X9 project inserted as video not playing automusic

[Glenn in Chile]

Hi, this hasn't happened before. For my students in English class, I create many individual projects, then put together all the projects to create one video by inserting the projects to the timeline as videos (insert media file to timeline / insert video; select the projects one by one and insert). They all go onto the same timeline. Up until now it has worked great. Now all of a sudden, with X9, the auto music is not playing in some of the inserted files. Any tips?

[Curious]

Is it possible the automusic was smartsound from an old videostudio project?

Smartsound is not supported anymore in X8 & X9, so this could be the cause of your problem if the project was created in vs x7 or before...

[Glenn in Chile]

Thanks for replying. The projects were created with X9, with the auto music function (which has been problematic for me in both X8 and X9). I've communicated with Corel support but they don't seem to have the answers. Could it be project settings? I'm still trying increase my understanding of project settings as related to the inserted video clips. I've never had this problem before, so I'm hoping to identify a setting somewhere that I may have changed.

[lata]

Hi Glenn

Are you using the same computer to playback the projects or are you transferring the projects to another pc.?

You say just some of the clips play yet others don’t.
Make sure you are playing the timelines in Project playback not Clip playback.

[Glenn in Chile]

Hi Trevor, thanks for your reply. Yes, I'm using the same computer to play back the projects. Odd how the auto music selectively plays back after creating the mp4 file from a string of projects. What's even more strange is that within a single clip, some of the auto music works while others don't. It might play the first and third auto music songs, while not playing the second. When I say clip I mean the one clip that's created on the first video track in the timeline by importing a video (which in reality is a Project). You ask if I'm selecting Project playback and not Clip playback. The procedure I'm doing is first creating individual projects - around 40 - each around 1 to 2 minutes long. After having all 40 projects just right I start a new project and insert videos (the 40 Projects actually) into the timeline. Doing it this way, the projects come in as one clip, not as all the bits and pieces of a project. I'll insert all the projects as videos in the order I need them, then Share this project and create a 1920 mp4 file around 50 minutes long. After this is created I play it to check, and I've never had an auto music failure such as this until now. My auto music is extremely problematic, but it hasn't failed like this until now, where a rendered file won't play all auto music. I'm leaning toward the auto music as the fault, but I don't know what can be done to fix it, if in fact it can be fixed. I uninstalled and reinstalled both X8 and X9 just to check, but no luck. I'm now looking at Project Properties. I don't understand much of that, so if you would be so kind as to direct me to where I may get a good understanding of Project Property settings I'd be very grateful.

[asik1]

Automusic is tricky, I have limited experience. From what I learn is that it must create the correct length wav files first and they must be available in order to be good
Why you don't render each short project, see that it's good and than collect those 40 clips and make the long one.
You forget it's a <100$ software.

[Ken Berry]

The procedure I'm doing is first creating individual projects - around 40 - each around 1 to 2 minutes long. After having all 40 projects just right I start a new project and insert videos (the 40 Projects actually) into the timeline.

I'm afraid I am a "slow and steady wins the race" kind of person! Like asik, I would render each of your 40 projects individually, rather than nest so many. Yes, I am sure you have done it successfully before, but that was with another version. And by doing it individually, you can then play each final video back to make sure the automusic is there.

[lata]

Hi Glenn

Thanks for the update and info on your workflow, effectively you are nesting 40 vsp files.
Not that experienced in using auto music but does not the process render to a sound file when we play the project.

What would happen if you added auto music, save the project with out playing so no rendered file. Then you add that vsp to another timeline.

Other projects you play and render the auto music, so they play the sounds?

Just a thought…

As I say I don’t use Auto Music and would have to test this out, but the complication maybe nesting the VSP’s, and as the guys say rendering the VSP’s to a video file would overcome the problem, but takes time and renders twice?

[Ken Berry]

...but takes time and renders twice?

I would argue that it doesn't take all that much more time. After all, all the vsp's have to be rendered at some time or another, and cumulatively would take the same time as they would if rendered individually. The extra time would only be inserting each vsp for individual rendering, but they still have to be placed manually in the timeline the way Glenn is currently doing it, and this would take nearly as much time.

As for rendering twice, as far as I can see from what he is wanting to produce, SmartRender would virtually eliminate double rendering almost totally.

[Glenn in Chile]

Thanks to all for your comments and ideas. I just now opened one single project, a short one of 1:18 min, and the auto music still fails to render. I've written to Corel Support this morning, so maybe they'll have an idea. I'll keep trying from here. Maybe it's the particular auto music song that's failing. I'll try changing the length of the song. They're relatively short - about 10 seconds at most. I'll keep you posted.

