Hello, RDOIII!

I'm familiar with your situation in that I have also found PD14's audio adjustments won't cooperate with my settings. If I want to drop the overall level of a clip's audio to(for example) -25db, I would put the scrubber at the very start of the clip to be so adjusted and adjust the fader to that setting, then get the disappointing result of seeing the fader creep back up to 0db. In Power Director 8 I could set my audio levels with ease. If I've inserted narration at a given spot along the timeline, and I didn't want either background music or the native audio from the clip itself to drown out the narration, it was simply a matter of placing the scubber at a point just before the beginning of the narration, click on the fader for the audio to be adjusted, a white dot will appear on that line, step forward a few frames, on the fader, type in a new level and the fader will drop to that level and maintain it, I simply play to the end of the narration, click again, another white dot appears, bump forward a few frames, then type in, '0' on the level adjustment and Presto! the audio jumps back up to 0db again, It's that easy! As I see it, between PD8 and PD14, in regards to setting audio levels, things seem to have gone backwards! Cyberlink need to rethink their audio editing methods BEFORE they release PD15!

Cheers!

Neil.

See images

I've given you a few images to look at to get a "brief" look at what's available. I haven't covered audio extraction in the Media Library or editing in either Wave editor or AudioEditor with any images.

Dafydd

more images

Neil



Thanks for your comments - I have seen other comments that say the PD8 worked as I would like it to do - as it does in my old Pinnacle Studio

As I am working with many clips it is a pain to work clip by clip

I want to be able to control across transition and into the next clip

Ie you lower the volume it should stay there until you raise it - that may include going through ten clips or more.

Like I said should stay put



Dafydd



Thanks for the response

I am now familar to all the items that you noted - but it is still focused on working on one clip at a time

Several issues is that the fade drops down but it does not lower the overall volume line - the end still stays high the volume then increases again to the end - dumb - if you fade out it should stay out until you raise them either with the slider or fade in. And then you need to start all over again in the next clip.

In short all the time savings from fast editing is being lost in the audio editing

As info I have AudioDierector but that doesn't help either that is more (seemingly) related to changing sound issues

Again

If I am missing something I am really hoping someone can point out what it is - Otherwise I am shocked at the poor execution of audio editing in PD14



RDOIII

Show us your Edit workspace in the form of a screenshot please. See guide Part E & F. Your fade issue doesn't gel with what is done with fade, so we need to see what you're looking at.
Link: http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/45453.page

Highlight both clips and select the Audio gain slider, move to the left or right.

I tend to do a lot of adjustments using the "rubber band" as i find that the quickest/fastest option.

I started to try and show you via images... too much ha ha.

Dafydd

Hi, RDOIII!

Thanks for the feedback(in audio, that's when you hold a microphone too close to a speaker, ha-ha!) Seriously though, in my case, what I generally do is bring a video edit to near-completion, that is, I put all my clips together, trim them down so that I get rid of spare frames(use split to snip off any frames beyond a complete number of minutes & seconds), add all my transitions, titles and what-nots, then produce the video. That produced video is then viewed(pausing at places where I want to add a comment) I have Microsoft Word opened, and at each point, I type up a comment in a script, I then record that script in Sony Sound Forge, then import the narration track(usually an MP3 file) into my media library. From there it's dropped onto the voice track(microphone icon). Adding the narration at the wanted spots is simply a matter of then cutting the narration audio into clipboard(Ctrl+X), play video to where first comment is to be inserted, then paste(Ctrl+V) play to end of comment, pause video, split and cut(Ctrl+X again), play to next point for comment, paste(Ctrl+V again), continuing the process until all comments are in place. If the native audio on the video is too loud, I use the proceedure I explained in my earlier post to attenuate that native audio track. If I add music(usually only at the beginning and end of the video) I'll attenuate the music track in the same manner. PD8 lets me do all this work with a great deal of ease, not so in PD14, unfortunately. For all the new "features" in PD14, there are some departments where PD14 falls flat. Corry Cyberlink, but the truth needs telling!

Cheers!

Neil

Hi, Dafydd!

Were you asking me or RDOIII to provide the screenshot?

Cheers!

Neil.

Dafydd



I will try to create some screen shots

Have never done that.

Will try later this evening when I have some time after work.

Thanks for the response

RDOIII

You may want to check this out for basic info...I found it very helpful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_EwUNXu40Q Regards,
Dan
Power Director 21-Ultimate
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(10 core, 20M Cache),
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Quote: Dafydd



I will try to create some screen shots

Have never done that.

Will try later this evening when I have some time after work.

Thanks for the response

RDOIII

Hi, RDOIII!

It's easy to create a screenshot. While your Power Director is open, press the button on your keyboard marked PrtScn. This will create a bitmap image of whatever is on the screen at the moment you press the button. As you're dealing with audio editing, your screenshot should show what you're trying to do with the audio track, with the audio room open(clicking on the fader icon will bring up the fader controls for all the audio tracks). When you've pressed PrtScn, minimise Power Director, open up Microsoft Paint, then paste into the empty screen(Ctrl+V), you'll have created your screenshot. You can crop away unwanted bits of the image to show in more detail what you're trying to do in audio editing.

Cheers!

Neil.

