Davinci Resolve 16 | No Audio Waveforms

I've got a video (attached) showing the glitch that I'm seeing with audio. Audio is with the video but is 48k 16 bits per sample, uncompressed audio. youtu.be/R-4u4IKzKKY

I found my problem causing the no audio waveforms on the edit page:

Edit page, far left hand edge of the editing toolbar, a small icon called "Timeline View Options," opens a tab; the "audio waveforms" icon must be highlighted.

Live and learn.

Funny enough, I have a few recordings made by BMD ATEM Mini ISO and it puts audio files in a separate folder. I used the same microphone and it's even the same recording in two parts. One track shows waveforms and the other one doesn't. Bummer! Resolve 17 Beta 6 on Linux.

As mentioned before, if I remove the file from the media pool and put it back - it still has no waveforms. If I rename the file, however, it works.

I'm having this issue too. I was just testing out Resolve to see if I wanted to switch to it as my primary editor. I use avid currently. I love the idea that advanced audio editing can be done in the same app as the video editing and color grading, but, as of now, the audio issues, including waveform not being visible, not getting drawn or updated correctly, and taking a long time to get drawn are making resolve almost unusable. I can't edit without being able to see and trust and use waveforms.I was really hopeful but I think I'm going to look elsewhere for now. Will check back to see if this gets fixed in the near future. I hope it does because there is a lot that I really like about Resolve!

interestingly enough, i just had the same problem with a huge .mxf file...

so there i was reading through all the above, and many posts elsewhere, tearing what little hair i have left out when i realised (belatedly)...

a. i'd cleared the cache on another related project, and thought no more about it.

b. panicked when loading the above, related, project.

c. left the project up on screen, went and had a long lunch and, hey presto, waveforms back.

i suspect my problems were caused by impatience - i think i (and perhaps many others) expect things to happen at lightening speed on speedy rigs. obviously, audio waveform caching doesn't ;-(

My turn!
Same story waveforms have disappeared in any new project. I can see waveforms in previous projects I was working on a few days ago. New project none. Yet all project files are all on the same HD.

I tried the standard reviewing my connected drive in Preferences, restarting DR, restarting the computer, wearing a green hat, then a bleu, etc. Nothing works.
I find myself unable to move forward as all 18 videos I need to edit need audio syncing. No waveforms, no audio sync.

Any ideas? I have read through this and other threads and have tried any reasonably low hanging fruit workaround and solution.
Thanks

DaVinci resolve Studio 17 beta 8
Still no waveforms.
Yes, I’ve tried everything suggested above.
Yes, show waveforms is on.
Yes, this is so pathetic it’s laughable.

2020 iMac I9 with 32gb ram and SSD internal/external storage.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Beta 9. Fresh install. Same.
FCPX. Same footage. Instant. Flawless.


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I had the same problem with the waveforms not showing even though the waveforms were activated.
In my case the problem had something to do with the Working Folders. I changed them to another path in the Master Settings section in the Project Settings and the waveforms reappeared.

I hope this can help someone who still has trouble finding a solution.

ResolveWaveforms.JPG (157.04 KiB) Viewed 3650 times

Have been struggling with missing audio waveforms other than 1st track imported media clip in resolve studio 17.

Solution: check project settings resolve was set to cash optimised media in D: the very small Windows System Reserved partition. e.g NO STORAGE SPACE LEFT. Why Resolve can’t identify and warn user its low on storage space I don’t know. changes storage location and now all audio waveforms are generating and showing in the timeline.

Hope this helps someone else.

Resolve 17, here we are again!

After further testing I think I know what is going wrong, and there isn't a FIX!

Taking a closer look at the Waveform generation inside the audio cache folder has reveal a strange behaviour. When files finally begin their waveform generation step Resolve seems to be accessing numerous files on the hard drive simultaneously instead of sequentially. This means that everytime waveform generation begins the harddrive spins up to max, and stays there, slowly trying to read every file at once in the timeline and make waveforms. You can see the behaviour live as numerous pfl files are created and their file sizes increase simultaneously. Instead of reading back each file in order like FCPX and Premiere Pro, Resolve seems to be accessing all the files at the same time. Imagine how bad performance gets when you try to playback 4-8 files in a stacked timeline vs one at a time. This is what it is doing every time it makes simple waveforms. And to add insult to injury, it seems to have to access some files, like MXF's with multi channel mono audio each time for each mono track. So an MXF with 4 mono tracks, takes 4 times as long as a stereo MP4 of the same duration.

If you are foolish enough to want to make a multicam timeline with multiple videos, the waveform generation can be as slow as real time, taking hours...

Switching any number of settings, changing the channel assignments, adjusting the tracks from stereo to mono and back again seem to have no effect on this process. There is something inherently wrong with the methodology that Resolve is using to generation waveforms making it 10 times slower than other NLEs. Seriously Blackmagic it's time to look into this seriously.

I'm in the newest version of resolve 17, and this old issue is still rearing it's ugly head.

Only fix I've found is removing the clip from the project and re-importing it.

(Not unlinking and relinking, not replacing, not renaming the source file and relinking - removing it from the project.)

Only fix I've found is removing the clip from the project and re-importing it.

(Not unlinking and relinking, not replacing, not renaming the source file and relinking - removing it from the project.)

There are a bunch of ways to "fix" this issue. But essentially they are all bandaid solutions from what I can tell.

Bandaid solutions for waveform generation generally revolves around erasing the failed waveform .pfl files in cache and once cleared rebooting resolve so it can start over making them. This I have found to only be necessary when the waveform generation seems to have hung (you can only really check this if the .pfl files stop changing is size as there is no progress bar or background process to review). But if you have a suspicion that waveform generation is slow, wipe your waveform cache, or reassign it's location, reboot and start all over.

