Premiere adding random audio pops that aren't in OBS source audio (v23.5 and v23.6)

[Will..]

Over the last several versions, Premiere is randomly adding audio pops/clicks in audio. I've confirmed it isn't in the source media.

I will play through an edit I've made and randomly there will be an audio pop/click that wasn't there before. If I restart Premiere, it goes away, but it happens constantly, so I started to right click the audio clip when it happens, send it to Auditon, close auditon, then undo, so that it's back to normal. Then the audio pop won't be there anymore. So it's definitely a bug with Premiere Pro and how it's processing/rendering the audio files.

This was not a problem last year with the same audio format coming from the same program. My system is fast and transcoding is a waste of time; this bug shouldn't exist.

Happens in Premiere Pro v23.5 and 23.6 (This wasn't happening in the previous years versions)

My setup:
Mac Studio M1 Ultra

OS 12.6.8

Audio is from h.264 .mp4 files recorded from an OBS screen capture.

For some reason it's not liking the audio in these recent versions. (I've edited hundreds of videos in prior versions and can guarantee this was not an issue before.)

I've noticed if I tab out of Premiere for like 5-10 mins then go back, it resets Premiere and the pops don't happen, then as I start to playback parts and move the timeline curser around, the pops come back. It's very random though. If the pop isn't addressed, it ends up in the export as if Premiere has baked it into the render preview files during the editing!!

[R Neil Haugen]

These sorts of issuance be flipping hard to nail down. The vast majority of users aren't getting this. So why, exactly, are some users getting it?

If they could replicate in-house it's always easier, but I doubt they have so far. So please, everyone getting that mess, please please please include your complete hardware and media used. Especially if you have an actual sound card, or other specialized audio and or video hardware or software.

Finding some commonality is a key to solving things.

I regularly use OBS and have never had this, so I can't replicate it either. I have no doubt this happens, that's just data from my system. What is the difference?

Ryzen 3960x, 128GB RAM, 2080Ti, no sound card or gaming software or utilities added. BRAW, mov, mp4, some screen recording via OBS, some VO direct in Premiere.

[Edwinghui]

We only know the common factor here is audios recorded from OBS. I don't have a sample media right now. I will be sure to upload it here next time I have the problem.

Macbook Pro M1 Max. OBS 29.04 (64 bit) with nothing changed in Audio setting. 

@Perfect Harmany If you have the media, could you please upload it here?

[Ayesha29138234u6yx]

I've just started experiencing this too. It sometimes seems to vanish and at other times it doesn't. I'm marking every click off and will try and restart and hope they all go. Please send solutions! But on a 50 minute video I have multiple so far. Adobe should be offereing to make my life easier not give me more work. Help! 

[Ayesha29138234u6yx]

Also, for the record, my footage was not recorded on OBS but on Zencastr which may be somewhat similar. 

[Eric@TheFullStack]

Having the exact same issue.

I can sometimes get it to stop by bringing it back and forth in audition, but that doesn't always work.

This bug is persistant, and inconsistent, which is game breaking. I have to scan every single second of every single render before I release it, otherwise I might miss a click or pop in the middle of someone speaking or whatever.

Adobe, please do something about this, it's game breaking.

[Perfect Harmany]

Same issue here.  Everytime i import Video recorded with OBS, the audio has clicks and Pops thats not in the source file.  I can play the vidio in Quicktime player and other software and the clicks and pops are not there.  This has been driving me bonkers for months trying to figure this out.  Still no solution @ADobe?  Come on guys im spending a lot of money per month on your software.  Really thinking about switching over to different software if this isn't fixed.  

[twaqua21]

Same issue here as well. It only occurs within footage recorded in OBS which is really strange. I've been getting around it by rendering the audio with the pops and adding the Automatic Click Remover effect to problematic segments to eliminate the pops. This process is quite tedious however and sometimes doesn't fully remove the pops as you can still hear them slightly. Would be awesome if someone found a better workaround to this issue 😞

[R Neil Haugen]

I record several times a week with OBS and have never had this. So I'm trying to figure out what the difference is that causes this. I'm on the road for a few more days so I can't post a screengrab of my audio settings in OBS for comparison purposes. But will do when I get home.

