Intermittent audio playback

I am using Resolve 19 on a M1 Mac Studio Max running OS Sonoma 14.4. My timeline is 1920 x 1080 . On it is a simple stereo music track with some video only edits above it. When I play it (spacebar or play around) I sometimes get audio I can hear. It randomly plays back with sound or no sound. No issues with Resolve 18 like this.

Is this behaviour reproducible on both the Edit and Fairlight Timelines?

I have noticed this behaviour too.
I randomly get no audio, or slightly out of sync audio while playing.
Usually stopping and restarting the playback solves the issue.
Looks like something related to the timeline playhead cursor when moved manually over the timeline.

I find if I just click on the audio track it restores my ability to hear the music.

Due to a lot of video and audio intermittent playback issues I had to revert back to Resolve 18.6.6.

We have the same issue, most of the time it takes more than one try to get audio when starting playback.
While video playback is pretty stable, but the whole timeline-experience is worse than before, it just feels laggy. The beachball or the B/W spinning disc are frequent guests.

Codec details? Are we talking audio associated with video clips (and if so, media info would be very useful) - separate audio - if so, again, media info? Any other details to help BMD narrow things down a bit? I don't see this with straight LPCM WAV files @ 48kHz but I have seen weird audio lags when first playing camera files recorded in H265 10-bit 422 with LPCM audio. First time I play, the audio may not sync to the video but I think this has more to do with the video playback. i usually don't have the 'play all video frames' option enabled. I can't say if it's worse in 19b1 - I also saw something similar in 18.6.6. This is on my MacBook Pro.

Codec details? Are we talking audio associated with video clips (and if so, media info would be very useful) - separate audio - if so, again, media info? Any other details to help BMD narrow things down a bit? I don't see this with straight LPCM WAV files @ 48kHz but I have seen weird audio lags when first playing camera files recorded in H265 10-bit 422 with LPCM audio. First time I play, the audio may not sync to the video but I think this has more to do with the video playback. i usually don't have the 'play all video frames' option enabled. I can't say if it's worse in 19b1 - I also saw something similar in 18.6.6. This is on my MacBook Pro.

Our test project is with XAVC Intra 3840x2160 50p or 25p footage.
Depending on the framerate it's 250 or 500Mbps.
Almost all audio is in camera, with a few recorded files synced via waveform (no difference there as far as playback goes).
The project is set to 1080p, as it's for broadcast. Timeline proxy resolution is set to 1/2.

Audio always stops, both in the Edit and in the Fairlight page.

When I press the Play button, it always takes a moment for playback to start. Sometimes the sound can be heard for a few seconds, then it stops again. This happens over the entire timeline. Unfortunately, the 19 beta is not usable for me.

Files: Apple ProRes log 422, 4K, sound 48 Khz, 50p, recorded with Blackmagic Camera APP
Computer: Macbook Air M2, 16GB, Sonoma 14.2.1

Best regards, Uli

The problem is massive.

Are there any official instructions on how to downgrade to an old version? Unfortunately, I have a lot of projects open.

I will wait again in the future until the software is out of the beta stage.

Best regards, Uli

Uh, oh, you shot yourself in the knee, as we say. No backup of your projects?
You can go back to any older version easily, but you can't open a newer project Library in an old version (in most cases).

Uh, oh, you shot yourself in the knee, as we say. No backup of your projects?
You can go back to any older version easily, but you can't open a newer project Library in an old version (in most cases).

Yes, that was my mistake. Normally I never use beta software when I have active projects. But especially the "ColourSlice" and the new "Ducking" function were too tempting.

Hm, I'll do other things first and hope that the bug will be fixed in the next update. I'm not the only one experiencing this problem.

Is Blackmagic reading this?

Best regards, Uli

I'm quite sure they do, that's what a public beta is made for.

I have noticed this behaviour too.
I randomly get no audio, or slightly out of sync audio while playing.
Usually stopping and restarting the playback solves the issue.
Looks like something related to the timeline playhead cursor when moved manually over the timeline.

Yes, I have also this kind of problem on my Mac Mini M2 Pro, but I also had this problem on my Windows 10 laptop I no longer use. It's frustrating. I am surprised no one over the Internet haven't find solution yet. I don't want to return to Final Cut or Premiere Pro. I've love DaVinci if this problem would be solved.

I have found a partial solution to the bug.

After some testing, it turns out that the sound dropouts, the partially distorted sound and the delayed response during playback only occur in projects that were started with the 18. version.

Today I created a new project with the same video clips: All problems disappeared.

This means that the error seems to lie in the conversion of old projects to newer software. In this case from Davinci 18.6 to 19.0.

In previous software updates, the project conversion always worked without any problems.

I am waiting for the bug to be fixed for the almost finished projects, but I can edit new projects.

Best regards, Uli

Bug unfortunately not fixed in the new build 25: If you open a project from version 18.6 then:

- The sound constantly stops
- Sometimes the sound is distorted
- If you press the play button, playback starts with a one-second delay

If I open the same clips in a NEW project in version 19, none of these problems occur.

Best regards, Uli

When this happens, check to see where the focus is in the app. I've seen audio mis-behavior when focus is in the clip attributes tab in the edit panel but if I click on the preview window, playback is normal.

[Dwaine Maggart]

@Ulrich Berger: I've made a basic project with some clips that have audio in 18.6.6 and brought that project into 19b2 on an M1 Pro MBP with Sonoma 14.4.1 and I'm not having any audio issues.

In your projects having these issues, are you using effects or anything on the Fairlight page?

Can you provide an 18.6.6 project export drp of a project having audio issues in 19?

Hello Dwaine Maggart,

unfortunately I don't have an 18.6.6 export drp project file. I can only create one with Davinci 19.

The project that was created with Davinci 18.6. contains Apple ProRes 422 clips that were recorded with the Blackmagic APP.

I had not yet edited the sound in the 18.6.6 project. I only used one Lut (TheOneLut).

I use an RME Babyface, first version, for monitoring. But even if I use the Macbook Air M2 internal audio path, the problem described remains.

Anything I can provide for testing?

Thank you very much for your response

Best regards, Uli

[Dwaine Maggart]

Then a project export drp from 19.

Then a project export drp from 19.

I have the project export drp.

How can I send it to you? No drp file is allowed via the forum. And I can't find a way to attach the drp file via PM.

Thank you very much for your help

Best regards, Uli

Just use a cloud service and link to it here (no access credentials). BTW, it's all in the FAQs.

Just use a cloud service and link to it here (no access credentials). BTW, it's all in the FAQs.

Thank you, I have sent him a link.

Best regards, Uli

[Dwaine Maggart]

I don't see anything in the project I would expect to be an issue. I appended a ProRes clip to the end of the timeline, and no audio issues with it.

One sort of odd thing: All your ProRes clips have AAC audio. That seems unusual. ProRes clips normally have Linear PCM audio.

If you can create another 18.6 project that works, but experiences audio artifacts in 19, sending us a project archive .dra of the 18.6 version would be helpful to try to recreate the issue. Otherwise, not sure how we can approach this.