Unable to export 3 channel audio - only get 1 channel

Hello,
Wonder if anyone can help me with the frustrating problem. I have a timeline and need to sync dailes with recorded sound, audio has 3 channels. When I export I only get 1 channel. Audio tab in Delivery section is set to output PCM 3 channels. Timeline has adaptive 3 channel, clip attributes show 3 channels in the track. Master audio set to 3 channels.

What am I doing wrong? Can anyone help please? Thanks.

DR12.5.6, Windows 10

I could really do with some help on this! I've read the manual, set up how it should be set up and I still only get 1 audio channel - this is frustrating me, has anyone else had similar issue to this?

[Peter Chamberlain]

Are you rendering individual clips?
What settings do you have for the mixer in the edit page for each of these audio tracks?
Why settings in audio render dialog?

Hi Peter, thanks for the reply.
I have my render settings set to individual clips, set to export Quicktime DNxHD, export audio. Tried same as source and setting channels to 3 manually. I have tried setting Tracks to Single and one per channel.

The mixer in the Edit tab is set to 3 channels in both Audio 1 and the Master track. In Audio 1 of my Edit tab, the clip attributes are set to adaptive, showing 3 channels in Audio 1. I can also confirm this by right-clicking the audio and showing Display Individual Audio Channels.

In the Deliver tab the channel numbers at the bottom of the mixer are white for the first 3 channels, and the rest are greyed out. When the video plays I see the green audio levels for three channels. As soon as I click Render the white numbers grey out except the first channel and then only 1 channel in track 1 has the levels meter active.

My render experiments have been a mixture of getting 1 channel audio file and a 3 channel but only 1 of those channels has an audio signal. It is not a merged source i.e. all 3 channels have not been sent to the same channel- it has missed them out completly!

So, to my simple mind it should work! I've lost half a day experimenting with the settings and it just doesn't work. If you can suggest anything else, that would be great.

Regards,
Russ

Import your 3 wavs, go to each one clip attribute/audio section and set Adaptive (3 channels). Assign each wav into 1 of the channels- 2 other channels for each wav source will be MUTE (order as you wish).
Create new timeline with 3x 3 channels adaptive tracks. Drag each wav into own track. When you export you should have 3 channels with order as you asking individual wavs in 1st step.

Hi Andrew - audio clips have 3 channels saved in one .wav. Source was recorded lav1, lav2 and boom in channel 1,2,3 already. The clip attributes are already set to adaptive, 3 channel and the timeline shows this already.

Yes, I just tried and exported file has strange end result. 1st channel is ok, but 2nd, 3rd are wrong. They are mixed together.

Solution for now.
Use 5.1 tracks and export 6 channels (even if 3 will be empty). It gives good mapping on first 3 channels.
Anything custom seams to be broken and creates all sort of mixes as you described (regardless what you see in meters in Resolve).

Thanks for your help Andrew, I'll try this later and let you know the results I get

Hi, tried this - didn't work. In the media pool the number of channels in the exported clip is one. Switching to 5.1 shows the levels meter work exactly the same across all channels, like the same sound is playing through all channels - different to what I had before, I at least have all the channels full of... something!

Back to the drawing board!

Russ

In MIXER set Main Media Bus to 5.1 (3 dots options).
Make sure all wav sources are set to 5.1 channels in clip attributes and are routed to one of them. Timeline needs also 3x 5.1 tracks.
You may also want try try from scratch- not adjusting existing timeline.
Export 6 channels- not 3.
Has to work- it did for me in v14b4.

Hello Andrew, I've tried again this morning... Set my audio to 5.1, Master track to export 6 tracks. Clicked Render... 1 channel. I've uploaded a quick screen capture to youtube, hope this is allowed on the forum.

This shows the main parts of the screen and my settings, with outcomes. Only 20 seconds.

Hello Andrew, I've tried again this morning... Set my audio to 5.1, Master track to export 6 tracks. Clicked Render... 1 channel. I've uploaded a quick screen capture to youtube, hope this is allowed on the forum.

This shows the main parts of the screen and my settings, with outcomes. Only 20 seconds.

oups... bad link

Hello Andrew, I've tried again this morning... Set my audio to 5.1, Master track to export 6 tracks. Clicked Render... 1 channel. I've uploaded a quick screen capture to youtube, hope this is allowed on the forum.

This shows the main parts of the screen and my settings, with outcomes. Only 20 seconds.

Is each of your audio sources set to 5.1 type in clip attributes and routed to one of the L,R or C channel?
If you have 1 source with all 3 channels this still needs to be set to 5.1 type and 1,2,3 channels assign as L,R,C.
Is you main bus set to 5.1 in mixer options?

Sorry for the link guys!

Yes, in the Clip Attributes I changed my audio from Adaptive 3 channel to 5.1 and routed channel 1,2,3 to L, R, C leaving 3 empty channels. Master track is also set to 5.1. Audio 1 is also set to 5.1.

This is driving me crazy! wish I could show you guys a screenshot or my video link!

I assume you routed each of wavs into L,R,C (not to the same one).
Then timeline needs 3x 5.1 tracks and each with one of the wavs.
In MIXER main bus set to 5.1 and export to 6 channels.

Apologies for the delay in replying and thanks again - so I'll use the clip attributes to allow the audio to drop into 3 separate 5.1 tracks instead of merging them into one audio track - and try again.

Hopefully my original video now works...

