Odd Audio peaking and metering in Vegas Pro 10.0d

[Bryan Daugherty]

So I am working on an NTSC 720x480 29.97p 16:9 5.1 audio project with 2 HDV sources and 2 independent pcm audio sources and my track and mixer meters are acting weird. Sometimes the mixer meters freeze and nothing happens sometimes the track meters show peaks way above what is possible. In the example I will post here, the track meters are showing a max peak of 767.4db.

What is going on here? Any thoughts? Is this a bug or a user error?

Basic System info:
-Win 7 - 64 bit Ultimate
-12 GB DDR2 Ram
-i7 processor
-SATA 6G HDD

[Mike Kujbida]

Wow. I haven't seen that problem in almost 2 years (since the Pro 9 days).
Are you using volume envelopes anywhere?
Loud POP sound on 2 envelope points at 90 degrees is the thread on the Sony Vegas forum where this problem was discussed.

[Bryan Daugherty]

To answer your question, no i am not using any envelopes. And to clarify, the audio is not loud or going off the charts anywhere near these numbers. On these 5.1 projects I remix direct mics, direct music (orchestra mics) and on camera mics to get the sound the way I like. I then make a pass through using the meters as a guide to keep the audio between -21db and about -1db with an average around -12db overall. The meters are crucial during this phase. Once the audio is leveled out, then I go back to cut the video and switch between the wide and follow cam angles and do any vid EFX needed. The last phase is adding any sweeteners needed to video or audio and reconfirming scopes and meters again.

With the meters being so weird, i am not getting accurate readings and cannot be sure I am hitting my marks.

Originally Posted by Mike Kujbida

Wow. I haven't seen that problem in almost 2 years (since the Pro 9 days).
Are you using volume envelopes anywhere?...Loud POP sound on 2 envelope points at 90 degrees[/url][/u] is the thread on the Sony Vegas forum where this problem was discussed.

Mike I read over that forum thread and this is different the meters are going crazy but the audio is unaffected by this.

[Mike Kujbida]

Did this just start happening or has it been going on for some time?
If it's recent, have you made ANY changes to your system?
If it's been going on for some time, I'd send an email to Sony Technical Support along with these images, the veg file and anything else that you can think of that may help them track it down.

[Gene Gajewski]

Bug!

Hate to say it, but 5.1 mixing is suspect in Vegas.


Recently someone the SCS forums posted a file demonstrating an error decoding 5.1 sound from a 3D videofile. The link to your problem is that it showed peaking and incorrect levels on the track meters, but not in the mixing console meters for those tracks.

[Bryan Daugherty]

Originally Posted by Mike Kujbida

Did this just start happening or has it been going on for some time?
If it's recent, have you made ANY changes to your system?

No new changes to the system and it has only been happening since the update to 10d. I do have a new SATA III HDD but this is only an upgrade from 750GB to 2TB. I will contact support.

Originally Posted by Gene Gajewski

...Hate to say it, but 5.1 mixing is suspect in Vegas...The link to your problem is that it showed peaking and incorrect levels on the track meters, but not in the mixing console meters for those tracks.

Very interesting. I wonder if they experienced the mixing console freezing too? The track metering oddity is an inconvenience, I can see from the waveform what can be the cause for peaking on the mixing meters but when the mixing meters freeze, the only solution I have found is a complete vegas reboot.

[Gene Gajewski]

The odd/incorrect peaking can mean anything as far as internal software errors go - certainly, a total lockup isn't out of the question. The non-matching track/console meters worry too.

10d appears to be the first time of a problem of this magnitude with audio, although there was a problem in 10c with sony 5.1 plugins not working on the master bus.

Not sure what to think, but it sure seems to be that sony's development efforts are retrograde. I wonder if they're buying into 'Agile/Scrum/Internet Time' software development methodolgies? Who knows? However, such a strategy (and attitude) will get you a product that works just like the internet - works about 80% of the .......

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