Q: Perfect audio in FCPX timeline, distorted after export to QuickTime mov
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Feb 28, 2015 9:18 PMby ericty,Hi Al,
Here are the steps I use to export:
- From the File menu, I select 'Share' and select 'Master File'
- In the pop-up dialog box I click on 'Settings' and select 'H264' as the CODEC
- I open the rendered file with QuickTime Player and the audio is distorted.
- I open the rendered file with QuickTime Player 7 and the audio is fine
- I convert the exported file to a WMV file using Pro version of Flip Player. The audio in the resulting file is fine.
I'm no expert but this would on the outset appear to be a problem with QuickTime v10.4. I can't seem to find a way to resolve this. Thank you for your assistance.
FYI - the audio file for the project is pulled in to FCPX as an mp3 directly from the iTunes library via the 'Music and Sound' browser.
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Mar 1, 2015 7:34 PMby ericty,Hi Al,
Thanks for the suggestion. Converted the mp3 to a 48KHz AIFF file, imported it into the project, replaced the mp3 track with the AIFF track, exported it as described in my initial response to you - and still the same result. It still sounds muffled and distorted using QT and fine when using QT 7.
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Mar 1, 2015 7:37 PMby ericty,Russ,
I truly wish that were the case but it's absolutely confounding me. As you can see in my reply to Al, I converted the mp3 to AIFF, imported it and replaced the mp3 in the timeline, exported the file and still muffled and distorted....in QuickTime X only. Sounds great in QuickTime 7. Head scratching continues.
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Mar 2, 2015 1:48 AMby Luis Sequeira1,Did you try playing this in Quicktime Player in another mac? Or under a different user account in the same mac? I am guessing that there may be some conflict there. It seems clear that the output file is correct, since it plays well in QT7 and again after converting it further.
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Jun 2, 2015 3:44 PMby Ryan Thomson,Did anyone come up with a solution?
I just experienced the same problem, for the first time. I'm using:
Yosemite 10.10.2
FCPX 10.2.1
Quicktime 10.4
iMac, retina 4K, 4 GHz Intel Core i7, memory 32 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
The audio, voice and music, sounds fine when played back through FCPX. When I export a master file to H264, 48KHz, and open it in Quicktime, it is distorted. Its not a huge amount of distortion but unpleasant and muffled. Since my project is very short, only 5 minutes long, the master file renders quickly, so I've tried re-exporting it and testing several times. It is distorted each time. I'm playing it back through my same computer I always use, same speakers. Its easy to have both Quicktime and FCPX open at the same time so that I can compare the audio from each. I don't have QT7 to test.
The only thing I am doing different from what I ordinarily do with projects using this same work flow, is that I adjusted the audio in this project using controls in FCPX. I boosted volume in some clips, lowered in others, modified EQ until it sounds right in FCPX. In all of my previous projects I've left the audio as is.
Since I plan to export this project from FCPX to YouTube, I am concerned that the distortion will follow along with my export.
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Jun 2, 2015 6:45 PMby Ryan Thomson,Thank you for responding.
You are certainly on to the problem. Funny that you should mention levels, as a little while ago I went back and checked audio levels in FCPX. I hadn't thought to do that before because everything sounded fine. I found that they were peaking consistently above 0 and into the red, which I realize is not a good thing. I lowered them to peaking around 0 and exported a new master. Problem solved, and the Quicktime version now sounds the same as the version in the FCPX editor.
However I'm still wondering why there was a such a big difference in the sound between the FCPX editor and Quicktime versions before I lowered the volume. Maybe some distortion in the original FCPX version is magnified when it is converted to Quicktime?
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Jun 2, 2015 6:59 PMby Tom Wolsky,When you export to YouTube and other compressed delivery formats you are likely to exacerbate any problems that exist in the video and audio. You're going from high quality, uncompressed audio and optimized video into a format that combines the two and squeezes as much data out of the file as it can to make it easier to download. Anything that's a problem in the original only gets magnified and made worse through this process. -12dB is a standard target for normal audio levels. That allows headroom for peak audio. Speech ranges from -18 to -6 that gives you room for a transient sound like a gunshot to go to -1. It's supposed to be louder than someone talking. If you compress everything up to or near zero there is no dynamic range and no nuance on inflection; speech becomes flat and everything has the same value. Movies set the reference level even lower, -20 or -24, which allows for a greater range of levels, effectively creating much more impact in the loud bits.
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Jul 9, 2015 12:29 PMby Captain2Phones,Just wanted to chime in to say that I recently experienced a similar problem (voiceover audio that sounded great in timeline but was full of audio gaps and stutters when exported to .mov). The only thing I'd done differently with this project was to use FCP's audio analysis to "fix" the VO audio ... and once I removed all of its "fixes" the audio exported fine.
Suggest anyone having similar issues check to see whether they've used audio analysis, and disable if so.
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Dec 28, 2015 1:45 PMby alex33245,I am also having the same problem. The audio is AIFF, 48khz. I do not want to decrease the volume below 0dB as after exporting and then compressing the file using handbrake, the volume is too low to upload youtube. People listening to my youtube video will have to increase the volume giving them the impression that they are low quality.
When I increase the volume of the track on itunes, there is no distortion, but there is when I export it from final cut pro.
Any help is appreciated. Thanks.
