THE CURSE OF THE PHANTOM AUDIO!

Question

THE CURSE OF THE PHANTOM AUDIO!

This is a strange case I defy anyone to solve, or even explain. I tried following the instructions in iMovie 3.03 about "Retaining the audio under pasted video." If you have "Extract Audio in paste over" checked, you're not supposed to have to delete the audio from the clip you paste in, but most times it doesn't work for me. I select the clip I want, extract the audio, Unlock Audio Clip, delete the audio, and THEN "Paste Over at Playhead," or I get double audio.

Something happened this time, however, that COMPLETELY stumped me! I tried to do this with a very brief clip--about two seconds. When the audio was supposedly extracted, I couldn't find the audio clip to delete it. I pasted it in anyway. Sure enough, double audio. I deleted the clip, thinking I'd get rid of both picture and sound.

I gave up on just going to "Restore Clip" in most cases, as sometimes I've done some difficult editing I want to keep. Instead, what I do when I drag a clip from the Clips Pane to the Clips viewer is copy and paste before I change ANYTHING, then drag the copy BACK into the Clips Pane, which should result in an EXACT copy of the original without having to reimport from the camera no matter what gets screwed up.

So I took a DIFFERENT COPY of the ENTIRE SEQUENCE and tried extracting the audio from the WHOLE THING. What happened was the usual "silent movie" effect--EXCEPT FOR THE TWO SECONDS I ORIGINALLY TRIED TO COPY! THE AUDIO WAS STILL THERE--SEEMINGLY UNREMOVABLE!

To test the possibility of some special curse on those particular two seconds, I imported just that part again from the camera and removed the audio by the usual method. This time it worked. I went to "Restore Clip" to remove any changes on the clip I was pasting into, then edited it back to where it was. BEFORE CHANGING ANYTHING, when I checked it, the phantom audio was STILL THERE! ALTHOUGH I HAD RESTORED THE CLIP--AND THE PICTURE, INCLUDING PARTS I HAD DELETED, CAME BACK!!!!!!!

WHY WAS THE SOUND I HAD ACCIDENTALLY PASTED IN THE ORIGINAL VERSION STILL THERE IN THE RESTORED VERSION??? WHY, WHY, WHY???????

Now I am going to delete everything and start all over with the copy in the clips pane. If these two seconds of "phantom audio" are STILL lurking in the Timeline, I GIVE UP! I don't know how this happened or how to fix it!

Power Mac G4, Mac OS X (10.4.4), Hard Drive 57.26 GB, Internal Slave Drive 232.86 GB

Posted on Mar 22, 2006 9:45 PM

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Answer 1

Mar 22, 2006 10:00 PM in response to Cornelia Shields

Something way weird going on. I was able to fix the clip to be pasted into back all right, but the clip to paste into it...the small snip FROM WHICH I REMOVED SOUND--when I go to "Restore Clip" STILL PLAYS AS A SILENT CLIP--the sound is not restored--but when I try to paste the silent clip in THE SOUND COMES BACK and creates double audio!! AAAAAAUUUUUGGGGGHHH!!!!!

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Answer 2

Mar 22, 2006 10:32 PM in response to Cornelia Shields

Was able to fix the clip to paste into by totally reimporting the original, as by that time things were hopelessly messed up. Made a Save right after I got it edited the way I want, in case something went wrong pasting in the next clip. This time I even tried unchecking "Extract audio in pasteover" to see if that would make the silent clip remain silent. No such luck! So I undid the pasteover. THE PICTURE DISAPPEARED BUT THE DOUBLE AUDIO REMAINED! I even tried closing iMovie WITHOUT SAVING THE CHANGE. When I reopened, THE AUDIO WAS STILL MESSED UP (double audio in the one spot.) Hopeless?

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Answer 3

Mar 22, 2006 10:53 PM in response to Cornelia Shields

Although the instructions don't state this that I can find, maybe the audio and video tracks have to be separated on the original clip for the "Paste over" video to work. I did this with two songs. One, it seems I followed the instructions and they worked. The second, I got double audio and started extracting and deleting before pasting the video. That worked. The third, I haven't separated the audio track from the video, which I can try before beginning to completely tear out my hair. What I CAN'T FIGURE AT ALL is WHY the double audio would remain on the original video AFTER removing the pasted video--either by deleting or undoing!

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Answer 4

Mar 23, 2006 3:04 PM in response to Cornelia Shields

I've tried everything!

--Following the instructions, having "Exract audio in paste over" selected, and NOT removing the audio from the pasted clip. DOUBLE SOUND!

--Extracting audio from the pasted clip first. Thinking perhaps the two-second clip was too small for me to remove the audio (it's hard to get hold of those real tiny ones) I copied the ENTIRE SEQUENCE and removed audio from ALL OF IT, checking to make sure those particular two seconds were also silent in case they really were cursed! (This is what worked on the other song where I had double sound--at least so far--now watch me move the project from iMovie to Toast and have it undo all my nice edits!) STILL DOUBLE SOUND!

