Adobe Community: Audio waveform refreshes display slowly on timeline (PrPro CS6)

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Audio waveform refreshes display slowly on timeline (PrPro CS6)

May 31, 2012 11:42 PM

Tags: #audio #display #slow #waveform #refreshes #slowly

Is it just me.

I LOVE so many things about this new release. The one persistent, "always dealing with" issue I have is I have to wait for the audio waveform to refresh most times when I zoom in and out or even just scroll back and forth on the timeline. This is a huge slowdown/impediment issue for me.

1. This never happened in previous versions

2. This is not during indexing ... it's all the time

3. It happens even when no effects are applied

4. No, I do not have a slow workstation (CPU, mem, drives all optimal) ... remember, this never happend in previous versions

5. I have preview files/cache and project/source video on different hard drives

Anyone else experiencing this?

3940 Views 35 Replies Latest reply: t.nanba, Dec 28, 2012 1:20 AM

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1. Jim Simon,

Jun 1, 2012 8:18 AM in reply to PlatinumProductionz

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Sorry, haven't seen that here.

Redraw issues are usually related to the graphics driver/hardware, though. That might give you somewhere to start.

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2. PlatinumProductionz,

Jun 1, 2012 12:06 PM in reply to Jim Simon

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Thanks for the suggestion. My video driver is up-to-date and it did not have this issue with CS 5.5

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3. srukweza,

Jun 1, 2012 1:17 PM in reply to PlatinumProductionz

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I am also experiencing the same problem on my workstation. I also noticed that the ripple edit tool response very slow. If I hit the key (B) and trim my sequence, it leaves a gap as if I am using the selection tool. I will have to undo at least two time before the command can work properly?

System is HP XW6600
Windows 7 Pro 64bit
Dual Quad Xeon @ 3Ghz
32GB Ram
GTX 570
Crucial M4 SSD (256GB) C drive
2 x 1.5TB in RAID 0 for media files
External 8TB in RAID 5 (Media Cache, exports, storage etc)

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4. PlatinumProductionz,

Jun 1, 2012 3:01 PM in reply to srukweza

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I feel ya. I have a Windows 7 Pro 64 Bit Intel i7 CPU 950 @ 3.07 GHz, a CUDA graphics card, 24 GB or RAM and the drives I Edit on are 2TB 7200 Cavier Black RAID 0 volumes (two of them) with cache on opposite drive from project files

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5. Jim Simon,

Jun 1, 2012 4:11 PM in reply to PlatinumProductionz

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My video driver is up-to-date

What version specifically?

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6. srukweza,

Jun 1, 2012 4:41 PM in reply to Jim Simon

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Mine are 301.42

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7. Jim Simon,

Jun 1, 2012 4:46 PM in reply to srukweza

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Yeah, no problems here with that driver.

Have you tried reinstalling Premiere Pro yet?

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8. srukweza,

Jun 1, 2012 5:15 PM in reply to Jim Simon

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You mean uninstalling and reinstalling, the Production Premium? I first installed the download, but Encore menus were missing despite installing the dowload content. When I received the disk I uninstalled the download version and reinstalled using the discs, but still get only 3 encore menus in 3 categories plus the edit problems! What sort of workstation do you use Jim Simon?

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9. PlatinumProductionz,

Jun 1, 2012 5:48 PM in reply to Jim Simon

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Windows said I had the most current version (updated 2/2012). But, I went to the NVIDIA site and checked. THere is a later version, which I installed. IT seems better. I will verify.This was the only application that had the problem re-drawing audio waveforms. The video waveforms were drawing fine/normal. I will be able to tell for sure later tonight if the issue is truly gone.

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10. Jim Simon,

Jun 1, 2012 5:50 PM in reply to srukweza

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What sort of workstation do you use Jim Simon?

Nothing special. Windows 7, i7 920, 12GB RAM, GTX 460, a few disks.

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11. PlatinumProductionz,

Jun 2, 2012 3:13 AM in reply to Jim Simon

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I think installing the latest driver resolved the issue for me. I still see it re-drawing, but maybe I'm ultra-sensitive to the issue now. I may open same project in CS5.5 and simply time it if I have doubts. But, it performs more acceptable now.

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12. PlatinumProductionz,

Jul 4, 2012 6:31 PM in reply to PlatinumProductionz

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I intended to come back to report that installing the latest driver did not solve my problem.Sometimes I must wait for the audio waveform to draw. It happens if I have 3, 4 or 5 layers and zoom in. Sitting htere waiting for the audio to re-draw is very frustrating.

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13. PlatinumProductionz,

Jul 12, 2012 12:32 AM in reply to PlatinumProductionz

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Many people are reporting this same problem over at CreateiveCow. They describe the exact same issue:

http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/3/924975

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14. Harm Millaard,

Jul 12, 2012 1:01 AM in reply to PlatinumProductionz

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Since all their posts at the CreativeCow are completely lacking any useful information, it seems that OE (Operator Error) is the common denominator. OE in terms of using outdated drivers, lacking hardware, incorrect setup, background processes, improper configuration, and name all the other OE's one can think of.

