Davinci Resolve 16 | No Audio Waveforms

I hear this isn't the first time that the audio waveform issue has been, but I don't know, what must I make. left to davinci Resolve 15 again, or change some settings in 16? As I understand this is holy problem of that app.

Stereo project with simple/standart prores video/pcm16 audio. In 15 one all're ok. And with davinci resolve 16 I don't see audio waveforms on timeline. Audio played but no waveforms.

System configuration? viewtopic.php?f=21&t=85996

Edit or Fairlight page?

What are your Timeline View Options on that particular page?

Windows 10. Resolve 16. i7 6850k. amd hd7970. 32GB ram.

Audio/Video options:
audio waveforms - on
audio view options - tested all variants (on/off).

watch it on: edit and fairlight pages.

I had forget to say about computer case. I don't know - may be that moment plays some role.
Zalman T6 Black.

Now I deleted cache and restart davinci.
After it I watch audio waveforms but only a half. The first minutes of track only.
Then I restart these app again and watch all waveform.

Thanks all, that help me. Very good offsite and nice forum. I always can get help here. And that app was even worse. A very logical and good app no way))

You beat me to it -- I've been having trouble convincing Resolve 16 to show the audio waveforms also.

Same here, waveforms show in some clips but not others... I'll finally get waveforms working on my clip in edit page then bring in a new clip to the timeline and waveforms will not be working on the new clip and I have to try and get them working all over again.

Yeah. I don't know what it is with Davinci and waveforms but a search for this issue yields dozens upon dozens of hits going back many years and many versions.

Here's the thing; if you can't see the waveforms, then you can't edit the project. If you can't edit the project, then it matters not one iota how many sexy Fairlight or Fusion or colour grading nodes there are... you cannot create the output.

In which case... what's the point of using it?

It's already bad enough that you have to edit blind in the Fusion page if you want to align effects with sound.

Relevant system information:
----------------------
Operating System: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit (10.0, Build 17134) (17134.rs4_release.180410-1804)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-7700K CPU @ 4.20GHz (8 CPUs), ~4.2GHz
Memory: 32768MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 32714MB RAM
Page File: 29413MB used, 25416MB available
DirectX Version: DirectX 12
User DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled

Card name: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip type: GeForce GTX 1060 6GB
DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
Device Type: Full Device (POST)
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1C03&SUBSYS_85AB1043&REV_A1
Device Problem Code: No Problem
Display Memory: 22408 MB
Dedicated Memory: 6052 MB
Shared Memory: 16356 MB
Current Mode: 2560 x 1440 (32 bit) (59Hz)
HDR Support: Not Supported
Display Topology: Internal
Display Color Space: DXGI_COLOR_SPACE_RGB_FULL_G22_NONE_P709
Native Mode: 2560 x 1440(p) (59.951Hz)
Output Type: DVI
Driver File Version: 25.21.0014.2531 (English)
Driver Version: 25.21.14.2531
Driver Date/Size: 9/04/2019 10:00:00, 957280 bytes

Description: Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio)
Default Sound Playback: Yes
Default Voice Playback: Yes
Driver Name: RTKVHD64.sys
Driver Version: 6.00.0001.7940 (English)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
WHQL Logo'd: Yes
Date and Size: 20/09/2016 00:00:00, 5324808 bytes
------------------

Relevant Davinci information:
Version 16.0.0B.017

--------------------
Media source: MP4s recorded with OBS.
I record some clips and import them into a project. At some point I notice the absence of wave forms.

I can see them on the Cut page. I can't see them on the Edit page. This does not help.

I do a web search and hit a multitude of threads on various forums for the same issue old and new. I play around with the Timeline View Options (which seem to bear no relation to what is actually shown, incidentally). None of the settings change the fact that the audio is a big, green block.

I find something about deleting the render cache on the Playback menu. Except that mine is set to "None". Nonetheless, I try it. I close and reopen the project. It does nothing.

I abandon the project and create a new one with the same assets to date. Success! I can see wave forms. I record some more clips and import them.

Big. Green. Blocks. Of. Nothing.

The wave form is there on the first clip and not there on any of the new ones.

I dump that project and create a new one. Again. Using the same assets. Again. But, of course, with the new ones as well.

Yay! There are wave forms.

But wait... what if there is another clip that I need to record.

Well I suppose I could go back to scratch and create the project for the fourth time. It does not seem to be a particularly productive use of my time, though.

