My .CRM file is missing part of the audio after I accidentally linked it to a .MXF proxy file

[GGTVVIDEO]

So, I have a very weird problem. I am currently working on a big documentary project. We are working with Canon RAW files (CRM) and proxies out of the camera.

We had some trouble with a external harddrive. We lost some files and I had to link the files again in Premiere Pro. One proxie file (mxf) was missing and I accidentally linked it to the corresponding .CRM file. After this I found that of the 45 minutes of interview in total, the last 20 minutes are missing audio/video and I get a LOT of "frame substitution recursion attempt premiere" errors.

If I play the original CRM file it has the same problem. No audio after 25 minutes...

What happened here? I could edit this interview perfectly fine before. I still have the transcript and I can read the quotes that should be there, but are missing now.

Does anyone have an idea of how to get this missing part back?

Thanks a lot!

[Michael Grenadier]

Never easy to troubleshoot premiere problems from a distance so please tell us your system specs: OS version, Premiere version, amount of RAM, Hardware specs, etc.

Wondering if the original full rez file (.mxf) file has been corrupted in which case not sure if there's a solution.  You might run a disk utility (like diskfirstaid and diskwarrior on the mac) on the hard drive to see if that helps.  Also, maybe try and transcode the file to a "mezzanine format" like prores...

And although it may be too late, always important that you have your source media backed up at least a couple of times...  Every hard drive will fail.  It's a question of when not if...

[GGTVVIDEO]

I am using a Windows 11 PC with Premiere version 25.1. The computer has 64gb RAM, a Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-9900K CPU @ 3.60GHz processor and a Nvidia Geforce RTX 2070 Super.

The original .mxf was created in camera but the file is missing like I said, because of a hardware crash. Yes we have a backup of everything now...

The RAW files are still there luckily, but something went obvisously wrong. The only thing I can think of is that I linked the MXF file to a RAW file and now it got somehow corrupted. Is that something you have seen before?

The weird thing is that our backup of the RAW file (which has never been used before) is also missing it's audio after 26 minutes.

I have nog idea what could be the problem. Hope it can still be fixed!

[Michael Grenadier]

Frankly, I have no idea what’s going on, but I can’t suggest a few things
to try. Try deleting your cache files in premiere. Try creating a new
premier project and importing the file.

Maybe try playing the file in another program like resolve or VLC.

Let us know if anything helps

[Michael Grenadier]

just to confirm, you do NOT have a backup file fo the camera. origianl .mxf file?   And not sure what you mean about having a back up of the RAW file.  Does that have all the audio?   Might make sense for you to describe the workflow from shooting and backup so we have a clear picture of the situation.  

[GGTVVIDEO]

I do not have a backup of the original .mxf file. I do have a backup file of the CRM on two different harddrives.

Something went wrong in the backup of the mxf camera file. Usually we copy that to two different harddrives, but now we forgot to do that and it was only on one harddrive. So, that one crashed and couldn't be repaired so we lost that one.

[Michael Grenadier]

you've checked all the CRM versions?  Can you describe how you created the .CRM's?

[GGTVVIDEO]

Yes, I checked both. These files were also created in camera and recorded to a CFast card.

[Michael Grenadier]

do you have access to the camera?  Maybe see if you can playback the crm file on the camera...  Just grabbing at straws here...  

[Averdahl]

Do you have all audio in the CRM file if you play it in a media player such as VLC or PotPlayer?

I don´t know if any of them can playback CRM files, but the important part is to playback the file outside any Adobe app to hear if there is any audio in the CRM file to begin with.

If you can hear audio in the whole file, hold down the Shift key at the same time you launch Premiere Pro. This will give you the Reset options dialog. Check the Clear media cache files and click Continue. This will delete the media cache database that probably is corrupted.

Plus: It will give you the audio back.

Minus: All your files will have to be re-conformed and that will take some time for large projects.

While the re-conforming is in progress, avoid to do anything with the project until it´s done. Starting to edit/playback files while they are conforming can cause issues like you have, iow that portions of the audio goes silent.

Does anyone have an idea of how to get this missing part back?

By @GGTVVIDEO

[Michael Grenadier]

I don’t think you’ll need to “conform “your re-imported media. At least
it’s worth a shot to unlink the clip and then re-link to the Newly imported
clip.

Michael Grenadier
917-362-3396
*www.michaelgrenadier.com <>*
mgrenadier@gmail.com

[GGTVVIDEO]

Thanks for your reply. I tried to play the CRM in VLC. The is no image, but the sound has the same problem. It stops after 26 minutes...

It is really strange.

[GGTVVIDEO]

I tried unlinking and linking it again.

[Averdahl]

If you see the problem in a non-Adobe app as well the CRM file seems to have an issue that cannot be resolved. The issue here is probably not the file itself, the problem seems to be a glitch in the camera during recording. Try other software players. I don´t think anyone of them will find the audio though.

If you playback the MXF file in VLC, do you hear audio all 45 minutes? If yes, it is possible to extract the audio to a WAV file and use that file as the audio source in Premiere Pro.

Thanks for your reply. I tried to play the CRM in VLC. The is no image, but the sound has the same problem. It stops after 26 minutes...

It is really strange.

By @GGTVVIDEO

[GGTVVIDEO]

Two things.

1) I've lost the MXF file in a harddrive crash. So I can't check it.

2) I do still have a transcription made by Adobe Premiere Pro from the MXF file

I guess that de CRM file is broken in some way. You are probably right. I probably did not check this before, because I worked with the proxy.

[Averdahl]

O.k, got it!

@Michael Grenadiers tip about trying to playback the CRM in the camera is great. You will probably need to have the folder structure for the clip for it to work.

Another thing to try is to extract the audio from the CRM file using Shutter Encoder - Encoder|Converter video FREE PC|Mac. I have a feeling that Shutter Encoder won´t find any audio either, but it´s worth trying. 🙂

[Michael Grenadier]

these are both long shots, but worth a try.  I think you have video for the section for the missing audio...  If so, you might try generating audio using some of the tools out there that will create it and match it to an existing voice.    I've never done this but did have a client do this to generate some voice over matching her voice.  Would be tricky matching the lip movement but might be possible.   If you want to try this, can probably give you some guidance on matching voice to picture...   

[GGTVVIDEO]

Thanks for all the help! I will try the 'longshots' soon.

[Michael Grenadier]

Keep us posted.