Why Does Audio Dropout on Playback (in source and sequence)

[imageswami]

Yes a very similar question was asked and answered in January 2018 but the issue is still there apparently. The solution proposed in response to that query does not seem to work for my situation.

System Setup:

Windows 10 machine with Xeon processor, 128 GB memory, latest Premiere Pro CC, C & D drives are SSD, E drive is disk, cache on C drive, 2 P5000 GPUs, latest nVidia driver.

Experiments:

Imported a single 45-second clip (3840x2160, 24p, XAVC-I codec), then tried the following:

1. Playback in source view - notice (frequent and significant) audio dropouts
2. Try 1/2, 1/4, 1/8 playback resolution - same problem
3. Drag clip into the timeline and play it there at various playback resolutions - same problem
4. Tried a solution proposed by Dfrelow (in January 2018) in response to a similar question from Jim_Simon (delete contents of cache folder, reboot, start Premiere, let it run for "a while" - I interpreted that as 10 minutes, reboot) - that did not help
5. Just to convince myself that there's nothing wrong with the clip coming from the camera, I exported the sequence to an MP4 file and played the result - the audio is all there and it sounds fine (no dropouts)

Conclusion:

Looks like the problem really is in Premiere Pro CC playback.

Question:

Any thoughts on the root cause of this issue and how to fix it?

[Jax24135]

Link to original thread & what does MediaInfo say about the media specs would help those of us new to this conversation.

Vaguely guessing, try transcoding to an Mezzanine format (ProRes/Cineform) for easier playback.

If you "mute" all your video tracks does the audio still drop out?

[imageswami]

Here is the link to the original: Audio dropouts when reading from m.2 drive

I tried your suggestion to "mute" the video (i.e. play the audio only) - and that works fine (no dropouts).

[yenaphe]

Have you checked your ASIO buffer settings in the audio hardware preference?

I had an issue with my sound being completely distorded because the buffer was at 1024 and apparently, my device needed it to be at 512.

That could be it.

[imageswami]

Latency was set to 200 ms when I conducted this experiment. The available range is 30 - 500 ms. I tried a couple of other values (30, 500) based on your response, and the problem showed no improvement.

[Jim_Simon · Accepted solution]

I recommend using Cineform proxies for all H.264 media.

Work offline using proxy media |

Same problem?

Additionally, I recommend a dedicated Cache & Scratch disk.  Try to keep everything off of C: except Windows and Prorgams

[imageswami]

That solved it - thank you Jim.

[smithek]

Jim_Simon  wrote

Additionally, I recommend a dedicated Cache & Scratch disk.  Try to keep everything off of C: except Windows and Prorgams

I've been having audio dropout and using a dedicated drive for Scratch disks has fixed this. Using shared server or C: was causing lots of audio dropout.

[Dominic Robitaille]

Hello everybody 🙂 

I just tried this and it helped solve the problem for me. 

Right clic on audio track : render and replace.

[stevenn75080038]

this worked for met!!!!!!

[dionhawley]

Found a Solution:

4K Pro Res 422 HQ footage with attached 2 CH Camera Audio. Audio drop outs during playback for years on Multiple more than effecient Mac and PC's in Premiere. Same footage no issues in Resolve or Avid. Finally used an NVME drive workflow, fixed problem. Use Black Magic Disk Speed Test and make sure your drives are rated. This fixed the issue for me without having to change any settings or disable audio etc.