Audio "blip" while transitioning between clips

[csiman]

I have noticed on VS2022 and VS2023 that if i fade music out and sync it up with a new clip that the audio "blips". Bascially, for a fraction of a second it plays the end of the audio at full volume after fading the music out. It does it with the quick fade out button as well as if i manually fade it our with the sound mixer. Sometimes its not present in the edit and only the export, and sometimes its present in both if i play the project.

I for the life of me cant figure it out! Please help!

[Ken Berry]

It's not quite clear to me whether you have faded out clip 1 before you have added clip 2 to the timeline and overlayed it over the end of clip 1 or inerted a transitions over the point where the clips meet. Or do you leave the audio of clip 1 alone until you have inserted clip 2? Do you manually insert a chosen transition or do you wait for VS to automatically overlay clip 2 over the end of clip 1 and automatically insert the crossfade transition. (That's what I always do... but then again, 99% of the time I only ever use the crossfade transition and I find that the audio is also crossfaded successfully without blips.)

You also mention using both the fade out button and the sound mixer. But I wonder if you have ever tried manually crossfading the audio in the two tracks. Look at my screenshot.

The red arrow is pointing to the audio icon which converts your view of the timeline to show only audio, which I am sure you are already aware of. If you are not getting this view of the transition where the audio line of clip 1 is fading out, and that of clip 2 fading in, then you might need to move your mouse just a very little until it changes from an arrow to preferably a tiny hand with pointing finger. You aim the pointed finger at the white block at one end of the audio (where the green arrow is pointing) and drag it down to the very bottom of the transition section. Make sure the other audio line is similarly positioned. Now play the audio from before and across the transition. Do you still get the blip?

I might note that VS 2023 is much better than VS 2022 in that at long last getting the audio lines to the very bottom of the audio track means they are really at -60 db rather than -30 db as in VS 2022 and all previous versions of VS, and thus at zero.

The only other thing I can think of would be to turn off SmartRender if you have that box ticked on the Share page of VS. Having it on during render has caused problems for a few users. It might make the render take longer, but if it eradicates the problem, then it is worth it.

[csiman]

Thank yout for the quick answer, and sorry i wasnt more clear. I dont have any transition between the video clips in the video timeline. One simply ends, and the other begins.

The only thing i am fading out is the music which ends in sync with clip 1. Sometimes when this occurs i will be using the fade to black transition, other times i wont.

Ill try it with the smart render turned off, thank you!

Also, what are you using for screenshots? That could come in handy for me in the future.

[Ken Berry]

Again using VS2023 since it can reach -60db, put your project in audio view. Set the end level manually by inserting a block two or three seconds before the end or whenever you want to start the fade out. To insert a block simply move the cursor along the solid yellow line showing the audio level and left click. A block should appear on the line. Then go to the very end of the yellow line where there should already be a block. Then grab that block with your cursor and drag it down to the very bottom which would be a zero sound level. In clip 2 insert a block 2 or 3 seconds in, and go back to the block at the very start and drag it down to the bottom. You should now have a fade out and fade in clips 1 and 2 respectively.

As for inserting a screenshot, I just use the Attachment function in the forum software. You need to press the "Full Editor" below the space where you are writing your reply. Below that you should see now two tabs: Options and Attachments. Select the latter then essentially follow the instructions to browse to where you store your pictures, and how to either insert at the end of your comments or place the screenshot in line. I use Ashampoo Snap to actually take the screenshots, but of course any program that can take screenshots, including the Snipping Tool which comes as part of Windows, will do.

[csiman]

The method you outlined is what im currently doing and yet the audio blip is still present in a few different places throughout my video (but not always). It fades out real nicely but then theres a loud spike in volume before the next clip begins.

[rwernyei]

You mentioned fading out the music and synching with clips. I wonder if the music file itself is the culprit. Maybe try converting it to 44KHz or 48KHz WAV and then edit as normal in VS to see if you hear the audible "blip".

