Music stutters

DeeG wrote on 8/27/2013, 9:03 AM
I have been using Movie Studio 11.0 for quite a long time with good success, but for the past few months whenever I add music to the project, the music is extremely choppy. This is not just a preview problem - the rendered video will also be choppy - regardless of the format I render to.

So, I suspect something has changed on my computer, but I have no clue how to figure out what. The only thing that has changed in my video editing approach is that I now use 1920x1080 60p source material from a Go Pro Hero 3. But I have used that same format from a Panasonic camcorder with good success in the past.

64-bit Windows 7, 6 GB of RAM, 2.8 GHz Core i7 930, VMS HD Platium 11.0 build 322.

I would appreciate any suggestions on what to look for or how to work around the problem.

Comments

Steve Grisetti wrote on 8/27/2013, 10:03 AM
First, I'd recommend you only use WAV files as your audio source. It's the easiest format for video editors to digest.

Second, I'd ensure that you've matched your Movie Studio project specs to your video. Go Pro uses non-standard codecs, so it can be a bit of a challenge for some video editors, especially at 60p. But, if your project is properly matched to your video, it certainly shouldn't make for a choppy output.

What are you rendering your video as?
DeeG wrote on 8/27/2013, 2:41 PM
I use Cineform Neoscene to transcode all of my source footage to AVI format so it is easier to edit. So I think the GoPro footage should be essentially the same as the Camcorder footage.

The stuttering or choppiness is not consistent. Meaning, if I exit the program and come back in and replace the music, it will be different. It seems to be the same throughout one editing session, but the next session might be different. It is also different if I lay the music on a different track. The audio from the video plays fine - it is only the music that is messed up. Usually the entire song is choppy, but sometimes only part of it.

I get stuttering in the preview window of the video and audio when I have a title overlay, but it will render fine. So I believe that is just a computer resource limitation. But the music being weird - and inconsistent - makes no sense to me.

I render two formats; 1280x720 30p for upload on the Internet, and 1920x1080 60i for burning on a BluRay disk. Both formats stutterer exactly like the preview in the editor. I think my project is 1920x1080 60i, but since I have mixed format source material, I can't match it all.

My music files are MP3, and they used to work fine. I can try converting to WAV and see if that helps.
DeeG wrote on 8/27/2013, 5:47 PM
WAV format did not help.

On occasion, the music will play fine in preview, but then the program will crash.
musicvid10 wrote on 8/27/2013, 8:15 PM
Convert your files in the free GoPro Studio first.
DeeG wrote on 10/7/2013, 9:57 PM
In an attempt to resolve my music stuttering problem I upgraded to V12. It behaves the same. And now I have a project where the voice track is stuttering without any music in the project.

I have done many Internet searches and found that many people have had similar problems, but I have not yet found a solution. Very frustrating. I did find one suggestion that seems to help, but I am not sure it totally resolves the issue. If I add an audio FX to a clip the stuttering stops. For example, I can add a volume FX with the gain set at 0 db and it magically seems to stop the stuttering. But it is a real pain to add this to each and every clip.

I also found that if I disable the default FX in the track, the stuttering is reduced, but not completely gone.

The stuttering is repeatable. If I play one clip over again, it will stutter the same way (in preview). And if I render, it will also stutter the same way.

Does anyone have any clues on how to fix this?
Ivan Lietaert wrote on 10/8/2013, 3:54 AM
Try changing the audio buffer sizes (make it bigger) under preferences, tab audio device, I remember this solved it for me.
DeeG wrote on 10/8/2013, 8:47 PM
Thanks! That seems to have fixed it. Finally!