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A S Chakradhar
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Unable to start Audio Playback?

Mar 6, 2013 8:14 AM

Hello everyone,

 

I have installed After Effects CS6 in a Mac running 10.6.8(Snow Leopard) with 4 GB ram and have installed all the updates of After Effects. Whenever I try to get the audio output, i get an error:

" After Effects Warning: Unable to start audio playback. Please confirm your audio hardware is properly configured or change the driver selection in Preferences: Audio Hardware "

 

I tried to reinstall the software and also I tried the Audio MIDI Setup configuration but it too is of no use.

 

Thanks in advance

661 Views   13 Replies   Latest reply: eefee, Apr 11, 2013 6:21 AM
 
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  • Dave LaRonde
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    1. Dave LaRonde,
    Mar 6, 2013 1:31 PM   in reply to A S Chakradhar
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    Two things:

     

    I see that you played with the Mac's audio settings.  Did you also look at the AE Preferences for audio?

     

    4 gigs may seem like a lot of memory to you, but is is woefully inadequate for AE.  You need more memory right now.  Think in terms of 16 gigs at the very least.

     
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  • A S Chakradhar
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    2. A S Chakradhar,
    Mar 7, 2013 11:14 PM   in reply to Dave LaRonde
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    Yes I changed the AE Preferences too and tried every possible combination of settings in AE and settings in my maac

     
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  • Matt Dubuque
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    3. Matt Dubuque,
    Mar 8, 2013 5:59 AM   in reply to Dave LaRonde
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    I'm puzzled as to whether and why his shortage of RAM would rear its ugly head in this particular context, Dave.

     

    My experience with audio files is that they are generally trivial in size, compared to these massive video files we bring to the mix.

     

    So I would think that his serious deficiency in RAM would be much less likely to manifest in this relatively tiny file.

     

    But I'm probably missing something here.

     
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  • Dave LaRonde
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    4. Dave LaRonde,
    Mar 8, 2013 9:47 AM   in reply to Matt Dubuque
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    4 gigs is sufficient to keep both the OS and After Effects running.  You say you want to run other applications, or actually use AE?  4 gigs gets eaten up very quickly.....

     
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  • A S Chakradhar
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    5. A S Chakradhar,
    Mar 8, 2013 10:22 AM   in reply to Dave LaRonde
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    I just use AE for simple editing for making trailers and am planning to increase my RAM soon but i am unable to find out why the error arises. The error comes even if i try to play a small 30 sec or 15 sec video on AE. The problem only arises when I ask AE to also play audio. Without audio, I can do editing in AE. I also have Premiere Pro installed but I don't get that error in Premiere Pro.

     
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  • Dave LaRonde
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    6. Dave LaRonde,
    Mar 8, 2013 10:52 AM   in reply to A S Chakradhar
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    Now we need more information:

     

    http://forums.adobe.com/message/4200845#4200845

     
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  • A S Chakradhar
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    7. A S Chakradhar,
    Mar 9, 2013 5:25 AM   in reply to Dave LaRonde
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    I have After Effects CS6 installed with 10.5.2.11 update on Mac 10.6.8(Snow Leopard)
    All the recent updates have been installed.

    I have tried to run audio by importing many different types of files like .mp4, .flv and so on.

    The error which i get always whenever i try to run audio is

    "After Effects Warning: Unable to start audio playback. Please confirm your audio hardware is properly configured or change the driver selection in Preferences: Audio Hardware"

     

    And if you think the problem arises because of insufficient RAM, i tried to play the audio for a 1mb video file but still got the same error.

    This problem happens with both RAM preview and final output. Also, I can't render a video with audio. Even though I can check the audio buttton, the output obtained doesn't have any audio.

     
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  • Matt Dubuque
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    8. Matt Dubuque,
    Mar 9, 2013 7:25 PM   in reply to A S Chakradhar
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    Per the error message you are receiving, please post a screen shot your Preferences Audio Hardware screen that also includes the rest of your workspace.

     

    Matt

     
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  • A S Chakradhar
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    9. A S Chakradhar,
    Mar 10, 2013 12:24 AM   in reply to Matt Dubuque
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    Screen shot 2013-03-10 at 1.51.13 PM.png

    And the options available under Buffer Size are 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048, 4096 and 8192.

     
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  • A S Chakradhar
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    10. A S Chakradhar,
    Mar 10, 2013 12:28 AM   in reply to A S Chakradhar
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    And the options available in Audio MIDI Setup in Mac are

    Screen shot 2013-03-10 at 1.55.45 PM 1.png

     
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  • Matt Dubuque
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    11. Matt Dubuque,
    Mar 10, 2013 1:53 PM   in reply to A S Chakradhar
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    AS, thanks for posting these.

     

    I see you have not received a response yet.

     

    Would you be able to post a screen shot of your settings in Preferences/Audio Output Mapping?

     

    I find that often times tweaking settings in that panel often resolve audio playback issues.

     

    Thanks,

     

    Matt Dubuque

     
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  • A S Chakradhar
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    12. A S Chakradhar,
    Mar 11, 2013 3:08 AM   in reply to Matt Dubuque
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    Screen shot 2013-03-11 at 3.33.29 PM.png

    And the options in Left and Right are Internal Speaker 1 and Internal Speaker 2

     
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  • eefee
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    13. eefee,
    Apr 11, 2013 6:21 AM   in reply to A S Chakradhar
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    Hi mate,

     

    I get exactly the same problem every time I launch AE but it's just a weird bug I think.

     

    This sorts it out every time for me.

     

    Go to Preferences-Audio Hardware and change the default device from Built in input/built in output to System Default input/output.

    Then go to Preferences-Audio Output Mapping, change Map Output For to System Default input/output again.

     

    Go back to Preferences-Audio Hardware and change it back to Built in input/built in output again. (Probably the way it was originally)

    Go back to Preferences-Audio Output Mapping and again, change it back to Built in input/built in output.

     

    Try a RAM Preview to check your sound.

     

    I'm on CS4 btw but the error message is identical. I'm also on Snow Leopard with only 4GB RAM and it works fine.

     

    Hope it helps

     
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