences and clear the cache.

I tried opening it in the beta version. Everywher the audio is out of sync even the same timeline in previous projects, but not the other timelines. It's so weird and disturbing that the whole sequence can be ruined like that.

Really doesn't make sense, but it is making it impossible for me.

I edit in Premiere all the time and I've been using it for decades. Have done feature films on it.

But this makes me want to dump the whole program.

Does anyone have an idea to help me fix this?

The audio is 32 bit float. The video is iPhone video. Never have a problem with this setup except these two times. Same setup. Except these two times. Both times I did some text-based editing in the same project. I think it's that. Can I get it back?

Report · Apr 29, 2024

That phone video is VFR ... variable framerate. In other words the actual frames recorded per second constantly varies. If you're shooting with it set to say 60fps, look at the file in MediaInfo, and you'll see the actual framerate varies from maybe 57.23fps to 60.47fps.

The audio however has a constant time.

Premiere doesn't handle VFR well. If you convert the clip to CFR in Handbrake or ShutterEncoder beforeimporting to Premiere, the problem will not happen.

Report · Apr 29, 2024

Thanks Neil. I appreciate it. I'm aware of that. I have never had a problem with it before. I can use the handbrake etc in the future but I really don't think that's it. I mean this is way way off. It's not like it's a little out of sync, it's moved to a completely different place. Something is very screwy and it's not just the iphone footage.

Report · Apr 30, 2024

Sure, there could be something else going on.

Have you tried this in a different project? Or recreated in the same project? Sometimes a corruption of some kind gets into the metadata of the project or sequence. And of course, that's all that a project or sequence is ... metadata. If something gets off, screwiness comes knocking.

Although ... converting to CFR in Handbrake, then importing, will most often cure this also.

Report · May 01, 2024

Hi Neil:

Thanks for the help. Here's what I've done so far.

I moved all the media to another computer using the Premiere project move function. I also transcoded the video when I did it. It still had the audio out of sync.

There are two separate microphone tracks that are from a Zoom handledheld mic, that records 32 Bit Float to a micro SD.

The problem only seems to be happening for one of the tracks (042124_001.WAV). The in and out points are totally wrong, for the one sequence just for that mic track. It happens throughout the sequence for that one track and the really weird thing is that there are 4 versions of the project and if I go back to the older versions it's the same. And it's the same for all the autosaves of the project.

It seems to have happened when I changed the gain on one of the clips. All of a sudden there was no audio, no audio sound was coming out of Premiere, so I restarted and when I opened the project again all the sound from that one microphone audio file was off by a lot.

I tried replacing the audio files from the mic, by just copying them off the SD card, in case the files themselves got corrupted, but that made no difference.

I have tried resetting my preferences.

Do you think there are cached files somewhere for these audio clips that are off somehow?

Any advice is welcome, as I have edit this project and I don't want to start all over again.

Report · May 01, 2024

When odd things happen after making something like a gain change, that typically does mean there's something off in the sequence meta, or the project meta. Finding what is a troublesome process.

Sometimes, if the project isn't too big, it's easier and faster to simply recreate a new project.

To keep working the current one, first thing is naturally to close Premiere, and on relaunch, hold down a modifier key. You'll get an option to dump cache files, take it.

If that doesn't work, I'd check to see if Premiere has created an XMP file for that audio clip on the computer drive, and if so, delete that. A couple times, I've gotten past audio issues with that.

Next is testing the clip in a new project, and if it's workable there, you might delete the clip from the main project. Then re-import the clip and use the 'new' clip to replace the instances of the deleted clip.

Report · May 01, 2024

Hi:

When you say create a new project, do you mean that I create a new project and then somehow copy the sequence over? Or are you saying that I create a new project and re-edit the whole ting?

I did an export of XML of the projet and tried to make a new one, that still had the out of sync issue.

I cleared all the cache files and that didn't fix it.

I deleted the peak files for the audio and that didn't fix it.

The video is right, the audio is the thing that is not right. It is only the clips with the close-up video and it's true for all close-up clips. The wide shot, the audio is from the same mic in a different file and that ones fine.

I'm wondering if it's this 32Bit Float audio that causes these problems.

It's so weird because even the older projects and the autosaves are now out of sync when I open them. It's like there is a whole audio file that has some kind of proxy or something that makes it play dialog that is like 10 seconds later. It's like it all got slipped to the right for each clip. Even for the previous projects. The wave form coincides too.

As much as I don't want to fix it manually, I want to find the fix for this because otherwise the fact that it doesn't make sense makes me wary of relying on Premiere at all. What if this was a feature?

I looked for an xmp file and didn't find one for that audio clip.

I'm not sure what you mean by create a new project.

I tried reimporting the clip as a new clip and replacing it.

I even ran it through media encoder and re-encoded the .wav file.

So weird because just the seq is off and not the original that was a sync of the whole shoot. That ones fine, even though it uses the same audio file. This is weird.

Report · May 06, 2024

Is there any way to get help from Adobe?