Dafydd

I trust the sample video of the my audio edits comes through

The first clip shows the use of the Fader control - but the volume does not stay down - Fyi on the youtube video by Maliek referenced by another commenter the audio control acts the same way

The second clip shows the manual use of the slide makes the audio stay down - like it should - but at the start of the next (third) clip it jumps back up - it should stay at the level set until I want it to come back up.

Then one of most frustrating things in the use of speed enhancement is suppose to mute the sound - but no it does not - in fact as shown the mute clip is checked and you can't grab the audio bar - now that is brillant,

So if there is something I am missing I am all ears.

And to repeat - my old Pinnacle Studio 12 does things just the way you would expect and I want.

RDO111 I am very interested in this thread as what you describe are also my frustrations with editing sound in PD14. It just does not seem logical and far too labour intensive. Previously I used MoviePlus and it was much simpler and easier to use with regard to setting sound levels.

Regards

Nigel

Hello, Collie581 and RDOIII!

The more I read on this thread, the more I've convinced myself that all future audio adjustments on my complete-to-pre-narration-stage video edits, should be carried out in PD8. I'll be doing this in future!

Cheers!

Neil.

Neil



Very interesting comments

Am I correct to assume that PD8 works as I want it to do?



Thanks



RDOIII

Same trouble for me too. It is not acceptable to have to set audio on each clip one by one.

Hi RDO -

I don't have the luxury of having used any of the other software mentioned in this thread, nor do I have any recollection of how audio was adjusted in PD8. Therefore - no comparisons.

Basics:

• When you insert a video/audio clip in the timeline, by default, it has a beginning and end keyframe, set at 0.0dB (i.e. the little white dots).


• Adjusting the horizontal slider sets the level for the whole track (all clips)


• Adjusting the vertical slider (when stopped or paused) sets the gain level at that point - a keyframe is created


• Adjusting the vertical slider (during playback) sets the gain level for the remainder of the clip


• Clicking either of the fade buttons creates a 2 second fade in/out wherever the timeline marker is placed - extra keyframe(s) created


• PDR14 (unlike old versions) does not mute the audio when speed adjustments > +2.000 are made.

About your screen capture:

1. Clip 1 - a fade out was created at ~00:00:04:15. A (default) 2 second fade out was applied, after which the clip faded back in (because it still has a keyframe set at the end of the clip) - I'd say expected behaviour.


2. Clip 2 - at ~00:01:07:20, during playback, the gain level was set to minimum -∞ which applied to the rest of the clip.


3. Clip 3 - level set for clip 2 were not applied to clip 3, which has separate keyframes. Expected behaviour.


4. Clip 4 - video speed adjusted ▲ by a factor of ~+3. Audio speed/pitch followed suit. Mute clip option became disabled, but audio level still adjustable (in the audio mixing module only).

Some of that is as expected, to me. Some of it is a bit odd & would need to be worked around.

Neil - so I don't have to dig through my archives to find a PD8 installer, how about a little screen capture showing how easy it is to adjust audio? I honestly cannot remember.

Cheers - Tony
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Hi folks

To demostrate how the audio mixer SHOULD work it dawned on me to screen capture a video of the old Pinnacle Studio 12

Ironically I used the ScreenCapture functon of PD14 that I really like.

YNOTFISH

Before going on I would like to make a few responses to your comments

If you turn down the volume on your TV or mute it -would you expect it to be normal function to then have the volume gradually increase -on its own- back to the orginal volume? No. What then is any reason to expect the audio mixer to act this way? I can't think of a single reason.

Regarding not automatically muting a video clip with speed greater the 2X, I could live with that if the program didn't show it being muted - but it isn't - and then making "unavailible"so you can't grab the volume control- that is a mistake.

So - please watch this video and I am sure you will say - "Wish PD 14 worked that way!!!!"

Note how when you lower or raise the volume on a track it does it across all clips to the end!!!! It is stays put across clips

Think of the time savings in audio editing over the way PD 14 works - and the case of speed increases where it doesn't work at all.

PS I have put this question into Tech Support early this morning but no reply as of this evening - Just going back to Pinnacle for the video makes me all the more frustrated. And if you are wondering why not stay with Pinnacle Studio 12 - it is slowwww on rendering and crashes. So I am not enjoying creating these complaints as I really appreciate the video functionallity - but if the audio functions are terrible what good is it?



RDOIII

Hi RDO -

You've taken it that I was trying to argue with you. That's not the case. I agree that some things you've raised are, indeed, oddities (like the "Mute Clip" thing). I was simply describing what PDR does.

Unfortunately, because you thought I was arguing, you launched into defence mode and presented a spurious analogy/argument about volume controls on a TV. My audio settings for the TV don't have keyframes!

Thanks for the screen capture. I can understand that you'd want PDR to function like that. Agreed - it's easy & intuitive. The word "should" is a subjective thing - not everyone would agree - but I understand you'd like it to work like PS. I guess you've already posted your suggestions in the dedicated thread - http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/45634.page

To upload screen captures, you'll get the message across without wasting upload/download time by producing to a lower res WMV. There are some profiles attached. They go in C:\Program Files\CyberLink\PowerDirector14\Language\Enu\Profiles

Cheers - Tony
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YNOTFISH - Tony

First I must offer an apology - I didn't intend to have my post focused on your comments.

I see I should have added a "To all" notation before the sentence that starts "So - please watch ...."

Regarding posting screen shots - I believe it would be difficult to really show the issues. However, if there is anyone that would like to see screen shots please advise and I will try to do that.

RDOIII