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I am now coming to the conclusion there are a lot of bugs in this system
There are serious problems in the audio area. To be fair, this is an area that is a complete mess as far as the video industry is concerned. I come from the audio side where we have strong standards and complete control over the audio that goes out the door. In the video world, audio is thought of as an "accessory" and not terribly important. There is a hodge-podge of standards in use and lots of really crappy converters.
I am working on an audition tape for a student applying to some of the best conservatories. The audio recording is flawless, but unfortunately, the universities all require submission in video format. When I run it through PD17, some of the audio is noticeably distorted. That caused me to search these forums, where one finds dozens of similar threads over the years and no real improvement.
A common suggestion is to lower the volume level several dB. Sorry, I mastered my audio to broadcast standards, staying significantly below integrated LU of -14. That should never be too loud. And even when I do lower it, there is still very audible degredation, like converting to MP3 at 128 Kb (which nobody would ever do on purpose).
One thing I do not see mentioned in any of these threads is the dithering process. If your audio has been mastered at CD standard (44.1 kHz), then PD will convert it to 48 kHz, I believe, and they are using a poor algorithm. The quality is improved (but not good) if you master the auto at 48K before running it through PD.