Premiere blew my macbook pro speakers

[andripeetso]

I have a new 2 month old 15" MBP. I Was working on a project, macbook volume was about on half, when suddenly an audio bug occurred with really loud screatching noise and not letting me pause it. After it stopped, the speakers were really quiet, and after the next restart they're clearly blown. Initially I blamed the hardware, though the same thing happened a day later with my Sony 1000X-M3 headphones, luckily the headphones are ok, but that did give me a heart attack.

The situation is not ok, I am not happy. Adobe customer care chat is ridiculous.

MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2018)

Processor: 2,6 GHz Intel Core i7

Memory: 16 GB 2400 MHz DDR4

Graphics: Radeon Pro 560X 4096 MB; Intel UHD Graphics 630 1536 MB

[Chris Hocking]

As others have said, I really don't think this is an Adobe-specific issue.

There are plenty of users using all kinds of software that have the same issue - for example:

Avid Media Composer

DaVinci Resolve

Final Cut Pro X

Safari

I have a MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2017), and it also has this issue. If I play anything "loud" with certain frequencies, regardless of the application, first my left speaker fill go "muffled", then after a few seconds my right speaker will go "muffled" and from that point on any audio I play on my MacBook Pro sounds "muffled". The only way to fix is to shut down and turn back on to trigger sudo killall coreaudiod in Terminal and wait a minute or so for the audio hardware to "reset".

I can reproduce this issue fairly easily by simply playing this track with the MacBook Pro volume set at 100% - it seems to have whatever frequencies "break" the CoreAudio drivers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcXrf-eHQeE

This also happens if I import the same track into FCPX or Premiere and play it back at full volume.

This ONLY happens if the volume is at 100%.

This ONLY started happening after I updated to Mojave. I've put this poor laptop through hell (it's done a lot of travel all around the world), and I never had a single issue in High Sierra. But since updating to Mojave, if I'm playing back things at full volume, this issue will happen consistently.

However, what I think makes this whole issue a little bit confusing is that whilst this is clearly a software issue (as "killing" the CoreAudio drives temporary fixes the issue), when you take your 2017 or 2018 MacBook Pro into an Apple Store and show them an issue, they say it's a hardware issue and must be repaired.

There are plenty of posts around the Internet about "muffled" speakers after updating to Mojave - but there's no solutions:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8334904

MBP 2018 - Sound quality? Muffled? | MacRumors Forums

My right speaker sounds muffled. - Apple Community

https://www.reddit.com/r/macbookpro/comments/9cbsg0/2017_mbp_builtin_speakers_sound_muffled/

There are multiple reports online of people getting their MacBook Pro repaired multiple times, but the issue still remains.

Based on all of the above, I personally think it's pretty clear that Apple broke something in Mojave, and a software fix is needed. Hopefully Adobe engineers can put the pressure on Apple to finally address - and currently the official Apple Store "fix" is to replace the hardware, that really has no impact.

[samanthah85044121]

That seems like an unrelated issue. This killed my left speaker stone dead and left my right speaker sounding like garbage. No reboot or resetting of the VRAM or any other tricks fix it. Sounds fine when I put my headphones.

[Chris Hocking]

I don't think the issues I'm seeing on multiple 2017 and 2018 MacBook Pro's is unrelated - I think it's part of a bigger problem.

My best GUESS is that, just like when Apple "forgot" to digitally sign something correctly with the launch of the 2018's MacBook Pro's, which as a result thermally throttled them - I think maybe they've broken something in Mojave which is turning off some kind hardware limiter which prevents the speakers from "damaging" themselves. In my case, despite what the Apple Store says, I don't believe the speakers are physically broken - but whenever I play certain load sounds/music at 100% volume, the left speakers goes muffled, then the right - this is NOT normal, and it NEVER happened on High Sierra on the same machine. Assuming my GUESS is right, then maybe if the hardware protection is broken, and when you're playing SERIOUSLY loud sounds through Premiere, or hitting certain frequencies, that you are actually damaging the physical hardware? Of course, this is all guess work until Apple comes back with an official reply.

I will also say that since updating to Mojave, I have had a HEAP of crashes, all related to the T1 chip when you look at the crash logs. I know other non-Adobe users are also seeing the same things - especially when it comes to power management, etc. My computer will basically never awake properly when plugged back into power after running out of battery - it will always crash when plugged back into AC. My laptop also seems to jump from 5% battery almost instantly, which never happened on High Sierra, despite the fact that macOS reports the battery state is perfect.

