Premiere randomly leaves out part of the audio when exporting

[KennyJapan]

When exporting a video sequence as H.264 or H.265, Premiere randomly leaves out part of the audio.

This is completely at random as to where it decides to leave out part of the audio. It changes position each time I re-export the file. 
If I keep re-exporting over and over, I sometimes get lucky and it exports the file normally with all of the audio complete.

As you can imagine, its very time consuming, each time I export it takes around 40 minutes and I'm missing deadlines because of it!

I have had this bug for at least 6 months now, have tried multiple different versions of Premiere / Media Encoder / Nvidia Studio drivers.

(I am exporting as H.264 or H.265 files, 3840x2160, 59,94fps, CBR)

Current Software Versions:
Premiere Pro 22.0
Windows 10 Home - Version 10.0.19041 Build 19041
Nvidia Studio Driver 472.84

Hardware:
Intel i7-9700K

Asus Z390A-Pro
Nvidia GTX1080

32GB DDR4

Two 2TB SSD Drives

[Carlos Ziade]

clean media cache

reset the preferences

delete video and audio previews (renders from sequence)

[KennyJapan]

Hi Carlos, Thanks for your reply. I already do clean the cache and delete the previews.

I even delete the cache and restart my computer incase anything is lurking behind in system memory.

I managed to find a workaround to get this "temporarily" working today - I exported the audio separately as a WAV file, added it back to the original sequence and it exported correctly.

Obviously this is not ideal because this new WAV file is one long continuous audio file which is unlinked and separate from the original video clips (meaning I cant really edit the video any further without reverting to an older saved version of the project and its original linked video/audio clips).

[Carlos Ziade]

can you try to export to QuickTime GoPro Cineform YUV 10 bit?

what kind of files are you working on? can you elaborate more on your workflow please?

[KennyJapan]

Hi Carlos,

We film weekly videos for a Youtube channel and output in 4K60, H.264 80mbps or H.265 50mbps

We use the following cameras and settings:

Panasonic Lumix GH5 - 4K/60

GoPro Hero 8 - 4K60

GoPro Hero 10 - 5.3k/60

DJI Mavic Air 2 - 4K60

This latest video has multiple clips from all of these cameras incorporated into one long 45 minute sequence.

The audio plays back normally when viewing the sequence in Premiere. When exporting, there are random silent parts in the video file. If we export the sequence again, the silent parts move to another point in the video file. Its completely random.

The only work around is to export the audio as one long WAV file seperately from the video.

Then deleting all the separate old audio clips in the sequence and replacing them with the one long WAV file.

[Michael Grenadier]

you can leave the original audio in the timeline, but either mute those tracks or turn off "enable" for all those clips...\

This way if you need to make changes, you can just delete the WAV file and unmute or enable the original audio clips...

[Peru Bob]

Try turning off Hardware encoding in the Video tab of the export settings.

[KennyJapan]

Hi Bob, thanks for your help. I already know its a problem with the hardware encoding, im just trying to find a fix or workaround.
Software rendering my long 4K60 videos is going to take forever which is why I invested in a fast CPU / GPU to hardware encode with.

[Peru Bob]

Try downloading the latest updates of Premiere Pro and After Effects.

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi KennyJapan,

Sorry about this. I would investgate your source media's audio sample properties and see if they match with the Sequence Settings precisely. If they are not matched, you may have issues like this. I like to conform all my audio to the same sample rate and have it match Sequence Settings if at all possible. You can usually adjust these in your camera settings if they are not optimized for post.

Thanks,
Kevin

[KennyJapan]

OK I will look into how I can change the audio settings on these cameras.

[Michael Grenadier]

before you need to check the camera settings, simply check the audio sampling rate for the sequence and compare it to the sampling rate for the clips.  you can easily access the sampling rate for all your sources in the project/bin panel.    If you need help with that, post back.