[ShinyCatherine]

I've been having the exact same issue for ages now. Clicks in the audio that don't appear in the original recording and don't appear in the waveforms on premiere either but can still be heard in playback and export. The audio in my case comes from mp4 files recorded in OBS studio. The weirdest temporary solution I've found is to play ANY mp4 file using media player and then sometimes it goes back to normal, but it's very inconsistent and temporary. I hope the Adobe team actively looks into a fix because it's clear to me that this is affecting a lot of people with a wide variety of PC specs and recording software.

[R Neil Haugen]

"A lot of people ..." is a very relative thing.

There are several million daily users of Premiere, the vast majority of whom are working away without significant issue. Even a few thousand with an issue is still, in relative terms, a very small percentage of the user base. 

So figuring out what can cause these things and how to work without getting them is a natural "thing" for us users.

One post I saw recently on pops in Premiere audio had a user-posted solution ... they went into the Preferences/Audio tab, and changed the buffer size. No more pops. 

For many, simply setting the Default Audio Input to "none" works. For others, it's been disabling game-installed "audio helper" applets.

You might try going through those for any that may apply and or may work for you.

[ShinyCatherine]

That's fair. I've tried those solutions before but unfortunately no dice. Hopefully another solution is found that'll apply to my issue and everyone else's, as well. Months of looking for solutions to no avail is no fun.

[R Neil Haugen]

It really, really sucks to be having these sort of issues that don't seem to be fixable at the moment. Been there.

Hoping someone else has a Useful Idea.

[Framobot13]

I've also been having this problem for ages. For me, I often get a problem when I use any audio transitions when trying to edit together dialogue, forcing me to use keyframes constantly instead of constant gain or constant power. Sometimes, that isn't the best solution either! It's so time consuming, and embarrassing to submit work with pops I might not know are there and DEFINITELY are not in the source audio. I've tried every solution in this thread and nada.

[Kcaudill]

I'm having the same issue of clicks and pops, usually at the heads and tails of clips. It seems to get worse when applying track effects (eq, denoise, compression, etc.). I've even started avoiding track effects because of this.

It has really frustrated me today in that if you play a section of the sequence several times you'll hear different minor clicks and pops, or maybe they'll eventually all go away. Then on export, there will be a few new clicks and pops. Then immiately exporting again, they will be gone or in different spots. So, this can't simply be related to hardware or buffering if they're appearing randomly and sporatically in exports.

While some of these clicks and pops are minor, they sound like poor edits on dialog, and when you're working on a fully narration driven video (like I am today) it's maddening to re-export and rewatch time and time again hoping there won't be any glitches in the export. Adobe, you're wasting my time!

[R Neil Haugen]

This has been a very annoying issue, over several years, but normally with only a very ... um ... "select" group of users. Congratulations ... maybe? And though that's kinda sick humor, I've been there in the past myself with a couple other issues, where I couldn't update Premiere for a few months awaiting a build that solved what was borking me.

But I kept working away fine in an earlier build.

So ... what is your OS and basic hardware? Do you have a full sound card installed, or use the system sound resources? Do you have gaming apps installed, which often add "helper" applets and utilities to the system handling of sound?

And do you have the "audio input" preference set to none?

That last one is pretty crucial for a lot of audio issues.

Full-on sound cards over the years have also, quite often, been problematic in Premiere.

And most gamer "helper apps" are terrible for also working in video post, whether Premiere, Ae, Resolve, Avid, whatever. And can cause all sorts of grief.

This has been a little bit more common in posts here with Macs than PCs, but happens on both.

[Kcaudill]

I'm using the built in output of a 2020 27" iMac and Premiere 24.6.1. Here's a fun screenshot of what Premiere is doing to my audio.

RED is clean narration. GREEN is an export of the red narration track without track effects. BLUE is an export of the red narration track with Paramatric Equalizer, DeNoise, and Dynamics. Check out the added clicks / pops on the blue track where there was no audio. They're between the heads and tails of the clips. Also, see the chopped off ends of the waveforms.

Before asking if maybe the effects chain and settings are creating these chopped waveforms- exporting the GREEN track, but this time with added track effects, produces a clean export! So, the introduction of clicks and pops seems to have something to do with dissolves and or the heads and tails of clips. 

