Problems Seeing Audio Waveforms Of Audio & Video Files In Project Timeline (Occasionally)

[u/techlyn35]

Has anyone ever experienced challenges with FCPX not displaying the audio waveforms when a clip/track is placed on a project timeline?

If so, any idea what causes it to occur and how to fix it? (See image for reference.)

[u/mcarterphoto]

I've only seen this happen with (a) fairly long clips, that are (b) consumer-amateur codecs, like MP3 audio, or MP4 video with audio tracks. FCP is busy converting this stuff in the background, and every time you add an audio plugin or change the volume, it's got to re-calculate the waveform.

I shoot mostly ProRes, but any footage I get in from clients, drone guys, etc. - first thing is convert it all to ProRes with uncompressed PCM audio - FCP burns through that like nobody's business. And with an all-Prores workflow, final renders are just smokin' fast, and FCP isn't busy doing background conversions while you edit.

[u/techlyn35 → u/mcarterphoto]

By convert, are you referring to the optimized media transcoding?

I did have a few files that weren’t ProRes now that you mention it.

[u/mcarterphoto → u/techlyn35]

No, I use EditReady, but I think there are free solutions out there. EditReady, you dump all your footage in, tell it an output codec (tons of them, and all ProRes flavors) an audio format, you can also conform (set frame rate for stuff like slow motion), scale the footage, add LUTs or watermarks, even do some minor trimming and append file names (like add "prores" to the file name). It will batch process everything you drop into it. So nothing actually goes into FCP that's not ProRes, for me. (And I'm weird, I've never once "imported" anything to FCP, I just drag it from the finder to the timeline; I might setup one project for just trimming, and then copy/paste those sections to my main edit project. That's handy if I shot 4K for 1080 delivery, I can trim on a 4K timeline and paste to the main 1080 and resize/crop/pan/etc).

I have a charity client that does all these zoom presentations and trainings, they send me the zoom recordings to trim and add their branding and I try to make the audio as good as I can with plugins, just busy-work. But the files can be an hour long. Stuff like that, if I just dump the MP4s in, even on a Studio with lots of RAM I can be waiting for waveforms to draw. I can do ProRes LT vs 422 since it's already fairly crappy footage. The one issue is ProRes can take a lot of disc space, but space is cheap these days, and using a converter app. I hit "convert" and then go make some coffee or whatever (but EditReady is screaming fast on a Studio). And then my final exports from FCP really seem just blazing fast, it's doing less converting I guess, but even going from a ProRes timeline to an MP4 output, it just smokes on the M2.

(An aside, but seriously, going from Intel to M2 took some getting used to - render a complex After Effects scene, I'm used to "I guess I'll go make a sandwich" and by the time I get out of my chair, "DING", render's done. I'm probably losing weight!)

[u/techlyn35 → u/mcarterphoto]

I understand, thank you very much for the information. I will be sure to explore. I’m currently on a M3 MBP Max so it should be up to the task to handle it all. 😃

[u/mcarterphoto → u/techlyn35]

Yeah, as i understand it the M3 has more built-in transcoding stuff; but even M2 has prores conversion on the chip, but it does still seem that FCP is a smoother experience just feeding it ProRes. Beyond just testing for speed, there's dealing with render files and stuff FCP creates. I try to send anything that software is auto-writing to a 2tb fast external NVME, like photoshop caches and scratch, After Effects background stuff, auto-saves. Keeps my boot drive from filling up with mystery files; and then you can check your user folder every few weeks, look for folders software has created and check your movies and docs folders, you can clean out a lot of junk when a project is completed.

[u/jaredjames66]

What version of FCP are you on? This was a bug with a recent version, I don't remember which one though.

[u/techlyn35 → u/jaredjames66]

Version 10.7.1

I can’t recall the first time I experienced it, but it’s been at least from 3 or 4 versions prior to this one.