Audio waveforms for nested sequences are not showing up in Kdenlive

Help
1

Kdenlive isn’t showing audio waveforms for nested sequences, and I’d like to confirm whether this is expected behavior or a fixable issue.

System

  • Kdenlive version: 25.08.0

  • OS: 24.04.03

  • Installed via: Snap

Problem

  • Inside a sequence timeline, audio waveforms display normally.

  • When I place that sequence as a clip inside another sequence, the audio plays correctly but no waveform is generated.

  • Regular video/audio clips show waveforms as expected.

  • “Show Audio Thumbnails” is enabled, and timeline preview/thumbnail settings are correct.

What I’ve tried

  • Toggling audio thumbnail settings

  • Enabling/disabling proxies

  • Restarting Kdenlive

  • Testing in a new project

No change — only nested sequences lose waveforms.

Questions

  1. Is this a known limitation of nested sequences?

  2. Is there a setting, cache trick, or workflow that restores waveforms?

  3. Should I report this as a bug, and if so, where’s the correct place (GitLab, KDE bug tracker, etc.)?

  4. Any workarounds — e.g., converting the sequence to a compound clip differently?

I need waveforms because timing edits without them is impractical.
If someone has encountered this and solved it, I’d appreciate guidance.

2

Hello, and welcome to the forum and community.

This is expected behavior.

A sequence is just like another (video) clip, but for now it’s not split into its video and audio streams. This may be added in future releases but would, AFAIK, require a (potentially significant) change in the code and how sequences are handled.

For future reference: You absolutely did the right thing and posted your questions here in the official forum before logging it as a bug. If you do need to report a bug, follow these instructions to create one in the official KDE bug tracker. Thanks!

1 Like