Update or replace ProSound

[GeoffGraham3D]

ProSound is currently very buggy and prone to crashing.  I would like to list the problems and request features related to ProSound for 3ds max here:

• Playback doesn't always work - when loading audio you can hear it when you scrub the timeline but not when you press play on the timeline (sometimes). You have to go into ProSound and change the playback audio quality from medium to low back to medium, then hit the close button, then it will work when you press play on the timeline.
• When you change the mini curve editor to the dope sheet from the Editor menu, the dope sheet does not always automatically zoom into the wav, you have to scroll around to find it.
• When selecting the wav, if you accidently expand the master waveform and select it, 3ds max will often crash
• Once you have changed the mini curve editor to the dope sheet from the Editor menu, the track bar disappears and the ‘Close’ button disappears. The only way to close the dope sheet/mini curve editor now is to tear it from the tab and hit the x to close it.
• If the track bar disappears after using the mini curve editor, sometimes you can’t open it back up from the show UI window on the main toolbar and the only way to reload it is to reload the default UI.
• 3ds max only supports 16 bit wav files. It would be nice if it supported other formats.
• It could also be a nice feature to be able to easily load a reference video (video texture on a plane) with audio for animation reference in 3ds max, and be able to use the dope sheet or some other UI to move both the video and audio around separately and more easily line it up to do lip sync and animation for characters. (You can currently load the video as a bitmap and select the starting frame in the material editor under Time).

[Anonymous]

Further suggestion:

• Put a default menu option and/or toolbar button for quick access to ProSound. Going through Track View to access it is tedious and unnecessary.

[MartinBeh]

If any/all of the issues listed are reproducible, I would strongly recommend to report them, so they make it into the database. From the limited use I had in the past with ProSound, I had no issues - but that wasn't pushing it in any way.

[aaronfross]

Agreed, ProSound is awful. All of those bells and whistles are useless and actually get in the way of my production.

The main issues I've had with ProSound:

1. When I add a sound, if I press Play in the timeline, the audio does not play. From that point forward, the audio will never play until 3ds Max is restarted. The workaround: I have to scrub the timeline with the mouse once, immediately after adding the audio file in ProSound. I think this actually loads the audio into RAM. From that point forward, performance is acceptable.

2. ProSound always normalizes/compresses the audio volume, even when that option is disabled. This is immensely distracting when working with mixed audio rather than individual tracks such as lip-sync reference. The audio plays back EXCESSIVELY LOUDLY for a couple of seconds, then it goes down to a reasonable level. All I want is the audio to play back, with no adjustments whatsoever, but that does not work properly.

[michael_spaw]

As Martin mentioned please report any bugs you run across and feel free to continue discussing this idea here.

Thanks

-Michael

Michael Spaw

Designer, Entertainment Creation Products Group

[aaronfross]

OK, Michael, I've logged those two bugs.

Thank you

[GeoffGraham3D]

I have created a video to show the issues with ProSound here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xo7jTyKjhmo

[brentscannell]

Moving this into accepted status as I understand that several of these improvements may actually be available for beta testing today. Come join the community to see for yourselves!

It's likely that we may consider splitting this topic into smaller chunks however to better prioritize sub elements within. Please keep that in mind if you start testing and using a version of this in beta, we'll update this topic once we know more about where we might draw some lines.

[GeoffGraham3D]

Excellent news! I'm already on the beta, but have been swamped with work
lately. I'll be sure to get back into the latest beta release to see whats
changed though soon.

[aaronfross]

The memory caching issue I described has already been fixed in 3ds Max 2020.

It's been a long time since I've heard the dynamic compression issue, with the super loud audio. That may be resolved, too, but I am not certain.

Thanks.

[shawnolson]

We have released an update to ProSound in 3ds Max 2021. The update includes these:

• Support added for 24-bit WAV files, 88.2kHz and 96kHz sample rates
• Unlimited numbers of audio clips (previous maximum of 100).
• An issue was also fixed that caused audio to play at 50% volume after frame 100.

I do not yet know what our plans are for the items on your list not covered, but I wanted to share this information with you. When you are able, feel free to provide feedback on these updates.

[GeoffGraham3D]

Thanks Shawn.

I did see some of the changes in the Beta. I will be fully updating to 2021 soon and can do some more testing once our semester wraps up and my students films are completed. I will provide further feedback then.

It's nice to see things like this being addressed.