Audio waveform not showing visually

[rgreertetrt]

Having issues with this since updating to 2019. Basically, after importing a clip into the timeline everything is as it should be (video plays, audio plays) but the audio waveform does not show up until it's played through so I cannot visually see the audio waves unless I play/skip through the whole clip, which obviously makes editing a lot slower.

Attached an example. Image 1 is the clip just imported to the timeline and image 2 is after playing through a few seconds (as you can see the audio only shows up after I've played through the clip and the remaining audio waves are still blank)

Any help would be appreciated!

Using Windows and Adobe Premiere Pro 2019.

[jbellomo]

SAME HERE. AND IT HAPPENED FOR NO REASON

[relen-vPGuVI]

I've suddenly got the same issue - existing audio files show waveforms, newly-brought-in ones do not. None of the suggestions above solves the problem, including the so-called "answer". This is obviously something different from the problem noted in January - it's an "end of March" version of the issue.

No known software updates, Adobe or system (Mojave 10.14.3) here since last time I used the app the other day.

[patrickd37520737]

Hi guys - I've trashed the preferences and done the other tips but no good.

Very frustrating - really slows down editing audio when you can't see the waveform, means selecting the talking parts needs to be done aurally and in real time not visually.

Has there been a fix yet?? Adobe help?????????

[jbellomo]

One work around would be to convert the audio file to a video file

[patrickd37520737]

Just downloaded and used the latest update of PrPro - no luck with waveforms.

Adobe please help??? My work flow has slowed down dramatically... Final Cut X is looking more interesting all them time, especially considering the render times that program offers with Mac computers.

[KillyjoyyJess]

The last update completely fixed it for me and all of my co-workers, thankfully 😕 good luck to those that didn't benefit from the update. It might be worth uninstalling and re-installing now that we know the update is supposed to fix it.

[jbellomo]

Congrats but the update did nothing to help me like I hoped

[relen-vPGuVI]

For me, the latest update (13.1.0 Build 193) results in waveforms being shown again most of the time, but not always: every so often a clip comes in with an audio flatline.

In addition, from time to time the waveform doesn't match the audio - suddenly, in the middle of a clip, the waveform stops relating to the audio and goes off on its own.

[neilm143998]

Is Adobe working on this?  I just got off of tech support and they suggested rendering my audio files, which is something I've never done before.  It will take me at least 2 hours to render a 4 min sequence.  This is a very large project, it will probably take me a few days to render everything... 

[jbellomo]

One work around in to convert your audio files to a video file. Also try placing your cache folder on different drives if you can. That worked for me. I think this is a major bug since more and more people are complaining about it.

[relen-vPGuVI]

i should note that I have no issue with audio-only files: these come in with waveforms as usual. My issue is with video files (with audio tracks included). Here the audio waveform is currently either: (a) A flat line; (b) not apparently anything to do with the video; or (c) correct. On bringing a video file in the audio tracks will either display or not. If they display, they may be correct, or they may not relate to the video. The waveforms if present can change from synched to meaningless in mid-clip without warning. In these circumstances reloading the clip has no effect (the same with all of the remedies proposed in this conversation so far).

[jbellomo]

Sounds like you have a way bigger problem than me. But it's probably all related

[neilm143998]

Another work around is Render & Replace the audio clips that you are using in the timeline.  Not the best solution, but it does get you a waveform...

[JeneferUK]

Thank you so much! This is the only response on this thread, so far, that has actually unblocked me. In my particular case I had a sequence within a sequence which was just showing empty audio. I had to unlink video and audio before I could 'Render & Replace' just the audio element. At least I can work now as I've not got time to debug this on behalf of Adobe.

[digividkid]

We have had this same issue on and off for the past couple of years. Deleting the .pek and .cfa doesn't work reliably. What does work for us is to delete or move the media cache database. Then close Premiere and reopen. For us, this works every time.

[jbellomo]

Are you moving the folder to a different drive. I tried replacing the folder in didn't work unless I put it on a different drive.

[jbellomo]

BREAKING NEWS!!! For some unknown reason I put my cache files on my original scratch drive the waveforms now work again.

[digividkid]

By relocating the cache files, the DB was updated AND I am wondering what speed/interface the drive that you had been using for the cache that didn't work?

[jbellomo]

I'm back to my original cache drive which is a local raid drive. I upgraded last week and that didn't seem to fix it. So just for the hell of it I just wanted to see if it would work and it did , so confusing.