I think the more Apple is relying on the T1 & T2 chip for things, the more problems we're all seeing. With Mojave, it seems Apple's using the T1 & T2 chips for more and more.

If you have a 2017 or 2018 MacBook Pro running Mojave, what happens if you set your volume to 100% and watch this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcXrf-eHQeE

...do your speakers keep functioning normally?

For those that have send their MacBook Pro's back to Apple for repair, has it actually fixed the problem, or have they broken again?

[tvate]

For most people here, this isn't an issue of playing loud music with certain frequencies or having the volume all the way up on the computer.  The loud sound is being generated by the software/computer and it sounds loud enough to blow a speaker, no matter how high or low the computer volume or audio track volume was set.

[R Neil Haugen]

There are it seems several different things that are going buggy with Mac units with T2 chips, depending on software & use perhaps. NO non-T2 chipped Mac gear has any of these issues. No PC gear has these issues.

Neil

[tvate]

And there is talk of Apple switching from Intel to proprietary main chips next year.

[aiur4]

Well, it's not confirmed yet. Just a rumor. And changing the processor does not solve this issue related to T2 chip

[tvate]

My point is that it will probably make Apple even less reliable than it has already become.  Seems like T2 isn't going so well.  Why would we expect them to make a solid main chip?

[aiur4]

Microsoft is also working on ARM computer for Windows 10 for next year so I dont doubt about it. It's been several years since Apple is focusing on its own processor for MacBook.

Anyway, Apple is being lazy and stupid that they dont care about Mac system. Look how they treated with Mac Pro 2013.

[Chris Hocking]

tvate​ - I think there's probably multiple things at play. There's definitely something going funky with Premiere - it shouldn't suddenly output crazy loud sounds/noise/distortion out of your speakers when the volume is down low. Something really weird is going on there - and my only guess is that it's some kind of driver issue - the same kind of thing you get when you get corrupt frames on screen when you have GPU issues. But regardless, of why or how these loud sounds are being generated - these loud sounds shouldn't physically break a MacBook Pro speaker. Premiere isn't talking to the speakers directly - it's all going through the operating system, and there should be protection in place to prevent a rogue app from blasting out noise. Given lots of other people are having other sound related issues on 2017 (T1 Chip) and 2018 (T2 Chip) MacBook Pro's - and as far as I can tell, they're all using Mojave - I think something is still fundamentally broken in macOS, or the firmware driving the System Management Controller (via the T1/T2 chip).

The question is... is anyone on this forum that has issues NOT running Mojave?

[tvate]

Agree 100% on all of this Chris.  Earlier in this thread, myself and others posted the same sentiment... the computer should have a protection against the software affecting it like this.  Even if it was a software flaw.

[Isaac_T_]

Chris! Hey! We keep running into each other!

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Chris+Hocking  wrote

If you have a 2017 or 2018 MacBook Pro running Mojave, what happens if you set your volume to 100% and watch this video:
/external-link.jspa?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DKcXrf-eHQeE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcXrf-eHQeE

...do your speakers keep functioning normally?

Gonna try this on my MacBook Pro and report back.

Given lots of other people are having other sound related issues on 2017 (T1 Chip) and 2018 (T2 Chip) MacBook Pro's - and as far as I can tell, they're all using Mojave - I think something is still fundamentally broken in macOS, or the firmware driving the System Management Controller (via the T1/T2 chip).

The question is... is anyone on this forum that has issues NOT running Mojave?

That's what I'd like to know. So if there are any affected users *not* using Mojave, post your About This Mac screenshot.

A note to the affected: no one's telling you how to feel or not to be upset, but *please* don't turn this into a PC versus Mac thread. Or a Premiere versus anything else thread. Try to keep the focus on this.

Also, if you have *fresh* sources (e.g. the liftgammagain.com threads I keep hearing about), please add those. Some of these links just add to the echo chamber.

[LennySE]

Given lots of other people are having other sound related issues on 2017 (T1 Chip) and 2018 (T2 Chip) MacBook Pro's - and as far as I can tell, they're all using Mojave - I think something is still fundamentally broken in macOS, or the firmware driving the System Management Controller (via the T1/T2 chip).

The question is... is anyone on this forum that has issues NOT running Mojave?

That's what I'd like to know. So if there are any affected users *not* using Mojave, post your About This Mac screenshot.

