Compressor 4.1.1 mangling audio on compression to .m4a

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Compressor 4.1.1 mangling audio on compression to .m4a

I have been using Compressor 4.1.1 and earlier to batch compress a large number of mono 44.1 kHz 16-bit .aiff voiceover files. I am using AAC compression to create .m4a files. I have done hundreds, perhaps thousands, of these files successfully using a droplet created on my desktop with Compressor 4.1.1.

On two different computers (a brand new Macbook Pro and a 2010 Mac Pro) after the 10.9.2 update, every single one of the .m4a files I produce with Compressor 4.1.1. has a "pop" at the beginning of the resulting file on playback. There is also a small, but audible section of audio has gone missing (usually a syllable or less, depending on how closely trimmed the initial silence was).

I will report this to Apple as a bug. Does anyone else see this misbehavior?

Compressor, OS X Mavericks (10.9.2), Macbook Pro and Mac Pro

Posted on Mar 2, 2014 6:18 AM

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Answer 1

Mar 6, 2014 4:22 AM in response to larrynj

Hi Larry, you mention this has occured cooincidently AFTER you applied the OSX 10.9.2 update? Just a thought.. at the announcement I noticed one of the items in the 10.9.2 update (detailed here http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1725was a remedy for "fixes an issue that may cause audio distortion on certain Macs" and the maintenace MIGHT have smacked around some objects on your OSX... who knows.

So... consider...

Just as a thought, you might want to perform a very basic "Repair Disk Permissions".. and NOTE (contrary to parotting on these forums) that this ACTION only affects objects that are NOT in the /users/ path, thus only system related stuff.

To this, I'd suggest you use the MAVERICKS Recovery partition to do it rather than the D.U.app in /applications) .. it's quick and simple (restart with OPTION key held down, this use DISK UTILITY.. 4th task from the top).. very fast .

Rerun your batch and look for any errors when you play it back wth QUICK TIME PLAYER.app (system logs).

Keep your expectations low.

You might also look in http://forums.creativecow.net as well as I recall seeing this somewhere.

Search is your friend mate!

FWIW, I (and others) advise customers to RUN the Disk Utility / Repair disk Permisions" after any maintenance (installtions / updates)..

worth a look

Post your results for others to see.

warwick

Hong Kong

 ACTC

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