Music Fade

[BSZ Profile Private message]

I wanted to fade music to the background but not completly out. I fade in fine, but I would like to fade out but not all the way, so that music is under the voice over but can't seem to make this happen in Producer. I tried importing the Royalty free music from a Pro Show Family Memories packet but Pro Tools (M-Audio) doesn't recognize a .psa file, so there is no current way of editing my own fades in in another software to then import back into ProShow. Anyone have a suggestion for a solution?

[ginger Profile Private message]

Hi,

Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but have you gone into Audio | Manage Soundtrack and adjusted the settings on the left side of that screen, such as "Soundtrack During Other Sounds", you can adjust Volume, Fade In and Fade Out so that the background music's volume is lowered when other sounds are played.

ginger

[BSZ Profile Private message]

I have tried that window to no avail. Essentially, at the 15 second mark, I want the music to fade back as the voice over which starts about 4 seconds after the music, begins to take shape and the story gets into itself.

So it goes - fade in music about a 1/2 second then it goes up to volume for another 3 or 4 seconds. At about the 4 second mark, the voice over begins with naming the piece and who's presenting it. There's a brief pause in the voice over and then the v/o goes into the body of the piece. It is around the pause area (about the 15 second mark) that I would like the music to fade back (taking about a second) but not out so that it lingers lightly in the background for support.

I ahve not been able to do this ProShow as of yet. I tried your suggestion ginger but it didn't work in the way I implemented it - which I no doubt is due to operator error and misunderstanding of what I need to do.

[ginger Profile Private message]

I'm not fully understanding what you're trying to do, but the way it would normally work is that your background music plays at a certain volume, then when it comes to a slide sound (presumably your voiceover) the background music fades to a lower volume (still playing softly behind the narration), allowing your narration to be heard. When your narration is completely over, the background music should fade back to full volume.

You say there's a pause between the intro and the body of the piece. Are these voiceovers two separate files with a pause in between or just one file? Are you saying you want the background music to increase in volume during that pause, louder than it is during the narration? I could be wrong, but if it's all one file, I think the only two options are the volume for the majority of the soundtrack, and the volume of the soundtrack while other sounds are being played. Other than that, I think you'd have to edit in an external editor, and apparently you can't do that with the .psa file.

Maybe someone else can come up with some sort of workaround.

ginger

[BSZ Profile Private message]

Ginger - your summation is pretty much on the mark with my intent. There are two seperate files. One music, one voice (sound). I laid the music in and gave it a 1/2 second fade in to normal volume. Because the music piece allows it, I don't have to immediately pull back on the volume when introducing the V/O sound. The gap(pause) in the V/O I mentioned occurs in a spot where the music cresendo's and that is the point I want the music to fade back to a lower level as the V/O then continues, with the music continuing to play at a much softer background level.

You mentioned that the music can fade back once a sound starts. I have not been able to figure that out - I'm sure I'm just missing something. Can I make the music fade back at any point and stay low?

Like I said, I would like the music to fade into the background at about the 15 second mark of the piece. The V/O(sound) is introduced at the 5 second mark of the piece. So essentially - the music starts 5 seconds prior to the V/O-sound ...,again, the sound is its own seperate file.

Thank you for your patience in trying to correct my lack of understanding of the software.

[ginger Profile Private message]

Because the music piece allows it, I don't have to immediately pull back on the volume when introducing the V/O sound. The gap(pause) in the V/O I mentioned occurs in a spot where the music cresendo's and that is the point I want the music to fade back to a lower level.

I think this is the problem. You want the music to lower its volume in the middle of the voiceover.

You mentioned that the music can fade back once a sound starts. I have not been able to figure that out - I'm sure I'm just missing something.

What I meant is that the soundtrack volume can be lowered during other sounds, and that would be under: Audio | Manage Soundtrack | Soundtrack During Other Sounds ... you can adjust the volume of the soundtrack during the voiceover (at the beginning) as well as the amount of time for Fade In & Fade Out.

I'm reluctant to make other suggestions because I really haven't used that feature much at all and I don't want to send you on a wild goose chase , but ... I see that under "Sound Effects", which I would assume is what your voiceover file is, you can "override the soundtrack". Maybe it's possible that you could split the voiceover into separate files, and "override the soundtrack" differently for each one, adjusting the volume of the soundtrack differently for each voiceover. These options are available if you right click on the slide with the slide sound/voiceover, then select Customize | Sounds | Sound Effects. I've also read where the "Offset From Previous Slide" can be useful for some workarounds, but again, I haven't used this feature myself so I'm just throwing ideas out there for you to look into. (You may need a separate file just for the "pause" so that you can adjust that portion separately).

Hopefully someone will come along that has more experience with these types of workarounds.

ginger

[BSZ Profile Private message]

Ginger - I believe you may be correct in that I may have to record several different small V/O tracks and then insert them in as needed. I was hoping that I didn't have to do that. But if it must be.., then so be it.

[Dean Athans Profile Private message]

BSZ -

Not exactly sure what you're trying to do, but I think you are trying to fade the volume down to a non-zero volume while you have a voiceover, Is that right?

A method I have used involves importing the soundtrack twice. Use the built-in PSP sound editor to end the first soundtrack at, say 2:43 (with a fade-out if you want). Then, again using the PSP sound editor, start the second soundtrack at, say, 2:42, BUT AT THE LOWER VOLUME.

Then, switching to "soundtrack view" (by using the tab button), carefully drag to overlap the two soundtracks so that they exactly match.

(This method differs a little from the built-in "soundtrack volume during other sounds" where that function kicks in only during the transitions. The method I show above can be edited to occur at ANY point in the show.)

- Dean

[Oldguy Profile Private message]

It sounds a little like your voice over is on the main music/sound track.
I would put that on a particular slide, not on the music track,
then what everyone is saying will work fine.

Sorry if I misunderstood.

Forrest

[BarbaraC Profile Private messageWebsite]

Dean, you're a genius!

Barbara

[Dean Athans Profile Private message]

Aw gawrsh (shucks!).

- D.

[BSZ Profile Private message]

Thanks for the heads up on the music ideas - i will see what i can do now that i'm back.