Audio "Pops/Clicks"

[ElboWire]

Editing on Edius 6.02 for ENG purposes.

Here's our workflow: We have two laptops on which we edit in the field. Export - Quicktime Exporter Plugin (H.264/5Mbs/59.94 fps/AAC-LC/256kbps/48.000kHz). FTP via FileZilla to the studio. Import into Edius 6.02 at HQ.

Here's our dilemma: Once we download and import the finished product into Edius at the studio, there is a noticeable popping and clicking noise in the audio. When the file is then sent via Edius to our on-air playback server, the popping and clicking is audible on-air. The odd thing is, when I isolate either channel in Edius, you cannot hear the popping and clicking. When I play the file back via VLC Media Player, you cannot hear the popping and clicking. When I import the file into Premiere Pro CC 2014, you cannot hear the popping and clicking. The popping and clicking is not audible in the timeline BEFORE the sequence is exported.

Is it something with our export settings? For the sake of being expeditious in a deadline-driven atmosphere, I'm trying to limit the file size to about 60MB-75MB for a 1:30 file duration - in case someone has a suggestion for better export settings.

It's not the FTP process. We have Edius 6.02 on 5 different desktop computers in our microwave live trucks in the field, which also use FileZilla to FTP, with no problems. And I've bypassed the FTP by copying the file to a USB stick and importing it at the studio, and I've still gotten the popping and clicking.

We originally thought this was the byproduct of an outdated HP laptop. But, we've since upgraded the laptop, and we're experience the same problems.

Can anyone help?

Also, while we're on the topic...I've tried exporting and copying the H.264 export settings from the desktops we have in the field, but for some reason, Edius on our laptops won't allow me to import those export settings as a preset. Any ideas there too?

Thanks!

[John Hooper]

Several questions:

1. Why are you using Edius 6.02 when there are several updates after that to Edius 6.08 which is a free update?

2. Why export using H264 to the studio then import back into Edius? Is extra editing done in the studio area. I would have thought it better to send uncompressed to the studio.

3. Have you checked the audio levels before playout and how Edius is routing the audio. I can only think that the audio is too high when both tracks are active and the clicking / pops are a result of digital clipping.

[ElboWire]

1.) Just have not updated those editors yet.

2.) I cannot send straight to our playback server from the field. The files must be brought into an editor in-house, and then sent via those editors to the playback server.

3.)The meter looks fine when monitoring audio levels, so I don't think it's digital clipping.

Slight update: We edited on a laptop with 6.08 last night, exported and FTP-ed the same way, and still ended up with the same popping/clicking.

[GrassValley_PS]

Can you try with a trial version of 6.5 or 7.5 and see if you still have the problem?

[GrassValley_SL]

1.) Just have not updated those editors yet.

2.) I cannot send straight to our playback server from the field. The files must be brought into an editor in-house, and then sent via those editors to the playback server.

3.)The meter looks fine when monitoring audio levels, so I don't think it's digital clipping.

Slight update: We edited on a laptop with 6.08 last night, exported and FTP-ed the same way, and still ended up with the same popping/clicking.

If the server is the only place you hear the popping and clicking that mean that there is something the software on the server doesnot like.

Is it possible for you to upload a sample?

Also what version of QuickTime is the server using or is it a native playback engine? What version of QuickTime are you using for the encode?

[GrassValley_PS]

What station are you from? Are you Grass Valley or Bitcentral?

[ElboWire]

I'm with WHP-TV out of Harrisburg, PA. We are a BitCentral station.

The server is NOT the only place we hear the popping/clicking. We also hear it when it's pulled into Edius in our edit bays at the station. That's what I was saying is odd - you can only hear the popping in our Edius editors at the station when BOTH channels are active. If you mute either channel to try and isolate which channel the popping and clicking is on, you don't hear it on either the left or right channel.

Uploading a sample won't do any good. What I did do is to record it with my phone as it plays back in Edius, because the file itself doesn't exhibit the audio symptoms. It's ONLY when you pull the file into Edius that you hear the popping.

So, be sure to turn up your speakers. On the first file, listen closely at :05, :07, :08 and :17 to hear the noise I'm talking about. It's not overpowering, but it is audible, and when it happens multiple times throughout these stories, it becomes annoying to someone like me who is responsible for quality control - among other things.

On the second file, you won't hear it at all, because I muted Ch.2.

As for trying a trial version, I have not. But, I also don't think it would work, because, as I said in a previous post, we have 6.02 in our live trucks, and do not see these audio issues with the files we export from those workspaces.

Thanks for your questions and help.

[SoundFreak_HD]

My guess would be channel mapping issue.......
Audio levels are more than likely added up.

A screen grab of thar would tell the whole story.

[John Hooper]

Looking and listening to the mp4 clip that has the audio clicking, there doesn't seem to be much audio on A2 according to the waveform. The clicks sound like static.

What should be on the audio on A2, what is the source?

It makes sense that these clicks disappear when you mute that second audio track. It is that track giving the problem

[John Hooper]

Did the OP get this matter solved, I wonder?

Forum members try and help and yet sometimes never hear back with a conclusion.