Audio Waveforms

Just started using 12.5, but can't see any waveform information on either the Media or Edit pages. I did enable waveforms, but still they don't show. What am I doing wrong?

[Dwaine Maggart]

Make sure you have a valid cache path set.

Make sure you have a valid cache path set.

I, too, have an audio waveform problem. I have a valid cache. In fact, I can see audio waveforms for wav files that I import, but NOT for the embedded audio in video files. This is very frustrating.

OSX 10.11.6. MacBook Pro Retina 15-inch, mid 2014. 16 GB RAM. 2.8 GHz Intel Core i7. The Cache file is in the documents folder of my 1 TB SSD.

Help, please....

[Dwaine Maggart]

Do you see them on the Media page, when you set the audio section to the right of the viewer to Waveforms mode?

If your video files are AVCHD, and the recorded format of the audio is Dolby Digital 2ch, the audio will not import and play on the timeline.

If your video files are AVCHD, and the recorded format of the audio is Dolby Digital 2ch, the audio will not import and play on the timeline.

Not my case.

Do you see them on the Media page, when you set the audio section to the right of the viewer to Waveforms mode?

Dwaine, can you please show me a screenshot of the area you mean. I think you mean in "edit mode" when in dual space layout. For me the left hand screen contains the timeline and the edit preview windows. The right hand screen contains the audio mixer on the bottom left, the media bins above that and on the right it says metadata and and media pool. But I don't know what you mean by "the viewer". Sorry.

Bob

Dwayne means the MEDIA PAGE. The media page has a viewer. You can view waveforms there.

Dwayne means the MEDIA PAGE. The media page has a viewer. You can view waveforms there.

Please Forgive my ignorance.Is this the media page (attached screenshot)?

There are four centered icons at the bottom of the screen shot you posted -- Media, Edit, Color, Delivery. These represent four separate panels. Click "Media".

As for your original query, if you want to see the waveforms of video clips with embedded audio in the source viewer, select the waveform option, via a pop up menu accessed in the lower left corner of the source viewer.

If you want to see the waveform (rather than picture) of an embedded clip already in the timeline , double-click the linked audio clip, not the video clip. Or double-click the video clip and change the display to waveform using the pop up menu.

BTW, you probably don't really want all those panels displayed at the same time. Best to turn off what you don't need (click their icons at the top of the page).

Dear John: Thanks! This is similar to the situation I have on the edit page. On the media page it's the same symptom. I cannot see the embedded audio waveform for a video clip. On the media page on the right I can see "meters" or "waveform" and if the clip is a .wav I can see the waveform. But if the clip is a .m4v I cannot see the audio waveform. There is also a popup on the media page (which is similar to a popup on the edit page) where you can "show full clip audio waveform" or "show zoomed audio waveform" but it doesn't help. Furthermore, the waveform view in the section on the right where you can choose "meters" or "waveform" remains showing the waveform of the last wav that I had auditioned, it doesn't change when I play the video clip.

So I'm still dead in the water . This is very frustrating because we use waveforms to help sync up wild audio clips with video clips that have reference audio.

The manual says that the audio waveform would be superimposed over the image in the viewer when viewing a video, but I never get to see that. Is this some kind of Mac retina display compatibility issue?

Ideas, please!

Thanks,


Bob Katz

There are four centered icons at the bottom of the screen shot you posted -- Media, Edit, Color, Delivery. These represent four separate panels. Click "Media".

As for your original query, if you want to see the waveforms of video clips with embedded audio in the source viewer, select the waveform option, via a pop up menu accessed in the lower left corner of the source viewer.

If you want to see the waveform (rather than picture) of an embedded clip already in the timeline , double-click the linked audio clip, not the video clip. Or double-click the video clip and change the display to waveform using the pop up menu.

BTW, you probably don't really want all those panels displayed at the same time. Best to turn off what you don't need (click their icons at the top of the page).

