X8 Audio Ducking

[ejd]

I'm having problems with the X8 Trial (see other thread) but I have been able to try the new Audio Ducking. This would be great for me if it worked properly. I make videos from my holiday camcorder recordings and add a commentary. So I need to mute the soundtrack when I want to have commentary. I have lots of commentary files in each video.

Audio Ducking does mute (if I split the soundtrack to an audio track) BUT it starts to reduce the soundtrack volume when the commentary starts, and the soundtrack is only fully mute 1 second after this. Similarly at the end. So the only way to use it is to include 1 second of silence at the start and end of the commentary file (and it can't be real silence or the AD doesn't recognise it). What I really need is for AD to FINISH muting when the commentary starts, not BEGIN muting then.

I don't think I'm missing anything here and I don't think there is any other way round it. Or is there? Thanks for any comments/suggestions.

[BrianCee]

Looking at the "What's New" information released with X8 I think you are getting what you are supposed to be getting.

You should be able to slide those square notes on the audio track to change the timing of the 'duck' but as far as I can see there is no alternative but to do every single instance manually

click on the image to see it larger

[ejd]

Yes, I think it's doing what it says it will, but I don't think it's been thought about properly. I can do things manually to correct it but this more or less defeats the object. Adding the "silence" to each end of the commentary clip is a better solution, I think, but it's a pity AD doesn't work properly in the first place. Perhaps there are circumstances I can't see where the current action is what's needed.

[Terfyn]

Audio Ducking does mute (if I split the soundtrack to an audio track) BUT it starts to reduce the soundtrack volume when the commentary starts, and the soundtrack is only fully mute 1 second after this.
What I really need is for AD to FINISH muting when the commentary starts, not BEGIN muting then.


Obviously Audio Ducking needs something to trigger the volume reduction so it will only react when it senses audio on the other track. As it needs the trigger of your voice to start reducing the volume, it is working correctly. It cannot predict you speaking on a voiceover and reduce the volume before you speak!!
You still have the option to move the nodes on the "ducked" track.

[ejd]

Of course it can't tell where the muting should be until it recognises where the overriding sound starts, but to then start reducing the sound one second before that point instead of at that point would be a trivial change. It would be even better to allow the user to specify how soon before the point of final reduction the start was made. The change isn't made as the video plays, it just happens when the user says "apply ducking", so the software could do anything to the affected file. (I speak as a professional software engineer). The view that it can't reduce the volume "retrospectively" is not right, I'm afraid, and Corel should have thought about this more and made it a more useful feature.

[Terfyn]

The change isn't made as the video plays, it just happens when the user says "apply ducking", so the software could do anything to the affected file. (I speak as a professional software engineer)
Then as a professional software engineer, you should realise that a trigger is required to activate the ducking. It is currently a one pass operation which identifies the "ducking point" and reduces the volume from there. To initiate a move to a second before that point would require a second pass.
There are two of us who have requested that Corel provide a third parameter to vary the speed of the volume reduction. i.e. the slope to the lower node point. If that slope could be reduced to a "step" then your concerns would be answered. But IMO it will be quite easy to "pull" the lower node so it is directly below the upper node and produce an instantaneous change in volume.