Audio peaks disappearing

sqblz wrote on 7/11/2002, 5:56 AM
Has anyone experienced this ?
Sometimes I just don't see the audio peaks (only a straight line) even if I "rebuild peaks". Then, if I zoom in the audio track, suddenly the peaks appear. Then, I zoom a little bit more and they disappear again. Only at a certain zoom level they appear.
If I "edit the audio track" or "edit a copy of the audio track" the effect disappears. Unpractical if it happens along a 10-minute clip ...
My clips were produced with Vegas Capture, in PAL.
Thanks...

Comments

sqblz wrote on 8/5/2002, 5:15 AM
Hello.
Am I alone in this subject ?
Thanks.
wcoxe1 wrote on 8/5/2002, 10:42 AM
No, you are not alone. I have asked SF for their comments on this exact thing, but have not heard back in about a month, now. I asked about the time you first posted your question. (Sorry, didn't notice it way back then.)

I had originally associated it with NORMALIZATION. I found that turning OFF normalize, and then turning it BACK on would make the peaks come back. However, lately, I am not too sure that this "Peak Loss" is actually related to NORMALIZATION.

For one thing, I can NORMALIZE loads of tracks, and come back a few minutes later to View Details and there are a few boxes NOT checked that should be checked. I go back to the tracks, and they say that they are normalized. I UN Normalize them, go back to View Details, and take a look. They are NOT normalized. So I check the Normalize boxes in View Details and go back to the tracks. They are NOT normalized. Then, I can go back to View Details and SOME of them are checked, and some are not. Things just seem to disappear. It doesn't seem to matter which order, or where I normalize first, some things just decide to change over time. The longer the time, the more things go screwy.

Now, all this is going on while the peaks disappear and it SEEMED that turning OFF, then ON normalization would bring them back. But the Peaks problem may NOT be associated because there seems to be a whole other problem with Normalization going on at the same time.

After a month fighting these quirkw, it seems that this disappearing act doesn't ALWAYS coincide with the peaks going away. But, it was often enough to make me think it was involved in the beginning.

Now, before anyone tells me to, I have uninstalled, cleared the registry, and reinstalled the latest download from SF on several occasions. It doesn't seem to help. The normalization just randomly disappears whenever it feels like it. This has happened on three different projects that I can remember.

It has gotten so that the very last thing I do before final render is check the normalization and turn a few things BACK on, because inevitablly there will be a few that have switched themselves off since the last time I turned them on.

By the way, why is it not possible to click on the top of the View Details Normalize column and normalize the WHOLE column at one time, or at least let us COPY the setting to as many events as we want rather than click one at a time?

I know that it is possible to SELECT TO END and go to switches and click on NORMALIZE, but this doesn't always seem to work (see above). Sometimes I notice that after "Selecting to End" and Normalizing that anywhere from a LOT to only one or two things have come UN-normalized when viewed in View Details. While in View Details, one or two are not the problem, it is when they are UN checked in random fashion ALL OVER The place that it would be nice to click on the top of the column or copy.
sqblz wrote on 8/6/2002, 3:49 AM
Thanks wcoxe1, it's reassuring to know that we're not alone... now, let's bring someone else into the discussion. Hopefully, someone from Sonic :-)
Your description is quite exaustive, but I guess that you are pointing to a *second* issue (normalize) which may or may not be related with the first issue (peaks disappearing).
For the record (no pun intended), I have never used Normalized. But my Peaks Disappeared.
So, maybe we have 2 issues here.
Sonic ? Hello ?
jthor wrote on 8/7/2002, 6:36 PM
I am a brand new novice to this entire field. Just bought VV3.0 and struggling which I guess is half the fun? I found this topic and will be watching and searching. I experience the same loss of waveforms. Have tried everything. Worse yet, the audio itself just quits as I play, whether the peaks are present or not. Cannot see a pattern yet. Everything is fine and working untill I click around on the various windows and suddenly sections are dead with peaks, without peaks, or any combo. So will be watching to see what you folks resolve, especiall if SF pops in.

