For some reason clips in the timeline have the volume lowered automatically and there is no way to stop it. You can raise the volume level individually for EACH timeline in the audio-mixing room. HP Envy Phoenix/4thGen i7-4770(4@3.4GHz~turbo>3.9)
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Barry you only seem to be able to alter the volume in the Audio-Mixing room for individual clips. You do not seem to be able to move the gain up or down for the whole track of clips at the one time. Perhaps I am missing something but doing each clip individually is extremely time consuming and makes balancing the sound over several tracks almost impossible.
The AudioDirector does not seem to help in this respect either as you only seem to be able to import one clip at a time. Why not the whole track? Then it might become more useful.
Nigel

The horizontal slider under each track audio-control, it does the entire individual timeline. HP Envy Phoenix/4thGen i7-4770(4@3.4GHz~turbo>3.9)
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Quote: Hi All. Does anyone else find that they have to turn up the volume on their PC when working with PowerDirector? On most applications I have my PC volume set at 30% but to get the same volume with PowerDirector I have to increase it to 50%+. For a while I thought that I was recording my clips too quietly so bumped up the gain in PD with resulting distortion. I just wonder if it is only my PC that has this problem or have others found this. The clips when produced and played on my media player are fine.

Any chance you have stereo clips but have PD set to Dolby5.1? Check in pref > General > Audio channels:, that would have the playback effect you describe.

Jeff

Barry - that slider under each track for audio control - is that something that just showed up in PD14? - so it's not part of previous versions?

CS PD13 Ultimate - Build 3516, WIN 8.1, 64 Bit, 16G RAM, Intel Core i5 4460, CPU @ 3.2GHz, NVIDIA GeForce GT720, Graphics Memory(total avail.)-4093MB
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It's not under the tracks in the regular timelines, it's part of the audio-room UI, and it's been there for several versions, maybe back to PD11 or more.
HP Envy Phoenix/4thGen i7-4770(4@3.4GHz~turbo>3.9)
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Hi Nigel -

Jeff's suggestion about your audio channel settings in PDR is, most likely, the right pointer. If your setting is 5.1 and the audio clip is stereo, it makes about a -5dB difference.



In the test I just did, audio level playback was consistent in PDR, ADR, WE & Audacity. N.B. The audio track of this video is a little uninteresting



Cheers - Tony
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Oopsy, I totally missed the OP stated they found the gain. HP Envy Phoenix/4thGen i7-4770(4@3.4GHz~turbo>3.9)
Nvidia GTX 960(4GB)/16GB DDR3/
Canon Vixia HV30/HF-M40/HF-M41/HF-G20/Olympus E-PL5.
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Audio room ... got it .. thanks!
CS PD13 Ultimate - Build 3516, WIN 8.1, 64 Bit, 16G RAM, Intel Core i5 4460, CPU @ 3.2GHz, NVIDIA GeForce GT720, Graphics Memory(total avail.)-4093MB
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Barry

Your slider tip is very useful. Thank you.

Jeff and Tony

That was really interesting but unfortunately my PD14 is set correctly I think. I reset to 5.1 just to confirm and my sound levels drop even more so confirming what you said. I would be grateful if someone would try something for me. Take any clip and open it in a media player (I used VLC). Note how clear and loud it is. Now drop the same clip into PD and play it without changing the PC volume. In my case anyway the sound is much quieter.
As far as I can see it does not matter what application you use to open the clip the sound is ALWAYS better than through PD14. I also have MoviePlus 6 on my PC and it plays the clips perfectly.
Regards
Nigel

Hi Nigel -

One difference between media players, like VLC, is that they typically have a playback volume control.

I tested the same audio file - 400Hz tone - in VLC player at the default level, which peaks at 114%, and indeed it played back ~5dB louder than PDR. When I reset the output volume to 100%, it played back at the same volume.

The other players & NLEs I tested - MPCHC, QT Player, iTunes, Pre, WMM - all played back at the same level shown in the video above at -10dB with the speaker level set to 30.

Cheers - Tony
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Tony

I have just checked my VLC Player and the playback volume is set to 100% There is a wee icon bottom right that shows this. This is much louder than PDR. Does this mean that PDR has a playback setting of say 75%? If so is there a way to set this to 100%?
By the way playing your demo clip just about blasted me out of my chair with my PC speaker set at 30%!

Nigel

Hi Nigel -

That's what I was saying. I'm not seeing or hearing any difference in playback level between VLC & PDR... or the other players/NLEs I checked.

I tested a few different file types, not knowing what you were using, but there was no obvious difference in playback.

This screen capture shows the 400Hz tone (WAV) and audio check file (MP3) in PDR & VLC. System audio is set to 30.



As far as I know there's no setting in PDR to adjust audio playback level. I don't have a clue why you're hearing such a difference. Hopefully someone with a few clues might pop in!

Cheers - Tony
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Quote: Barry - that slider under each track for audio control - is that something that just showed up in PD14? - so it's not part of previous versions?

CS

Hi, CS,

I think it goes way back to PD5! It was certainly there in PD7 and 8(I still have PD8 installed so I definitely know it's there in that version) I'll have to look at that control more closely in future to see how best to use it in my own works.

Cheers!

Neil.

Tony

Thank you for your efforts. I don't want to waste anymore of your time. I can always bump up the volume in my speakers while working in PDR. For the record it does not matter what type of file I import the result is always the same. Playing in PDR - the volume is dramatically reduced. If I go to edit the sound in AudioDirector or WaveEditor the sound is perfect. And once I produce the file the audio levels are fine.

If I knew how to show this like you did in your video I would.

Thanks

Nigel

PD 14 does have a volume control on the preview player. If that volume is not at 100% you may have the condition you say.

. Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

Quote: As far as I know there's no setting in PDR to adjust audio playback level.

Geez it's hard to get good help! How embarrassing. Carl - why did you let me write that?

Cheers - Tony
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Carl That is brilliant! My problem is solved. It was set about 25%. At last I will have a good idea what the final film will sound like as I do the editing.
Thanks
Nigel

Quote:

Quote: As far as I know there's no setting in PDR to adjust audio playback level.

Geez it's hard to get good help! How embarrassing. Carl - why did you let me write that?

Cheers - Tony

Tony, you usually get it right. Don't know what happened to you. Besides you live in another Country than I. Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.