If you replay the clip, does it always cut out in the same place? __________________________________
CORNBLOSSOM

The first question is does this happen while previewing or after you have "produced" a video?

It's common for PD to drop sound if previewing at different points in preview mode, especially when changing between video clips (I've never used photos... but I see it as it's changing between source media.)

First thing to try when it's happening in preview mode:
Hit the spacebar (pauses), then hit it again (resumes playing). If audio is back in sync and working, it's just a preview mode thing. No stress, it happens. (Also, try lowering preview resolution.)

If it's after producing a complete video, then that's different.

A couple other thoughts, but the first question is are you in preview mode when this happens?

Don PD 12 - 12.0.2930.0
Windows 8 (64 bit)
16 GB RAM

Don, yes, I'm in preview mode...I'm still creating the movie.

And sadly things are going from bad to worse as now I've got "ghost" sounds tracks in my movie (still in preview mode). I added some Magic Music soundtracks which seemed to be causing problems and after deleting those audio clips from the timeline they are still their (well, their sound is, that is...but the audio clips aren't visible on the timeline). Good grief!

Quote: Don, yes, I'm in preview mode...I'm still creating the movie.

And sadly things are going from bad to worse as now I've got "ghost" sounds tracks in my movie (still in preview mode). I added some Magic Music soundtracks which seemed to be causing problems and after deleting those audio clips from the timeline they are still their (well, their sound is, that is...but the audio clips aren't visible on the timeline). Good grief!

I haven't used the Magic Music soundtracks, but if they are like the SmartSound stuff, it can slow things down during editing. (I only add the SS tracks AFTER everything else is in place.)

Depending on the power/configuration of your machine this may or may not help, but it's worth testing.

Save your project, then shut down PD, restart your machine. Give it a few minutes for all the anti-virus stuff to quit doing it's job, then open PD & your project.

See how the machine behaves on a fresh computer, without lots of stuff being open.

PD takes lots of resources (all editing programs do...) so a fresh boot can make things better for an editing session.

Applications working in the background can impact PD, so try it once with as much closed as possible, sometimes that makes a huge difference (totally depends on your setup and what is starting with the machine.)

All that said, the audio CAN lag at points as PD grabs all the different source files during preview. Some machines will handle this much better than others... I use the "spacebar" when it's out of sync and 99% of the time after it restarts the preview the audio is right. It creates the final movie correctly, so the preview is the issue.

Hope this helps. (Others will probably provide additional suggestions.) PD 12 - 12.0.2930.0
Windows 8 (64 bit)
16 GB RAM

Guys, this feedback is INCREDIBLY helpful...and usually "solves the problem". Thank you.

In this particular case I cleared out all of my audio tracks, then disabled the track that had the ghost sounds and I added a new audio track and used that for my audio files. Probably not the ideal solution but it seemed to do the trick (tho it took some time to recreate everything).

But I've now got a completed movie (with sound...in all the right places) and I'm very pleased!

Chuck

When I start getting bizarre behavior like that, I save the project under a new name, close it and then open the new project. Often, all of the odd artifacts are gone. They may not be in a produced video, but it does make it hard to edit when you can't hear the real audio. __________________________________
CORNBLOSSOM

UnlikelySalsero - the scenario you describe in your first post above is exactly what's happening to me in preview mode. I get that it is just a preview issue, but it makes it very difficult to edit when it occurs. For instance, I'm trying to position a piece of music at a precise point in a video - I want a canon fire in the music to coincide with a particular point in the video. If I play just the clip where the canon fire should be, the music is in sync fine. If I play from the beginning of the music track, the music finishes too soon so the canon fire is in the wrong clip. Eeek!

Golfister...I I had your issue as well. I know it may be an "ass backwards" approach but I ended up deleted (or locking the audio track - in the Timeline view) that was giving me problems, created a new audio track and moved all my audio clips to it and I didn't have the issue anymore!

I'm sure this is the NOT "best" way to do this...and maybe it won't work for others, but it did work for me (I have PD10).

Many thanks c2hopper - I'm gonna give that a try. Really appreciate your advice. It does seem a faff to achieve something that should be so straightforward. Even when I was using the very basic MovieMaker they managed to make adding music work - goodness knows why PD10 can't!!!