Resolve can't decode AC-3 audio, which I believe is used in the .mv4 format. So there's probably no audio for Resolve to see in this case. When you play the clip inside Resolve, do you hear audio?

If not, your solution is to transcode the clips to an intermediate codec, a subject raised here dozens of times. Do a search.

For the record, the "show zoomed" or "full" waveform refers to a transparent waveform overlay which appears at the bottom of the video clip in the source viewer. This is in addition to the option of viewing nothing but the waveform, as previously described.

[Dwaine Maggart]

As John mentions, the million dollar question is: can you hear the embedded audio when you play the clip? If you can hear it, then you should see a waveform for it. If you can't hear it, it's likely a format Resolve doesn't support, like AC3.

John: Thanks. Good question about the .m4v. Quicktime Player 7 says it's an AAC soundtrack, 44.1 kHz stereo. (not AC-3). So we'd have to know if Resolve can produce waveforms from AAC because it certainly can play sound from it.

I know how to convert audio tracks so that would not be a problem. Handbrake on Mac is a good solution for that. I just need a definitive answer about waveforms and AAC soundtracks from anyone here who knows the answer for sure.

BK

Resolve can't decode AC-3 audio, which I believe is used in the .mv4 format. So there's probably no audio for Resolve to see in this case. When you play the clip inside Resolve, do you hear audio?

If not, your solution is to transcode the clips to an intermediate codec, a subject raised here dozens of times. Do a search.

For the record, the "show zoomed" or "full" waveform refers to a transparent waveform overlay which appears at the bottom of the video clip in the source viewer. This is in addition to the option of viewing nothing but the waveform, as previously described.

This is why I said about AVCHD and Dolby Digital earlier, but it was ignored. DR will not play Dolby Digital audio.

This is why I said about AVCHD and Dolby Digital earlier, but it was ignored. DR will not play Dolby Digital audio.

Again, I repeat the facts:

1) I can see waveforms of an added wav file (in the timeline), which should make it clear the cache is working

2) The .m4v file contains an embedded AAC soundtrack, NOT an AC3 soundtrack

3) The audio is audible!!! As was said elsewhere in the thread, if the audio is audible, the waveform should be visible.

OK.... So why don't we have any waveform for the embedded audio?

I gather you're on a two monitor setup? If you provide a screen shot of the monitor used for the timeline, with the embedded A/V clips which don't show waveforms, it might be easier to see what's going on.

To repeat, if the video is on V1 and the embedded audio is on A1, it should be enough to double-click a clip on A1, to get the waveform in the source viewer. Other options for displaying waveforms in the source viewer include the pop-up menu in the lower left and the 3 dots in the upper right, for the waveform overlay.

Dear John:

Thanks. Got it. Here's a screen shot of the blank waveform. Also note for demonstration there is a wav file in A2 so you can see we are able to view waveforms. If I double click on the wav file which is in A2 I can see the waveform in the left hand top viewer. But right now with the embedded audio double clicked we do not see the waveform in either the timeline or the upper left viewer. If I mute A2 and leave A1 on I DO HEAR AUDIO so the embedded soundtrack is playing back.

Still puzzled.


Best wishes,


Bob

I gather you're on a two monitor setup? If you provide a screen shot of the monitor used for the timeline, with the embedded A/V clips which don't show waveforms, it might be easier to see what's going on.

To repeat, if the video is on V1 and the embedded audio is on A1, it should be enough to double-click a clip on A1, to get the waveform in the source viewer. Other options for displaying waveforms in the source viewer include the pop-up menu in the lower left and the 3 dots in the upper right, for the waveform overlay.

I can't make sense of the screen-shot. There's no actual "A1" track. Embedded audio typically goes to consistently labeled tracks, (e.g., V1/A1, V2/A2, etc.), and each audio tracks his own its controls. I would turn off "link" and drag the audio to A3 and see what happens.

Or maybe something about the format of the audio is preventing waveforms from being generated.