 

[Gasques]

Hello
I'm having this issue as well, and "audio input" preference set to none didn't work for me

I don't have sound card, just system sound resources

W10 PRO

ryzen 3600, gtx 1650s, 16gb, 512ssd + 1tb HD

first time having this issue, edited a lot of videos from this person before

[Kcaudill]

This is clearly a bug as I was able to demonstrate (and Adobe could recreate it very easily as well) in the newest version of Premiere. Is anyone at Adobe actively looking into this? This has completely broken track effects for me which are quite honestly essential to the work I do.

[R Neil Haugen]

Do you know that any of the devs have replicated this? Have they told you so?

You cannot assume that becuase it happens on your rig, that anyone else can necessariily replicate it. I work in OBS routinely, to record tutorials and livestreams, edit the recordings in Premiere. And on my Ryzen PC, I've never been able to replicate this. Ever.

And I've several times tried the same OBS settings as others reporting this, and still ... couldn't get it. If I could, then, I could post additional information of course.

But the only additional information I can post is that neither on my PC or laptop, can I replicate. Which is frustrating, as ... somehow ... this needs sorting as to why you get this.

[Kcaudill]

Hi @R Neil Haugen, I assume you have no Mac machine to test this on, but I'm able to show this happening on several stock iMacs at my office. I once edited some shows in a PC only post house and we had all kinds of different issues than I was used to. In fact, I remember having audio pops in the room when working with clients. But then, it was fixed with an update. Maybe this is entirely a Mac issue.

[R Neil Haugen]

Might be. Even with Macs, there are many different machine types and tons of added variables. Finding the right set of causation information is always the trick.

I've a number of acquaintances who are total Mac geeks, of course, as well, video post, right? Ha. Most haven't had this, a couple have had this with prior versions. So it's a maddening thing running the blame thing down.

Which specific Macs, with which options, and running what media, might be good to add to the information on your troubles.

And yea, the new series comes out in a week ... maybe the 25.x builds are past this? Have you tested the public beta yet?

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hello @Will.., @Kcaudill, @Gasques, @Framobot13,

Can one of you upload a sample clip to DropBox or Google so I can pass it along to developers?

Here are some other things you can try (if you have not already done so).

1. Check Sample Rate Settings: Ensure that your audio device's sample rate settings in OBS match those. Go to Settings > Audio in OBS and set the sample rate to 48kHz. Also, ensure your audio devices (like your microphone and headset) are set to the same sample rate in your system’s sound settings1.
2. Adjust Buffer Size: Sometimes, increasing the buffer size can help reduce audio pops and clicks. You can adjust this in the audio settings of OBS or your audio interface software.
3. Use Noise Suppression and Noise Gate Filters: Adding these filters to your audio input in OBS can help reduce unwanted noise. Right-click on your audio source in OBS, go to Filters and add Noise Suppression and Noise Gate. Adjust the settings to find the best balance for your setup.
4. Update Drivers and Software: Ensure all your audio drivers and OBS are current. Sometimes, outdated software can cause compatibility issues that lead to audio problems.
5. Check for System Conflicts: Ensure no other applications are interfering with OBS. Close unnecessary programs and check if any background processes might be causing conflicts (such as Spotify and Chrome).
6. Try the Beta: Your issue might be fixed there.

Many helpful tutorials on YouTube can guide you through these steps. This one works well for Audition.

I hope these suggestions help you eliminate annoying pops and clicks in your OBS recordings. If you need further assistance or if you can provide me with some samples, feel free to contact me.

Thanks,
Kevin

[Kcaudill]

Hi @Kevin-Monahan, I sent you a link to download a test project with media and an explaination. A screenshot is attached, which mirrors my previous post, outlining the issue that I can recreate.

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi @Kcaudill,

I passed along the project and media to our engineering staff. I hope they can find a solution for you soon.

Thanks,
Kevin

[Will..]

After a long battle with the audio pops, I gave up and switched OBS from .mkv to the new segmented .mp4 and the issue stopped. Premiere did not like the remuxxed .mkv files. I suspect it has something to do with the remixing process in OBS, or that Premiere still can see it was made from .mkv somehow and since they dropped support of .mkv it's giving issues. I don't know, but for everyone with the issue and OBS, switch it to segmented .mp4 and it should solve the issue.