Trouble importing multiple audio tracks in .mp4 video file

[RexRed]

Trouble importing multiple audio tracks in MP4 video file.

I am trying to import an mp4 video file (created in OBS Studio) into Cakewalk Sonar that has multiple stereo audio files within it.

Cakewalk is only importing one stereo file and not seeing the other.

Thanks in advance for any help on this!

 

Edited July 19 by RexRed

[John Vere]

Not sure what format you are using for the video file. Sonar is very limited in what format it will use. What is a multi track MP4?  Didn’t think that’s possible? 

Normally we use OBS for capture to a MP4 which I thought was only stereo. I’m on my phone camping so can’t check. 
You then add additional audio tracks in a Video Editing software. 

My editor Vegas, can have multiple audio tracks and can use all my VST and DX plug ins. So I can use it like a DAW and produce a video with high quality audio.  
Drag and drop the audio and zoom in to sync it up to the video. I always make sure to use a count in that the camera mike picks up. 

 

 

[mettelus]

Depending on format used, a video is often only the video and audio track. Many video editors will allow multiples of both, but DAWs tend to only work with one video track, and you would need to bring in additional audio tracks manually (broadcast waves preferred for simplicity of import). 

[RexRed]

1 hour ago, John Vere said:

Not sure what format you are using for the video file. Sonar is very limited in what format it will use. What is a multi track MP4?  Didn’t think that’s possible? 

Normally we use OBS for capture to a MP4 which I thought was only stereo. I’m on my phone camping so can’t check. 
You then add additional audio tracks in a Video Editing software. 

My editor Vegas, can have multiple audio tracks and can use all my VST and DX plug ins. So I can use it like a DAW and produce a video with high quality audio.  
Drag and drop the audio and zoom in to sync it up to the video. I always make sure to use a count in that the camera mike picks up. 

 

 

OBS Studio can record up to 6 independent stereo audio sources.

When you import the OBS .mp4 into Adobe Premiere, all six audio tracks are imported and placed in a respective audio track in the Premiere sequence.

 It is a chore to resample and export these audio files from Premiere one by one into Cakewalk and then line them up manually.

 When I import the .mp4, Cakewalk Sonar only sees one stereo file and ignores the rest.

It should import the other audio files and place them in tracks as would be expected.

Yes, I have a workaround with Premiere but it is a tedious one. Rather, Cakewalk should simply import "all" of the audio files in the .mp4 container. 

 

Edited July 19 by RexRed

[RexRed]

55 minutes ago, mettelus said:

Depending on format used, a video is often only the video and audio track. Many video editors will allow multiples of both, but DAWs tend to only work with one video track, and you would need to bring in additional audio tracks manually (broadcast waves preferred for simplicity of import). 

A DAW, whose job it is to work with multiple audio tracks, should import all of the audio files in the .mp4 container and not just one. ?

[Noel Borthwick]

Its not so much the DAW as in what the video codec is reporting back when its transcoded to WAV, which is what happens. If you send a link to the MP4 I can take a look and see why its coming in as stereo. I assume that you have checked the import as mono box in the import video dialog?

[Noel Borthwick]

The video exposes a single stereo audio track to the Media foundation audio decoder which is what we're using to extract MP4 audio. So im afraid there isn't much we can do in this case. Sonar is not a video editing application so if you have more complex video formats you will have to externally extract the audio.
I also tried this in a different DAW sand had the same results as Sonar.

 

[RexRed]

On 7/24/2024 at 11:50 AM, Noel Borthwick said:

The video exposes a single stereo audio track to the Media foundation audio decoder which is what we're using to extract MP4 audio. So im afraid there isn't much we can do in this case. Sonar is not a video editing application so if you have more complex video formats you will have to externally extract the audio.
I also tried this in a different DAW sand had the same results as Sonar.

 

Adobe Premiere is not an audio editing application but it can find two stereo audio files in an mp4.

The whole point is being able to edit the audio, not the video, and mp4 is the world standard. Many recording devices record room mics and close up mics. Having to bounce (resample) the audio out of a video program (which is not made for audio editing and encoding) to load into and audio program is not optimal at all. I tried to load this video file in MixCraft 9 and it also only sees one stereo file as well.

I would hope that Cakewalk would lead and not simply follow other DAWs.

 

 

Edited July 31 by RexRed

[Sock Monkey]

FYI. Vegas has always included Sony Sound Forge as a free add on.  Just like Cakewalks Tools menu you can set Vegas to open audio tracks in Sound Forge which is a first class audio editor. You can even set the tracks to open in other editors like Wave Lab or  ? Sonar? Haven't tried Sonar as it's actually would be my last choice for wave editing. 

Vegas will also use all your 3rd party plug ins including DX from Sonar. From my point of view,  there's no reason not to have a very polished master quality audio track using just the Video editor. 

I have dumped videos from live shows that used 5 cameras into Vegas and each camera had pretty bad audio but there were little bits I liked. I also always record a board mix to a Tascam Handy recorder so I use that as the main audio track.