I can't make sense of the screen-shot. There's no actual "A1" track. Embedded audio typically goes to consistently labeled tracks, (e.g., V1/A1, V2/A2, etc.), and each audio tracks his own its controls. I would turn off "link" and drag the audio to A3 and see what happens.

Or maybe something about the format of the audio is preventing waveforms from being generated.

Hi, John. Video is in V1 and the audio in A1. When I dragged the .m4v file into V1, the embedded audio comes along with it and lands in A1 so it is embedded. Below in A2 I put a wav file just to illustrate that we are generating waveforms correctly.

Hi,

DaVinci Resolve 12.5 (my version is 12.5.5.026) definitely has an issue with displaying audio forms. In my case this is not related to video or audio format or codec. I have all clips converted to DNxHD and, while audio forms always show in Source window, they may or may not show in Timeline view (in most cases they do).

Below is a snapshot of a screen with with one clip in Source View window showing audioform yet the same clip in Timeline window shows no audio. Audio is audible in both Source and Timeline view.

This issue is commented on forums for many, many months. Is there a bug logged with Blackmagic or a fix pending?

Audio wave not showing in timeline issue

Image for blackmagic forum.JPG (114.49 KiB) Viewed 10437 times

Miroslaw Lawczys

Workaround that works for me.

1. Convert video file to audio-file (using ffmpeg or bigasoft or whatever)
2. Import both audio file and video file in project (at the same starting position)
3. Link audio and video file

Make it a great day
Arvid

AAC is a coded file like AC3. It requires a codec to decode it. It's highly possible that Davinci would have just as much trouble making waveforms of an AAC file as an AC3. Wav files with linear PCM will show waveforms.

BK

This is why I said about AVCHD and Dolby Digital earlier, but it was ignored. DR will not play Dolby Digital audio.

Again, I repeat the facts:

1) I can see waveforms of an added wav file (in the timeline), which should make it clear the cache is working

2) The .m4v file contains an embedded AAC soundtrack, NOT an AC3 soundtrack

3) The audio is audible!!! As was said elsewhere in the thread, if the audio is audible, the waveform should be visible.

OK.... So why don't we have any waveform for the embedded audio?

I know it's an old post but I'm having the same issue. It's not an AVCHD problem because I was able to import earlier shots from the same camera into the same timeline. To be clear, I can play the clip and hear audio but I do not see a waveform.

I can hear the clip playing audio and video in Media page. I can select audio in bottom left of the Preview pane but it displays nothing. It's sitting cheerfully empty next to other clips that have rendered images. Other clips behave as expected both in Edit and Media pages.

I thought it could be a filesize problem so I imported subsections of the file. Same problem.

I checked the cache folder and it indeed has small PVD file entries that match the clip name which does not display waveforms in the NLE.

If this question has already been answered, please point me that way. So far, I haven't found an answer.

Obviously, we should all be recording to a timecode enabled Cantar but waveforms make secondary record possible for us little guys. I can't sync without this.

To add insult to injury, in the Fairlight page, the very audio clip that isn't being drawn in Edit or Media is drawn just fine!

I too am having waveforms issues.

I cant see mp3 waveforms. I can hear audio but no waveforms.

In the same project If I import wav it shows me the waveforms. But I want to solve the issue because people send me mp3 and id like to let them know what settings to use so that it works.

Even when I add my mp3 with no waveform to a timeline it won't export a wav file. It gives me the error. "Please clear or update your clip filter in order to continue."

I don't know if this is helpful, but in v15, I had the same problem with missing waveforms. I pulled in a piece of video with camera audio, along with two separate audio files recorded on an external recorder.

I turned the Resolve audio tracks into mono from stereo, then the waveforms then were visible *in Fairlight only*; but I was able to sync by hand.

However, I still don't know why I can't see waveforms in the Edit tab timeline.

(On a separate, but related note, or why Resolve doesn't have sync functions like Premiere.)

[Peter Chamberlain]

Resolve has a sync function, a few in fact, in the media page.