Chunky Audio Waveforms

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Charles.Jones

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Chunky Audio Waveforms

PostMon Feb 01, 2021 2:44 am

Hello,

I am new to DaVinci Resolve and learning the program with the BMD training material. It's going great; was halfway through Advanced Editing but decided to revisit the Beginner's Guide to refine my understanding of a few techniques.

Somehow I changed a setting and have lost fine audio waveforms, now they're blocky, difficult to work with. They look even worse the more I zoom in or shift and expand the tracks. I would like help in reverting to standard view. I had fine waveforms until Lesson 9 (Age of Airplanes, Mixing Audio in Fairlight) where I did... something. Maybe the zoom presents in the Timeline View Options button; have no idea. Looked around, clicked and right-clicked a bunch of stuff to fix the problem to no avail.

https://ibb.co/Gs8bbSZ
https://ibb.co/6F18D9c

I appreciate any help. Thank you.
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Reynaud Venter

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Re: Chunky Audio Waveforms

PostMon Feb 01, 2021 6:39 am

From the Toolbar, open Timeline View Options and enable/disable the "Full Waveforms" and "Waveform Borders" preferences in the Timeline Options section as required.
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Charles.Jones

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Re: Chunky Audio Waveforms

PostTue Feb 02, 2021 3:38 am

Those are the many things I attempted. The audio waveforms in the training textbooks are the same tone as the track color. Lighter green on green, lighter blue on blue, etc. Now they're blocks of white. Anyone else see the same view in your program?

Could the change be how audio waveforms look like now in 17.0b Build 28? Cannot see how I can trim on the fly when redoing the dialogue, radio edit, and action scene lessons in Advanced Editing. Many of the edits rely heavily on waveforms.
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Jim Simon

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Re: Chunky Audio Waveforms

PostTue Feb 02, 2021 4:04 pm

I'm not seeing a problem in the posted images. Also, what are 'chunky' waveforms?
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You NEED training.
You NEED a desktop.
You NEED a calibrated (non-computer) display.
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Charles.Jones

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Re: Chunky Audio Waveforms

PostTue Feb 02, 2021 9:40 pm

https://ibb.co/x1VLmFY
Here is another screenshot. Near maximum zoom. I placed the audio track height more than where one can reasonably expect to see waveforms. Looking to the left and right of the playhead all I see are blocks of information often appearing as rectangles. Chunks.


https://ibb.co/kxSjt6t
For reference, this is the view if I select [Ctrl]+[+] one more time. (There's no good way to write Ctrl++.)


https://ibb.co/bW5czX8
Here is the view after Ctrl+z. The playhead is at the same place, the height of the drum hit.

Really hoping it's a 17-Beta bug. Think I may need to place this in the "DaVinci Resolve 17 Beta" forum for the developers.
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Jim Simon

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Re: Chunky Audio Waveforms

PostWed Feb 03, 2021 3:02 pm

You're levels are just very low. Higher levels would result in larger waveforms.
My Biases:

You NEED training.
You NEED a desktop.
You NEED a calibrated (non-computer) display.
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Charles Bennett

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Re: Chunky Audio Waveforms

PostWed Feb 03, 2021 9:58 pm

No it is not a bug. As Jim says, the levels are very low. You could try raising them as shown in the first pic. The second pic shows how the waveforms look with proper levels.
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Reynaud Venter

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Re: Chunky Audio Waveforms

PostThu Feb 04, 2021 6:40 am

Charles.Jones wrote:The audio waveforms in the training textbooks are the same tone as the track color. Lighter green on green, lighter blue on blue, etc. Now they're blocks of white.
Clip waveforms in Resolve 16.2 are improved from Resolve 15 and are now clearer regardless of Clip colour.

If the waveform heights appear low but the Clip level is correct, use the Clip's contextual menu > Track Waveform Zoom.

A "Reset Zoom All Tracks" option is available if the Clip waveform's zoom level was accidentally changed.
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Jim Simon

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Re: Chunky Audio Waveforms

PostThu Feb 04, 2021 4:27 pm

Reynaud Venter wrote:use the Clip's contextual menu > Track Waveform Zoom.

(Only available on the Fairlight page. Won't have any effect on waveform display on Edit.)
My Biases:

You NEED training.
You NEED a desktop.
You NEED a calibrated (non-computer) display.
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Reynaud Venter

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Re: Chunky Audio Waveforms

PostThu Feb 04, 2021 4:31 pm

Jim Simon wrote:(Only available on the Fairlight page. Won't have any effect on waveform display on Edit.)
Notice that all of the screenshots included by the original poster are of the Fairlight page.
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Jim Simon

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Re: Chunky Audio Waveforms

PostThu Feb 04, 2021 4:51 pm

Sorry, I didn't mean your idea wasn't valid. Just a heads up for readers that behavior differs across pages, as others have been caught up by that.
My Biases:

You NEED training.
You NEED a desktop.
You NEED a calibrated (non-computer) display.
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Charles.Jones

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Re: Chunky Audio Waveforms

PostThu Feb 04, 2021 9:25 pm

Followed everyone's advice and the waveforms look much better.

https://ibb.co/QdftGCm
https://ibb.co/pjmTR9z

Thank you all for helping.
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BillArchive

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Re: Chunky Audio Waveforms

PostWed Mar 03, 2021 10:26 am

I also feel unsettled in 17 by the Fairlight waveform display. Something was missing but running 16 and 17 side by side with the same audio, try as I can to find a difference they show exactly the same low level detail at similar zoom settings. The difference is that 17 does not put a centre 'DC' line in so very visible gaps appear. I prefer it to be there, but I guess it does confuse when you are working with automation or the track volumes.

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