Audio Fade In & Out Not Working

MusicEditingBear

Hi everyone,

I do video editing for a living and I've stuck with VideoPad since it's what I know.

Since upgrading to Windows 10 six months ago I've noticed my ability to fade audio in and out doesn't work anymore and now the audio seems to play full volume while 'fading out' and then just stops dead. This sounds extremely unprofessional and I'm not sure how to fix it.

Here's a screenie for those visual peeps:

As you can see from the image, I'm trying to fade out Audio track 2 (loud montage music) in to Audio track 1 (soft, background music to accompany voice). I've been doing this for years in Video Pad before upgrading to Windows 10.

*edit* Should probably include the fade times, I've tried 1,2 & 3 second fades. None of them seem to fix the issue. My default has always been 2 seconds and that used to work great (pre-Windows 10).

I've read a few posts about this, clear cache this, click option that but at the end of the day, simply fading a music track should work independently of what the video files are doing in the timeline.

Please advise, share your experiences. It's hurting me to make content with such a glaring audio error in it.

[deleted]

Inserting an image into a forum post.

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With regards to the fade problem..

You could try a straight forward videotrack Crossfade transition between the clips, either with or without clip overlap. The soundtracks will fade-out and fade-in over each other for the duration of the transition.

Nat

MusicEditingBear

Hi Nat,

Thanks for the image tips.

I'll give it a try as a potential work-around.

To be fair, I don't always need cross-fades in the video however and putting in unnecessary video splits/fades to fade in/out audio is potentially causing more issues than it's solving.

I am at a loss why independent music audio tracks 'fade-out' option is not working.

Thanks for your idea however, eager to see if it works. Will update.

MusicEditingBear

*Update*

Tried layering music tracks with cross-faded video segments.

Didn't really see any improvement. Still got the 'stopping dead' jolt with the fading out louder track.

[deleted]

Note : The normal Crossfade transition won't require any separate soundtrack fades as the transition does this.

Under Tool/Options/media have you got the Normalise audio box ticked? Any chance of posting an image of the affected section...

Nat

MusicEditingBear

Nationalsolo wrote:

Hi

Note : The normal Crossfade transition won't require any separate soundtrack fades as the transition does this.

Under Tool/Options/media have you got the Normalise audio box ticked? Any chance of posting an image of the affected section...

Nat

Hi Nat,

Yes I've got the box ticked (and have tried it un-ticked too).

Here's the affected section (both with fades added and left normal, crossed fade is 2 seconds long, tracks have 1 second fade outs (both manual and by the transition as you suggested).

Section 1 (no fades added, relying on 2 second crossfade, 'normalise audio ticked').

Track 2 has a jarring 'stop dead' cut-off.

Section 1 (fades added, also using 2 second crossfade, 'normalise audio ticked').

Track 2 has a jarring 'stop dead' cut-off.

To be fair Nat, sometimes you may want to simply fade-in/fade-out two ambient audio tracks during a longer video segment without a jarring drop-out, we shouldn't have to split a video file and create a cross-fade as a workaround.

Look, I'm going to call a spade a spade here and ask why is a basic audio fade-out not working in this video software? Most people would expect this from any video editing software.

It used to work when I ran Windows 7 and now it's not in Windows 10.

Is there a compatibility issue the devs are aware of OR a new feature added that has impacted the ability to use audio fades?

borate

Crossfade transitions survive export here...

provided that the audio clips are on the same track, the OPTIIONS|EDITING sound crossfade box is ticked and both clips are linked to video (may not be necessary).

[deleted]

Your images are now visible and clarify things a little. They do show the audio tracks are separate tracks and not simply two clips with audio following each other which I thought was what you had originally.?

However, the track labelled Voice is normally associated with the video and should be Audio Track 1.(You labelled it Audio in the second image.) The track you have labelled Audio Track1 should be Audio Track 2 and is usually associated with Video track2 (Overlay) etc. So the layout you show is a little confusing.but I think it's just the labels you used. ?

Anyway..In the top example..Yes-Audio track 2 will play to the end and stop suddenly as there is no fade out. It is not (apparently) connected with the video and therefore will not be affected by a crossfade transition.

In the lower example audio track 2 should fade out.

I have duplicated as far as possible your set out.... This is how it should work.......

Two clips are on Video Track1. Clip 1 is silent (actually an image but I could have used a clip with the sound muted.) to match your image. The Audio for the second clip is on Audio track 1 which is normal. (It is labelled Voice but its the Audio for Video Track1.)

I have added a 6 second crossfade with moving clips to the join but the audio is not ticked to crossfade.Even if ticked it would not affect the other Audio tracks.

The SOFT Audio is on Audio Track 2 and is adjusted to to start at the start of the transition. This has a 3 second fade-in as shown by the blue line. (Click the audio on the track; select Fade-in and set 3 seconds.) Consequently it fades in with Clip2

The LOUD audio is on Audio Track 3 and extends to the end of the transition. This has a 3 second fade-out as depicted by the blue line and consequently fades out with Clip1. (Click the audio on the track; select Fade-out and set 3 seconds.)

i.e. The LOUD track fades out to silence as the SOFT track fades into full. The 3 second duration is set as being half the length of the transition.

The voice track simply starts at full volume at the join. (You can add a fade in if required.)

In short..The Loud and Soft tracks overlap and have their fades equal and opposite for the length of the overlap.

