I am getting the exact same issue. When producing a video the audio which is not distorted before rendering, it is thereafter distrorted and crackles badly. I have tried to use a WAV file and an MP3 of the same audio track to no avail.
I have tried to reduce the output before rendering on PD18 but it still distorts/crackles. The MP3 and WAV files are fine on other music programs so its definitely an issue with PD unless im missing something. Thanks.

Exact same problem. The last few videos I produced had this issue and shame on me, but the last thing I suspected was the editor. I have been checking my PC speakers, mics, connections, etc. But today I opened the same raw clip in PowerDirector and in Adobe Premier and it is night and day different. PowerDirector is making ALL audio sound as if it was recorded too hot. All the vocals (speaking) are badly distorted with a constant fuzziness. Lowering the audio level only results in a lower volume of bad audio with the same poor quality. Again - the source files are fine and other software plays it clean. I've been using PowerDirector for years, and am a 365 subscriber, but this will cause me to move platforms forever.

Quote Exact same problem. The last few videos I produced had this issue and shame on me, but the last thing I suspected was the editor. I have been checking my PC speakers, mics, connections, etc. But today I opened the same raw clip in PowerDirector and in Adobe Premier and it is night and day different. PowerDirector is making ALL audio sound as if it was recorded too hot. All the vocals (speaking) are badly distorted with a constant fuzziness. Lowering the audio level only results in a lower volume of bad audio with the same poor quality. Again - the source files are fine and other software plays it clean. I've been using PowerDirector for years, and am a 365 subscriber, but this will cause me to move platforms forever.

I get this problem only when I export the audio as AAC but not when I export as Dolby Digital are you getting the same problem?

Quote I am getting the exact same issue. When producing a video the audio which is not distorted before rendering, it is thereafter distrorted and crackles badly. I have tried to use a WAV file and an MP3 of the same audio track to no avail.
I have tried to reduce the output before rendering on PD18 but it still distorts/crackles. The MP3 and WAV files are fine on other music programs so its definitely an issue with PD unless im missing something. Thanks.

Are you getting this problem with AAC? Because I get this problem only when with AAC but not when I export as Dolby Digital, Which is a problem for me, cause i need to export as AAC.

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Are you getting this problem with AAC? Because I get this problem only when with AAC but not when I export as Dolby Digital, Which is a problem for me, cause i need to export as AAC.

I dumped AAC and it distorts. Also h264AVC which support told me to use for youtube and the sound quality is AWFUL. Like unusable.

I've been back with support and after a few days they always come back with another question and no results. Finally after two weeks they just said "I can't hear a difference" in the audio quality, which is how I just found this post and a bunch of others.

Frankly, something is seriously horrible with how they produce sound. It's past my 30 days so I can't just get a refund, but this program is absolutely unusable for me like this.

Is there any way to produce with stereo audio that doesn't compress? I'm not too up on video production, but in the olden days I always just used uncompressed files and youtube didn't pork the audio too badly if you were using an HQ setting when watching.

Do you think that a custom profile with lpcm or dd audio will work for you. That would be what I would do.

Quote Do you think that a custom profile with lpcm or dd audio will work for you. That would be what I would do.

I looked up how to do this. The LCPM audio is a lot higher quality than the AAC. I'll keep experimenting here.

Thank you for the pointer.

I experience the very same problem, in PD365 and in all previous versions as well. The sound is of such a quality that you can't use it. When it comes to sound, Cyberlink does a horrible job. Since I do love to use PD, I use it for video only and later I reproduce it with good sound with Adobe Premiere. But it shouldn't have to be that way, it is not what we're paying for. I really hope a solution will come, but since all previous versions had the same issue, I have no expectations on this area. Let's just work with what we have... Not sure if I will renew my subscription. Maybe it is time to just learn to work with Premiere.

This is not a common problem and it likely has to do with the audio format your clips are recorded in. Have you tried converting the audio to a different format as suggested in the previous posts?

If you upload a sample clip to OneDrive or Google Drive and paste a shareable link to it here, other members can examine it and test it on their systems. If there is an incomaptibility, the only way Cyberlink can fix it is if someone reports the issue through their official support channel as they typically don't monitor what's being posted here on the user forum.

Quote This is not a common problem and it likely has to do with the audio format your clips are recorded in. Have you tried converting the audio to a different format as suggested in the previous posts?

If you upload a sample clip to OneDrive or Google Drive and paste a shareable link to it here, other members can examine it and test it on their systems. If there is an incomaptibility, the only way Cyberlink can fix it is if someone reports the issue through their official support channel as they typically don't monitor what's being posted here on the user forum.

Sorry to say, but this IS a common problem and not just in this version of PD. I always use WAV files, in other words: no compression, to have no quality loss while producing a video. I've also tried MP3. None of the file formats makes any difference. I've also tried producing in H.265, but no joy there either. You know what did work? Reproducing it in Adobe Premiere. That was the only thing I could do to make the audio flawless. Here's a 30 second example for you. The first 30 seconds are produced with PD, the second 30 seconds with Premiere. Just to give you an idea. In both examples I have used the same WAV file (48000 Hz).

I think you're missing my point. I understand that you've been consistently having problems with multiple versions of PD, but that's different from the issue being commonly/constantly reported in the forum. It isn't, and that's why I wanted to have a sample clip to work with.

Thanks for the composite sample. I do hear the distortion, especially in the first few seconds of the PD-produced clip; and I agree that shouldn't be happening.

What output profile did you produce to? It's possible that the audio bit rate is too low and simply increasing that would help. Producing to a different audio format may also give better results.

I've been having this same issue. Audio that wasn't clipping when exported from Audacity was suddenly clipping when imported into PD, and adjusting the volume in PD made no difference. What worked for me was turning the gain way down on the final mix before exporting from Audacity. I set the gain to -25 dB which was barely audible in Audacity, but when imported into PD was at a perfect volume for the project I was working on.