[digividkid]

We move it to a different location, either within the same drive or completely delete it.

[neilm143998]

I ended up deleting the Media Cache and Peak Files, and the waveforms came back.  It took a long time to regen, due to the project size, but it was working in the background (vs. rendering or replacing the files).

[Guest]

The same problem here. I can't see the waveforms not only for audio files but for all files. And part of my project files have them and part not.

I tried to move my cache delete it, enable "place cache files next to original", re-render project. re-render waveforms. Nothing helped me, only zoom in the sequence window show waveforms but when you zoom out you can't see the waveforms again.

Really stupid bug and it's sad that Adobe isn't fixing this fast.

[mattmattmayer]

Sometimes, this solution doesn't work. It didn't for me. But then I found another, simple method. tl;dr below. Hope it helps people.

So I have found that you can trick Premiere into make a new .pek file without much effort.

1. Make sure this checkbox is checked: "Premiere Pro > Preferences > Audio > Automatic audio waveform generation"
2. In the Premiere timeline, on the clip in question, right-click > Reveal In Finder
3. In Finder, move the audio clip up in the Finder folder hierarchy
4. Return to Premiere
5. The clip should have lost its link to the file and the Link Media dialog box should automatically appear (if it doesn't, right-click > Link Media)
6. Relink the clip to where it is in its new location

That should be it. Look at the bottom right of your Premiere windows to see if it's automatically generating new waveforms (generally a blue status bar). Wait till that bar is complete and tada: waveforms. They should show up immediately and automatically. I think what's happening is that this process disrupts Premiere's link between that file and any previously generated waveform information. So the incomplete or corrupt waveforms are ignored, and new ones are generated for the file in its new location. Moving the files up (as opposed to down or into a new folder in the same place) seems essential to confusing Premiere's automatic relinking process. If you've moved it sideways or down, when you click back over to Premiere from Finder, Premiere seems to be able to find it, and so nothing really happens.

A couple notes from experimentation:

1. Seems okay to make a new folder, just has to be higher up
2. This can be done in batches (batch move in Finder, batch relink in Premiere)
3. Seems also to solve the problem of not being able to see Waveform information up through Multicams

tl;dr

Move the associated audio files in Finder to a higher folder in the hierarchy, then relink in Premiere.

[ZenGeekDad]

The "correct" answer here is not.  At least not always.

In my case, the sequnce stopped showing audio waveform after I'd done manual work in the multicam it sources from.  (I manually edit my multicams a lot.  Usually, things behave fine.  But in today's case, the "no waveform" bug occurred.  Oddly, I could not then recreate it in new test sequences, right afterwards, by following the same steps.  So it's more nearly random.)

None of these fixes worked:

1. Edit > Preferences > Audio: Check "Automatic audio waveform generation" 
2. Select clip in Program Panel, then frommenu: Clip > "Generate Audio Waveform"
3. Delete media cache database (even manaully outside PrP0; close PrP; reboot PC. 

(I also unsuccessfully tried a number of things not listed in this thread, which I'll omit for brevity.)

Which leaves me with THIS WORK-AROUND:

1. Select audio track in sequence (not in multicam).
2. Right-click, Render & Replace.   (Creates/imports/replaces with a file of same name + " Extracted".)
3. In Project panel, go to audio file that you want the sequence to use, and manually add it to your sequence (not to the multicam) under the rendered-replaced audio track, and then sync manually (visually, using a sharp peak of the waveforms; but cross-check by ear to ensure no echo).
4. Delete the rendered-replaced audio track, leaving just the desired audio track.
5. PRO: Any future changes to the manually placed audio file (in the sequence) such as refinements made in Audition will show up in the sequence.  Minor CON/FYI: but changes to the audio in the multicam source are now of course being ignored wrt your sequence.

[ZenGeekDad]

I found one other fix.  If you manually edit your multicamera sequences a lot, like I do, then you might at some point unmute audio tracks below you top audio track.  This will consistently flatline your audio peak trace in timelines that point to this multicam sequence.

While I suspect you can fix this by -- as recurringly offered in this thread -- render/replace, I think the cleaner approach is to just mute the audio tracks below the top track in the multicam sequence.  Seems PrP wasn't intended to mix audio tracks within a multicam sequence.

I tend to do all my audio mixing in Audition anyway.  So this update here is just to report that any seeming short-cut -- to mix in a bit of audio in the multicam sequence -- is actually quite problematic, and best avoided.