So... this is wierd!

I started a new timeline with my footage, and resynced using my markers. Before I did this, I set my clip attributes to Audio 5.1 and each channel playing on a separate track of audio. When I dropped my clips onto the timeline and synced my audio using my markers (irrelevant) I had 4 audio tracks on the timeline (expected)

Audio 1 - mono - original camera track
Audio 2 - 5.1 - set to output L linked to Channel 1 in the wav
Audio 3 - 5.1 - set to output R linked to Channel 2 in the wav
Audio 4 - 5.1 - set to output C linked to Channel 3 in the wav

Set my Master track mixer to 6 channels and set Audio 1 track to mute, the mixer also set to None for Audio 1. Plays fine. I've got 4 tracks in my mixer which are all doing as they should; the levels meter moving in the correct channel, and the Master, set to 6 channels.

Over in the Deliver tab I play through and I have6 channels, 3 of which are playing my audio as it should. Set my Audio output channels to 6 and add to render queue. Clicking Render, I only again see 1 channel of audio playing, and when I play the file through the only channel I can hear is Audio 1 - the mono camera track! which definitely was muted!

No other channel has exported!

I tried a second time, this time deleting the mono track completely, and no audio exported at all!

Don't use mono tracks- all 5.1 (in clip attributes and in the timeline). Put original camera track into 4th channel and mute for export.

Hi Andrew - I did that, second time around I removed the mono track completely and got no audio output at all!

This is bizarre!

Check your pm. Made you video which shows how I make it working.

I've given up with it for now. Just rendered out my clip and my audio render is out of sync by about 1/2 second. When I play in the timeline it is fine, and the audio meters seem to be registering correctly as the lips move (and on the Youtube preset I actually have 3 channel!)

I've used Premiere Pro for years and never have I had such random things happening either during an edit or at the delivery stage. What does this system do that is so fundamentally different behind the scenes?

What audio type is it in youtube export?
AAC? This can have some desync, but not half a second but more like 3rd of a frame. AAC is bad as 'working' format.

Hi - I've tried exporting to AAF to import into Avid First (never used it). That wasn't sucessful but I don't think the free version can import this format? Anyway I re-imported the AAF file and all the transcoded files Resolve generated into a new project and that was out of sync too.

From the beginning of this edit I noticed that my manual AV sync markers were out of place on the timeline compared to where the sync should actually be. The slate (hand clap) was given a marker, and the corresponding clap sound was also given a marker in the wav files but droppinig these onto the timeline were actuall out of sync, so I had to manually shift the audio over then create a compound clip to edit with. Not an ideal solution, but this is where the exporting 3 channel problem came from - I couldn't get a new set of dailes to edit the project with because the audio was... well you know that bit already!

Just out of curiousity, would all this have to do with the video files being h.264? I've not transcoded them to dnxhd because they actually play really smooth. The DP shot in 1280x720 25p.

Another issue I've found is the audio wavs are showing a video frame rate in the media metadata panel of 29.970 but showing 24.00 in the media pool.

I've read that syncing in v14 is broken, but you are using 12.5.
Video+audio format should not matter (assuming there are no bugs in exporter)- well, definitely not up to point of half a second desync (there can be eg. 1/3rd or less of a frame desync for MP4 files with h264+AAC)

That might explain it then. I'll transcode and try again... post results later.

Davinci Resolve B5 happens to do it:
Create a empty TL: 1 video, 1 audio
- audio change 1: Adaptive adaptive audio track 1, channel 3
1- Mediapool: change attribute audio source => adaptive audio track 1, channel 3
- drag video,
- audio drag,
2- right click on audio clip => display individual audio channels => 3 channels
3- bus default
4- fairlight change bus LCR
5- good bus format
6- delivery audio
7- QT is good years media info
8- delivery in mediapool
Create a empty TL: 1 video, 1 audio
- audio change 1: Adaptive adaptive audio track 1, channel 3
9- right click on audio clip => display individual audio channels => 3 channels
10-import the delivery and next loop

(See attached images in the zip)

3channels.zip

Hope this help

Hi Jean Claude, that's pretty much what I've been doing in R12.5 but it's not working properly. On delivery I'm only getting 1 channel, even though all outputs are set to 3.

Because this is for a client I'm a bit reluctant to use the beta version, and don't have another PC to test it on.

Hi Russ,

I had not seen that you were with the V12.5.x while I did the test with the V14b5. I understand you: a beta always presents a risk: it is a beta and I can not advise for a delivery for a customer.

I will look with the 12.5.6 but it seems to me that there is not as much possibility as the V14 at the bus format (LCR). Sorry.

That's OK - I've managed to work around it by reworking the audio files in Audacity and using them in the edit instead. Annoying though. Can't keep doing that every time.

Thanks for your help.
Russ

Hi Russ,

Bad news: I left from clip 3 audios generated by V14B5
Changing clip attribute: 3 monos or 1 Adaptive 3 => TAB EDIT: when I play the clip from the source I have 3 channels. When I click on "Display Individual Audio Channels", I have 3 channels.

But: V12.5.6 => TL audio 3 monos or or 1 Adaptive 3 => as soon as I set the clip on the timeline: I have only 2 channels.

I generated a clip: Mediainfo says there are 3 channels but if I import this new clip: 2 channels.

So: with the V12.5.6 no solution by me. Sorry.
So: wait for the V14?

Source.jpg

edit.jpg