Hey all, I have the sound matched in the timeline, along with the frame-rate in fcpx, to the settings I have on OBS. However, I have a faint popping/clicking noise that appears randomly and when it does, it is in sync with the seconds counting in the fcpx timeline. I can't seem to find what this is. It's not showing up in the audio signal but I can hear it in my headphones. This is even before it's exported. I have the sound set to -7.6 db or something like that on obs, so it's definitely not breaking the 0db threshold. I have 3 audio tracks recording and have muted each individually. It appears in all 3. This is a very faint sound. I'm not sure if it's fcpx related or if it's obs related. Anyone know what it could be?
Question / Help Popping/Clicking in Audio random/every second in timeline
- Thread starter jp007
- Start date
WasabiNoise
New Member
I have the same issue:
- I record 3 tracks as well (AAC 44.1Khz).
- I hear every track without pops/breaks on VLC or even QuickTime, everything seems fine.
- I hear the cracks at the SAME PLACE every time when I listen to the audio on FCPX and these appear on the final video I upload to YouTube.
The only solution I could find is to use Handbrake to reprocess the file, which seems stupid because I’m exporting it with the same values and same AAC 44.1Khz audio, etc.. For some reason, after exporting it with handbrake I end up with a file of the exact same size, quality that doesn’t create any weird pops/breaks when imported on FCPX.
It seems that recording directly at 48Khz creates less crackings on FCPX but it doens’t fix it like a Handbrake export does. I did a lot of testing with different formats, NVENC/ x264, etc... nothing makes any difference on the audio issues.
So, I’m still trying to fix this directly on OBS but at least there is a way to fix files that are recorded with this audio pops, but it sucks because it takes a while to process these files.
Hope someone else can help us.
- I record 3 tracks as well (AAC 44.1Khz).
- I hear every track without pops/breaks on VLC or even QuickTime, everything seems fine.
- I hear the cracks at the SAME PLACE every time when I listen to the audio on FCPX and these appear on the final video I upload to YouTube.
The only solution I could find is to use Handbrake to reprocess the file, which seems stupid because I’m exporting it with the same values and same AAC 44.1Khz audio, etc.. For some reason, after exporting it with handbrake I end up with a file of the exact same size, quality that doesn’t create any weird pops/breaks when imported on FCPX.
It seems that recording directly at 48Khz creates less crackings on FCPX but it doens’t fix it like a Handbrake export does. I did a lot of testing with different formats, NVENC/ x264, etc... nothing makes any difference on the audio issues.
So, I’m still trying to fix this directly on OBS but at least there is a way to fix files that are recorded with this audio pops, but it sucks because it takes a while to process these files.
Hope someone else can help us.
I recorded at 48Khz today as well and that did help a lot. I heard few audio pops and they seemed more faint. However, they're still there. I was told that converting the audio to AIFF at 48Khz was the solution, however that seemed to make it worse than the AAC at 48Khz. You can try it as well and see if that makes any difference for you. Next, I think I might change the fps in OBS or FCPX to whatever FCPX is saying the footage is. I noticed today that even though I'm setting my project at 60 fps and recording at that same rate, FCPX is registering the frame rate of my footage at 58.8 or something like that. So I'm wondering if it's a difference in the timing codecs between the two programs. Back when I used to use footage from iPhone, I ran into problems with it as well and realized I had to convert it to a constant frame rate. As the option on the iPhone for 60fps is not only variable, it was actually something like 59. something. I believe the same thing happened with a capture card I used at one point.
ShishKebab
Member
This sounds similar to the issue I've recently started having. All my audio tracks have started crackling and popping. What's odd is I can even hear the issue in my speakers; when OBS is running, my PC audio crackles and it shows up in the recording as well. I can record with other programs with no issues.
WasabiNoise
New Member
I uploaded a sample of what happens so other people can listen. This is actually exported from FCPX with the Share to Youtube button:
I'm getting desperate with one video as I'm re-encoding it and I can't make the crackings disappear this time.
I'm getting desperate with one video as I'm re-encoding it and I can't make the crackings disappear this time.
WasabiNoise
New Member
Forgot to mention that I recorded that at 29.97fps as my camera has this frame rate so I can sync both properly.
WasabiNoise
New Member
Ok guys! found a workaround to solve this on files that just can't seem to work even when recoding them using ffmpeg.
I tried almost everything with a little video sample and nothing worked when exporting it to a video format. Tried to export to different AAC settings with different kbps/Khz/etc. Nothing worked when exporting to a new video file.
But I found a solution! This is to extract the audio from the video to AUDIO AAC files. For some reason, FCPX doesn't complain about these! Which is odd that the same configuration doesn't work when the file is inside the video.
