Peter,

Perhaps you could use "Extract Audio" for your clips > place the extracted audio in the audio tracks > mute the audio in the video timeline(s) as needed > mix/fade your audio at butt points for desired duration of overlapping.

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Something along those lines (thanks) seems to be what one has to do.

Method:-

1 - Edit video on video track in the usual way. When you've trimmed the clips as required (and to crossfade the audio, you must trim the clips at least a bit at each end) then ....

2 - Go through each clip and right-click-select "Split Audio" which sends the audio down to the Voice Track without creating another file. [Comment - it's a real pain to have to do this clip by clip, rather than selecting all of them and doing it in one go, but the option isn't shown if more than one clip is selected. Also, clicking the confirmation box every time seems quite unnecessary and a further obstacle].

3 - Drag each alternate clip down to the music track. Do this carefully without moving it sideways else sync to the video will be lost. [Comment - there seems to be no key combo for doing a vertical move without going sideways - I would have expected something like ctrl/drag to do this.]

4 - Now you can drag the right edge of the first clip's audio beyond the right edge of the first clip's video. Do the same for the left edge of the second clip's audo. Using the volume line or the mixer fade out the first clip's audio and fade in the second clip's audio at the point where they overlap. Voila, butt join video with smooth audio transition, just like almost all edits on the TV.

5 - With luck, if you do need to adjust your video edits, the audio edits will more or less adjust to compensate, though you may need to redo the fades at the point of change. I'd recommend saving your project to several version files (eg at the point where you finish video editing, and the point where you finish audio editing before doing anything else, etc)

BUT - good grief, that's a long winded method compared with simply dropping an audio-only transition between two clips. I really do hope Cyberlink will add this badly needed but quite simple thing before too long.

Hi Peter,

Yes, that’s what I meant.

I have also loaded duplicates of the clips in the Master track, into the PIP tracks. Then in PIP Designer, reduce the clip to a small square, and then drag the clip out of the viewing pane, using those PIP(s) solely for the audio.
This method has some benefits, but yes it is extra work. Of course the value of a lot of these workaround techniques depends greatly on one’s preferred workflow.

It would indeed be great if PD8 had a one click option for anything I could ever imagine wanting to do with it. My friend, who uses a full blown version of Final Cut Studio, almost has that capability. But then again, as a PD8 user, I do have one thing he doesn’t.
An extra $900 in my pocket.


Click here PDtoots for a collection of PowerDirector Tutorials and Tips

Well... a direct competitor to PD has it as a standard transition - and as I say, it's not like it's some hardly ever used facility - it's the absolute staple of professionally produced video and technically must be very easy to implement compared to many of the clever transitions that come with PD8 - but which you really couldn't use more than once in a while without irritating your audience more than somewhat.

However, that direct competitor doesn't like the source files from my GH1 at all, so PD8 scores well there!