Blake Hodges

Q: Audio Clicks and Pops appearing in clips

In the final stages of editing a project that truly tests your machine, I am now running in to a mysterious problem.

 

I am nearly completely finished with a semi-complex project. Just in recent hours, certain clips have started developing "Clicks" and "Pops" that are very, very distinct. This might be fine.... if I were able to correct them. But conveniently, it appears that Final Cut Pro X does not give you this capability.

 

Is there a way to correct Clicks and Pops in FCPX? If not, is there some explainable reason why my audio is creating these problems slowly and surely? (the source media does not have the clicks)

 

Thank you for your insight!

Posted on Jul 22, 2011 9:15 PM

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Q: Audio Clicks and Pops appearing in clips

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  • by djoliverm,

    djoliverm djoliverm Aug 2, 2011 1:03 AM in response to RaycerXray
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 2, 2011 1:03 AM in response to RaycerXray

    Hmm, I've got Perian installed but don't see any reason why it would have anything to do with FCPX. Can anyone second that a fresh clean install of Lion alleviates these issues?

     

    Unfortunately I'm in Spain doing an internship right now and won't be back until mid November so a fresh install if anything would have to wait until then. ;(

     

    Also, would an archive and install do anything?

  • by phil brace,

    phil brace phil brace Aug 2, 2011 2:34 AM in response to Blake Hodges
    Level 1 (65 points)
    Aug 2, 2011 2:34 AM in response to Blake Hodges

    phil here.. I have had the same issue with clicks and pops in lion.. I tried the AIFF@48k from logic rather than the m4a and imported it into FCPX.. upon sharing all clicks and pops gone.. I also found the large.mov in compressor4 sounds headNshoulders better than the broadband.mp4.. the file size is double @3MB vs 6MB but I think its worth it for the sound quality

     

    im loving FCPX and other than the clicks and pops I have had no crashing

     

    ;] happy again.. no clean install required

     

    purring like a lion

     

    p

  • by djoliverm,

    djoliverm djoliverm Aug 2, 2011 2:36 AM in response to phil brace
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 2, 2011 2:36 AM in response to phil brace

    Yeah, it's what I found out through tons of testing. The thing that ***** is for content that comes already as AAC, such as iPhone 4 recordings. But I also found that say for example you HAVE to work with something that the audio is already in AAC, you can just pass it through iMovie and export it as something else since iMovie apparently has no issues.

     

    Now only if we can get the titles to work again...

  • by RaycerXray,

    RaycerXray RaycerXray Aug 2, 2011 6:58 AM in response to djoliverm
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Aug 2, 2011 6:58 AM in response to djoliverm

    I did a clean install and so far no clicks or pops. The problem with moving the titles around is still a problem, though.

  • by Shawn Birmingham,

    Shawn Birmingham Shawn Birmingham Aug 2, 2011 7:40 AM in response to djoliverm
    Level 4 (1,945 points)
    Aug 2, 2011 7:40 AM in response to djoliverm

    Final Cut Pro (be it version 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 or now X) has never liked compressed audio. It has always been a good idea to convert any audio to 48 kHz AIFF before bring it into FCP.

  • by Blake Hodges,

    Blake Hodges Blake Hodges Aug 2, 2011 8:03 AM in response to Shawn Birmingham
    Level 1 (23 points)
    Apple TV
    Aug 2, 2011 8:03 AM in response to Shawn Birmingham

    Are we going in circles here?

    I started this discussion because my UNCOMPRESSED 48K AIFF AUDIO was experiencing clicks and pops towards the end of editing my project. I began to notice it AFTER I began making changes (EQ) to the audio. I'm pretty sure that FCPX makes a sort-of "Render" file for the audio when you make alterations to it. Similar to the way you would send audio to Soundtrack Pro in legacy versions. It is this "Render File", I believe, that is creating the issues.

  • by Blake Hodges,

    Blake Hodges Blake Hodges Aug 2, 2011 8:04 AM in response to Blake Hodges
    Level 1 (23 points)
    Apple TV
    Aug 2, 2011 8:04 AM in response to Blake Hodges

    Oh yeah, and I am not on Lion yet.

  • by djoliverm,

    djoliverm djoliverm Aug 2, 2011 8:15 AM in response to Blake Hodges
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 2, 2011 8:15 AM in response to Blake Hodges

    Hmm, I got the issues ONLY through compressed (AAC) audio. Now, given that what you have is through an AIFF file, would deleting all render files help? Technically FCPX should just "read" on the fly an AIFF file since already it's uncompressed, but it might create "renders" if you've done EQing and what not. It might not need to if there wasn't much going on, but if you have a large project with LOTS of EQ, it would surely have to "render" that audio, just like a DAW (where you can "freeze" a track in Ableton Live or Logic, essentially bouncing the whole track to a stereo AIFF/WAV to free up CPU cycles).