These are the ffmpeg parameters I used on a file where I only have two tracks (1) gameplay (2) voice:
Export game
Export voice (in mono)*
*If you don't want mono, omit "-ac 1"
Then on FCPX you may want to group the video and the audio tracks so it's easier to edit.
I wish this would work directly from OBS to FCPX but at least there is a, now reliable way, to solve this, and the export to audio doesn't take that long.
I tried almost everything with a little video sample and nothing worked when exporting it to a video format. Tried to export to different AAC settings with different kbps/Khz/etc. Nothing worked when exporting to a new video file.
But I found a solution! This is to extract the audio from the video to AUDIO AAC files. For some reason, FCPX doesn't complain about these! Which is odd that the same configuration doesn't work when the file is inside the video.
These are the ffmpeg parameters I used on a file where I only have two tracks (1) gameplay (2) voice:
Export game
Code:
ffmpeg -i video_file -q:a 0 -map 0:1 -ar 48000 -b:a 192k game.aacExport voice (in mono)*
Code:
ffmpeg -i video_file -q:a 0 -map 0:2 -ar 48000 -b:a 192k -ac 1 voice.aac*If you don't want mono, omit "-ac 1"
Then on FCPX you may want to group the video and the audio tracks so it's easier to edit.
I wish this would work directly from OBS to FCPX but at least there is a, now reliable way, to solve this, and the export to audio doesn't take that long.
Last edited:
Can I ask what you're using to extract the files? I've tried audacity but the multi tracks aren't showing up with that. Are you entering those parameters in OBS somewhere and having it extract the files for you upon recording?
WasabiNoise
New Member
I'm using a command line software called ffmpeg (available on Mac OS X and Windows). In fact, Handbrake uses ffmpeg under the hood so I guess one could find a way to do it on Handbrake and save the profile. I will take a look.
To install ffmpeg on Mac OS X you can follow this guide https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/CompilationGuide/MacOSX
I understand that these command line tools are not for everyone, but once you know the lines you can save them on a file or a note and just copy/paste every time and change the name of the input/output files.
Hey! Just wanted to let everyone know that "WasabiNoise" had the solution to the problem :]
For some reason FCPX doesn't like the audio files to be in the original file that comes out of OBS. Anyway, he exported his audio files into AAC files.
I was told on another forum that AIFF files were the way to go but that didn't work for me because I was using FCPX to do it, so it exported them with all the artifact errors. If using ffmpeg in the command line is too hard for you, I found a pretty decent work around.
If you download Audacity, it now has an ffmpeg plug-in to go along with it. When this is used and you import your files, it gives you the option to choose from one or all the audio tracks available in your file. You can now even export all the tracks separately in one use of the program, instead of going through them one at a time. The audio was flawless after this. I used AIFF format when I did this, but I'd imagine the AAC would work just as well.
If you're going the Audacity rout, you might have problems with it not being able to find ffmpeg. If this is the case, it's because you don't have the newest version that Audacity can detect.
Cheers!
For some reason FCPX doesn't like the audio files to be in the original file that comes out of OBS. Anyway, he exported his audio files into AAC files.
I was told on another forum that AIFF files were the way to go but that didn't work for me because I was using FCPX to do it, so it exported them with all the artifact errors. If using ffmpeg in the command line is too hard for you, I found a pretty decent work around.
If you download Audacity, it now has an ffmpeg plug-in to go along with it. When this is used and you import your files, it gives you the option to choose from one or all the audio tracks available in your file. You can now even export all the tracks separately in one use of the program, instead of going through them one at a time. The audio was flawless after this. I used AIFF format when I did this, but I'd imagine the AAC would work just as well.
If you're going the Audacity rout, you might have problems with it not being able to find ffmpeg. If this is the case, it's because you don't have the newest version that Audacity can detect.
Cheers!
WasabiNoise
New Member
I'm glad you could solve existing files with Audacity :)
About new files: yesterday I recorded a new video with 2 tracks (game + voice). I went to audio settings on Windows and changed both audio output and mic settings to be at 48Khz.. I also increased the audio quality on OBS to be 256Kbps on all tracks instead of 192Kbps. Seems like an overkill but the audio had no issues whatsoever on Final Cut Pro X. Just give it a try if you are still having issues.
About new files: yesterday I recorded a new video with 2 tracks (game + voice). I went to audio settings on Windows and changed both audio output and mic settings to be at 48Khz.. I also increased the audio quality on OBS to be 256Kbps on all tracks instead of 192Kbps. Seems like an overkill but the audio had no issues whatsoever on Final Cut Pro X. Just give it a try if you are still having issues.
