SmartSound Music ~ an oddity !

[terry dennis]

I have two options in Smartsound music - Full Spectrum & New Standard.
In the New Standard Library , I have a music option called "Clear Vision" which does not appear in Full Spectrum. The variations in 'Clear Vision' on my system are ; Parallel , Scent , Rain , Beyond and Solo.

However , and here is the odd thing , occasionally - for no apparent reason - these variations change (I can't give you the full list of names ) and I have a variation actually inserted into a project called 'Willow' and yet it doesn't appear on the variations drop-down menu !!

Can anyone shed any light on this oddity ?

Terry Dennis

[Ron P.]

Hi Terry,

Yes this is odd. According to SmartSound's Tech support, the only version that is included with Ulead products is the Full Spectrum. I learned of this when installing one of the SmartSound updates, which caused my SmartSound library to break. According to tech support the New Standard Library is included with Roxio software, which I do not have..

I currently have VS8 through 11.5+ installed on my system, so I'm not sure which one may have installed the New Standard version. What version(s) are you using, and have installed?

[Ken Berry]

Just to further muddy the 'Clear Vision' trial, I have just checked, and in fact the only SmartSound album installed with my VS11+ (now (11.5+) appears to be New Standard. In fact, I seem to recall noting that they had changed from Full Spectrum, which I had in previous versions of VS on other computers (but not this one...) Why I remember that is that I thought it an appropriate title if this was indeed to the 'new, standard' SmartSound music provided with the program!

And the Clear Vision track I have only has the same listed variations outlined by Terry, i.e. with no Willow either...

And to further complicate things, I have checked in my installation of VS10+ on this computer, and it too only refers to New Standard...

And to test this still further, I just did a clean install of VS11+ on a laptop which has never had any other version of VS ever installed on it, and the AutoMusic/SmartSound installed selection is .... New Standard!

[Ron P.]

Since others have posted having both Full Spectrum and New Standard, I started going through my versions. Of course each version has both, due to SmartSound using a common directory.

Now in order to get the Willow variation to show, you need to have a duration of more than the default 15 secs. When I first started looking for the Willow variation of the Clear Vision track it was not there. I then noted that the duration was set to 15 secs. **NOTE** With VS8 there was no "Auto Trim". I then increased the duration in 5 sec increments, checking the variations each time. Willow does not appear unless the duration is at least 32 secs (I further tested this using 1 sec increments).

The Clear Vision is not listed under the Full Spectrum library, but is under the New Standard. It also held true that for the Willow variation to be shown, the duration must be at least 32 secs..

It is worth noting at this time, that playing with the durations of the various tracks, will provide more or less variations for them...

[sjj1805]

Smartsound can be thought of as lego bricks. Each lego brick being a different duration and part of the entire tune. When you ask smartsound to generate a piece of music "x" seconds in duration it gathers together various |"bricks" that will add up to the entire required duration. Some of these bricks are marked as "openings", others as "middle bits" and others as "endings".

It is also able to arrange the bricks to provide different variations.
The variations available will depend upon which bricks have been used.
If the duration is short then there is less scope for smartsound to produce different variations and so a piece that is short may only offer 1 or 2 variations but a longer pierce may offer the fuill range of variations available for that theme.

The most recent releases of software now include "New Standard" as the 'free smartsound' older versions were supplied with 'Full Spectrum'.

These are "tasters" of what is available. There are hundreds of smartsound libraries available for purchase from the Smartsound website but they are not cheap. You woulkd need to be either rich, a serious enthusiast or someone who makes money from their video editing to justify purchasing them. For those that wish to simply increase the number of tracks available I suggest the multi packs are a good start.

[terry dennis]

To answer Ron's question , I have VS 11.5+ version on my system and previous to that I had Version 9. I cannot remember when 'New Standard' appeared alongside 'Full Spectrum'. I have never had Roxio software on my system either !
However , Ron's discovery of the changing number of variations according to the duration of the track is quite a find and one which I will explore myself.
........ and all of this came about because I had got a bit tired of the usual music , was searching around for something a bit different and had even looked at the libraries that can be purchased. I wonder if anyone DOES purchase the optional libraries at the prices they charge ?

Ron and Ken , thanks for your input !

Terry Dennis

[Ron P.]

I've purchased a couple of individual tracks. They only run about $15 ea. I also had purchased SonicFire Pro sometime ago. If you're really bored with the usual tracks then you might take a look at SonicFire Pro now. They're running a special. You get SonicFire Pro free with the purchase of music tracks. This will then entitle you to a free upgrade to SonicFire Pro 5, which they now state is to be released this month..

[Black Lab]

I got bored very quickly with SmartSound. In my opinion, the auto fit works great if it's a short clip, but long clips just ended up repeating, the quality of the tracks just didn't seem very professional. I have since turned to Digital Juice. They do not yet offer the auto fit feature (although I understand it is in the works), but the quality is top rate.

[terry dennis]

Having had chance to look deeper into the variations vs. duration , ALL the Music titles have a different selection of variations depending on the duration of the clip ! The greatest number of variations appear in the longer clip duration of , as Steve indicated , 32 seconds or so !

Thanks for the info. on SonicFire Pro and Digital Juice. I will certainly have a look at these and see if I can afford either of them.


Terry Dennis

[Black Lab]

A tip on the Digital Juice. Sign up for their email newsletter. Their products are a little pricey, but they always have something on sale. I don't think I have ever payed full price for any of their products.