VS9 Rubber band doesn't work on volume

[dazzler2]

Hi,
I just discovered that the rubber band volume control doesn't work on one of my VS9 projects...but does on other projects. The volume remains at its original level and won't reduce to zero in places where I use the rubber band to lower it.

All other audio controls seem to work ok. Am I missing a setting somewhere that overrides the rubber band control?

I can creaste a new project but that's a lot of work. Any ideas folks?

Dazzler2

[Ron P.]

Have you tried using the "spin-box" for setting the audio? Just type in the number, 0 in your case, or click the drop down, and If I recall correctly VS9 also has the volume slider that pops up. Drag the slider down to the bottom for zero. Have the playhead set at the location where you want the audio to change.

What type of audio file are you using in this project? VS seems to work best with the WAV format. If it is MP3, try converting it to WAV. This can be done a couple of ways.
1. With your audio in the audio track, and no other audio, or can be done with a video/audio, go to Share>Create Sound File. Select WAV as the format. VS will produce a WAV file. You can then mute your original audio file (or remove it if it is separate from your video. Then insert the WAV file and see if the problem persists.
2 You can use a free audio utility called AUDACITY, if your audio file is already a separate file.

[dazzler2]

Thanks for the ideas Vidoman. Yes, I've used the various controls separately, but they control volume over the entire clip don't they?

In my case, I'm interviewing a guy on the video and like a dummy, I mispronounced his name rather badly. I want to lower the volume during that introduction only, then add a separate narration saying his name properly.

It is during this short introduction segment where I can't seem to remove the original sound by dragging the rubber band to zero. When I drag the rubber band to zero, the volume doesn't change.

Dazzler2

[dazzler2]

I forgot to mention that the sound files are .wav files.

Dazzler2

[Ron P.]

Ok I just reinstalled VS9, to test this. The only thing that I came up with is this...
VS will continue to play the audio in clip mode, despite the changes in volume. However in Project Mode, the volume change is heard, or not heard in this case. So have you tried playing back in Project mode?

The reason for this, is that the video clip in the time-line is not the actual clip. So playing in clip mode, VS is playing the "original clip" it is linked to. No changes are made to that clip, following me?

In Project Mode, VS uses the instructions you provided, ie; lowering the volume, to provide you a preview of what your rendered video file will be.

This is the same with all versions, don't know why I didn't think of it earlier

[dazzler2]

Yes I agree that audio in clip mode plays the way you describe, however it is while playing the project in project mode that a lowered rubber band on a particular segment doesn't lower the volume.

In fact it has no effect on the volume for this particular project only. That is why I'm wondering if there's a sneaky setting somewhere that I've missed.

Dazzler2

[Ron P.]

So far I can't reproduce it. VS9 is behaving as it should for me. Try clicking on the audio track, then pressing the play arrow in the audio panel on the left. Then move the slider down. (This is explained in the manual on page # 121). Does the volume rubber band move along with this, and are keyframes being added to the rubber band?

Also try adjusting the volume using the rubber band. Then render a sound file from this. Are the changes you made present in the sound file?

There are not any settings that I'm aware of. I've checked completely thorough the preferences settings. The only audio setting in preferences is the default fade-in value.

How much, if any, editing have you done on this problem clip? You might try deleting it from the time-line, then re-inserting it, to see if corrects the problem. You can also try recapturing the clip, it may have some corruption that will not allow VS to change it. Try checking the properties for this video clip, from Windows Explorer. See if somehow the properties were set to Read-Only.

It appears on the surface as a problem with VS, however if you don't have this occurring with other projects/clips, then it has to be related to the clip itself.

Hopefully one of the above suggestions will work, as I'm running out of brain to storm..

[Ken Berry]

I seem to recall -- but unfortunately only vaguely -- someone else having a similar problem quite some time ago. The solution -- again IIRC -- was to shift the default volume from 100 to 99 and after that the rubber banding worked. But as I say, I am sorry, I have no further details.

[sjj1805]

If you want to remove a word from a commentary and replace it with another then the best method is to export the entire audio track from the [Share] tab. This will create a WAV file.
Open that WAV file with Audacity which is a very powerful FREE audio editor. Edit the bit of sound.
Export this to a new WAV file and them import that into your VideoStudio project.

[dazzler2]

Thanks for all your good and kind help fellas.

It looks like the trouble was clip or project corruption, because when I recreated a new but identical project, VS9 worked the way it should with the rubber band.

There were some peculiarities with the audio however in that in some cases raising the audio with the digit spin box didn't always raise the volume properly. When I'm all done with this job I'll upgrade to VS11+ and hope these problems go away.

Have you any ideas on how to collectively set all volume levels in all clips in a project to the same volume level? I think it would be helpful to have some reference to which one can set volume so it'll be correct when we make our DVDs.

Dazzler2