Automatic Postproduction Issues

Troubleshooting for issues encountered when using Automatic Postproduction.

Updated over a week ago

Zencastr’s Automatic Postproduction is a paid feature that enhances and mixes together the separate audio (and video) files that are recorded for you and each of your guests into a combined file.

If you encounter an issue while running a postproduction, see below.

In this article:

Postproduction Not Completing

Issue

A postproduction on the Recording Page appears to be at ‘25% Uploaded’ for more than an hour after it was started, without any apparent progress.

Causes

This most frequently happens when:

  • A participant who has a silent audio track is included in the postproduction

    • E.g. a participant who was only listening in had their microphone muted during the entire recording

Less frequently, this might happen when:

  • A participant who recorded with their mic gain (input volume) at a very low level is included in the postproduction

Troubleshooting

If a participant who had a silent audio track was included in the postproduction:

  • Run a new postproduction, unchecking the participant with the silent audio track to exclude them from the final files

If a participant who recorded with very low mic gain was included in the postproduction:

  • Please contact Zencastr Support via chat or email to see what options there are for this recording

Audio Is Out Of Sync In Final Mixes

Issue

In an ‘Audio Podcast’ or ‘Video Podcast’ file the participants are not synced correctly - e.g. one participant is talking over another, two or more participants are speaking at the same time, a participant is answering questions before they are asked, or other sync problems that did not occur during the original recording session.

Causes

Currently, the Automatic Postproduction tool lines up files correctly when all participants’ audio tracks (MP3 or WAV) start at the same time. When participants’ audio tracks don’t start at the same time this is usually because:

  • A guest joins the call after the host has already started the recording

  • A host or guest leaves the recording page and later rejoins when the recording is still in progress (by accident or because they have internet issues and get disconnected)

    • In this situation, multiple tracks are created for the participant

  • A guest’s recording initiates a few seconds after the host starts the recording because of computer performance or internet connectivity issues

Troubleshooting

Currently, the Automatic Postproduction tool cannot line up tracks that start at a different time, nor can it line up multiple tracks for a participant. To fix the sync issue for the recording, you will need to use an audio or video editing program outside of Zencastr to manually line up your tracks.

For future recordings, you can minimize the chances of sync issues by:

A Participant Is Missing From The Final Mix

Issue

An ‘Audio Podcast’ or ‘Video Podcast’ file does not contain the audio (or video) for a participant that was part of the original recording session.

Causes

This most frequently happens when:

Troubleshooting

  1. The affected participant does troubleshooting steps for their unfinalized tracks to complete the upload of their tracks.

  2. Once the participant’s tracks have been uploaded, the host re-runs the postproduction with the participant selected.

Separate WAVs Option Not Shown

Issue

The Separate WAVs option is not shown under Advanced Settings in the postproduction modal.

Causes

The Separate WAV option is only available for users on the professional plan and is only shown when WAV files are selected for all participants.

The Separate WAV option not being shown most frequently happens when:

  • An MP3 file (a file for a specific participant or the soundboard track) is selected to include in the postproduction

Less frequently this might happen when:

  • WAV Recording was turned off for the episode

Troubleshooting

  1. Make sure all participants have a WAV file selected

  2. Unselect any participant that only has an MP3 file

  3. Run the postproduction with the separate WAV option selected

Other Issues

If you encounter an issue not covered here or you need additional assistance, please contact Zencastr Support via chat or email.

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