P: Audio dropouts and random clicks and pops in exports around fades

[Kcaudill]

Exports from Premiere (in this case 25.1) contain random audio clicks and pops and dropouts close to audio fades. This happens when track effects are used, such as denoise, dynamics, eq, etc. This also seems to happen on playback in the timeline, but of course there is no way to visualize it and it's easier to look at the exports. I have had to work around this problem since at least Premiere 2024.

This typically sounds like a bad edit, but it is Premiere chopping the audio in strange and unpredictable ways. See the screenshot below showing the source audio on the top track, and the exported version below. Note the small clicks before the audio fades, and how the waveform is chopped off on the export, indicating an audio dropout. 

This happens in various projects and multiple stock Apple machines from M2 Mac Studios to 2020 Intel iMacs. The only way around this bug is for me to export the entire audio track (or stems for all trakcs). Import the export so that there are no audio fades or edits, and then apply my track effects. This seems to be entirely related to fades and it consistently adds more work for me and my team when we use track effects when mastering videos.

[IanB_360]

Hi @Kcaudill 

 Thank you for taking your time to file a bug report. We would like to help figure this out with you. The team just needs a little more information to begin troubleshooting. If you could just jump to the link here  How do I write a bug report and follow the steps to providing more information about your bug, we will gladly take a look.

Ian

[Kcaudill]

@IanB_360, I've sent a link to very simple demonstration project to you.

Issue:

(As stated above) Exports from Premiere (in this case 25.1) contain random audio clicks and pops and dropouts close to audio fades.

Adobe Premiere Pro version number:

25.1 (But, this has been happening since version 24 or before)

Operating System:

Mac OS 15.2 (This happens on different Mac operating systems)

System Info:

2020 iMac 27inch

128gb Ram

Radeon Pro 5700 XT 16 GB

Or, since this happens on different machines:

Apple Studio M2 Max 

12‑core CPU, 30‑core GPU, 16‑core Neural Engine

64GB memory

Video Format:

No video is needed to reproduce this bug. In this case, 24bit 48khz mono wav audio.

Workflow details:

I used the "HD 1080p 23.976 fps" sequence preset. 

Steps to reporduce:

1. Create a new Premiere project.
2. Import an audio clip of narration or an interview, etc.
3. Edit some clips of that audio into a timeline (I used the "HD 1080p 23.976 fps" preset).
4. And add fades on both sides of the clips. 
5. Pace it out, add some volume envelopes, and adjust the clip gain. Do what you wish to create what you believe to be a nice clean dialog track.
6. Now add some track effects to make it sound even better, such as eq, a light denoiser, and dynamics.
7. Okay, you're done with your perfect audio track, so now export it as a wav file from Premiere and look for issues. 
8. You'll see some very small ticks and pops and clipped waveforms added by Premiere around the audio fades.

This happens when exporting projects with video and other audio as well, it's just harder to realize this is happening if you have music, sfx, nat sound etc.

Expected Result:

A clean audio export.

Actual Result:

An export with clicks, pops, and audio dropouts that sound like bad audio edits.

I would love this to be fixed. It's been happening for a while and I've posted about it previously. As mentioned in my initial post, the only way I can get around this bug is to export entire audio tracks as stems and then add track effects to the exported files. This is an extra step when mastering projects and a painful extra step if you're, for instance, editing voiceover for animations and want to export clean narration for animating in After Effects. I've got a project that requires many, many, stringouts of dialog for animation.

[J0S3Phhhh]

Pr 25.1 - I'm getting the occasional click from a lifted clip on the timeline, when there's no clip present.  Currently the only way to combat is to add a piece of "dead air" and bring the gain way down.  Click remover and Gating have zero effect, as it seems to come from a bugged timeline.  It happens on multiple sequences, in multiple projects.  The picture attached show's the click on render. Orange is the original clip on the sequence, and the greens are WAV exports brought back in.  You can see by the play head that's there's a click randomly introduced.

 

[jamieclarke]

Hi @J0S3Phhhh -  Thanks for submitting your bug report. We need a few more details to try to help with the issue.
Please see, How do I write a bug report?

Are you using any track effects?

What type of media are you working with? I'm curious about the container and codec.

Sorry for the frustration.

[J0S3Phhhh]

Hey @jamieclarke.., its Pro Res 422LT, at 29.97fps.  I break my dialogue tracks down so that each contributor has their own channels.  But on each track, I add a De-noise, P-Eq and Tube Compressor.., I'm going to add another picture, because it's not just clicks. Sometimes the fades can't be rendered... again Orange is the original clip, and green the rendered out WAV's imported back in.  The intact green render, is taking the entire sequence and copying it onto a fresh one.  A slapstick solution, but as soon as I add additional audio edits new pops appear.

 

[jamieclarke]

Hi @J0S3Phhhh - There is an open bug being worked on where some effects added to the tracks causes these issues.  Sorry for the frustration.

[jamieclarke]

Updating Status to Acknowledged

[Kcaudill]

Thank you for acknowledging this! I'll be enormously happy when it is fixed. Hopefully my time documeting and positing has paid off.

[J0S3Phhhh]

Thanks for acknowledging @jamieclarke