The process will be slow, and maybe you will just have to wait a long time, but it will get there. Keep an eye on your waveform cache and maybe leave a timeline open over a lunch break to ensure waveforms complete their processing while you are idle and they don't crash.

Here's to wait for Resolve 18 to enhance Resolve's method of waveform generation on encapsulated codecs like MXF's from Canon & Sony.

Keep in mind, H.264 files, and ProRes files, Braw Files too, from what I can tell. Process waveforms A LOT faster than MXF's from Canon and Sony. FCPX doesn't care at all, every codec's waveforms generate almost instantly. But the way Resolve reads these files back is slow, crazy slow on spinning disk hard drives. And my suspicion is that is trying to read all 4-8 tracks simultaneously instead of sequentially like MP4 files or ProRes Files.

Blackmagic PLEASE respond to this with some research, it would not take much effort to at least review this processing step and clarify if it's a codec issue, a hard drive issue etc etc.

I have found a solution (kinda) and you are not going to like it!

TLDR: Resolve 17 introduced a real proxy workflow and this new workflow has provided a handful of advantages that more or less solve the waveform issue I have been experiencing. Simply generate proxy media (you can define the resolution and quality, but I have been using half res and rendering ProRes Proxy files) and once the rendering is complete the waveforms will almost instantaneously appear!

Okay some background:
When you import media into Resolve it seems pretty clear to me, based on monitoring the Waveform cache on my cache clip/audio folder, that the waveform generation process does not start until media is placed into a timeline. This is especially frustrating when waveform generation seems to be painfully slow with MXF media from cameras like the C300, FX9, FS5, C70 and on and on and on.

Premiere Pro and FCPX both generate waveforms on media on import and Premiere even provides a very basic progress update in the app. FCPX doesn’t really need to since it’s insanely fast. Seconds to read through hundreds of files and write it’s waveform files. I have elaborated on this further above, but suffice to say it’s very fast. Resolve by contrast is painfully slow, I would say approximately real time with these compressed file formats. So damn slow that folks seem to think there is an error. AND to add insult to injury it will occasionally crash and simply stop making the waveforms on occasion and require a waveform /pfl file purge before getting to start over again.

On top of that, if you want to build a Multicam clip from interview footage based around it’s waveform, it’s take eons to generate them when you first try to make the Multicam synced clip which only illustrates how inefficient the process is behind the scenes.

Now here is where the new Proxy Workflow shines. If you create proxy files in Resolve (right click and generate proxy media), once the render finishes and the proxy files are rendered out to your hard drive the waveforms appear almost instantly. In fact I was able to see the files being written in the waveform cache, and instead of take many many minutes to slowly write and update the pfl’s they simple appeared fully baked without any slow process to read and write the pfl files.

Not to mention, the Multicam sequences popular their waveforms instantly too. It’s nuts that the ProRes Proxy files read back their respective waveform files in seconds (a lot like FCPX) while compressed codecs in MXF containers take eons.

So while it’s not always necessary to make proxies for editing small projects, it’s now part of my workflow regardless of what I am editing, As unlike optimized media you can set your proxies to a location separate from your cache drive or simply leave it inside your footage drive. It’s independent of the old optimized media and cache workflow and you can trigger it while you importing and organizing media! No need for a timeline with this setup!

This new workflow gives me the control to force Resolve to update the waveforms based on my preferences and force Resolve to generate waveforms before I even start cutting. Highly recommend.

Sony MXF files show 64 channels of audio on each clip!!!
Same problem. Not only waveforms don't work, but audio is also intermittently missing. Anyone also notice that your Sony MXF (F55) files have 64 audio channels instead of 8? Was ready to switch to Resolve but can't because of this problem. Can't sit in an edit session and explain to the client that the audio only works when it feels like it. I've read you could alter the clip attributes but you'd have to delete them one by one. Fun! Not sure it would solve the problem anyway.

This is an old thread, but I'm having the same problem and it's driving me nuts. Haven't been able to work for a WEEK because of this.

When waveforms are toggled on, my drive is spinning out of control, not stopping for hours. The drive is so slow, I can't playback anything. When it's toggled off, I can edit.

Anyone find a solution?

DR 18.04 | MBP 16" | 64 GB RAM

coworkers having this issue with the newest Resolve. STOP WORKING ON NEW FEATURES AND FIX BASIC STUFF.

Has anyone been able to solve this ridiculous and stupid problem in a normal way, which is still here in DaVinci Resolve 18.6.1???
The above methods do not work!!!

Not one of the given solutions to the problem DOES NOT WORK!!!
"New compound clip" - this simply switches to the audio recorded from the camera along with the video!!! But this is not a waveform from the recorder synchronized with the waveform from the camera!!!
I don't know if there is a problem with 24 bit files but with 32 bit files with floating point ranging from 44.1 to 96 kHz - this is always present in some files regardless of the length. But if you record at 192 kHz, then this problem never exists - NEVER!!! But recording at 192 kHz is stupid and incorrect, it loads the system!
In other words - some files have a problem and some with the same parameters are normal from one recording session!!!
If you open the problematic files in iZotope RX, then everything is ok and there is a waveform - if you resave them in iZotope RX and open them again in DaVinci Resolve - again the same idiotic problem!!! Which has not been resolved for several years now and does not provide the opportunity to work normally with sound!!!
When will we see a solution to this problem????? A normal solution, without any stupid workarounds that don't work???