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15. srukweza,

Jul 12, 2012 3:30 AM in reply to Harm Millaard

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Harm Millaard wrote:

Since all their posts at the CreativeCow are completely lacking any useful information, it seems that OE (Operator Error) is the common denominator. OE in terms of using outdated drivers, lacking hardware, incorrect setup, background processes, improper configuration, and name all the other OE's one can think of.
There are many issues which are in CS6 and they are not Operator Error. My computer exceeds the minimum requirements of Premiere Pro and still have the same issue. On the other hand I have reinstalled several times but can't get Encore DVD menus, and also the title templates is buggy because I can't access the wedding templates. Supporting the application will not yield any further development to correct these issues. The bottom line was that CS6 was a rushed release since Adobe are giving themselves less time to develop the next version as compared to what they used to do. In less than 9 months they will be releasing 6.5 with fixes to all these issues and we will be forced to pay for the upgrade again becuase there will be no support for 6?? I think Harm get the upgrade for free so that you can continue to support Adobe, even if the software is messed up you will simply turn a blind eye. You should test this on an average system most users use not on your monster!!

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16. PlatinumProductionz,

Jul 12, 2012 3:39 PM in reply to Harm Millaard

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Harm ... on the same machine, CS5.5 does not have the issue. I can run it right now and not see this issue.
Your answer just now was as uselss as any post you bash over on Creative Cow.

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17. PlatinumProductionz,

Jul 25, 2012 3:34 AM in reply to PlatinumProductionz

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Ah HA!

Adobe Updates warning came up today and I allowed them to install.

My Audio issue seems to have gone away. It's almost as if they corrected some issue with the peak audio files. Maybe this happened only on some harware and did not affect everyone. Whatever the case, now when I click on a sequence, I see some CPU utilization go up on the Premiere Pro tawsk, ans when it is done, all the waveforms appear immediately. When I zoom in or out, the waveforms immediately refresh the MAJORITY of hte time. Even if it doesn't refresh immediately, I see PPro CPU utilization up and when it comes down, allt he audio is visible and refreshed to match the zoom factor.

I think Adobe fixed some audio issues and Open GL in this update.

When I go to the site, it says the update was created back in May, but this is the first time the updater has alerted me since that time. That begs the question: is the update date backdated or is the updater checking for updates on a very infrequent basis ... or was it somehow not working earlier, or otherwise blocked?

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18. Harm Millaard,

Jul 25, 2012 6:09 AM in reply to PlatinumProductionz

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No, still OE on your side.

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19. PlatinumProductionz,

Jul 25, 2012 9:32 AM in reply to Harm Millaard

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So what was the OE? I'm not above it since I am human and fallible.

But,
- BEFORE update: audio waveform refresh problem
- AFTER update, NO audio waveform refresh problem.

However, I definitely am willing to listen to advice on avoiding an OE I may be committing.
Short, cursory replies and condescending tone almost always gets negative reaction from folk and is not helpful.

Thanks

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20. PlatinumProductionz,

Aug 21, 2012 5:13 AM in reply to Harm Millaard

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So, Harm ... are you going to say what the OE is?

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21. srukweza,

Aug 22, 2012 6:24 PM in reply to PlatinumProductionz

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So, Harm ... are you going to say what the OE is?

No reply! That sums up that short cursory replies only signifies a vested interest in the app.

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22. Charles VW,

Aug 22, 2012 7:08 PM in reply to PlatinumProductionz

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I'm not convinced it is OE.

When zooming in/out the .PEK files (if they were created, otherwise original audio files) are read asynchronously for the waveform data. What this means is that Premiere issues a request to read data from the disk (on a background thread) and then waits for the to complete, and then redraws the waveform on the clip (as well as the source monitor). There are a number of factors that could cause this read request to stall, so it would take a bunch of jiggling to see what the specific culprit is.

Where did the audio data come from originally (e.g. H.264/AAC file, or a .WAV, or something else)?
Are there .PEK files involved?
What kind of volume is the audio data on (local/network/external)?
What happens if you move the audio data to a different volume?
and so forth.

This is actually noticeable for most files, the exception is that the read request happens so quickly that it is either barely noticeable or that users will see "flickering" when zooming or scrolling audio waveforms. Is that what others see normally?

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23. Jim Simon,

Aug 22, 2012 7:27 PM in reply to Charles VW

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It's pretty instantaneous for me across media types. No visible delay, no noticeable flicker.

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24. PlatinumProductionz,

Aug 23, 2012 3:55 AM in reply to Jim Simon

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Jim, that's the way it's always been for me ... pretty instantaneaous. If I go over to CS5.5 right now, there are no issues. It's gotten a bit better when I updated, but still not as quick as 5.5.

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25. PlatinumProductionz,

Aug 23, 2012 4:21 AM in reply to Charles VW

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Thanks for the detailed reply, Charles.

