MP3 not rendered in T4

[saintcrock]

I posted this elsewhere, but figured I might as well try here.

Hi all,

Very new to T4, but my initial setup feels good. Can record and playback without issue.

However, when I introduce mp3's into the sequence, sometimes it goes through the 1-99% rendering, then presents me with an empty waveform. I've attached a screenshot of my tracks. All of these files are imported mp3s. As you can see, I get a solid waveform for two of the three. Am I missing something for the "Bama Country" one?

To be thorough, this happens when I try to import a multitude of mp3s (Not just Bama Country). Some work. Some don't. This doesn't happen with any kind of predictability. Sometimes its just one mp3 on the track. Sometimes its a few (as the screenshot idicates) When I run each through my old QTRACTOR sequencer, they all behave normally.

My LAME path is /usr/bin/lame, which is correct and verified. Running 3.99 64 bit LAME.

My apologies if this should have gone somewhere else. I searched the forum but didn't seem to find exactly what I'm looking for.

Thanks,

Crock

[jabe]

There was a problem - and I don't know if this was fixed or not - whereby if you added metadata one particular character somehow made the rendering fail. I'll do a search and see if I can find the thread.

Okay, I've searched the Tracktion KVR forum and it's not on here, so I can only assume that I posted the solution - or, at least, the cause of the problem - on the forum which used to be on the Tracktion website. As that's no longer there, and we're talking about a problem that came (and went?) during 2013, you may have to do a spot of trial and error.

I don't know what version of T4 this happened in and I don't know which version it was cured in. And I've no idea what version of T4 is currently available free, though I assume it's the final one.

The gist is that when you go through the procedure to export as MP3, you can enter some metadata that will be saved as part of the MP3 file. There was a particular character - perhaps a zero, perhaps a hash or @ sign (but maybe another character) - that caused the MP3 to be rendered as an empty file.

When I established which character it was, I did so by a process of elimination. So try these steps:
1. Export your music to MP3 but do not enter any metadata at all. If this renders properly and you can play the file, it looks like the same problem.
2. Export to MP3 again, but this time type the whole alphabet, upper and lower case, as metadata. See if the file renders okay.
3. Assuming 2 works, export as MP3 again, but this time use all other characters (numbers, punctuation) as metadata.

At this point, some or all of the above will have worked. If two worked and one didn't, I think it's safe to assume it's the same problem.

If 2 or 3 fails, do it again, but with half the alphabet. If it works, do it again with the other half. Each time there is a fail, assume one of the characters caused the problem, and do two more tests, each with half the characters from the previous failure. This should allow you to isolate the single character causing the failure.

I hope that helps. Pity my post about it was on the other site.

[saintcrock]

I never thought about the properties of the ID3 tags or MP3 metadata. That's brilliant. I'll give that a shot and retry. I'll let you know how it goes!

[jabe]

Another thought has just crept out of some dusty corner in my brain - I've a suspicion that if you enclose your metadata, where possible, in quotes, it might just survive even if you include the dodgy character. I might be wrong about this, but if you do find which character it was, it might be worth a try if you still want to use that character.

[saintcrock]

Alas, no luck. What's odd is that when I drag something to the timeline, I see the waveform in the background. But when I release the mouse, it renders to nothing. Here's a screenie me dragging it to the timeline, but not releasing the mouse button.

After I release, it "renders" to an empty waveform again.

[Ben di Arrows]

Sorry to state the obvious but are you sure the clip is not muted?
I don't recognize the colour scheme on your screenshot, but the green mute button looks suspicious.
Worth checking anyway.

[frankvg]

Did you import the file to the project? Was wondering what it looks like in your project page. Is it also unreadable?

[saintcrock]

@Ben - which green mute button? When I mute the track, it throws a very noticable "X" through the mute. Even if its muted, the waveform should be unaffected. Am I missing something?

@frankvg - I reimported all files after stripping them each of their tags. Their waveform appears correctly in projects. Screenshot below.

[Ben di Arrows]

@Ben - which green mute button? When I mute the track, it throws a very noticable "X" through the mute. Even if its muted, the waveform should be unaffected. Am I missing something?

In the first image where the clip is selected the clip properties are shown in the bottom panel. Next to the gain you can mute an individual clip. Because I no longer have T4, and don't know the colour scheme (looks like Nostalgus but may be customised) I just thought it was worth a check.

[saintcrock]

Did a quick check, definitely not muted. Appreciate the input (no pun intended).

A real headscratcher here.

[frankvg]

I reimported all files after stripping them each of their tags. Their waveform appears correctly in projects.

So what happens when you copy/paste the files from the project page into the edit? And have you tried with a new fresh edit?

[saintcrock]

Same thing each time, no matter whether its the same edit or a new session. Always behaves the same way. Waveform is fine until I try to add it to the track.

[jabe]

Sorry the tags thing didn't help.