     

    Not exactly sure if FCPX works in this manner, but if the clicks and pops weren't there, and now they are, try deleting all render files and letting it render it again. This has solved issues with me when it hasn't rendered properly (some transitions would not animate correctly, yet it would be "rendered").

     

    Now, if FCPX doesn't render audio files when changes have been made to it and processes it on the fly, then it might be a sound card issue, but I really don't think FCPX would work in such a way as a DAW. And regardless, if it was like this, you wouldn't hear the clicks and pops in the final render anyway.

     

    Hope this might help.

  • by Chris Beiting,

    Chris Beiting Chris Beiting Aug 2, 2011 8:19 AM in response to djoliverm
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 2, 2011 8:19 AM in response to djoliverm

    It's extremely annoying that we are even having this issue to begin with. This stuff works just fine in iMovie and Premiere. The next update better be a doozy.

  • by phil brace,

    phil brace phil brace Aug 4, 2011 2:37 AM in response to Blake Hodges
    Level 1 (65 points)
    Aug 4, 2011 2:37 AM in response to Blake Hodges

    I note there is another factor causing crazy issues.. when I import my 30FPS apple intermediate codec video the frame rate drops to 3.67FPS!! has anyone also seen this too??.. I am confident in snow leopard this was not an issue, as my original project files are pre lion, and the updated video files causing issues are post lion.. frustrating..

     

    phil

  • by emde,

    emde emde Aug 5, 2011 10:05 AM in response to Blake Hodges
    Level 1 (19 points)
    Apple Watch
    Aug 5, 2011 10:05 AM in response to Blake Hodges

    I too am experiencing this issue. Is there any fix in sight? This is not the quality I'd expect from Apple.

  • by RJDUBB,

    RJDUBB RJDUBB Aug 8, 2011 9:42 AM in response to djoliverm
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 8, 2011 9:42 AM in response to djoliverm

    I have called about audio pop's. They could create the same problem at apple. Even the sound effects in the actual final cut pro x have the audio issues. Once put in the timeline if you just preview the sound it will not have an issue. They have engineers working on the problem right now.. But call and complain and they will get it done much faster

  • by ApostlePD2,

    ApostlePD2 ApostlePD2 Aug 8, 2011 1:27 PM in response to Blake Hodges
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 8, 2011 1:27 PM in response to Blake Hodges

    just wanted to offer my opinion as well. i've gone through two situations where the pops and clicks have screwed up my audio. it only seems to happen for me with songs that max out the "scale" (the green to red colors that show the volume is too high) but even when you lower the volume to where everything is in the "green" area, it still pops and clicks upon rendering in ANY and EVERY format. this is quite annoying and requires me to replace the song with an alternate, which should NOT have to happen. either way, the popping is very annoying.....i am running LION on a new 27" iMac with 12GB.

  • by Doug Mokaren,

    Doug Mokaren Doug Mokaren Aug 11, 2011 7:34 AM in response to mjcollinge
    Level 1 (30 points)
    Aug 11, 2011 7:34 AM in response to mjcollinge

    I'm hearing some flutter and pumping thru the whole clip that seems to be in sync with the pops at the end (00:19).  Have you applied some compression?

  • by hollose,

    hollose hollose Aug 27, 2011 3:49 AM in response to Blake Hodges
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 27, 2011 3:49 AM in response to Blake Hodges

    I am using FCPX to edit our vacation video, shot with iPhone4 (720p HD). I do experience clicks and pops on some, not all, clips after being imported in FCPX. The clicks and pops carry through to the final export, but they are not present in the original clips.

     

    I tried to do some investigation with the import settings, re-importing a clip that got very signficant cliks and pops, using one import option at a time, as I suspected that the fix and analyze could be the culprit (well, it´s 1.0 version after all). With all settings off (optimized, proxy media, and all of the 3 audio option, analyze fix, group together and remove silent) the clip did not get any clicks and pops at all.

     

    Turning on the 3 audio option in turn did NOT apply any clicks and pops to the clip, but when choosing optimized media, the clicks and pops were back.

     

    I guess when importing Apple "safe" media format like from the iPhone, there is not much of optimized media anyway, so I am leaving if off until an upgrade hopefully fixes this annoying bug.

     

    Running on Lion (10.7.1) on a 8 Gb Macbook Pro (2010)

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