[lata]

hi glenn

tell us the exact music you are using and we can try.
also the length would be useful.

make a project using the library samples and auto music, save and zip the project, then attach the vsp to your post?

[BrianCee]

The scorefitter auto music in X8 and X9 seems to work somewhat differently to the previous smartsound auto music

Glen when you add auto music in X8 or X9 to your little projects do you always allow the music track to render - any project over about 30 seconds seems to need to render the music track - I have found if you stop that render by pressing 'Esc' odd things seem to happen - in that the music is not always available in that project - especially if you save and close quickly

The odd thing about scorefitter is that the music does not seem to exist except in the timeline - what I mean by that is that if you RIGHT click on any component in the timeline you can choose 'locate on computer' and file explorer will open and show where that file is - that option is not available over the music block of a scorefitter created component

The MUSIC render you see creates a wave file - which is placed here :-
C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Ulead Systems\Corel VideoStudio Pro (x64)\19.0\en-US\ScoreFitter

so you might like to check that projects not playing auto music actually have a wave file in there

The procedure I have adopted with scorefitter is first to allow that music track render to complete - then delete the music block in the timeline - then go to the scorefitter folder above - locate the matching wave file and move it to the individual project folder - then back in Videostudio right click the timeline and choose to insert music - browse to the new wave file and put that in the timeline

now right clicking on the music block allows for 'locate' and all is normal

since I started doing that in X8 I have never had problems with scorefitter music when moving projects about

That procedure also allows you to keep that scorefitter folder tidy since every little test or experiment you do seems to place a wave file there and it can start to fill up with rubbish

...

[Glenn in Chile]

Thanks Brian. Fantastic idea. That's exactly what I'll do. Also, as an update to my efforts, I got back into one of the problematic projects, fooled around a bit the the auto music file, slid it up to the voice track, played it, then slid back down to the music track, then rendered it and it worked ok. So a bit of fiddling looks like it had an effect. That said, I just ran the entire mp4 rendered video from my previous attempt to do the whole 50 minutes, and not only are there missing bits of auto music, but the rendered mp4 file only gets to about minute 45, then just stops. Nothing more there. I tried a conversion with Handbrake just to see how it reacted, and got the same. Stops at minute 45. So now I'm rendering at 1280 instead of 1920 to see if it has an effect. These failures are very quirky, and very serious for me, given that I usually create a class and assume it's done correctly and don't find out the failures until I'm showing the class to my students. Very embarrassing. And having to double and triple check every class is extremely time consuming, though apparently necessary now with the problems I'm having. I''ve also noticed a loss of library files since updating to X9 from X8.5, though I've read where the updating requires quite a bit of preparation first, which I didn't know at the time, and which apparently affected me. When I go into "more" it shows all the "more" files as being installed, but they're not. But that's another subject.

[lata]

Hi Glenn

If you are having problems with missing content after rendering, I assume the projects are ok and playback in full.

When rendering try deselecting Smart Render, that will force a full render of the project and maybe overcome the lost video/audio.

Do More downloads are for the most part common to all versions of Video Studio, so downloads and installs using X7 should show in X8 and X9.
Most templates being saved to the VSPTemplate and VSPContent
C:\Users\UserName\Documents\Corel VideoStudio Pro\ VSPTemplate
A common folder used by all versions.

However if you have cleared that folder then unfortunately you cannot download again without tweaking the register. Let us know what you need maybe we can help.

As for the library being reduced, no that should not be the case, have you installed the Standard Content folder

[Glenn in Chile]

Hi Trevor,

I find that even the projects themselves sometimes won't play the auto music. If I fiddle around with the track, move it from audio to voice for example, or shorten it then lengthen it again, I can sometimes encourage' it to play, but not always. It's sporadic. I've checked your suggestion on deselecting Smart Render (Preferences, Performance, SmartProxy), and the box is unchecked.

I've located the Do More content in the folder you directed me to, and I'd like to compare it with what I actually have in my on-screen library. Is there a way to do that in batch? In which on-screen library folder should the templates be? I'm not seeing them at the moment. Maybe I need to create a folder?

When I found the auto music glitch in X9, I thought it might be due to a conflict with the previous versions I had installed, so I stupidly uninstalled all versions and reinstalled only X9. I think it made it worse.

How can I confirm if the Standard Content folder is installed? Does this folder show up in the on-screen library?

Sorry to keep pestering you all with this. I never had these problems with any previous versions, and I've had quite a few. And now that I've committed to Video Studio to create the classes for my students, I'm determined to make this work as it should. Corel support has replied, and is trying to help as well. But so far no luck following their suggestions (reset the program, clean the temp folder).