Video, but no audio on the audio-track.

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Dirk C
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Location: Ghent - Belgium

Video, but no audio on the audio-track.

Post by Dirk C » Sat Jul 31, 2021 8:46 pm

I'm running Live Standard at a windows 10 PC. Now I want to import a video.
As the knowledge base suggests, I've installed the Haali Media Splitter (aka Matroska Splitter).

Now I try to import the StarGirlScore video clip from the Spitfire Audio challenge. They deliver 2 versions: *.mov and *.mp4.

As I import the *.mov version (dragging it on an audio track in the Arranger view), I can watch the movie, but the (visual) audio wave is flat, so no sound.

So, I've imported the mp4-version and here is what happens:

> The video runs OK in Live
> When I "preview" the clip in the browser inside Live (L hand side), I hear the audio OK
> On the Audio-track on which the video is put, I see a wave-file, but there is no sound and no volume activity.

So, Live sees and hears the clip, so the codecs seems OK, but on the track there is only video.


What can I do to make the audio run together with the video?

[jur]
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Re: Video, but no audio on the audio-track.

Post by [jur] » Sat Jul 31, 2021 9:26 pm

Someone else mentoned this recently, maybe there's a bug with videos on PC.
- For the time being you could simply extract the audio from the video and then import it into a separate audio track.
- Would be great if you could send a bug report to support@ableton.com
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Dirk C
Posts: 94
Joined: Sun Aug 24, 2014 5:07 pm
Location: Ghent - Belgium

Re: Video, but no audio on the audio-track.

Post by Dirk C » Mon Aug 02, 2021 10:11 am

Thanks for your reply!

I saw that answer also, but of course that is not quite a good solution.

I've tested the same situation on another PC and when I used MME/DirectX and not ASIO as a driver, it worked!
But I don't see the need to downgrade my studio PC with that driver. Also, on the Ableton site they recommend the ASIO driver.

Another misconception is the fact that in a lot of forums and Ableton-affiliated sites they still suggest to use *.mov files, which is really not the best idea knowing that Apple don't support that format any more on PC.

So, I continue my research. Any good idea is still very welcome!

[jur]
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Re: Video, but no audio on the audio-track.

Post by [jur] » Mon Aug 02, 2021 1:34 pm

Dirk C wrote:
Mon Aug 02, 2021 10:11 am
Another misconception is the fact that in a lot of forums and Ableton-affiliated sites they still suggest to use *.mov files, which is really not the best idea knowing that Apple don't support that format any more on PC.
Thing is, Live doesn't really like .mp4... at least on Macs.
I forwarded this to QA, but don't forget to contact support@ablton.com, there's definitely something wrong going on with video for Windows users.
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Dirk C
Posts: 94
Joined: Sun Aug 24, 2014 5:07 pm
Location: Ghent - Belgium

Re: Video, but no audio on the audio-track.

Post by Dirk C » Mon Aug 02, 2021 6:10 pm

In the meantime I've tried other code packs, but still nothing worked (video, yes, audio nothing). Also, when I added an audio track in the same project, all wave files remained silent (as the one of the video).
Even worse: in a new project, when I created a new audio track, no matter what you put on it, it doesn't work, even after restarting Live So, somewhere deep in Ableton Live a setting became corrupt.

I've reinstalled Live, but still the same thing happened. I had to do a clean reinstall (including deleting all my settings).

My conclusion is: Live is not fit to incorporate video's, which is a shame. Also, their explanation on the website is not working at all and has lead to the situation I've described.

The only difference I could find between the 2 tested PC's, was that there is one with an Intel (video worked fine) and one with an AMD processor (corrupt). Not sure this has anything to do with it.

[jur]
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Re: Video, but no audio on the audio-track.

Post by [jur] » Mon Aug 02, 2021 7:30 pm

Wow, that's really a pita!
Live is perfectly capable of dealing with videos, I've made hundreds sound design/music to picture projects since L8... but on macs.
I really don't want to fall into the mac/win thing (I'm a mac user by accident just because that the OS I used the first time I had to use a computer) but regarding video in Live it seems like it never worked correctly on Win unfortunately.
Don't forget to write to support@ableton.com please.
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