Similar in 15.3
I had waveforms showing for WAV files. As soon as I browsed in the Media page to Sony MXF files all waveforms were gone (without import!). I.e. neither WAV nor MXF show waveforms anymore.

This is pretty bad when cutting interviews.

I thought it may have been tied to the autosync function but when pulling the original files back in there are some that have a waveform generated and some that don't despite all files being generated by the same device.
I've also noticed that I cannot select to view the waveform in the Editor panel preview window. I click on it but nothing happens.

Specs as follows:

Mac Pro: Early 2009 running High Sierra 10.13.6
Processor: 2 x 3.46 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon
Memory: 64 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 TI 6144 MB

Audio files: 44.1, 16 bit WAV files recorded with a ZOOM H6.

I am having the same problem , The wave forms were showing up when I cut through my footage. Had everything ready for an edit. Saved ,came back to it today and nothing showing , nothing I do will get the waveforms to come up in any way.

I open another project with just a few basic clips and its showing there biut not in the project I need it to.

This has to be fixed with a patch quickly if its been happening for years through the versions

Resolve 16 I am using

[Rohit Singhal]

Can you please capture the logs and post as well?

viewtopic.php?f=21&t=71894

So like many, I am having problems with audio in Davinci 16. I'm using the specs in my signature with beta 6. I will say beta 5 was worse. I know the beta version is supposed to be glitchy which is expected for beta software, but like others said; if you can't see the audio waveforms, then you can't edit effectively if at all. This means you can't even use the beta software to make it better.

This is the description of the problems:

We have a client that we edit for every summer and they use Canon C300 Mark I and Mark 2 Cameras. I have the studio version of Resolve and these camera have ALWAYS been a problem with Resolve. The Mark I cameras have been more problematic because Resolve WILL NOT RELINK CANON C300 MARK I CLIPS when another editor sends me their project file. This has never worked. The C300 Mark 2 files always relink without a problem. I've reported this before and it still hasn't been fixed, but I digress.

I see waveforms and have audio with CDNG, BRAW, and ProRes files, but I don't get any waveforms with the C300 Mark II files and the audio goes in and out.

I've checked my cache settings and everything is fine AND on my Surface Book with performance base and 8GB of RAM, Davinci Resolve 16 beta 6 works flawlessly. Waveforms and audio are no problem on my PC laptop. Now I know other PC users are having audio problems and my MAC is having audio problems so I don't know what's going on, but it obviously needs to be fixed before 16 comes out of beta because no audio/audio waveforms is a deal breaker.


Here is the link to a video, log file, and project file showing the problems I'm having:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1SGtcTCfYMqa7mfGcPdVHox9Q8uFtKNp0

Thank you for creating this thread! This issue is driving me nuts. Multicam timeline generation with automatic audio sync does not work and I can't do it manually because I the waveforms are missing from most of the clips. Why can't blackmagic RESOLVE this issue? Pun intended.

Hi All - so a recent convert to Davinci Resolve and -0 well I ran into this problem because at 1 am i decided to learn a new program.

Maximum points for no-clock-inspiration right?

Anyway I found this problem and came here. No joy in finding a solution.
Then I took to google - and found this link on youtube - watch?v=Aq63_U8C6wI (forums wont allow me to post a full URL so just chuck that part at the end of the youtube address in your browser)
Boom, fixed it for me!

TLDR - Timeline view options - Audio - Show audio wave form

I hope this helps.

I just updated to the studio version of Resolve 16 from App Store and cannot see the audio waveforms in edit page or in fairlight. Running Mac OSX. 10.14.6 (18G87)
MacBook Pro 15 inc 2018
32 GB memory 2400 MHZ DDR4
Graphics Radeon Pro Vega 20 4 GB Intel UHD Graphics 630 1536 MB

I didn't use the beta versions so I could avoid issues like this.

Resolve 16.1 Studio

MacBook Pro 32GB Ram Radeon Pro 560X 4 GB

No Audio waveforms.

This isn't troubleshooting really. It's just a tutorial on how it's supposed to work. Our problem is-- it ain't workin'

Hi All - so a recent convert to Davinci Resolve and -0 well I ran into this problem because at 1 am i decided to learn a new program.

Maximum points for no-clock-inspiration right?

Anyway I found this problem and came here. No joy in finding a solution.
Then I took to google - and found this link on youtube - watch?v=Aq63_U8C6wI (forums wont allow me to post a full URL so just chuck that part at the end of the youtube address in your browser)
Boom, fixed it for me!

