BEYOND - Important audio delay (not in sync with the audio graph)

[HKoncept]

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to produce a professionnal laser show with BEYOND. I said "trying" because I have an important issue with the audio. To be sure short frames will fit perfectly with music (exp. snare in music), I sync frames with the visual audio representation (audio graph).

When I start the show everything seems to be OK but every seconds the audio goes more and more offset. The show goes offset after 30 or 45 seconds and this offset is incrementing.

Am I alone with this situation ? Any suggestion or workaround ?

N.B. I'm using BEYOND 1.91 (build 603)

[Galvonaut]

Hi HKoncept

I don't use beyond, however I read somewhere on PL recently that some audio files might result in this effect. Maybe converting the track to a different file format could help.

Keith

[swamidog]

lots of audio packages have difficulty with mp3s that have been encoded with VBR (variable bit rate). try converting your mp3 to an aif/wave or other audio format.

Hi HKoncept

I don't use beyond, however I read somewhere on PL recently that some audio files might result in this effect. Maybe converting the track to a different file format could help.

Keith

[loopee]

As Swami suggests, convert you audio file to WAV, I've found beyond really has issues with MP3 especially when scrolling back and forwards, with the file converted to WAV makes it better (although still not perfect but enough to make it workable)

[bungy]

I'm pretty sure BEYOND converts the audio to WAV format and saves it in the MusicForShows folder under the BEYOND directory. I'm sure Quickshow does this.

If you are trying to sync animations or abstracts, make sure to set the song's BPM under Show Properties (File -> Show Properties). Then you can adjust the beats in your animation/abstract and it should sync right up. You can tap out the songs's BPM on the grid screen with the spacebar, but you have to manually enter it on the properties page.

[dnar]

Yep, I made this issue in Spaghetti with mp3 audio.

I use raw wav for my shows.

[Pangolin]

Hi HK,

Please get the show file and audio files into our hands. If we have the files and can see the problem you're having with our own eyes and on our own computers, I am sure we can solve whatever problem you are having.

By the way, we don't convert anything to anything. 100% of the codecs used in BEYOND were written by us -- for the very reason that we can have absolute control over the quality of the results client see. What we never wanted to deal with is that one client had a problem that wound up being due to the Windows codecs and such.

So if you have particular files or a particular show scenario that isn't working, we're *really* interested in seeing it, understanding it, and then solving it.

Bill

[masterpj]

Even professional music software has a delay with MP3.
This isn't a software issue but a format issue.
Use wave files.
convert your mp3 to wav with for instance a free tool like audacity.

The delay will be present at start but it wont change anymore during the rest of the song (you can cut the delay off though in audacity).

[Steve Milani]

Randomly way (very few times in truth...) I had this sort of issue using QuickShow.
Never had problem when using Beyond.

Anyway, to prevent it, you can try this solutions...

1) Use a MP3 file with CBR (constant bit rate)
2) Convert file from MP3 to "wav", as already suggested.
Tested both and 100% fully working.

You should have also to be sure to update your OS with last version of audio codecs (es: K-Lite Codec pack) freely downloadable from web.

[HKoncept]

Even professional music software has a delay with MP3....

I'm mixing with VirtualDJ and Serato, video production with SonyVegas (ASIO soundcard) I can get as low as 2ms of latency for ALL my MP3, even VBR. So I can confirm that some professional don't have latency issue.

I'm a software developer too and I understand that converting to .WAV could represents an acceptable workaround, thanks.