I'm still running High Sierra on an iMac Pro (I always wait a minimum of 6 months before I update to a new version of Mac OS). I posted my system screenshot and a youtube clip earlier in the thread. I don't know if the specific thing I've been experiencing is the exact same as others (mine is loud bursts of digital distortion that occur when using audio restoration effects), but there are at least similar audio glitch problems occurring in High Sierra on T2 Macs, not just Mojave.

[Chris Hocking]

LennySE​ - The audio glitch you show here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZw6HZa3_nE

...just looks like a built-in or more likely a third party audio effect just misbehaving. I've seen stuff like this happen across all NLEs and DAWs - FCPX, Resolve, Logic, and Premiere.

Are you saying that this glitch blew your internal speakers? If you have your speakers set to 0% do you still hear the glitch, or is the glitch volume relative to the speaker volume?

Is this the same kind of thing others are seeing?

[franktscmedia]

Chris, no this is not the glitch I had. None of the original audio came through. Instead, just a non-stop digital dostortion until I stopped playback. System volume did not affect volume of distortion - it was as loud a sound as the speakers were capable of producing even with the system volume set to 50%.

[LennySE]

Hey Chris. It's not the result of 3rd party plugins. There are none in use when this is occurring. It also doesn't happen in Logic. I've been recording and mixing an album for someone on this same Mac in my studio for the past month and I have no issues in Logic. I haven't tested Resolve because I only occasionally use Resolve for color grading, not for editing or audio.

I've been using Premiere for nearly 7 years now and don't recall ever experiencing something like this until using this version of Premiere on this Mac. It consistently occurs when using Premiere's built-in Denoise or Dereverb effects (which is consistent with what was reported in the original "blown speakers" article, mentioning it was often occurring when people were using Premiere's audio restoration plugins). Usually it's just a short burst of noise like in the YouTube clip, but there have been a handful of times when it was persistent for as long as a sequence was playing. It is quieter if I turn my speakers down, so it's a glitch that is contained within Premiere, not something that's bugging out my entire system. But it is far louder relative to the volume of anything else, enough that it was startling and was making me concerned it could cause damage to my speakers (before I ever saw reports of other users having their speakers blown). Might be worth noting that I'm using an external audio interface with studio monitors. I haven't wanted to risk testing it out with the Mac's internal sound card and speakers.

I now know this doesn't resemble the exact same problem that people are reporting on the Macbook Pro. But I think it's indicative that there are potentially numerous audio glitching issues inherent in certain NLEs on T2 Macs. I've reported my particular situation in the fullest detail I can and probably don't have much more to contribute here. So I'll wish the rest of you the best of luck and sign off.

[KR Seals]

See this article on DPReview about this issue:

Some MacBook Pro owners report speaker damage due to Adobe Premiere Pro audio bug: Digital Photograp...

[R Neil Haugen]

So a 'rumors' report from limited sources, not particularly useful. As exactly the same thing has been reported in other apps. Several other apps. The only "constant" is a Mac with a T2 audio chip.

If it was an Adobe-specific problem, I'd be happy to pile on. But from all reports and sources out there, it isn't. Facts just don't support this as an Adobe-only thing. Though I'm always amazed at the number of Mac owners who for some reason are absolutely certain Apple never does anything less than golden. They're human, they make mistakes, and some of the gear has had huge issues ... like the twin-D700 cards without nearly enough cooling, where the "2" card would over-heat & fry. People were trying like ever to blame that on Pr also. Even long after it became clear what the issue was and Apple was replacing cards ... though what was needed really was better cooling so the new card didn't fry also.

Neil

[aiur4]

Yeah, I still remember how Mac Pro 2013 failed because of stupid cooling design for 1 CPU and 2 GPU at once.

[muratb99]

I had the same problem and really it seemed so ridiculous. I searched online about the problem and really shocked that many people has the same problem...

This is really brand new and expensive macbook and this issue is not my problem... I shall not pay for any repair cost...  moreover they should pay me because of my lost work time...

[svikramajit]

Premiere Pro blew my MacBook's speakers today. It's just one month old 2018 model. It is hurting.

[R Neil Haugen]

I take it you've read the full thread?

Neil

[MyerPj]

I don't think they are Neil...

[mstegner]

Hi All,

We are aware of the issue and are working on a solution that will help users mitigate risk.

-Matt

[franktscmedia]

That is awesome news!! Thank you Matt and Adobe!