I am going to download to v3.0c and see if that is a fix. It was fun to play the SF short tutorial, and all was ok. Now using my own clip of 5 minutes, problems. But being a beginner, I shall learn. One question. Have any of you worked on large Mpeg1 DV files? Hard to imagine at this point of the game, but is my goal for some simple background audio fixes.
sqblz wrote on 8/8/2002, 6:26 AM
Hi, John Schneff, and welcome to your first participation.

Two reasons for this reply:

1) to reassure you, I am dealing with big MPEG-1 files, no problem.
My files are 12-15 min long, they are not longer because my AV capture card gives me Audio synchronization problems. But Vegas does not complain about the clip being too big.
A possible issue with long MPEG clips is that you will be splitting and rejoining the same clip over itself in the timeline. You may have Timeout problems. Please see another thread from me concerning this issue.

2) the second reason is to bring this thread up front, so that Sonic notices it and hopefully participate.

(maybe if I shout ...)

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***** HELLO, SoFo, PLEASE REPLY TO THIS THREAD !!! THANKS !!! *****
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PeterWright wrote on 8/8/2002, 6:34 AM
This may or may not help, but since you are referring to a display problem, would you like to say which graphics cards you are using - just might be something there ...
Jessariah67 wrote on 8/8/2002, 7:48 AM
Another thing that may be a stupid question, but how "hot" are your wave files? If they are weak in signal, they will look like a flat line at lower zoom levels. Do you still hear them, even though you don't see them?
SonyEPM wrote on 8/8/2002, 9:03 AM
For you guys with the problems (plural- several different issues are being described), please make sure you have the latest Vegas update, 3.0c. We did fix a normalize-related event drawing bug in that update.

I have been trying to repro the dissapearing waveforms, and in 3.0c, I cannot.

If you have multiple audio events, some with normalize on, some off, and then select all audio events and toggle the normalize switch, each selected event will have the state of its normalize setting swapped. There isn't any way to have mixed-state events all turn to on, or off. This is on our wish list for a future version-
jthor wrote on 8/8/2002, 9:49 AM
Wow, you guys must all be editing or helping others on this forum all hours of day or night. I thank each of you for your information and questions too. I am building a stack of printouts on all this information as my brain can't absorb. I especially thank the Sonic people who jump in. I just last night upgraded my 3.0 purchased version to 3.0c.It is always embarrassing to admit ones ignorance, so I shall go slow on what is really working and what is not. V 3.0c seems to have fixed the peaks problem. However, these are my first tests with my own data, which probably is not very good in itself, so I do not want to jump to conclusions. I may be causing my own problems clicking and trying and learning all at once. It appears the peaks are now present all of the time with v30c. I will hold on my hardware info till I have enough skill to get a good data sample to work with. The audio is part of the mpeg1 DV downloaded. No extra added yet. Finally, am picking up on some really skilled folks user names now, so watch out for my questions when I am ready.
jthor wrote on 8/9/2002, 12:33 PM
My last response indicated V3.0c took care of my audio problems. BUT now my preview playback blacks out consistently at a time point in replay. I am opening a new forum called Preview Window goes Blank w/3.0c upgrade. Thanks VF so far.
wcoxe1 wrote on 8/12/2002, 9:31 AM
I have been using 3c bld 138 since it came out, and that coincided with the BEGINNING of my peaks disappearing. Didn't notice it before, at least. Now, it is a common problem.
jthor wrote on 8/12/2002, 11:01 AM
Hope you get your figured out and that mine keeps working. I figure I can only keep trying to test everything I can think of. I am going to install a Wester Digital Firewire card this week, I think, and try to capture the same clip with that and see what is what. Boy, lots to learn, but have to admit I am prone to think the new Build for 30c changed something for the video. I plan to do only basic audio background and delete parts of audio and video on my home dv tapes, so I should get there by the time the rainy season starts and I can focus better. Good luck and if I spot anything I shall let you know. jthor