Audio Volume Editing Question

[edrizz]

I am trying to understand how volume editing works. When I edit the volume, if I the volume slider control in attributes, it move the blue volume line up and down. If I edit in the timeline, if moves the brown line up and down. What is the difference in the blue and brown lines? When I play my projects, sometimes the blue lines seems to be setting the audio level and sometimes the brown line seems to be setting it.

[lata]

Hi
Good question……….
I am sure others will correct my thoughts.

The blue line is the default/overall volume level set to 100%. The actual playback level.
From the Edit Timelines ( Close the Sound Mixer) the Video Tab shows the volume levels as 100% and with a Mute and Fade ramps you can control the volume of the clip, this is usually sufficient for my needs.

When I switch to Sound Mixer I can control the volume levels within the clip by using Rubber Banding (the brown bar—look pink to me? ) this allows me to override the default levels.
The brown bar is a representation of the rise and fall of the volume from its default level not an actual level.

Clear as mud

[edrizz]

Thanks for the reply. I think I am just going to stick with using the Rubber Banding (the brownish line) to control the sound and stay away from changing the blue line.

[tommy12]

Playing the clip seems to play the blue line constant volume level. The only way to play the adjusted pink line volume is to play the project??

Any way to copy the blue line level (example 75%) to other clip(s)?? I tried copying & pasting attributes but doesn't work.

[lata]

Hi Tommy

Sorry but Copy and Paste does not work for volume levels.
Corel (X6) did change the Mute option to allow muting all clips, but still no Paste option.

Maybe post to the VideoStudio Pro - Wishlist for Version X7 You never know they may listen?

[tommy12]

Hi Trevor

Thanks for your explanation of the audio mixer color lines. It is a bit confusing when first encountering it. When you click on the Audio Mixer button, you get a green horizontal line on all the clips, except for one selected clip which gets a pink line or maybe it's more like purple. Then if you you try to change the volume level in Audio Mixer by moving the white button up or down, guess what, nothing happens. You first have to click on Project under the preview window, then the pink line in the clip turns green like the others. THEN you can change the volume of the entire clip by sliding the white button up or down in the Audio Mixer, as long as you remembered to move the scrubber to the start of the clip. The ENTIRE green line will move up or down to reflect the volume change. Play the clip in Project mode and you will hear the volume change ok. But if you select the clip itself by clicking on it and play the clip (now you're in clip mode), all of a sudden the change is not heard. You'll just hear the volume of the clip without any Audio Mixer influence. In addition, two colored lines appear. One is blue and one is pink. So you might think you've got three volumes to deal with because you've got three colored lines: green, pink, and blue. But not really, you've only got two different lines. The green and the pink are the SAME line. It only changes color depending on whether you're in Project or Clip mode. And, as mentioned before, the volume change is only heard when playing the clip in Project mode, not Clip mode. It can confuse a newbie like me. As you explained in your post above, the pink line is not an absolute volume, it's a RELATIVE change, only a certain decibel (db) change from the set clip volume represented by the 0db blue line. Thus two clips with identical pink line levels could be at different sound levels.

Now this can also be confusing because, even though the blue line only shows up in the Audio Mixer, you can't change it there. The blue line, which represents the 0db volume level of the clip, can actually be changed somewhere else, of course! It's under the Video tab option for the particular clip. There's no blue line there, but you can change the numeric volume value as a percentage next to the little speaker symbol, and this becomes the new volume of the clip, the 0db blue line level shown in the Audio Mixer (in Videostudio only, the original clip is not changed of course). Too bad this can't also be done in the Audio Mixer. And if you want to change the volume (0db level) of more than one clip in the Video tab, you have to change each clip individually, as you've just informed me, and can't do change clips in bulk.

Ok, so I think what I've said is correct but I'd be happy if anyone could correct any mistakes.

I have a question, when you use the pink 'rubber band' line to change the volume of parts of a clip, is there any way to fine-tune the db levels exactly?? Usually it skips values and you can't set it to any one specific value.

Thanks for the reminder about the wishlist, but based on comments I've read, I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for Corel to read and implement user suggestions But if I had only one request it would be for Native Support for DSLR h264.Mov files, input and sharing!!!

Thanks.

Tommy

[lata]

Hi Tommy

Yes I think you have the gist of what is happening in the Audio Mixer.
.

Some comments

1 / Even though you drag the slider down, it only applies the effect to the clip showing the curser position. It does not apply to all clips.

2 / Like other filters the levels can be adjusted by using Keyframes or Anchor Points
Floating the mouse over the Pink line will change to an “UP arrow”, click and a square will be placed on the line.
When the mouse shows a “Hand “ Drag the square”

3 / play the project then drag the slider down and hold down a keyframe will be inserted, release mouse applies another keyframe.

4 / To remove a single keyframe, drag to the bottom.
To remove all right click and reset volume.

5 / The lowest level achieved is approx 40db, you cannot fully mute a clip using the Sound Mixer.

6 / difficult to apply a fade in or out to a clip,

7 / I don’t like rubber banding, I prefer to use the 100% option and fade ramps, If I need a section reducing I use the scissors to cut the clip.


Don’t give up on the Wish List, it took a while for Corel to implement Mute all Clips, eventually they got the message, now we can do that. Whose to say that setting 50% cannot be applied to all?

[aljimenez]

Thanks for this excellent thread and for the contributions on audio levels. I learned a lot reading it.