audio dropouts on renders/exports

I have to deliver six videos tomorrow, and on four of my masters (two versions: an MP4 and ProResHQ), there's an audio dropout with in the first two seconds. One video has an audio dropout 14 seconds in.

I tried exporting .WAV only, and am getting the same dropout at the same spots.

Does this sound like a familiar issue with a familiar solution to anybody? This is my first project on Resolve, and I'm almost in a panic.

I have a workaround for the videos where the dropout was in the first second: Add three seconds of black/silence at the beginning, Render out at ProRes 4444 XQ, import into Premiere, trim off the first three seconds, and export using Adobe Media Encoder or Premiere.

I'm still working on fixing the dropout at 14 seconds. This is awful.

Is the source media local (i.e. internal) or on network volumes?

What are the specs of the storage volumes? Have you run tests with Blackmagic Disk Speed?

Any improvement adjusting the Render Speed on the Deliver page's File tab from its default Maximum setting to a lower value?

Hi. My drives are local, direct attached storage. See my signature for hardware: SCSI RAID, 1-1.5 MB/s io according to BM Disk Speed Test. I have my audio playback buffer set to the max, 4096*, the optimal setting to reduce playback issues. I have a truck load of RAM, and a very powerful MacPro. There should be no bottlenecks in my io.

Note that I exported a .wav file only, and it contained the same dropout. An audio only export would have reduced the load on the CPU & GPU to very little.

I was unaware of the Render Speed option under File, Reynaud. I'm not new to NLEs, but I am new to Resolve, and most of my hiccups transitioning from Premiere have been about settings and terms that are so different. A trip to the manual reveals that Render Speed is primarily intended to address network bottlenecks.

But, I tried a test at a Render Speed setting of 50, and the export I made had no audio dropouts. So, thanks a bunch for the tip! Now, I know it's there for the next job.

* The conventional wisdom is that high playback buffer settings reduce clicks and pops and CPU overload in audio playback and rendering (I've been doing music production on DAWs for decades.). I was experiencing dropouts in just playing Timelines in Resolve (with Color effects off), and was starting to think that something's wrong with Resolve. But, I just now reduced the buffer to 2048, and now my audio is playing far better. It seems counterintuitive, but hey, it's an improvement.

Posting to report that this issue is not fixed in version 18.0b Build 10.

This behavior seems to come and go, and affect multiple Timelines in the same Project. I was getting the audio dropout on two Timelines in one project about one second into the start of each video. I tried four different Render speed settings in the Deliver page: 50, 25, 10, and 1. Only the setting of 1 eliminated the dropouts. Needless to say, the exports took a lot longer, and I wasted time experimenting with settings, but at least I was able to deliver my videos.

It's definitely not normal.

Do you have another system for testing?

Or can you share a .dra that shows the issue?

Jim Simon,

I tried testing it on my MBP, but I have to connect it to my RAID via 100Gb ethernet, and that gave me many errors trying to export. Too slow, probably. I have an older MacPro5,1 that has 1000Gb ethernet card, but I doubt it will run Resolve, and I've got paying work to do, so trying it will have to wait.

I can't share any files due to NDA.

Thanks for the suggestion, though.

This problem is still occurring in the version stated on my signature.

I have a workaround:

1. Export a high quality submaster in ProRes 4444 XQ or other visually lossless format.
2. Export audio only for the first five seconds of audio at a slow render speed - say 1-5%.
3. Import both of these renders into an NLE that doesn't have this issue, say Adobe Premiere.
4. Add the audio file you made in step 2 to the audio track of the movie you made in step 1.
5. Export the Sequence to the format of your choice.

I had a similar issue as OP, except my drop outs seemed to be at random locations in my project. My video was a 4K film, about 35 minutes long with lots of audio tracks, some EQ, and voice isolation on some clips. Changing the bit depth of the audio from 16 to 24 on the render changed the point at which the drop outs occurred, but they just showed up in other places.

What solved it for me was this:
-Exporting a .wav file (audio only) of the entire project
-Duplicate my timeline
-Delete all audio on the new timeline
-Drop in the .wav file in place of all the audio (effectively putting a mix of all the audio onto a single stereo track)
-Export like normal (Settings: Quicktime, linear PCM 24 bit audio). I didn't change the render speed or anything.
-I listened the whole way through on the finished render and there were no dropouts.
Winner! Hope that helps someone.

I should have not referenced my Resolve version in my signature, because that changes over time. I'm usually running the latest.

My review exports are H.264 at 100% speed, and I have not noticed this issue in a long time. I've made it standard practice to export my ProRes masters at the 10% speed. Since my videos rarely exceed 10 minutes, that's not a huge inconvenience.

It would be great if Resolve had a Render (or "cache" in Resolve parlance) Audio Tracks feature. The new-ish Voice Iso feature often produces dropouts in real-time, which is annoying. If that feature exists and I've overlooked it, I'd appreciate somebody telling me how to invoke it.

“Cache Audio Effects” via the Audio clip's contextual menu on the Fairlight Timeline.