Weird audio playback problem makes Resolve useless

Hi everyone,

I'm experiencing the weirdest issue with Resolve. Audio keeps randomly sounding ok, not sounding at all, or sounding choppy like a dolphin creaking. I've tried everything and can't find a reason why. If I just drop the clip and play it from begining to end, it works fine, but as soon as I move the playhead to a different point or make a cut, sound starts crashing. (please watch attached video)

If I export the timeline, at some random point the resulting video goes from normal to dolphin, from dolphin to mute.

I haven't changed anything (computer, Resolve, recording device, configuration...). The problem is not in the source video, as I have also tried with old clips previously edited in Davinci just fine and now they don't work either. It also happens with previous projects which worked perfectly before.

I tried restarting Davinci, restarting the computer, changing projects, even uninstalling and re-installing Davinci (I already had the last version, so same version now) and it keeps happening.

Any help would be much appreciated, the software is currently completely useless like this.

I’ve had similar issues with systems that have an audio “treatment” processor on it...for example “Nahimic” software that does audio processing to emulate Sound halls, Concert Hall, etc. Turn that off/delete the software and it should fix it...

(Same with bang and Olson etc etc...)

If it is being caused by a Nahimic driver, try this.
In Windows Task Manager, Startup tab, you may find find a Nahimic related program. If so, change it's status to Disabled, and reboot the computer.

My first thought is to look at the audio hardware and driver.

Don't use any kind of USB audio, for input or output.

The majority of external audio interfaces use USB, you just can't use ASIO drivers. I have two class compliant USB interfaces, so no extra drivers needed, that work perfectly with Resolve on Windows. They are a Behringer Xenyx 1204USB mixer and an ART Tube MP Project Series preamp.

Hello Everyone,

I'm having the same issue on my Mac with 16.2. The audio in the edit page and cut page plays back choppy. If I play in in the fairlight page it plays normal. I changed nothing on the system.

Kind regards,
Robert

Thank you all for your answers.

First, sorry, I published this message twice without noticing, and this one doesn't have the video where you can se what happens. It is here:

I'm sorry, I don't think I have any audio "treatment" processor that I am aware of. Certainly nothing called "Nahimic" in my system.

About the audio hardware, I just have my computer and my headphones. I don't know anything about external audio interfaces.

My first thought is to look at the audio hardware and driver.

Don't use any kind of USB audio, for input or output.

Most every interface uses USB except for Thunderbolt devices and the odd Ethernet protocol. USB works great even on a 2.0 port.

My first thought is to look at the audio hardware and driver.

Don't use any kind of USB audio, for input or output.

Most every interface uses USB except for Thunderbolt devices and the odd Ethernet protocol. USB works great even on a 2.0 port.

Sorry, but this is the most absurd advice I ever heard. If DVR isn't able to do what all !!!!! the other video- and audio-Software nowadays do, ergo use an USB-Interface for in and out, than DVR isn't a professional software any more. If it has been that before.....I have my doubts. The audio issues are so many and since Vers. 12 and nobody at BM seems to care. Very bad user-treatment.

Update: the only workaround I've found so far is to uninstall Resolve and install version 16.1.1. It seems to work fine so far. There's been a slight video-audio desynchronization in one of the clips, but I've managed to fix it. Not very reassuring, but at least I've been able to finish the job.

I understand that this is not a solution, though, because I'll have to update the software eventually.

I'm wondering if maybe the issue has to do with some possible incompatibility with recent windows updates? It is the only thing that has actually changed in my PC.

UPDATE

What worked for me in 16.2 is to create a new timeline, then copy all the contents to the new timeline. It then played the audio normal again. Let me know if this worked for anyone else.

Kind regards,
Robert

Carlos, what type of computer are you using, and what GPU does it have?

Carlos, what type of computer are you using, and what GPU does it have?

I have a custom-built desktop PC Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-7700K CPU @ 4.20GHz, RAM 64 GB running Windows 10 Home x64

My GPU is a GeForce GTX 1060 6GB

Thanks for your interest!

Don't use any kind of USB audio, for input or output.

That's gonna be really hard to do since most all usable audio interfaces these days are USB.

Is the media on the system drive or a separate drive?
SSD or spinner drive?

Carlos, your computer should not have any problem running Resolve. Like you I have a GTX 1060 and can run and render a UHD timeline with no problems. What type of hard drive are you using for media storage? Also, if you have on-board graphics, have you tried disabling that in Device Manager?

Carlos, your computer should not have any problem running Resolve. Like you I have a GTX 1060 and can run and render a UHD timeline with no problems. What type of hard drive are you using for media storage? Also, if you have on-board graphics, have you tried disabling that in Device Manager?

Hi and thanks, Charles and Erik,

I agree that I shouldn't have any problems running Resolve.

I work from an external HDD, its a LaCie Porsche Design connected via USB-C. I know the internal HD is preferable, but my disk is fast and I've been working with Resolve from the same disk over the last 6 months without this issue (I would like to say "without any issues" although that's not completely true, every now and then Davinci crashes and I have to reboot my PC to be able to open it again, but that's a whole different story)

Regarding the graphics, I've tried to find out and I don't think I have an on-board one (I'm starting to go beyond my IT knowledge )

In addition to this, I also found that when I export the project, the final video replicates the choppy or no sound, so it doesn't feel like a playback/RAM problem.

Greetings you all
I know this is a long time and a lot of updates ago, but I havevexperienced something very similar with nothing sensible hardware related being the problem. However in my case, what triggered the issue seems to be the use of sidechaining in the fairlight mixer. Of course it may not be what's causing problems for you, but try disabling all sidechaining if you have ane enabled.
- Theis

I had this Random 'bumping' issue. If everything was idle, it would still 'bump'. It even appeared in the overdubs. I knew it had nothing to do with my signal coming into the PC. I did realize after a while that it was only when I was in Fairlight.

This worked for me:

I noticed an immediate change when I went into the PC/ System Sound Settings/ Output/ Device Properties/ ADDITIONAL Device Properties/
I changed the setting from 16-bit 44.1 to 16-bit 48 Khz
How I stumbled on this: I was in Fairlight snooping around. I clicked on Metadata (upper-Right corner).
In the window that opened, under that Title was
the video frame rate Video resolution
48000 Hz 2 Ch
So, hopefully, since you're having a playback issue, you could fiddle with that a bit.