Since I posted a few days ago, I went into other Adobe apps like After Effects (which I haven't been using much lately) and optimized CPU and Memory settings for that as I had in CS5.5. I thought of doing that when I recalled SOME (not all) of my projects had After Effects applied to some clips.I had not restricted AE to the four physical cores of my I7 950 CPU (which displays 8 virtual cores). What prompted me to check that was I noticed CS6 was not using all of my processor threads at times during some renders.

Also, within Premiere Pro CS5.5 I had the Media Cache poniting to one of my fastest volumes. I went in and checked CS6 settings and it was still on my System drive. I moved it to the same faster (Raid 0, two 2-TB 7200rpm) volume I had put the cache on for CS5.5 and performed a "Clean Cache".

Whether it was one thing singly or combination of actions ... at the moment ... I don't seem to have the problem anymore. It did get better after installing the last update, but these latest changes made the most impact. I was still having issues with screen redraws as I zoomed in and out on the timeline. Refresh speed of the waveform is acceptable now.

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26. PlatinumProductionz,

Aug 23, 2012 4:31 AM in reply to Charles VW

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Charles, just as an aside, to respond to some of your questions:

Most of the audio comes from footage captured from my HD cams from miniDV tapes. Some is recorded via Audition and sync'd. Some may be sound tracks sync'd for a music video ... just a variety of sources.

Sometimes .pek files are involved, sometimes not.

All files are local and not on USB or othe external storage.

When I create a large project where I anticipate performance being an issue, in project settings I point Video and Audio previews to another volume for scratch disk, but captured video and audio to same as project.

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27. PlatinumProductionz,

Aug 23, 2012 4:36 AM in reply to PlatinumProductionz

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What was a little confusing during trouble-shooting/verification of changes was that after I did certain things, like updates or some other tweak, there would be some improvement or even TEMPORARY improvement. Then I would notice some of the same symptoms in varying degrees. The last set of actions I described in my post above seems to have alleviated the problem.

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28. toughpug,

Oct 17, 2012 3:55 PM in reply to PlatinumProductionz

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Cleaning the media cache is the magic bullet for restoring audio waveforms for me. Hope it works for you guys too.... until something else goes wrong that is!

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29. srukweza,

Oct 18, 2012 1:18 AM in reply to toughpug

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Check this out!

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30. PlatinumProductionz,

Oct 18, 2012 2:45 AM in reply to srukweza

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srukweza just visually illustrated perfectly what I was saying verbally: same machine, same configuration, CS6 has the audio refresh problem, CS5.5 doesn't.
There is somehing wrong with that.

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31. srukweza,

Oct 18, 2012 6:05 AM in reply to PlatinumProductionz

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PlatinumProductionz wrote:

srukweza just visually illustrated perfectly what I was saying verbally: same machine, same configuration, CS6 has the audio refresh problem, CS5.5 doesn't.
There is somehing wrong with that.

I have just reverted to CS5.5 for syncronising multiple camera projects because it is a great waste of time to do this task in CS6. After syncronising I can then import the sequence in CS6 for multicamera editing since it supports more than 4 angles. The clip markers and the audio waveform in CS6 has been badly designed to be fit for this purpose. Hopefully Adobe will fix it if they haven't forsaken CS6 to work on their next release of CS6.5. I do understand that CS5 support ended on 5.0.3, so I would like to think that there will be no more upgrades for CS6 since we already have 6.0.3.

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32. srukweza,

Oct 22, 2012 1:13 PM in reply to srukweza

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Could some veteran in this thread please point out to the OE in the video as cited earlier.

Thank you.

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33. TerryBradley,

Dec 11, 2012 10:22 AM in reply to PlatinumProductionz

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I too am experiencing intolerable delays in the audio refresh despite having a top-end system 8 Cores, 24GB RAM, NVidia Quadro 5000, separate SSDs, latest drivers etc

It is incredibly painful to try and work with premeire Pro CS6 with these delays. It isnt like the old days waiting for something to refresh, in this, it is extremely frustrating because you know! that there is something wrong cache or whatever.

Everything is a burden. For example, it takes an interminable time to try and synchronise clips now using audio as a marker. And, where! oh Where! are the old clip markers?

I think that Adobe have got it badly wrong with CS6 and that it will come back to bite. They really have to start taking time to resolve user bugs issues. Everytime Adobe brings out an update, it leaves me more scared as to what new bugs will be introduced rather than what will be fixed.

Please! if anyone! has a fix for this audio problem, please post!

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34. CAOLSEN,

Dec 11, 2012 12:25 PM in reply to TerryBradley

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The only fix for this currently, is to use CS5.5.

I have two diffrent machines and experience the exact same results as the video above shows.

CS5.5 does not have this issue, while CS6 does on the two different machines.

SAD

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35. t.nanba,

Dec 28, 2012 1:20 AM in reply to CAOLSEN

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From Japan To hello

It is pardon although it is unclear English.

The phenomenon same me has happened.

I think that a cause is the extension which is in CS5.5 and was lost by CS6.

extension(pek cfa)

these two are lost by CS6

By reviving these two extension s,I feel that it is likely to solve.

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