Audio Levels

[ED-D]

The audio level controls seem to bottom out before the sound has zeroed creating audio leakage from tracks set to minimum. -36db is not zero. Any thoughts, solutions ?? It would sure be nice to fade out an audio track and have it be silent. Am I missing something here?? Thanks for any help.

[Trevor Andrew]

Hi
and welcome to the forums.
How are you controlling the audio level.?

Use the Fade ramps adjacent to the digital clock to set a fade “in-out”
Use the 100% to reduce/increase the overall volume levels
Use the Mute button to remove all sound in individual clips.

[ED-D]

I'm using the level "handles" in the Sound Mixer to dynamically fade the audio levels up and down. When I fade down or out, the levels appear to bottom out at -36db which on a good audio system does not equate to 0. Sound can still be heard albeit faintly. .... Further testing however does show that my head my not be screwed on right as things appear to be working !! The reason it doesn't work is that I was previewing the Project with the Surround Sound Mixer open. My files are stereo with a simple stereo out. If I choose Attribute rather than Surround Sound Mixer or work with the Sound Mixer closed, things seem OK. Of coarse the question remains: why -36db. Why not a db more closely related to 0 like -96bd etc AND why the leakage with the Surround Mixer open ?? I can work with the way it is, but it would be nice in the future for exponential fades/curves to be available for audio mixing as linear (is it?) level ramps can often seem un-natural. Thanks for the reply and I do hope I'm making sense !!
Ed

[Trevor Andrew]

Hi

You are making perfect sense, I do not use the Sound Mixer that much, and find the Rubber Banding a little difficult to control.
As I mentioned I use the fade ramps from the main edit timelines, I simply use the scissors to cut the clip into three, mute the middle clip and apply fade to the adjacent clips, and mute does just that.

However I now realise that the fade ramps do not fade to zero, but stop at -36 db just like the Sound Mixer, sometimes a click is noticeable at the cut point where the frames go from -36db to mute.

I suppose using both methods will give you what you require.
From the Sound Mixer cut the clip, right click clip and select Mute.

Had I used the sound mixer I would certainly have noticed the lower volume levels.

[ED-D]

Thanks Trevor for the reply. I'll do more tests myself and report back when I get a chance. For now, I can at least do my work, but something sort of fishy is going here !!
Ed

[teknisyan]

Hello ED-D,

I'm not sure if there is a user here that use the sound mixer because I seldom use the sound mixer and if I do I usually use the rubberband settings to control the audio's volume within the video but when I set the rubberband to -36 db and render or create a video file via SHARE > CREATE VIDEO FILE. If I play the created file and go to the section where I set the audio to -36 db, I find that there's no audio even the slightest sounds.

Can you try creating a video file of your project and check if there's still audio or not on the part where you set -36 db?

[ED-D]

I agree there seems to be no leakage after a render or if the Sound Mixer is closed. All's good except for working with the Sound Mixer open. The scaling seems odd and probably non linear (maybe just at the end?) if somehow -36db is really a db like -96 that would completely shut the audio down. Who knows what constraints the programmers were up against, maybe given the vertical average height of the sound tracks, they felt they had to scale to a number where users had more control with the rubberbanding. The issue does remain as to why the leakage is happening in one mode and not the other.

I've moved on to other issues like rendering for web an HD 16:9 to a more practical 640x360--gets interesting (off topic--no reply's please).
e