Clipped audio tracks

**mikerb** · 02-07-2012, 11:21 PM

Hi,

I am using Sony vegas Studio Platinum 10. From time to time a music track that I have loaded into the timeline seems to clip the last few seconds. By which I mean the music track is fine when i first put it on the timeline and then at a later stage of editing when I replay the video I find that the last few seconds of that music has no sound....although you can still see the waveform up to the end of the track. Reloading the music from the project media page does not fix the problem. I have to delete that piece of media from the project, re load it into the project media window and then copy onto the timeline. Often I like to have the music track loaded on the timeline whilst I edit the video so that I can synch them so I wonder if something I am doing on the video line is affecting the music line. It does not happen all the time however. Anyone any ideas?

**Midnight Blue** · 02-07-2012, 11:52 PM

I've had a similar problem a couple of times and found deleting the .sfk file can solve the issue. A .sfk file is the wave form info made by vegas so the project will open quickly. It may have a different name with the Platinum version I only know the Pro version of Vegas.

**mikerb** · 02-08-2012, 01:06 AM

I wondered what those files were!! Yes SFK in Studio V10 as well. I'll try that. Thanks.

**Grazie** · 02-08-2012, 01:19 PM

Those files are purely the GRAPHIC waveform file depicting the peaks and troughs of the audio. NOT loading them as updating wouldn't stop any audio being heard. There is a control that can be used to NOT have that graphic not being updated, and therefore taking time in loading. But that's about it.

......

**Midnight Blue** · 02-08-2012, 01:24 PM

Could it be that some sort of corruption in this file could cause the problem. As I said in my post, when I had a similar audio problem deleting this file "seemed" to fix the issue. I will to accept this was just a coincidence and the problem would have resolved it's self without deleting the .sfk file.

**mikerb** · 02-08-2012, 07:13 PM

OK to be clear, I do not knowingly load SFK into my projects so I assumed Midnight Blue was referring to something that happened in the background. So I agree I do not think it has anything to do with sfk files. To break the issue down, it is clear that whatever happens to the music track on my timeline is also copied to the file in project media list, hence if I try to delete the timeline entry and reload from the project media the end of the music track is still clipped. So does anyone know if any form of ( edit) change to a timeline line entry automatically updates the project media list file at the same time?
I have never thought to check but it seems to me that when a music track does get clipped it seems to be about the same distance from the natural end of the clip each time.

**TimStannard** · 02-08-2012, 11:41 PM

You are correct in your interpretation of Midnight's comments - the .sfk files are loaded automatically. If they are not present, Vegas will recerate them. As Grazie says they hold the graphical representation of the waveform. Thus keeping them saves a little time when reloading onto the timeline.

In theory it should not affect the actual audio. However, if Midnight has seen the problem apparently rectuified by the deletion and recreation of the sfk files, is it not possible that this is more than a coincidence. Couldn't a corrupt file loading on part of the timeline affect a related file on the timeline? Surely it's worth a try.

Mikerb, whay don't you simply try deleting the sfk files? It certainly won't do any harm.

I don't understand what you mean by "whatever happens to the music track on my timeline is also copied to the file in project media list". This is actually the total reverse of what happens. If you load a clip into your timeline, it will appear in the project media list and an associated event will appear on your timeline. No matter what you do to the event on the timeline, the entry in your project media list will refer to the original clip.

What is on the timeline is an event - which refers to the clip, but has its own start and end points, plus any pitch shift, stretching, FX etc etc. It is not actually a clip (sound or video) at all.

Try this. Open a project and drag a video or audio clip to the timeline. It will appear in the project media list. Now edit the event on the timeline. Trim both ends, add FX do whatever. Now drag the clip again from the project media list to the timeline. The event you've just created (the second one) is the whole duration of the original clip and is totally untreated.

**mikerb** · 02-09-2012, 12:40 AM

Tim...yes I will try deleting the sfk file. I understand your last point. I always load media files/clips into the project media list first, and then onto the timeline. What I was trying to explain was that when I notice a music event has lost sound at the end the source media clip in the project list has been similarly affected...i.e. if I delete the event and reload from the project list the event is still clipped. What I have not thought to do is to preview the music file/clip to see if it plays to the end ( probably because I would have to wait 5/6 minutes for it to play out!). Even if it did preview right to the end I have already found out I can nothing with it so deleting it and reloading the clip from the original source again is how I fix the problem. I will try the sfk file deletion and report back.

**TimStannard** · 02-09-2012, 08:25 AM

Previewing the clip directly from the project media window would certainly be interesting. Can yo confirm that playing the clip from outside Vegas (eg in Windows Media Player) the whole clip plays? If not then the problm isn't within Vegas (unles Vegas has somehow affected the source clip - which would be a first!)

Instead of just removing the event from the time line, remove it from the project media as well, then reload into project media. What happens then?

What happens if you open a new project and insert the clip - is it trubncated then?

**Grazie** · 02-09-2012, 08:33 AM

Originally Posted by TimStannard

Previewing the clip directly . . the whole clip plays? If not then the problm isn't within Vegas (unles Vegas has somehow affected the source clip - which would be a first!)

I'm having a helluva time with my new Presonus AudioBox's ASIO drivers, not handing over to the PC System to allow Windows Media player to do exactly what you say. I have to do the cumbersome Disable<>Enable "Tango" to get my system to grab hold of the audio. It's a real pig! So, although it isn't Vegas doing anything Hokey with it, it is the fact that I'm having to use the ASIO drivers that ARE active within Vegas that's making this happen.

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