Distorted Audio After Export 2024

Report · Apr 16, 2024

I'm at my wits end. I'm making music videos and the audio is absolutely fine when played back in timeline but after exporting there is distortion. Crackly static sounds. I thought it was a result of adding too many effects to the sound track/s so I separated the audio and took the audio track and edited it in Audition. Then just popped that track back into Premier Pro (it was clean in Audition and clean when I played the track on a music player separately). Nope. Adjusted the gain to 0. Set a peak limit to 0. Nope. Set the limiter to 0. Nope, got worse. Put on a hard limiter. Nope. I've listened to the audio on the source material separately and there is no distortion. ONLY when exporting in Premier Pro and this isn't the first time it's happened. Someone please help. Sadly Adobe doesn't GAF and there is nowhere else to find answers. I suspect this is yet another Adobe flaw/failure and there is no solution but no amount of googling has helped and while I might sound ticked off (I am, and Adobe has so many flaws that they just don't care about and now refuse to give any support so they have it coming), I still deep down am hoping it's my fault and that there is some magic setting I'm missing so that I can just fix this and made videos.

Report · Apr 17, 2024

Set a peak limit to 0. Nope. Set the limiter to 0.

By @scm28

You really never want to put the audio at 0, you want the audio below 0. Try as a test and set it to -1 and and see if it helps.

Do you have any short source clip one can download and test?

Report · Apr 20, 2024

The files are massive in size. I'll give the audio settings a try and report back. The origina footage was 4K taken with an iPhone 15Pro and even using that crappy microphone, even at high volume I don't hear the distortion in the vocal tracks or music that I hear after exporting from Premier Pro. I split the audio file off and did several things to it in Audition - added a limiter and compression. Then brought it back in WAV format. I also took the audio file and used AI to separate vocals from Music. Those files (WAV) also don't show distortion even at high volume and me looking for it.

Report · Apr 20, 2024

Most anything at 0 will have clipping/distortion. I don't know of a single service that accepts levels that LOUD. -6dB is not at all uncommon as a 'max' for normal signals if there's only talking going on.

Report · Apr 20, 2024

Thank you, that is really useful. I dropped the gain 2DB and it made a big difference. The limiter made the tracks sound awful (hollow and tinny). It's curious to me why this happens if the original files don't have any distortion, why does PPro create an environment by default that causes it to occur. In other words it doesn't make sense to me that I by default have to decrease gains and peaks when I make a video? It's just puzzling to me as this is not the first time I've had audio issues with PPro. Don't get me started on the effects and filters causing more problems than they're worth. I have Mac M chip and 16g of ram and my PPro glitches up all the time on 3 minute videos or shorter and I suspect PPro is unable to handle even one audio effect. Heaven forbid I try a morph transition in video, that barely works at all. But I'm ranting. Thanks for the help!

Report · Apr 20, 2024

You need to understand digital audio. In old analog systems, 0 dB was fine, you'd start getting a small amount of distortion say about +3-5 dB.

In digital, everything 0 and above clips ... distortion that is immediately notable. So you must avoid it.

Look up say European noise requirements for broadcast audio levels.

Report · Apr 22, 2024

I get it, and thanks for the info, it's really useful and I'm grateful to you and everyone here in the community when help is given - I'm also still furious at how defiantly middle-finger level apathetic Adobe has been in it's aggressive refusal to support its products - this is not your fault. Also, this still doesn't explain why audio files that aren't clipping and w/o distortion before being brought into Premiere Pro (either as separate files or attached to a video file) become distorted through the export process and why Adobe doesn't seem to be aware of this or other sound issues to the point where there are no guidelines (that I've found) in the tutorials on how to handle sound and no fix to address an export system that is breaking something that works - the clean sound tracks. If the documentation was solid I'd be thrilled but it never is (coming to this forum is always my last resort after failing to find what I need online). Anyway, thanks again for the help!

Report · Apr 22, 2024

Everyone's mileage always varies ... I simply expect that.

I've never had an issue with sound distorting on import in a decade of use of Premiere and of course, Audtion for any "advanced" work. But then, I'd studied where to set sound levels on both cameras and my field recorders. I followed those instructions, in basic digital audio lessons in several places. So I've always worked at getting a "proper" digital audio level with field peaks maxing at no higher than -6dB.

Have you checked through their Help files for the audio section? Have you tried any of their video tutorials? Not always the most helpful, but they do cover some of the basics.

And of course, Audition is where any serious audio work is done. You can 'send to Audition' and save over there, which puts the work there back on the sequence. Or export new files to replace the original ones back in Premiere.

Report · Apr 23, 2024

Yes, I have Audition and I've certainly edited and exported some files in / into Audition when PPro is extra ornery. I find Adobe's documetation and their tutorials to be absolutely abominable. I can't being to explain how many times something is in the tutorial and not on the actual UI, or doesn't work the way the show it to work. Some of it is their refusal to keep things updated as well as poor document "housekeeping" where they don't delete obsolete documentation. That's why I end up hat in hand here hoping for the kindness and expertise of other users ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

Report · Apr 23, 2024

Yea the "help" is um ... legendary ... sort of. 😉

But BlackMagic gives users a 4,000 page manual with no index, and many things have only BM's unique nomenclature. So you might not find it in the TOC, and gave to read 2,672 pages to find what you needed. Awesome.

Getting digital audio recorded correctly is as important as image exposure. And at least as often, poorly done. Given what I've had to rescue ....

Report · Jul 01, 2024

I am having the same issue, I treid everything from sample rate to bit rate, uninstalling, using older versions, clearing all presets... with no luck. I am still getting a choppy and distorted audio when I export the clip. the audio is perfectly fine in the timeline, the audio quality is also top. I have a max db peak of -6 I also tried -12 its still distorted. I cannot find anything recent talking about this am I alone?

I am using a mac m3 pro

Report · Jul 02, 2024

Sorry to hear that and concerned. Adobe's systemic aggressive intentional apathy towards service (they removed all support years ago) QC, and bug removal is just infuriating and quite frankly an abuse of power - people use these products in professional situations and it can affect their livlihood. Adobe does not give a.....