TLDR - Timeline view options - Audio - Show audio wave form

I hope this helps.

I realized I had some audio that was working-- SFX that were not linked to picture and were not .WAV files.

Here's what I came to:
1. Change .WAV to some other file type outside of Resolve (I used QT 7 to export as .AIFF). Then, import to media pool.

2.Do not sync / link audio and video in media pool.

3. Drag the audio and video into a timeline separately.

4. Sync and link them in the time line (again, not in media pool).

5. Make a compound clip and use that as the master clipor pick your selects in the current timeline and use pancake method to pull into the main time line. The latter is fine with me because that's how I work anyway. I actually

I hear this isn't the first time that the audio waveform issue has been, but I don't know, what must I make. left to davinci Resolve 15 again, or change some settings in 16? As I understand this is holy problem of that app.

Stereo project with simple/standart prores video/pcm16 audio. In 15 one all're ok. And with davinci resolve 16 I don't see audio waveforms on timeline. Audio played but no waveforms.

You have such a problem with sound?? How to solve? viewtopic.php?f=21&t=97472

Restarting DR "solves" the problem in my case, but obviously this is not a solution.

Restarting DR "solves" the problem in my case, but obviously this is not a solution.

My sound sometimes works sometimes not. I don't even know what it depends on, but it works every other time.

I had this problem with a project that started yesterday. Some interesting tidbits:

• At some point, a particular .wav file stopped showing me any waveforms. It plays correctly
• Deleting the file, recreating it, etc didn't seem to have any effect
• If I copy it to a different name, and browse that in the Media Browser, it now has audio. So, Resolve is "caching" the missing waveform associated with a particular path.
• If I link this audio (in Media) with a video clip, I don't see any audio when I use that clip on the timeline (I hear audio)
• Now, when I view this audio in Media, it has no waveform associated with it

In my case, a simple workaround is to use ffmpeg to convert the audio stream from AAC to pcm_s16le. Some weird combination of linking and possibly the AAC audio in the file seemed to be giving me persistent blank waveforms.

I've found another workaround for the case where I do have to actually synchronize audio. This also might give insight into what is happening.

To start with, outside of resolve, I use ffmpeg to strip the (silent) audio from my video recording:

Code: Select all

ffmpeg -i original-video.mp4 -c copy -an silent-video.mp4

Then, within resolve, I import this video, as well as the audio file I want to synchronize. I synchronize these manually in the Media page (since the issue here is there is no camera audio). Now, when I bring this clip into a timeline, I get audio waveforms.

What I suspect is happening is that somehow the waveform is using the audio from the video (since this is Linux, and there is no AAC, this is blank). I wonder if it is the case that Resolve always shows the waveform from the original audio, even when different audio is synced.

Fortunately, this is pretty easy to do. I wish I could just tell OBS to not record audio at all, but at least this lets me work with its video.

This problem has driven me nuts for a while. It almost caused me to jump to another program, but I like Davinci a lot so I'm still using it. On some clips the waveforms show, on others they don't. Often times in the media pool preview window they will show, but once dragged to the timeline, be it edit, fairlight etc. there's nothing.

The only "solution" I found was to open the file explorer in windows and redrag in the file to the timeline. For some reason that's been working. Except then I have 2 identical clips in the media pool. However, what's interesting is after doing that, both the original and the new clip have waveforms, so I just delete one of them.

This issue is annoying, but now that I've found a way to make it work, I'll continue using Davinci.

Just a point, I am quite new to Davinci and editing in general. I'm still in the "watching tutorials" phase. But the fact that so many other people are experiencing problems with this tells me that it's not user error on my part.

"Addressed an issue where some video clips with embedded audio would sometimes not show audio waveforms"

Seems to be fixed in 16.1 b3 and working like 3 times faster than Premiere.

Just in case the following process helps someone who stumbles across this thread in the future...

I'm running 16.1 Beta (v 16.1.08.033) and encountered a situation this morning in which synced audio was showing a flat waveform. I attempted all the usual suspects to remedy it but nothing worked. Then I stumbled across this...

Select the flat audio waveform clip with your mouse. Hit 'D' to disable the clip. Hit 'D' a second time to re-enable it.

The waveforms become visible on the first 'D' but you need the second 'D' to hear them.

Hope this helps.

Im having the same issue with audio waveforms not showing. Running 16.1.08.033 on a MacBook Pro. I have tried all the quick fix tips listed by other forum members but unfortunately none of them have worked for me. The only place I can see audio waveforms is in the scroller window in the Fairlight page.

