FCP Audio: Playing back at wrong sample rate.

Chadfish

Chadfish

Veteran
HI

I've been working in FCP for years, and never had a problem with audio until today. I captured some EX1 footage for a spot and it played fine. I exported the audio from that and used it in a multitrack Cubase project to make the final audio for the spot. I usually make 16 bit, 44.1k mastered audio files (not 48k because they do dual duty as radio spots) and drop them in the FCP timeline. They always play fine. Today they played slow as if the FCP timeline was forcing them to play at 48k. I've always been able to do mixed sample rates. I set the Sequence sample rate to 44.1, and it plays fine, but the original camera audio plays slow still. Very odd. I export at "Current Settings" and it sounds ok, but when I export at 720/30P (no change in audio settings mind you) that file plays back slow. Odd

I even opened up an old project in standard def. Audio played fine. I remade the audio file to update the spot, and again it played back slow. I changed the sequence settings to 44.1 and it played correctly.

This is an issue because camera audio is 48k, while music from libraries is usually 44.1. Now it seems I have a sample rate conflict going on, and I think it's final cut Pro causing the trouble.

Has anyone encountered this? Any suggestions?
 
Update:

I tried opening a blank project, and throwing on a TV spot I made months ago. It plays the audio back slow, though the sequence sample rate is the normal 48k, and the video file's audio was at 48k. It's odd indeed. The file plays fine in the finder or through quicktime.
 
UPDATE:

I'm sorry to say that the damn problem came back. I trashed my prefs - problem fixed when I tested it out. Today I opened an old project - no sound. Before I had slow sound - normal video. So did what I did originally which was to set my Sequence Settings to 44.1k (rather than the default 48k). It at least lets me continue working.

I did an experiment -

1: I exported a clip with the new 44.1k sampling rate - video plays fine, but I don't know if the video file now is off NTSC standards as I can't tell the audio sampling rate through "Get Info"

2: Even though I heard no sound at 48k, I exported and the video plays back normal, but the audio plays back slow.

Maybe it does have something with the latest update before the "New" Final Cut Studio suite update to FCP7. I just wish I could figure out what is tweaking my audio. Could old projects screw with my newly built prefs? Hard to say.

Let's keep up the conversation to hopefully find a way out. If I can't export NTSC video I'm screwed as far as work goes.

Chadfish
 
Hey DJDecay thanks for the suggestions.

One thing I noted is this happens with no audio interface in the mix. I turned it off, restarted, and played everything through the built-in speaker. Still slow audio / normal speed video. And video straight from the camera - definitely 16bit / 48k plays slow in a brand new project, with just one video clip.

I've been running FCP on this MacPro for 2 years with the same hardware setup. Up until last Thursday, everything played fine as far as audio speed goes. And mixing sample rates is commonplace these days. Otherwise one could not drop music from a library or CD into a project without causing havoc.


• Now I am concerned. I have to set the audio to 44.1 to play in FCP, and to render a file I can hear the audio on. And I just confirmed in the Quicktime inspector that the final video file is indeed 44.1. I'm not sure how this will effect TV ads I bounce to tape.

•I got a preference manager to trash prefs quickly, but it seems to work better (barely) to do it by hand. I have yet to try trashing prefs, and as soon as I get workable audio freeze the prefs so they don't change. That sucks too though.

• I am considering upgrading to OS 10.5, then getting the New Final Cut Studio in hopes that it's a glitch in the software that will get corrected.

• Or I may re-install FCP6

• or maybe do an archive thing to go back before Thursday and see if that gets it?

I am really frustrated with all of this. On top of it I just got busted down to half time due to slow business. So I need to hustle to get my ow jobs, but I have this big audio issue. AAAAAAAHHHHH!

Are there any Mods who may have run across this? Anyone who has had the prob, but maybe just hasn't chimed in yet?
 
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