Narration becomes gravelly when music is the least loud

Mike Warren · Post by **Mike Warren** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 5:22 pm

When ever the music on my timeline becomes a little loud, though its set at normal volume, my narration breaks up at that point or becomes a little gravelly. To correct this I must lower volume on either the music or narration track, even though both was set at normal volume. To have smooth narration without interference I must keep music low, which should not be. Is there any explanation for this?

Trevor Andrew · Post by **Trevor Andrew** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 6:14 pm

Hi Mike

You seem to have had a lot of audio problems in the past. (looking through your old posts)

Is it just a project playback problem.
Video Studio is not the best when it comes to playback, especially if there are many timelines involved, heavy editing with filters transitions etc.

Does the problem persist once you have rendered the project to a single video file. (Share Create Video File)

Also
You could try using High Quality playback from File Preferences, this will render the project to a separate file saved to the preview folder. Takes some time, but does playback improve.

DVDDoug · Post by **DVDDoug** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 6:21 pm

When you "mix" sounds, of course, the overall volume gets louder*. But, there is a digital-limit** to the overall level. If you try to exceed this limit, you get clipping (distorted flat-topped waves).

You can get analog clipping too... For example, if you try to get 110 Watts from an 100 Watt amplifier.

* When digital audio is mixed (at full voume), the individual sample-values are simply added together.

** The digital level is usually referenced to 0dBFS (zero decibels full-scale). So, zero-dB is the maximum and all of your digital audio levels are usually measured in negative decibels.

Post by **Ken Berry** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 11:08 pm

I am not sure I fully understand. When doing a voiceover, I *always* turn down the volume of the background music and ambient sound in the video clip itself. That only stands to reason. If you watch a documentary on TV or even a commercial movie, you will always hear a slight fade-out of the music when the narrator (or an actor) starts to speak. The point is that for that part of the video, the voiceover is *supposed* to dominate, and the music be suitably soft so as not to interfere with what is being said...

That is the primary function of the rubber band system of audio control used by VS...

Mike Warren · Post by **Mike Warren** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 4:14 pm

Thank you gentlemen. Yes, I tried rendering music and narration tracks together, both inside the project... which has much editing, and by themselve in a "new project". However, in both cases, when played back the voice continues to break up. Only lowering the music volume seems to correct this problem. So it seem to be what you called "clipping", which means I will just have to resign myself to using the rubber band to lower music at the point of narration, though there are rare moments in my documentary when I wish I could have the music volume the same, or a wee bit more then the narration volume, for a dramatic effect. Sounds like theres no way of achieving this. Just the same, thanks for helping me understand this issue better.

Mike

Black Lab · Post by **Black Lab** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 4:21 pm

I wish I could have the music volume the same, or a wee bit more then the narration volume, for a dramatic effect.

I think you can, if I understand Doug correctly. The volume of the audio and your narration together are causing the clipping, or going into the "red" if you look at the meter. If you lower the overall volume, you can still keep your audio and narration at the same level (albeit lower) without it clipping.

Mike Warren · Post by **Mike Warren** » Thu Jul 24, 2008 4:52 pm

Thanks Jeff. The only problem with lowering the overall volume is that at a climatic point in my video I want both narration and music to rise in volume, like a crecendo effect. I often see this in movies... but then, I'm not using what they have.

Mike

Black Lab · Post by **Black Lab** » Thu Jul 24, 2008 6:50 pm

Right Mike. Everything is relative. If you start off at a lower overall volume, you then can raise the volume when needed without it clipping, so you can have that crecendo effect.

Mike Warren · Post by **Mike Warren** » Fri Jul 25, 2008 3:57 pm

Jeff, what you say makes good sense, only, to be honest I'm not quite sure what you mean by "lowering the overall volume". Do you mean lowering volume on both tracks with rubber band or lower volume on computer? And will this not make the narration more difficult to hear?

Mike

skier-hughes · Post by **skier-hughes** » Fri Jul 25, 2008 4:36 pm

Lower the volume on both tracks, then when you come to the point where you want to have your crecendo effect you can raise your volumes on both tracks, or on either the narration if you want louder narration or your music if you want that louder.

If the music is just a music track, what file type is it?
You may find that if it's an mp3 then using a wav file might give you better results?

Black Lab · Post by **Black Lab** » Fri Jul 25, 2008 4:57 pm

Thanks Graham.

Trevor Andrew · Post by **Trevor Andrew** » Fri Jul 25, 2008 5:29 pm

Hi Mike

Adjusting the audio levels is not the easiest things to do, video studio is not an audio editor, saying that it can do a reasonable job.

When I record footage to my Panasonic GS 400 the sound level is very good.

If I were to capture and create a DVD without changing audio the resultant dvd levels would be ok.
That is when I play the video on TV I do not have to adjust the sound levels from there normal settings. It plays just fine.

The level of sound on my video footage has become my normal level. My standard.

I find that when I add background audio it¡¦s a little loud, ok that¡¦s not a problem, the overall background clip is reduced using the ¡¥Clip Volume¡¦ 100 % option. (rubber banding I find hard to use, I try to avoid where possible)

Adding music from my CD collection also plays a little loud. Again my tendency is to reduce these levels.
Adding voice over may have the same problems. But the recording level¡¦s have to be correct.

So what is a normal level.?

Play one of the sample audio files from the library.
Does that sound higher or lower than your overall effect.?
I find it about right, its near enough to be my standard.
If the sample audio is correct then everything else has to be adjusted to it.

So Mike how does your volumes compare to the library samples?

One problem that can occur is when we talk on MSN (the messaging service) this usually means that the PC volume level has to be increased. Returning to Video Studio may show the volumes high, No need to adjust on VS it¡¦s the PC output that¡¦s high.

Hope this Helps

Mike Warren · Post by **Mike Warren** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 5:36 pm

Thanks gentlemen! Its all becoming clearer. This evening I'll try to find what my "standard" or normal volume should be, as you suggested. I have noticed that when playing DVD movies from Blockbuster I often have to turn my speaker volume all the way up to hear it normally (my hearing is not the best). Yet when I play my Video Studio project I need only to turn my speaker volume up a tiny bit for normal volume. To turn it all the way up, as I must do with some Hollywood DVD's, the volume becomes deafening. So it seems the volume level I'm recording at is immensely different from theres.

Mike

Post by **Ken Berry** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 10:03 pm

I work on the general rule of thumb that the default volume setting in VS of 100 means 'normal' listening levels for that track. But other tracks may also have '100' settings, so if you put them together, you will have very loud audio and one will effectively make the other difficult to hear properly. So you need to adjust one or the other, usually down.

If using an external audio editing program, I usually accept that a sound level which has 0db as its maximum, with any audio above that showing red, and entering the unacceptably loud zone. In the accompanying graphic display in such programs, those unacceptably loud noises are shown touching the borders of the display, and this will translate as clipping in the playback...

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