Right clicking the track and choosing NORMALIZE AUDIO LEVELS made the audio waveform appear for me. I am running Resolve 16, not the beta.

This is my first time using Resolve. I am here because Premiere works poorly with the AMD 1950x Threadripper and Adobe keeps changing/removing things that I use all the time. They are getting as bad as Autodesk.

I about freaked when the waveforms were not showing up AND I found so many others having the same issue. The NORMALIZE function seems to fix it everytime. I tried several different audio files. WAV, MP3, and AIFF. All displayed no WAVEFORM until normalizing.

Yes THIS problem is f**king Insane .. because it has persisted through multiple versions of Resolve now. Why the hell is it so hard to get waveforms to work?

As has been said above .. you simple CAN'T use Resolve for editing sounds AT ALL .. if you can't see what you're doing. Which makes the firelight software .. or literally any of the sound editing features pointless.

I have a project right now shot on RED with sound that is just your typical 24 bit PCM waves ... with no waveforms to speak of at all. And this is not the first time I've seen this. This has been a problem since I started using DaVinci. It's the ONE thing that keeps me using Final Cut .. and you can laugh at the program if you like .. but at least I can see the sodding audio clips properly.

Seriously .. can you guys just sort this out already?!? It's embarrassing for BlackMagic to have this ongoing problem.

And just so you know that I'm not just hating on BM .. I have a BMPCC4K camera and I LOVE it .. the best camera I ever bought .. and like many here I really love DaVinci's features. But seriously .. the audio?!? I often wonder what using the fairlight mixer would be like .. because I never get to use it due to this huge problem. Plus Davinci's need to crash every time I try to run a VST plugin (I got used to not bothering to edit any audio in DaVinci a long time ago.

I'd point out that DaVinci on the PC tends to see some waveforms now and then .. not so much on the Mac.

Would just be awesome if the audio problems could be addressed so we can all get on making stuff instead of wondering why this software .. which is otherwise awesome .. is just holding short of greatness.

A 20-year Vegas Pro user here. Heard about the powerful tools in Davinci Resolve so I downloaded and tried version 16.1 yesterday. I was just considering buying the Studio version and switching to Davinci Resolve entirely (because the price seems to be more reasonable to me), but I encountered exactly the same "no audio waveforms" issue right away. I don't know why such a simple but essential feature can't be made properly, and if this has been an issue since some older versions before (for years), why can't it be addressed and solved?

I got no waveform on any of my audio clips in Davinci Resolve 16.1, and to make it worse, when I tried to change the clip display style by clicking the Timeline View Options, this tab keeps disappearing when I started hovering my mouse cursor on the options and trying to click them. The audio part was already with the waveform ON though.

Anyway I'll stay on the Vegas Pro side for a while if Blackmagic can't fix these issues.

Hi All!

I hope this might be of help to at least some of you. I was having the same issue, waveforms not showing up, for a very simple music video. I think the issue was where my audio-file was located. I had a file for all my video files on a hard-drive, but had initially imported the track straight from I-tunes. Once I copied the track into the same folder as the videos, re-imported it from that location, and re-started Resolve, voila! Wav-forms. Hopefully that works for some.

I'm on DaVinci Resolve v16.1.1.005 on Windows. I'm adding audio tracks to footage from an A7ii, giving me 4 audio tracks. When I do this I cannot get the audio waveforms for the cameras embedded audio to appear on the Edit Page or the Fairlight Page. Only the audio recorders waveforms appear. This means that I cannot sync the audio. It is incredibly frustrating. I've tried deleting the cache, disabling tracks and zooming, but nothing works.

I would be happy to more debugging, but by now Blackmagic should be able to reproduce the problem themselves.

Same here. Has been a problem for multiple generations now. Noticing it from 14 to 16 now. Have submitted a request to fix multiple times but no real fix yet.

The absent waveforms issue in 16 is now fixed by zooming in and out (unnecessary but quick fix) at least on my end.

As for the waveforms in the source monitor being super slow to appear, it's frustrating. You can almost go through the whole take before the thing draws itself and it's redundant by then. This is with super light optimized media. Can the 'Generate Optimized Media' please create and store waveforms linked to files beforehand? I know Adobe does that and its always super quick.

Or have some way to trigger waveform creation in advance so that it's quicker when editing.

Thanks for the good work, you guys!

