Manual Autoducking

[zaphodikus]

When I manually duck an audio track, it does not play-back at the level I duck it.

But when I play the project then it ducks perfectly correctly. Why? Why does the clip when selected play at 100% regardless of level trimmings when the audio clip is selected and played? Is there a logical reason it does not apply the volume changes when previewing jut the audio clip?

[Ken Berry]

If you are playing just the audio clip, then you are in Clip mode and you get full volume i.e. the volume which is not moderated by the project. If in Project mode i.e. with all the rest of the project also playing, then the volume is moderated as governed by the project settings.

[Davidk]

Be careful of using audio ducking as it is currently implemented in VS.
Years ago, when using a voiceover file with a video that was in the main TL, a manual adjustment of the TL audio level - reduced so that any related voiceover (clip in the audio track) was clear - required manual TL adjustment: select the TL clip, sound mixer and use manual markers around the time of the voiceover clip and reduce the volume between the inner markers: trial and error to get the relative levels right, and fiddly at best. Then audio ducking was introduced, to do that automatically: ie, reduce the audio level of the TL clip when the selected audio track clip was "ducked" (rt click on the voiceover clip, in the properties list there is an audio ducking option) and for the first year or so that worked fine. And then Corel reversed the process: a voiceover audio clip that was 'ducked" was reduced in volume, rather than any time-matched TL video. Which frankly makes no sense - why use a voiceover clip and then duck it to reduce it's volume? Why that change was made was never explained, despite complaints bug reports etc. The reverse is not available - selecting a TL clip to use ducking with the audio when a voiceover clip is in a matching time slot in the audio track does not work - ducking is not available.
And that has been the state of play for some years now, still the effect using VS2022.
So if you want to use separately recorded audio as a voicover to a TL video clip, and mute or reduce the sound level of the TL clip whilst that voiceover clip is playing, you will have to do it the old way.