Video sound disappears when I add background music

[tryingcake]

I just updated to VideoStudio Ultimate 2022. I've been using Video Studio since the late 90s. I've never had this happen before. Of course, I'm in a hurry and this has stopped me dead in my tracks.

I have my video ready to roll but I want to add background music. When I do, my video sound disappears. Even if I add the background music, let's say at 2 minutes in. I have video sound for the first 2 minutes. Then as soon as the background sound starts, my video sound goes away. I tried muting the background music to see if it's just too loud. Nope. My video loses its sound wherever I have background music placed.

Please help! This is so frustrating. Thanks!

[lata]

You appear to have had similar sound problems this post refers
https://forum.corel.com/viewtopic.php?t=67622
I assume you had second thoughts in posting there, deciding a new topic s best, I will tidy up the old topic.

Ok
When you select your clip the word “clip” adjacent to the play button is highlighted, you can hear sound, pause playback, then select the word “project” and play.
Now do you hear sound.

[zaphodikus]

I hope it's not auto-ducking?
I, would just play the clip in your normal media player, and then play the music in for example Audacity or VLC, and compare audio levels in your headphones just be feel. If the sound in your video is quiet, VS might be trying to boost/alter it if you enabled the audio filters. I previously did all my mixing in Audacity. Audacity has a audio extraction driver than lets it input any movie file. The audio filters in VS are great for quick work, but in earlier versions of VS than 2019, I had similar troubles and never used the audio effects in VS ever. I am on VS 2021 but 2019 was the first version the audio filters made sense to me in. Not sure that helps really, but do give it a fresh try. What device was your video recorded on?

[tryingcake]

You appear to have had similar sound problems this post refers
https://forum.corel.com/viewtopic.php?t=67622
I assume you had second thoughts in posting there, deciding a new topic s best, I will tidy up the old topic.

Ok
When you select your clip the word “clip” adjacent to the play button is highlighted, you can hear sound, pause playback, then select the word “project” and play.
Now do you hear sound.

The issues are different. Then, at that time, I had no sound at all. It was fixed and I never had another problem, not even after upgrading to whatever came next. Now, with this upgrade, I have sound; just one overrides the other. Did they change the way you add music? I've been adding music forever without an issue (as long as I have sound at all).

I make sure "project" is selected, although the same thing happens regardless of which option is chosen. I have sound from my original clip until the spot where the new audio is added. The original clip loses sound at the spot where the new sound is added - nothing had been spilt. I should be able to hear both. If I remove the added audio, the original clip regains its sound.


UPDATE:

The other responder just introduced me to the joys of audio-ducking (not joyful at all). But that fixed it. It's defaulting to audio-ducking. How do I turn that craziness off so that it doesn't default to this every time? It's a function I do not want. Thanks so much!! Thank you for the quick responses.

[tryingcake]

I hope it's not auto-ducking?
I, would just play the clip in your normal media player, and then play the music in for example Audacity or VLC, and compare audio levels in your headphones just be feel. If the sound in your video is quiet, VS might be trying to boost/alter it if you enabled the audio filters. I previously did all my mixing in Audacity. Audacity has a audio extraction driver than lets it input any movie file. The audio filters in VS are great for quick work, but in earlier versions of VS than 2019, I had similar troubles and never used the audio effects in VS ever. I am on VS 2021 but 2019 was the first version the audio filters made sense to me in. Not sure that helps really, but do give it a fresh try. What device was your video recorded on?

My video was recorded on a GoPro. I did not have these issues in the last upgrade. I just dropped in my GoPro video, added the audio, synched them, so lips matched what we were hearing, and drove on. I've been avoiding learning Audacity, but I need to learn it for other purposes. I guess now is as good a time as any. But it shouldn't be this hard. For simple, elementary video production, I shouldn't need additional software.

[tryingcake]

I hope it's not auto-ducking?
I, would just play the clip in your normal media player, and then play the music in for example Audacity or VLC, and compare audio levels in your headphones just be feel. If the sound in your video is quiet, VS might be trying to boost/alter it if you enabled the audio filters. I previously did all my mixing in Audacity. Audacity has a audio extraction driver than lets it input any movie file. The audio filters in VS are great for quick work, but in earlier versions of VS than 2019, I had similar troubles and never used the audio effects in VS ever. I am on VS 2021 but 2019 was the first version the audio filters made sense to me in. Not sure that helps really, but do give it a fresh try. What device was your video recorded on?

It was audio-ducking. You mentioned it. I had never used that in all of years using this software. So I googled and watched a YT video and Wa-La! That was it. I removed the video ducking and it fixed it. I do not like this new feature one bit. It caused me a day of grief and I can't think of any time that it will be something I am interested in. I mean, I've gone almost 25ish years without it, so obviously it's something I don't need.

THANK YOU!! You saved me!

[zaphodikus]

I was completely just guessing there. Glad that was a good clue.
I'm a software tester in my day job, I test remote access, and sometimes we make the silliest mistakes. Last month my laptop wifi was just not working, it went on for ages. I was about to try re-install the drivers or get IT help, when one of the admins walks over and says, "hey that's a static IP address". I felt so terribly small. Happens to the best of us when we are distracted.

Audacity 3 is a bit more prosumer oriented now and you might do well to stick with Audacity version 2. The menus are simplified and are easier to learn than in version 3 where they made space for the new paid for plugins (some are free) that support layering - yes you can turn effects on and off with the new plugins. Version 2 is perfect for 99% of the casual users who are not familiar with DAW. I dont use the Visual Studio audio filters intensively because I seen a few too many crash glitches once I have a large project. It seems to die most often when going into the Audio edit mode from video edit mode. I always use the split-audio button in VideoStudio, when you want to do cuts, bringing the audio in early is so much more intuitive. So, yeah, my sound tracks often look just like the layers of video tracks I build up. Ha Ha.

[Davidk]

Auto ducking of audio isn't new to VS - it's been in the software for some years (since 2015??). However, Corel has fiddled around with it to then point where IMHO it's a worthless feature.
Originally, if you wanted to emphasis a voiceover in the clip, you would have to do it manually; using the sound mixer, select and reduce the audio level of the main track or trcks, and do the same to boost the sound of the voiceover clip. Fiddly, easy to get wrong, do it several times before it's right.
Then along came audio ducking, which did all that for you. And for at least one version it was great and I used it a lot.
But someone clearly complained enough to inspire the dev team to change that around - and for some years, audio ducking was a level reduction applied to the voiceover clip. idiocy. Complained about, was ignored. So I just stopped using that feature and reverted to the old way.
Now it seems, Corel has tried a new variation to automating something that is not really hard, but not simple either.

So, you can have the audio in a voiceover (or any other) lip emphasized above the main TL video sound, you will just have to do it the older fiddly way.