Perfect audio in FCPX timeline, distorted after export to QuickTime mov

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

Ugh. Same exact problem. Only noticed in the last month or two. Hoped the recent FCPX update would fix it.

My media ends up on Vimeo, and if I export to QT and then upload, it sounds terrible. Parts might be fine, but most of the dialogue is hideous-sounding. Sounds fine in the timeline. And if I have it upload directly to Vimeo from Compressor, it magically works. Which is frustrating, because then I'm not getting a save of the original export!

It hadn't occurred to me that this was QuickTime related but that makes sense. Maybe I'll try other formats. I am certainly using Loudness and volume filtering on the tracks, but I could swear this was not a problem for the longest time. And obviously, it *shouldn't* be a problem at all.

Seriously considering Premiere at this point, which is sad.

Yes, absolutely. I don't have QT7 to test against, but I'm trying a recent export again at 44.1kHz. I feel like when I look at the timeline, it's the 48kHz audio that's giving me trouble—strangely, the 44.1kHz media comes out fine. And I *am* exporting to 48kHz in this case, so it makes no sense. But who knows, maybe that will help.

I definitely hear the problem, and it is annoying.

I had the problem today and I fixed it.

I had originally made the movie in FCP7 a while back and exported it to a ProRes .Mov file with a 48Khz 16bit stereo audio track.

Plays fine when auditioned in Finder and when played in Quicktime 7 Pro (my life saver as Quicktime X is not so good)

I imported the movie into FCPX v10.2.3 (El Capitan 10.11.4) and the audio had no bass and dipped and wowed like an old worn out tape.

So I opened the video in Quicktime 7 Pro and extracted the audio track - with no changes - AIFF, 48Khz, 16 bit stereo and saved it.

(in QT7, cmd+J (movie properties), highlight the audio track, and click on the EXTRACT button at the top. A new player will open in QT7 with just the audio.

Select EXPORT from menu (cmd+E) and select AIFF and click the OPTIONS button to ensure you keep the original settings e.g. 48Khz etc, then save)

I then dragged this audio file from the Finder and dropped it on the timeline in place of the existing audio track. Hey Presto! It was back to it's normal self.

If you don't have QT7 (and the version from Snow Leopard works perfectly in all versions of OSX) you really should track it down. Mine has all the useful plugins they abandoned in later versions of software. If you don't there are plenty of alternatives that will extract the audio for you.

Im having the same problem. did you ever find a solution?

Its so frustrating, I've been working on a project for so long and now it comes time to export it and the sound quality from some of the clips is crappy.

I've been using FCPX for 3 months, may its still premature to give any advice.

first time i edit my blog were not without any big obstacle, although i did not get perfect result. (cinematic audio sound like)

once i accidentally klick the audio enhancement (from flat --> to voice enhancement)

on my time line, sound was like "high pitch tone" and quite good, but after i export, the distortion pop out.

perhaps, we don't want to press this audio enhancement nor the Equaliser, so that the "high pitch" won't turn into a distortion.

hope it may help

I cannot replicate the behaviour you are getting.

Can you step by step your export procedure?

Al