HotelCharliHill
Member
Hey, what did OBS say your CPU was at when you were recording/streaming and getting those pops? I get audio crackle whenever my CPU starts approaching 60% (I have a dedicated streaming rig). I lowered the encoding processor power required (from Faster to Very Fast I think) and it lowered the demand on the CPU and audio pops went away :) Hope that helps
Darkest_Shuttle
New Member
Okay, so I'm going to pop into this thread to just add two comments to this 3 years old thread.
1. This problem still exists.
2. I shared the same symptoms with most posters here, my work flow is record on PC, Edit on FCPX (Macbook)
In detail: Record with ffmpeg codec, advanced option, mkv auro remux to mp4, 4 audio tracks (Mic, PC Virtual Cable Output, HDMI, Composite Cable).
Converting the audio to a m4a (aac) file did work to remove the pop sounds, but I had a different issue where the audio have gone through a minor desync, enough to notice overtime. The solution to this was to not remux recording, going straight to mp4. What's interesting is that once I recorded directly to mp4, the audio popping issue also resolved.
I'm pretty sure all of this sound corruption is coming from the audio sampling method fcpx uses, which mostly like is making the remuxed audio to 23.97 fps and the video in 24 fps (original). I believe this is causing both audio popping and desync issue present in the program and the exported video. I've done a few tests and I can confirm, all audio track get's glitched with mkv -> mp4 recording, where the problem is nonexistent during straight to mp4 recording, both using ffmpeg.
I just find it baffling that no one else mentioned this easy fix. It doesn't make sense that ffmpeg would interfere with fcpx because ffmpeg is compatible with Mac. What's not compatible is mkv and it explains everything. I've also consulted an Mac expert on this issue and TLDR, while the problem can't be isolated, going through so many conversions is asking for trouble. The remuxing may be the source, but it could a compound issue.
Anyway, that's my report on the issue, I hope this helps anyone. I hope all y'all wont be discouraged from using ffmpeg, it's a godsend for editing.
Take Care.
1. This problem still exists.
2. I shared the same symptoms with most posters here, my work flow is record on PC, Edit on FCPX (Macbook)
In detail: Record with ffmpeg codec, advanced option, mkv auro remux to mp4, 4 audio tracks (Mic, PC Virtual Cable Output, HDMI, Composite Cable).
Converting the audio to a m4a (aac) file did work to remove the pop sounds, but I had a different issue where the audio have gone through a minor desync, enough to notice overtime. The solution to this was to not remux recording, going straight to mp4. What's interesting is that once I recorded directly to mp4, the audio popping issue also resolved.
I'm pretty sure all of this sound corruption is coming from the audio sampling method fcpx uses, which mostly like is making the remuxed audio to 23.97 fps and the video in 24 fps (original). I believe this is causing both audio popping and desync issue present in the program and the exported video. I've done a few tests and I can confirm, all audio track get's glitched with mkv -> mp4 recording, where the problem is nonexistent during straight to mp4 recording, both using ffmpeg.
I just find it baffling that no one else mentioned this easy fix. It doesn't make sense that ffmpeg would interfere with fcpx because ffmpeg is compatible with Mac. What's not compatible is mkv and it explains everything. I've also consulted an Mac expert on this issue and TLDR, while the problem can't be isolated, going through so many conversions is asking for trouble. The remuxing may be the source, but it could a compound issue.
Anyway, that's my report on the issue, I hope this helps anyone. I hope all y'all wont be discouraged from using ffmpeg, it's a godsend for editing.
Take Care.
I can confirm. I have a similar workaround using IzotopeRX 8. I just have to bring the audio into RX, and re-export it while doing nothing to the audio file itself and everything is fine. I'm wondering if recording directly to mp4 rather than mkv and remux to mp4 would work without the audio artifacts/clicking (even though OBS complains to me when I select mp4) I will try and test that on my next project.
Just chiming in to add a few things:
1) I have the same popping issue with FCP using a recording made on a mac, so it's not anything related to recording on Windows and then editing on a Mac at least.
2) Reply to below ...
Lastly, it seems that when I record to MP4 directly, the first frame from OBS is corrupted and crashes Final Cut Pro -- Did you also experience this and if so, how did you get around it?
1) I have the same popping issue with FCP using a recording made on a mac, so it's not anything related to recording on Windows and then editing on a Mac at least.
2) Reply to below ...
... I also see the same issue with MKV remuxed to MP4, that is, about .5s of desync between video and audio, in addition to the clicking and popping everyone has been complaining about. Did you have any drift with this, or was it just a flat amount of desync? additionally, did the m4a / aac export and import also have the same drift/desync issue?
Lastly, it seems that when I record to MP4 directly, the first frame from OBS is corrupted and crashes Final Cut Pro -- Did you also experience this and if so, how did you get around it?