Audio ducking (Dan Hauck)

Dan_Hauck

I'm a newbie with VideoPad but have 15 years experience with Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0 and am finding VideoPad rather non-intuitive. I'm currently trying to dip an audio backing track under a vocal narration and am unable to figure this out (I know, I know, there's nothing to "figure out" EVERYTHING is in the help file but there's something the help file isn't telling me). I prefer the timeline and nothing I try allows me to put fade points in the timeline where I can actually SEE what I'm doing. I can do it in the preview pane but I can't see where the point is in relation to the video. The tutorials aren't helping either. What am I missing?

borate

The ducker in the current version of VP shows promise, but it's not ready for prime time. To apply this manually to all narrations...

Click the chevron to the right of the SPLIT button and split out the audio tracks only at the beginning and end of each narration.
Select (highlight) every one of those newly split out clips.

Click the FX button on any one of the audio clips in the track that you want to dip, then click the large green + sign and choose the AMPLIFY effect.

Plot keyframes so the graph looks similar to the pic below, with the lowered gain set to about 85% and 100% gain at the ends. The distance between keyframes (dots) determines how quickly the gain change is made. Shorter distance = faster. Longer distance = slower.

See this FAQ for instructions on how to plot keyframes (animation).

Click the fourth button from the left in the toolbar, where the pop up reads "Replace effects chain.."

That will apply the dip to all selected audio clips. If that button is not clicked, then the effect will be applied only to the single clip.

Dan_Hauck

I must apologize as this explanation doesn't do me much good. The problem I'm having is that I don't see how it's possible to see both the video and the audio simultaneously and be able to manipulate the audio in the exactly the places where I want to. Are you saying that I must split the backing track every place where I need to do a manipulation of volume of the backing track?

borate

Yup. Play the sequence. Press the K key wherever there is to be a start and end of a dip. This will split out a new audio clip, in essence. Then follow the above procedure. If you make a mistake in where you want a split press <ctrl-Z> to undo.

Another approach to dip a single clip is to double-click its audio track. The waveform of the entire clip will appear in preview with that clip's audio highlighted..

Click at each end of the highlighted area to create keyframes. Then the line can be dragged downward at the desired dip points, which automatically sets other keyframes.

The result is similar to the effect method described above. To delete a keyframe, hover over a dot, right-click and REMOVE THIS FADE POINT.

In future VP versions the ducker should be up to snuff, which will do this automatically. It is being worked on. Details in the HELP file.

Dan_Hauck

This strikes me as being very slow, tedious and kludgy. I think it would be much better to have a larger width in the audio track and the have the ability to place fade points in the track where one will be using them. Also, waveform in preview window should be in a contrasting color from the line indicating volume. Or possibly when one double clicks the audio track have the audio track come up in the preview window with the cursor in that exact spot and be able to place a fade point without the cursor moving. Customarily in every audio and video program I've ever used the space bar is the stop and start in the particular window that one is using. If I hit the space bar when I'm in the Preview window it automatically starts playback on the time line and that in and of itself is quite confusing.

borate

With the audio waveform in the preview window, use <ctrl-spacebar>. That will toggle preview playback on/off and both the preview and sequence cursors will track.

To increase track width move the slider at the bottom-right of the window. Click the double-headed arrow to fit the project into the window.

Agree on the contrasting color and cursor placement. Click the chevron at the top-right of the VP window and make suggestions. No guarantees, but developers do read them.

Under OPTIONS | GENERAL, Show dual preview might also prove useful.

Dan_Hauck

Getting late here, I'll try tomorrow. If I can increase the width of the backing track enough to see is there the capacity to place the fade points there?

What is the purpose of "dual preview" function?

The slider that you're referring to seems to only increase the magnification on the track. Is there a way to make the track "taller"?

borate

Dual preview allows monitoring of the clip and the sequence simultaneously.

There are two ways to increase vertical size of the audio track - provided there aren't multiple tracks...

Click the chevron at the far-left of the track. And click the AUDIO menu tab above the toolbar.

[deleted]

If you switch to dual previews and adjust the Clip window as wide as possible you will be able to monitor the sequence (the whole timeline) on the right and any selected clip (like a sound track clip) on the left.

Select the sound track that requires adjusting. Assuming it's Track 2 that needs adjusting, It should now look a bit like this.....

In this situation if you now set the red cursor to the start of the sound clip as shown and then click the Play button for the Clip preview, you will hear the selected audio play and see the sequence above it also play. The red cursor line in all three areas will travel from left to right as the sequence plays. You can then stop the playback and drag the blue line up or down as Borate has outlined to adjust the volume of the selected track at specific points.You can, however detach those windows and make them larger; up to full screen if required.

That is about as close as you can get at the moment. It's clumsy and time consuming.

The big drawback even for a possible manual method is that you cannot hear BOTH audio tracks at the same time which is a big fault, you only have the waveform or the video to go on and the other problem is that the clip preview is just that...a single clip so it means doing this for each audio clip..

Nat

Dan_Hauck

Thanks for being willing to help. Is there a way to contact the developers other than FaceBook and/or Twitter?

Is there a way to make the cursor position in the timeline appear in the preview window so I can see where to make the volume manipulation? When I double-click on the position in the backing track where I'd like to change the volume the sound file opens in the preview window without the cursor there being in any particular position. If I cut the backing track and attempt to do a fade-up from there it does the fade-up from silence. What I'd like to do is simple and any video editor of any sophistication would want to do something like this frequently.

borate

Your suggestions are already in the hands of the audio developers. There's a suggestion/bug form available by clicking the chevron at the top-right of the window.

If a right-click | FADE IN is applied it will indeed ramp up from zero. Set your own by plotting the desired slope. The second toolbar button from the left opens a SAVE window. Give it a name. The custom effect appears at the bottom of the audio effect window to be chosen just like any other.

In this example, gain starts at 75% and quickly increases to 100%.

Make an audio split (a marker, in essence), using K on the keyboard, followed by an audio track double-click. The preview cursor is at the start of the clip and the gain is 100%. The blue line can be dragged to animate, using keyframes.

Record_2020_04_06_14_08_45_89.mp4