Went From PowerDirector App to 365, Need Sound Help

AllisonsMunecas

Newbie Joined: Jul 25, 2020 08:53 Messages: 4 Offline

Solved by

Apr 22, 2022 12:25

Hello,

I recently got a laptop and purchased PowerDirector365 for the laptop. I was really used to the mobile app and had been editing all my videos on it. One of the features I really liked on the mobile app was I could lower the volume of my background sound tracks by a percentage, basically I could slide it from 100 down to 5%, and that gave me the perfect sound balance.

I can't for the life of me figure out how to do this in 365 on my laptop. I tried the Audio Ducking but it made for some horrible LOUD interludes of background music when I wasn't talking. Right now, I'm editing the audio by dialing down the Dynamic Range Compression to a negative 26, but it doesn't give me the same results as the mobile app.

What am I doing wrong? I'm not a very sophisticated editor, I just make videos as a hobby, but the volume thing is really bothering me.

Thanks for your help!

optodata

Senior Contributor Location: California, USA Joined: Sep 16, 2011 16:04 Messages: 8630 Offline

Apr 22, 2022 13:49

The quickest way to get help on any feature in PD is to use the F1 key to bring up the online Help pages. From there you can search or use the index to find the topic you're interested in.

There is also usually more than one way to accomplish any given task, and my preferred method is to hover the mouse cursor over the thin blue horizontal line to see the current volume level of each clip. It will start a +0.0dB and you can click and drag it up or down as needed. The maximum range is +/-28dB and one step below -28dB is fully muted (shown as -∞).

You can also use the Audio Mixing room or the Keyframe tool to set the volume to a specific level if that's easier.

tomasc

Senior Contributor Joined: Aug 25, 2011 12:33 Messages: 6464 Offline

Apr 22, 2022 13:54

Try this: Go to the mixing room. Look at the left/right track slider for the track of your background audio. Move it to the left from 50 to lower the audio volume of the whole track.

As an alternative you can utilize the help screen to see other ways of adjusting clip or track audio volume.

EDIT: optodata answewd first while I was still typing. Many choices to accomplish the task.

JL_JL

Senior Contributor Location: Arizona, USA Joined: Oct 01, 2006 20:01 Messages: 6091 Offline

Apr 22, 2022 16:06

Quote One of the features I really liked on the mobile app was I could lower the volume of my background sound tracks by a percentage, basically I could slide it from 100 down to 5%, and that gave me the perfect sound balance.

5% amplitude scale would be -14dB. Use either of the methods defined by optodata or tomasc to adjust the audio. To match the prior 5% amplitude, set it at -14dB.

Jeff