I'm really not sure I can keep supporting BM and DR with this issue unresolved (pun intended). Absolutely zero ability to edit my audio on edit page makes the software completely useless. I guess I have to go back to adobe. I hate giving in to their greed and unfair prices but the random and debilitating bugs in DR just make it unusable for me

Update: It looks like the problem has resolved itself. Good. Adobe is only a tad bit more stable for me and I really can't afford them.

Hi everyone,

I had the same issue and was searching a fix on this page.
Looks like the new version (16.1.2.026) fix it !

I just updated Davinci resolve to 16.1.2.026 re-opened my project and it started to load all the Waveforms one by one.
3 of them were still invisible so I change from edit to fairlight page and now all of them are screening well!

Hello
I just started trying to do the first editing tutorial to see if I can use the free version of Davinci for some very basic projects, but already I'm on the forum and a bit stuck!
I can't even get past about ten minutes into the tutorial because I can't get the music score to display as a wave, so I can't turn it down by adjusting the white line above the waves, as demonstrated in the tutorial - which is otherwise very good so far. I can click on the music note icon and turn down the whole music audio track on a mixer panel, but shouldn't you be able to adjust it at different points on the wave on the timeline itself? Isn't that the point, to be able to edit to the sound, often? I can see the wave if I double click on the music track on the timeline, and it opens in the preview window, but I don't think I can adjust it there, and I can see it in what I think is 'cut' mode rather than 'edit'.
I just upgraded to what it says is the latest version: 16.1.2.026, and reimported all the tutorial media so there's no folder structure, after reading this can be an issue. Any further tips please? I'm running Windows 10. Thanks.

[Dwaine Maggart]

Make sure you have a valid cache path. In Resolve Preferences - System - Media Storage, the first path there is used as the default cache and stills path. Make sure that's a valid path Resolve can write to.

If that path is not valid, you should be getting cache and stills errors when you load a project. If you are getting such errors, the audio waveforms are not going to work.

I just put my media files in the default cache and stills folder, imported them from there into the Cut window, and the waveforms suddenly appeared. I know that's not what the BM guy above actually said, but it seems one way around it.

Thank you. Looking more deeply into this...

I also am having this problem. My video files are caching fine. Can see the waveforms in Fairlight, just not in the edit page and its just on one project that I can tell. They are .wav files that I make the same way that I make all my .wav files. Job is heavy on the r3d's.

I also am having this problem. My video files are caching fine. Can see the waveforms in Fairlight, just not in the edit page and its just on one project that I can tell. They are .wav files that I make the same way that I make all my .wav files. Job is heavy on the r3d's.

[Dwaine Maggart]

This may be a silly question, but do you have audio waveforms enabled on the Edit page? If they are working in the Fairlight page, they pretty much have to be there on the Edit page, if they are enabled.

Sometimes Resolve does not refesh the graphics of the waveforms correctly which depends on the editing situation and maybe the hardware constellation.

An easy workaround which forces Resolve to recalculate the graphis is this:
View --> Show Audio Track Layers
This toggles the display of mulitple layers per track and initiates a recalculation of the waveforms

Another click goes back to the single track view

I need this quite often so I defined a shortcut for this action:

Audio Layers.png (132.04 KiB) Viewed 92706 times

Yikes... Having this issue at the moment in DR 16.1.1.005. Toggling Audio Track Layers doesnt seem to be working for us...

[Dwaine Maggart]

Do you have waveforms on the Fairlight page?

If you do, are you sure you've enabled audio waveforms on the Edit page?

edit_page_audio_wfms.PNG (43.64 KiB) Viewed 91620 times

are you sure you've enabled audio waveforms on the Edit page?

Oops I've been toggling the audio waveform view options endlessly. Forgot about the actual waveform enable button...

Thank you Dwaine!!

I have enabled waveforms but it still doesn't show pls refer the image attached. This happens when I auto sync video with audio based on waveforms and append tracks.

[Dwaine Maggart]

Do you see waveforms on the Fairlight page?

Hi, I am new here but have been editing for some 15 years (10 Avid and 5 FCPX). Just upgraded to Studio and same as with the free version before, some clips show waveforms and some don't. No matter what I do, all the ideas here were tried - but to no avail. It's been ingested for more than a week, optimized media created for everything and yet, no change. Further to that, if I switch the timeline view to the smallest option and then back to thumbnails and (supposed) waveforms, the result is the same; some waveforms appear, while some clips remain without them.

Frustrating. Any move on fixing this?