Automated Audio Ducking

[Lobalobo]

My apologies if this has been addressed, but I could not find the precise issue elsewhere. I have a number of videos with background hiss (often from an air conditioner). I upgraded to Video Studio X8 for the sole purpose of reducing this hiss, an advertised feature. The only tutorial I could find on the topic,though, refers to reducing other sound when adding voice-overs or separately treating audio tracks. Is there any way simply to set audio-ducking on film clip automatically, without separating out audio tracks? What I'm looking for is a set-it-and-forget-it sort of solution. Thanks.

[asik1]

Audio-ducking is not a filter to clear hiss. it's a tool to level one track in relevance to other.
Reducing hiss is better done in an audio software, you can try the freeware audacity.
but much better in a full flagged and expensive pro software.
VSX8 (as do 7 and do 6 and 5 and 4 ) have few hiss tools as any non perfect sub 100$ program have.

[Terfyn]

My apologies if this has been addressed, but I could not find the precise issue elsewhere. I have a number of videos with background hiss (often from an air conditioner). I upgraded to Video Studio X8 for the sole purpose of reducing this hiss, an advertised feature. The only tutorial I could find on the topic,though, refers to reducing other sound when adding voice-overs or separately treating audio tracks. Is there any way simply to set audio-ducking on film clip automatically, without separating out audio tracks? What I'm looking for is a set-it-and-forget-it sort of solution. Thanks.

Audio ducking is designed to automatically reduce the volume of one audio track (usually music) when it senses audio on another track (example "voiceover") So no good for hiss.
You could try the X8 "on board" audio filters but your options are to not record the external audio hiss in the first place or process the sound through something like Audacity. So perhaps locating the mic in a sound shield (a load of small cushions would do) would reduce the recorded hiss (you are using an external mic??) Or for the time of the recording turn off the air conditioner!
If you are using the camcorder mic, it will record all it can hear. You can separate the audio from the video in X8 record it to a .wav file and then process it Audacity. You then introduce it back into X8 as a sound file.

[Lobalobo]

So apparently, I misunderstood what Audio Ducking is designed to do. Live and learn. I could swear I saw an add that specifically mentioned reducing background noise such as air conditioning. But I can't locate it now.

Thanks for the advice. I bought a cheap external mic but found it no better than the camcorder's internal mic (except maybe for zoom noise) so I stopped using it (when not zooming). All in all, I was disappointed in the quality from the cheap camcorder I used and I returned it, deciding instead to stay with the video on my point-and-shoot cameras. (I'm not a high-end user, to say the least, recording school plays and concerts and such, but would like them without hiss.) Thanks again.

[Terfyn]

(I'm not a high-end user, to say the least, recording school plays and concerts and such, but would like them without hiss.)

Many people use a separate audio recorder such as a Zoom or Tascam to record concerts or plays. the advantages are that the recorder can be located close to the sound while the camera may be at the back of the hall. A close up recording cuts out audience noise and echo.
The audio can easily be added to the video in X8.