I found a solution for an issue I saw reported in several DaVinci Resolve 20 forums, where audio waveforms start displaying incorrectly:
- the waveform becomes “compressed”,
- fills with fake visual information,
- changes while scrolling horizontally,
- looks like the audio is visually “accumulating,”
- but the actual audio playback sounds completely normal.
In my case, this mainly happened with boom and lavalier tracks after modifying channel settings to hear audio on the left/right side separately.
What caused the issue
The bug appeared when I converted or manipulated mono clips as stereo/artificial stereo and then remapped the channels.
The audio itself continued working correctly, but DaVinci Resolve 20 started drawing the waveforms incorrectly.
The solution
Do NOT convert the clips into artificial stereo.
Instead:
- Keep the clips as MONO.
- Open the Audio Mixer.
- Adjust the panning from the mixer.
- Modify the control called “Separation.”
Exact steps
1. Open the Mixer
In the Edit page:
- click the “Mixer” button in the top-right corner.
2. Locate the pan control
Each track contains:
- an XY pan box above the volume fader.
3. Adjust “Separation”
In my case, the panning did not behave correctly until I modified the parameter called:
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After adjusting that control:
- I was able to center the audio correctly,
- the mono boom audio played through both speakers,
- and the waveform visual bug disappeared completely.
Result
- The audio remains properly mono.
- It plays correctly on both sides.
- The waveforms display normally again.
- They no longer deform while scrolling through the timeline.
Conclusion
The problem was NOT related to:
- cache,
- GPU,
- or corrupted files.
It was actually related to:
- panning,
- stereo separation,
- and incorrect mono/stereo channel reinterpretation inside DaVinci Resolve 20.
The fix was:
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