--Moving the setting from Import (Camera) to Edit (Scissors) and trying the above. STILL DOUBLE SOUND!

What's more, the double audio PERSISTS even if the pasted sequence is REMOVED and the project closed WITHOUT SAVING! The only way I've kept from screwing it up again was to revert to a whole separate version of the project I saved before doing ANY editing!

The only thing I have NOT TRIED is extracting the sound from the original sequence FIRST--though why the instructions don't say to do that and why it should make a difference, I don't know--if it doesn't work, perhaps I should just take this subject off this forum and go straight to a paranormal investigator!

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Answer 5

Mar 23, 2006 4:25 PM in response to Cornelia Shields

I double-checked, and iMovie is the same version--3.0.3--I didn't do any updates on iMovie itself which would change the way it's acting, although I did update some other software.

Even more eerily, as I said, I took the precaution of re-importing the original video and making a copy of the UN-MESSED-UP version to leave in the area where the clips are imported. The phantom audio after awhile invades ALL COPIES--although my other editing--the things I actually want--does not extend to the copy in the other area--so this is the third time total that I've had to import the original video from the camera to get rid of the double audio!

If no one can answer this, is there a support form to fill out or a support address to email? SOMEONE PLEASE HELP!!!

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Answer 6

Mar 23, 2006 5:30 PM in response to Cornelia Shields

Before trying this again, I deleted every single clip about which there was any question whatsoever. Then I made three copies of the uncorrupted clips, two up above (sorry, I'm through saying Clips Pane and Clips Viewer--I'm confused enough already) and one down below.

I am also not only saving, but making a COMPLETE backup every time I make a change I actually want which WORKS.

What GETS me is:

--I did this twice before (putting silent pictures from songs to the audio of other songs). What's different this time?

--When I extract and then delete audio it does NOT COME BACK--not if I hit "Extract audio" again or even "Restore Clip." THOSE PICTURES ARE COMPLETELY SILENT--SO HOW CAN A CLIP FROM THEM PASTE IN WITH SOUND? Unless the sound was somehow left over from an earlier attempt which I don't think I could have been. We shall see if I can make it work this time or if more sinister forces are afoot.

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Answer 7

Mar 23, 2006 5:43 PM in response to Cornelia Shields

This time it did the exact same thing with one difference--after I eliminated the audio and pasted in the clip, it still pasted in with audio, but this time I could at least SEE the audio in the Timeline View, which before I couldn't. It still did me no good, though, as it wouldn't give "Unlock audio clip" as an option, so I couldn't select it, without which I couldn't delete the audio.

So...aren't these high tech things supposed to be consistent? How come they do one thing one time and a different variation every other time?

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Answer 8

Mar 23, 2006 6:31 PM in response to Cornelia Shields

The double audio is somehow "hiding behind" whatever is in the row of clips down below--because when I pull the edited clip out of the row and back to up above--the audio plays fine. (Too bad I didn't try that before about the first five times I reedited the clip from scratch!) The phantom sound is not visible, for instance on the audio track in the timeline--I guess it will just be underneath whatever gets pushed to that part of the row of clips. How do I get rid of what I can't see?

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Answer 9

Mar 23, 2006 6:54 PM in response to Cornelia Shields

How can I get rid of this extra audio? It appears on the clip when it's down below (in the timeline) but plays fine when the same, edited clip is up above (where imported clips first appear).

Also, can the audio I extracted and deleted from the other clips reappear, or does deleting really get rid of it?

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Answer 10

Mar 23, 2006 7:28 PM in response to Cornelia Shields

To boil the question down to essentials, I posted this in the earlier iMovie folder: Is extracting the audio from a clip in iMovie 3.0.3, completely deleting the audio track, and then saving the edited clip enough to REALLY AND TRULY get rid of the unwanted audio when it is transferred to Toast 7, or should other measures be employed while saving the iMovie project? Thanks for any advice or help.

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Answer 11

Mar 24, 2006 1:11 AM in response to Cornelia Shields

I swear by all that is sacred, I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP! This time I again extracted the video from the entire sequence containing the clip to be pasted over, and deleted it. This time, when I pasted it in, instead of getting double audio (from both) I got JUST the audio from the SECOND clip--THAT I'D DELETED. This time when I went to undo, it undid the whole thing--audio included! At least no phantom audio this time--but why does it not work the way it says it will or any OTHER way?

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Answer 12

Mar 24, 2006 1:23 AM in response to Cornelia Shields

Unfortunately I had to recheck the audio box in track 2 because a lot of other audio I did want was there. So now I have at least three overlapping audios in the one sequence (maybe more--hard to tell at this point.)