[KennyJapan]

Here are the audio properties of the clips from my different cameras used in this project:
The only differences are that the Hero10 records "compressed" stereo and the MavicAir2 dosent have any audio.
Other than that the sample rates are the same.

Lumix GH5

Source Audio Format: 48000 Hz - 16-bit - Stereo
Project Audio Format: 48000 Hz - 32 bit floating point - Stereo

GoPro Hero 8
Source Audio Format: 48000 Hz - Compressed - Stereo
Project Audio Format: 48000 Hz - 32 bit floating point - Stereo

GoPro Hero 10

Source Audio Format: 48000 Hz - Compressed - Stereo
Project Audio Format: 48000 Hz - 32 bit floating point - Stereo

DJI Mavic Air 2

N/A

[Michael Grenadier]

so try transcoding (not sure that's the right word (maybe resampling?) , but whatever) the compressed audio.  That may very well be the source of the problem.  Also, never a bad idea to transcode your video to all an i-frame format like the appropriate flavor of prores before importing into premiere...  Happy to explain the details of this if you want...

And make sure the dji mavic air video doesn't have an audio track, even if it's empty.  could be causing problems...

[KennyJapan]

I just noticed that they all have different audio bitrates and the 1kbps difference between the two gopros is a bit weird! There isnt anywhere on the GoPro to change the audio settings.

GH5: 1460kbps 48.000kHz
HERO8: 188kbps 48.000kHz

HERO10: 189kbps 48.000kHz

[Michael Grenadier]

 I don't think the bitrates would be causing this kind of problem, but as I said, compressed audio may...  

[neil wilkes]

Hi Kenny.

It seems that neither of the HERO files are using lossless sound, although the GH5 might just be. As you are running a PC, can you please go get & install a copy of Mediainfo and post back screenshots of the text report for each of the 3 above files? This is a wonderful tool & will tell us much about what is going on with your audio, but until we can see the details suffice it to say that lossy audio of any description is just not your friend.

We only have a Hero4 here but that can be set to either WAV or mp4 for audio - saet the bugger to WAV, always set to WAV and where possible set to a 48kHz sample rate (you have already done this - that advice is for the benefit of others reading this thread) and also make sure your video is set to as high a quality as you can achieve - especially if you are editing later - as editing lossy video accompanied by lossy audio is always going to be very hit & miss.

Lossy formats should only EVER be used as final output - never as recording and never as interim files. Maintain the highest quality you possibly can right up until the last minute for best results. mgrenadier is absolutely bang on the money when he states above that compressed audio may cause the issues and I would say the bitrate tells us all we really need to know (the audio is extremely heavily data reduced - I do not like the use of the word 'compressed' for this, as to an audio engineer like myself the expression 'compressed' means something entirely different to data reduction)

I look forward to seeing the MediaInfo text report - once it is installed (and it is free - did I mention that already?) you can interrogate any media file with a simple right-click. It's one of those absolutely invaluable utilities I cannot imagine living without.

[KennyJapan]

Hi Neil, many thanks for your suggestions, I have attached the mediainfo screenshots of these files that you requested.

My Gopros have a setting for RAW audio but it saves this audio file separately from the video file which will make things very complicated when sequencing in premiere. Im using about 100+ different clips from different cameras in one timeline.

The audio exports fine if I only export the audio in premiere as a WAV file... it only messes up when i try and export the audio and video together as an H.264 or H.265 which I need for Youtube.

[neil wilkes]

Hey Kenny

Sadly these screenshots confirm our worst thoughts, and the Hero8 & Hero10 are both recording your audio as extremely lossy AAC-LC whereas the GH5 is recording as PCM.

What you are effectively trying to do is edit lossy sound in an AAC container, then re-render it as lossy AAC again. This is honestly a very bad idea.

The best workaround I can think of is to do as you have done - export the audio as a WAV file - then re-import that back into the project to create the final output, save this under a new name and then remove the other audio tracks. This way you'll have a 'master sequence' with the audio as a WAV file and this should work.

I hope this helps