Popping sound and visual glitches in exported videos

Audio Channels: 2 (Stereo)
Video Mode: 1920x1080, 16:9, 30fps, Progressive, ITU-R BT.709

The biggest popping sound occurs during this section, which has five clips:
Vid1: Image with Size & Position filter.
Vid2: Image with Size & Position filter.
Aud1: Narration track with no filters.
Aud2: Sound effect with lowered volume.
Aud3: BGM with no filters, but the entire track has lowered volume.
The popping occurs as soon as the sound effect is done or nearly done.

Display method: DirectX (ANGLE)

How exactly are you muting? If you are doing a hard cut, then this is not unexpected. Are you ramping the volume down and then back up using keyframes?
You could also be experiencing clipping. When the sound waves of multiple tracks add up, they can exceed the numerical limit. Check your levels around the problem point.

I just use the Mute filter. I typically only use keyframes for moving images and fading.
And I’ve tried reducing the volumes of everything surrounding the pop; even clipping them out entirely. When I get home, I’ll upload recordings of what’s happening.

I guess you are trimming the filter to define the start and end of it. I am not going to change anything to automatically adjust surrounding samples to transition to and from mute. I recommend you keyframe the Gain/Volume filter instead and only use Mute for muting an entire clip.

I’m not sure exactly what you mean, but I don’t think that’s what I’m doing. If I want a section of a video clip muted, I usually just split the clip (with the S key), then apply the mute filter to the split-off section.

Anyway, here are the examples I promised:


That is similar to filter trimming but more crude. Split alone might be the cause an audio artifact depending on the audio format in your clip. Audio codecs AAC or MP3 are difficult and problematic in this regard. You should avoid splitting except to make edits.

I don’t really have a choice in the matter. My manner of gathering footage means having dozens of video files worth of gameplay that I crop at the source, import into the timeline, trim, then mute. Gameplay footage plays (silently) while I talk over it. But no gameplay footage is at the point of the popping sound (the purple circle).

You do have a choice in what technique you use. I did not say you cannot mute portions of the video. I am trying to help you with your problem by explaining why your current technique is likely the cause and a different way to do it. I am not available to help you any further on this matter.

Well, thank you for your time. I do appreciate it.

For anyone still interested, I do have an update on the nature of this bug. While it consistently did not play in the editor (see above video), it DOES play in the editor if the timeline is zoomed out enough. It might just have something to do my CPU usage.

Either way, I did manage to fix the popping by re-recording the popping sections in the editor (zoomed in so they don’t pop), then re-attaching them to muted sections of the export. The video is complete.

Now if only my other topic about the warping playback bar would get a reply…

This topic hasn’t been locked yet, so I’m just gonna make another post here instead of making a new topic.

The popping sounds and visual glitches still occur. I thought that maybe splitting my projects into smaller chunks to make rendering less CPU-heavy might work, but it’s done nothing. I’ve exported this same project 20 times now, using different settings. The visual glitches don’t always appear, but the popping sounds are consistent and always in the same spots. Again, these don’t occur during playback in the editor.

In a previous message you concluded that the audio glitch occurs at the end of a sound effect clip. Can you try to apply an “Audio Fade Out” filter on that single clip and see if that helps? The fade out could be as short as two frames.

I tried your suggestion. First, I added audio fade in AND audio fade out to one of the present clips. Exporting gave the same result. Second, I made an extra cut in one of the other audio sources, and applied audio fade out to the first half. Export, no change. Third, I added audio fade in to the second half of the split audio. Export, still pops.
If only Shotcut had an option for merging clips. I think all the separations might be the cause.

One thing you could do to understand the problem better:

  1. Open the exported file in Shotcut
  2. Open the Audio Waveform Scope.
  3. Play the file until you hear the glitch
  4. Back up a little and step frame-by-frame to find the exact frame the glitches
  5. Inspect the audio waveform of the glitching frame(s)
  6. Do the same process with the original project and identify the same frame
  7. Compare the audio waveform for the clean (non-glitch in the preview) and the glitch (exported file)
  8. Paste screenshots here so we can see, too.

Alright, I’ve got my screenshots, but something weird is happening now. When I’m zoomed in all the way, I now hear the popping in the editor, too. In the exported file, the pop plays at the point shown by the playback bar:

https://api-da.wixmp.com/_api/download/file?downloadToken=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsImV4cCI6MTU4NjU5NjgwMiwiaWF0IjoxNTg2NTc1MTkyLCJqdGkiOiI1ZTkxMzc2MmEyZDA0Iiwib2JqIjpudWxsLCJhdWQiOlsidXJuOnNlcnZpY2U6ZmlsZS5kb3dubG9hZCJdLCJwYXlsb2FkIjp7InBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcLzQxNDVjNTQyLWE0ZmItNDRlOS1iY2Y3LTk0Y2RlNWQ1ZjdjNFwvZGR1azI2Zi1lNDJkNmNkYi1kYzU3LTRhMDktYmQzMy1iMDBkMDM1MjM3MzAucG5nIn19.7Xt23A-kHfRFjzrkFAwypkXwCpGiufkx7cT_PanhGTw

And in the original project, popping sounds occur both at the beginning and the end of the “Rayman Clear Throat” sound.

It would be helpful if we could see the audio waveform scope on the frame that has the glitch (View->Scopes->Audio Waveform)

Sorry, didn’t know about that window:

I’m almost certain this is the correct frame. I hear the pop every time I click on it with the playback arrowhead.

For an audio pop, I would expect to see a dramatic change in the audio waveform. Does the waveform you show look dramatically different than the previous or next frame? Can you step through the frames and visually inspect to look for an abrupt change in the waveform?

I uploaded a video of the occurence. It’s kind of hard to hear the pop over the sound effect, though.

To the left of the player there is a time code control where you can see the exact frame being displayed. It allows you to step frame by frame. Try to go slower and inspect more closely

Here are 3 screenshots. The 1st is the frame before the pop, 2nd is the pop, 3rd is after the pop.