1. The original audio I did want.

2. The pasted-over audio I don't want and can't see, and

3. The audio from the clip which was pasted according to instructions, but for some reason can't be unlocked so therefore can't be deleted.

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Answer 13

Mar 24, 2006 11:34 AM in response to Cornelia Shields

That begs the question, why does iMovie allow unlocking and deleting an audio track IF THE AUDIO IS NOT REALLY GONE?

?--What type of files are captured to iMovie 3.0.3? All I can find is "Media File," nothing about type. It is giving the wrong capture date--2017!

?--What is demuxing and does iMovie do it? I can't even find the word in the Help folder!

What gets me is ALL the files were captured through the SAME equipment by the SAME method. In every previous case, simply extracting and deleting audio worked FINE! Now I seem to have one or more file(s) from which the sound was extracted but never showed up in the audio track, just went to hide and wreak havoc even over newly imported clips which hadn't even been edited!

I have another file where it's possible to extract and delete sound from the whole long sequence (which still does no good as when I paste it over the previous sound is still there--even on a newly replaced sequence) but on the short sequence which is all I actually want, it will extract the sound but not let me unlock or delete it! VERY, VERY FRUSTRATING!

The people waiting for the tape have been quite patient so far. Only one psycho breakdown (wasn't ME!!!) and she was about half-cracked to begin with. Thanks for the help.

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Answer 14

Mar 28, 2006 10:04 PM in response to Cornelia Shields

I don't know if I can in good conscience EVER count this dilemma as answered, as it is NOT answered and is perhaps incapable of BEING answered. This time, on the other side of the bad spot irrevocably marred by the phantom audio, I put in the sequence and tried it again--followed the instructions for "Retaining the audio under pasted video" which WORKED BEFORE, and it did THE SAME THING AGAIN--DOUBLE AUDIO!--with the difference that at least this time when I went to undo, it at least took out the sound along with the picture INSTEAD OF JUST LEAVING IT STUCK THERE like before. Then I tried EXTRACTING AND DELETING the audio from the ENTIRE SEQUENCE, taking the SILENT CLIP of just the part I wanted, and pasting it into the original WHICH I KNEW WAS OKAY, AND AGAIN GOT DOUBLE AUDIO!! This was pasting a SILENT CLIP, WHICH ALSO WORKED BEFORE!

Since in this case all the clips were taken from different versions of the same song, I was able to do it a different way, by keeping the original audio in all the clips (luckily they sang exactly the same key and tempo each time and had the motions down perfect) and cutting and pasting precisely so one piece of audio flows seamlessly right into the next. But anyone can see how much HARDER this was than WHAT I WANTED TO DO WHICH iMOVIE 3.0.3 WOULD NOT LET ME DO BY ANY METHOD, which was put different pictures on with ONE soundtrack. Anyone can also see how that wouldn't have worked with the other songs I did, which took pictures shot during different songs and put them together with the soundtrack of one song.

Now I am living in fear that when I go to put my edited video into Toast, the sound I extracted and deleted from all those clips in the other songs will COME BACK TO HAUNT ME, after the way this one acted while still in iMovie!

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Answer 15

Mar 30, 2006 12:20 AM in response to Cornelia Shields

I dont know that I understand whats happening ,, I have never been able to get any of my audio to acompany my video into iMovie, unless I am using My iSight camera directly connected to my computer , so no matter what I video with my sony camera , I never have the luxury of having the sound In any of my videos, made using iMovie , and I must say it sure got my wheels turning , Please forgive me if I waste your time, and have not come near an answer , , I am trying to imagine how much sound could be in 2 seconds of video , for me what I did to get my sound into my movies if I wanted it , was just , add the video to the time line , now that would be any video from my camera, which goes in to iMovie with zero sound , OK?
the same video will play on my desk top using Quick time, with the sound
OK ?,
so , I open my iMovie project with the clip in the time line,
and I open the same clip on my desk top using Quick time OK?
then in iMovie I open Audio , and click on the record button , so iMovie starts to record OK? then I start the same clip , playing sound on my desk top , and the sound that is missing from my clip in iMovie , is recorded onto the time line from the clip playing on my desk top using Quick Time, you cant have any back ground noise, and have to realign the audio track with the clip , its all the same clip so it always is easy to realign, if i have already made a movie , and it has sound , and I start to mix clips some with sound and some with out , then , in the time line , you will see at the end of the time line there are boxes to check or un check , I uncheck the box in the video line, so it is all muted , and I only have the two audio lines checked, and just use which ever level I want , that cant posibly have helped, i never use any of that paste audio at play head stuff , I guess I am so used to not having any sound and using the method I described above combined with music and sound effects , that I I just dont understand your problem , but I have felt your frustration !, why do you have to extract the audio/ instead of unchecking the box at the end of the time line , muting the whole thing and recreating all the sound like I do ?and what kind of project is it ? and creating all your own audio is a blast there ar so many sound effects and so much music

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