[csiman]

The music files im using are .mp3 straight from Artlist.

[rwernyei]

VS has had problems in the past with LAME encoded .mp3 files. Test with a WAV file, if you can't convert one of your files I'll be happy to convert one for you. PM me and I'll send you an upload link to my Filemail server.

[tletter]

I have noticed on VS2022 and VS2023 that if i fade music out and sync it up with a new clip that the audio "blips". Bascially, for a fraction of a second it plays the end of the audio at full volume after fading the music out.

Audio blips have been a sporadic problem in VS for quite awhile, e.g. see https://forum.corel.com/viewtopic.php?t ... audio+blip

When they occur, the audio blips are obvious in Audacity which can easily remove them, although it is an extra step.

tletter
https://www.youtube.com/user/tletter

[zaphodikus]

I hope I'm not stating the obvious here, but I've almost never used the "transition" for audio, I use layers, and in older VS versions I found mixing frustrating because I was limited in the number of audio tracks I am allowed. I do this:

https://imgur.com/a/dsZbh5x.png
I'm often far worse in my layer obsession, but I only do auto fades to start with too, and then adjust them, so the "transition" mode breaks for me. Also auto fade does not do the "right" thing when I change a clips' duration, so I always manually fade. Even though the little "box" is terribly fiddly, it works for me. Your mileage may vary, but unfortunately will require chained editing if you are mixing audio on the video and splitting the audio off first.

[csiman]

Transition was the wrong word to use, like i stated above, if i fade out the .mp3s from artlist sometimes at the very end of the fade the volume spikes just enough to create a "blip" for lack of better terminology.

The next time i run into this issue with a project i will try covnerting the soundfile to something different and see if it persists.

[zaphodikus]

Yeah, I know you don't mean transition really , but rather the audio auto-fade when you slide/smash 2 clips together. I'm normally editing in a mix of WAV and MP3, so I'll have to see if I can reproduce this issue later too.
Musing about this now, because I wonder if it only reproduces if you have fiddled with the play-volume of a track or clip in question in a way that creates a side-effect in the mixer.

[csiman]

I did lower the volume from 100 to 40, which is a must because all audio is too loud.

[JEB]

Hey Csiman - I feel your pain and I am almost sorry for not seeing this thread earlier.
What you describe is the best and nearly the same thing that happens on my videos.
It has been around for me at least over the last 3 or 4 versions of VS, and across different machines, OS, and under different circumstances.
Yes, it is the program and how it handles mp3 and mp4.

The one thing that seems to work the most and is the least disruptive to work flow is to turn of SMART RENDER. (have not rigorously tested this)

I want to say that your descriptions and explanations of the things you do mirror my experiences very closely.
It really sounds like the program takes a tiny snippet of the sound file, boosts it back to 100% and tacks it to the end of a segment.
It does it randomly and it is nearly impossible to manually duplicate and will often just appear at some point while editing other parts of the video.

Case in point: My last video, which I was trying to get out for Halloween 2023, had 4 AI generated narrations, exported from the source in mp4 (only option).
I inserted all four segments with about a 2 to 3 gap between then, i.e. nothing in the narration line between them.
After listening to them for pacing and moving them a bit, I reduced their volume to around 40% (just like you) and listened through again.
On the third narration segment there was now one of these blips, pops, whatever of sound.

Nothing shows up in the waveform as all of these show a fade to 0, but in the last 1/15th of a second or so there is loud sound of some fragment of speech.

I have tried forcing VC to "refresh" its understanding of the mp4 segment by changing the clip speed by 1%, like playing at 99% speed and that does effect it a bit.
However, this is not a good fix for narration as even a 1% change deepens the voice enough to notice. Wish they would allow decimal changes like 99.66%
The one thing I know it as soon as one of these blips shows up you basically have to either radically cut it out or delete and reload the whole clip anew.