Nat

MusicEditingBear

Nationalsolo wrote:

However, the track labelled Voice is normally associated with the video and should be Audio Track 1.(You labelled it Audio in the second image.) The track you have labelled Audio Track1 should be Audio Track 2 and is usually associated with Video track2 (Overlay) etc. So the layout you show is a little confusing.but I think it's just the labels you used. ?

Apologies. I can see what you mean. I only work with video (not images) so I guess I just lumped in audio track one as a given for being voice. Thanks for clarifying.

Nationalsolo wrote:

I have duplicated as far as possible your set out.... This is how it should work.......

Ok I replicated your layout and tested it myself:

I set the crossfade to 6 seconds like you with 3 seconds fade (left) and that appeared to fade correctly. I tried a variation on the right with a shorter fade within a longer crossfade and that worked too.

Thank you. I generally used the default 0.5 second crossfade so I suppose I can implement longer crossfades as it seems to be fixing the issue.

Also looking back at my original example, I was moving music tracks outside of the 0.5 crossfade zone to allow them adequate time to fade in/out which may have also caused problems.

Fade in/out 'has' to be used with crossfades?

Looking back over your posts, you always say to use crossfades when fading music tracks in/out. People may want to fade music during a longer, un-cut video segment.

Question: Does Videopad 'require' a video crossfade to enable additional (audio tracks 2, 3 and beyond) to fade in and out? Can you fade music tracks in and out at any point? Yes or no?

During bigger editing sessions (multiple video, music files) I find this is hit-and-miss (sometimes works, sometimes doesn't). I'm trying to understand if I should add an artificial crossfade so it works 'correctly' or I should be able to do this without a crossfade.

borate

Audio TRANSITION fades, enabled under OPTIONS|EDITING, apply only to a video transition of adjacent clips on the same track. Audio follows video, in essence.

Audio fades not bound to video can be made on any clip, irrespective of track: click AUDIO EFFECTS on the menu bar and choose fade IN or OUT. Or click the AUDIO tab that's just below the AUDIO EFFECTS menu item. A FADE button will appear on the toolbar.

Once a fade has been programmed it can be viewed and refined by double-clicking the audio track itself. Note the keyframes (white squares) on the blue line. They can be dragged left or right to increase/decrease fade duration or up/down to change volume.

The graph itself is yet another method for creating a fade. Drag the line and release the mouse button, to create keyframes. Right-click to remove a fade effect.

[deleted]

"Question: Does Videopad 'require' a video crossfade to enable additional (audio tracks 2, 3 and beyond) to fade in and out? Can you fade music tracks in and out at any point? Yes or no? "

As mentioned above.....Video track 1 and Audio track 1 are linked (normally) and if the Crossfade video transition is applied between the clips then it is also automatically applied to the associated Audio track 1, (unless the option has been turned off) Separate audio tracks below are not affected.

On the lower independant audio tracks (i.e. not linked to higher video tracks) and even when audio clips are on the same track and contiguous there is no X to enable an audio transition like a crossfade between them. If you want to crossfade the audio clips on these tracks then one must use individual tracks, overlap them and have fade in and fade out on the overlap.

"Can you fade music tracks in and out at any point? "

Yes, In a single audio track you can left click the track and preview in The Clip preview window. Along the centre of the waveform display (see Borate's image above and mine below) there is a thin purple line which represents the volume. This line can be grabbed at any point and dragged up or down to produce a fade-out or fade-in. It needs a bit of practice as any trims to the clip can be confusing as to where the changes in the sound start. In this way you can make multiple audio changes in a single track.The line produced is copied to the audio track.

e.g..........

Any volume point (sound keyframe) can be adjusted. The centre of the waveform is the "normal" volume. Right click the track to remove the fades if required.

This procedure can be used with any Audio track whether linked to a Video track or not.Obviously it won't produce a crossfade.

Nat

MusicEditingBear

It's doing it again.

Audio track 3 is set to a 1 second fade-out during a video transition of 1 second and yet it plays at full volume as if the fade isn't there.

Nationalsolo wrote:

On the lower independant audio tracks (i.e. not linked to higher video tracks) and even when audio clips are on the same track and contiguous there is no X to enable an audio transition like a crossfade between them. If you want to crossfade the audio clips on these tracks then one must use individual tracks, overlap them and have fade in and fade out on the overlap.

When I was on Windows 7 I could freely do this anywhere. Since I upgraded to Windows 10 last Christmas I find this feature does not work reliably. Sometimes it works, sometimes it won't fade. I use VideoPad for my job, I can't have a feature that doesn't work 100% of the time.

I've attempted everything you two have suggested in this thread so my feedback to you is that there appears to be some audio fade-out issues with Windows 10. A Google search showed other users seeming to have similar issues so it doesn't appear like it's just me.

*shurgs* I like to use VideoPad but I can't work with this.

borate

What version of VP is being used? Here's the latest. When this occurs, try Clearing Unused Cache Files, under OPTIONS|DISK tab. Then set the fade again.

Tested a layout similar to yours, above, and audio three faded out. Windows 10. Please upload your project, or a segment that fails, so someone can take a look...

Here's how...

1. In Videopad click the FILE menu, then SAVE PORTABLE PROJECT AS. Save to any convenient folder.

2. Open the folder that contains the saved files and ZIP them all.

3. Upload the zip file to DropBox, Google Drive, MS OneDrive or the like. It's free.

4. Make the uploaded file public (share it) and copy the shared link.

5. Paste the link into this forum.