How to fade the music?

[LigiaD]

Hi all!

I am new to PTE. I already learnt how to create a simple slide show; however, I would like to create one that will have several segments and with different music for each. How do I synchronize the music for each segment and how do I fade it? I would appreciate it your letting me know or, please direct me to the place where I could find this information.

Thanks very much! ------------- Ligia

[alrobin]

Hi, Ligia,

Welcome to PTE and the Forum! This is a great program, and with the development and beta release of version 5, these are exciting times for both newcomers, and the "old hands" who have been using it for years!

One way to incorporate several music selections and divide the show into segments, is to add the music, then identify the images which will make up the start and end of each segment. If you are adding separate music files, then the transition between them will be marked by blue vertical lines on the timeline. If you want the music selections to fade in and out, you will have to "trim" and "fade" each one first in another program called a "sound editor" (e.g. "Audacity", "Audition", etc.)

The appropriate images can be spread evenly across each segment on the timeline by highlighting the first transition in the segment by clicking on the grey number on the timeline which represents it, and then "shift-clicking" on the rectangle for the last image in the segment (e.g. "to 10"). When highlighted, the transition markers will turn dark blue. Then select "Timed Points / Arrange selected points" to spread the transitions evenly over that segment.

You may have to add or subtract some images in order to make them "fit" the music. Or, you may have to truncate a music selection in the sound editor to make it fit with the number of images desired.

The most efficient, and safest, method of synchronization is to join all of the music selections together in "Audacity" (or other sound editor), along with any required fading, overlap, etc., and then adjust the positions of the transitions in a similar manner as already described. However, you will have to determine the end of each music selection by listening to it or knowing in advance how long it is.

Hope this helps. It's not an easy topic to describe, as there are many different ways to go about this, and everyone has a favourite method. You really have to just experiment by starting with a simple show, and working your way through it. And, the more fussy you are with the timing of each transition, the more complicated it becomes. Best of luck!

[LigiaD]

Thanks very much, Al!

I just downloaded Audacity following your recommendations; also a trial version of Cool Edit Pro. I also check the Audition website. I have my hands full for tomorrow!

Your instructions are very helpful, I immensely appreciate them. I believe that I can manage the segments quite well by following these instructions. Next step will be to figure out how to use the sound editor; I would really like to incorporate the fading music effects that I have seen in some of the examples created with PTE. Just when I thought that it would be *very* simple ... forty-five minutes of combining music with images does not sound that simple ...

More questions are already accumulating, but I will say Ciao for now.

Best wishes, ------------ Ligia

[alrobin]

Ligia,

Be careful about Cool Edit and Cool Edit Pro. This program was bought out by Adobe, and they renamed it "Audition". Last I heard, Syntrillium wasn't supporting it any more, so there may be some people out there still trying to sell copies of it without the ability to provide proper support, so make sure you check them out first. At least make sure you will be able to obtain the proper "key" to unlock the program.

45 minutes! Whew, that is a long slideshow. It might be easier on both you and your audience if you broke it up into sections, and then designed an introduction page with "Objects" programmed to call up each section as desired. Much like a DVD with a menu for different scenes. There is lots of information on the forum on how to do this, as well as examples on Beechbrook.

Good luck with the project!

[LigiaD]

Al,

The slide show will be divided into segments. I do not know exactly the meaning of "objects" yet, however, I have titles that I have created in PS for each segment and will add them as another image. I also have the extra black screens; thought that it would be easier to setup the trasitions between the segments this way.

And you have already answered one of my extra questions, thanks! When I went to the Audition website. I noticed that this program was formerly called Cool Edit; was wondering about the Cool Edit file that I had downloaded and its veracity.

The examples at Beechbrook are mind boggling. Will hopefully get there eventually ... For the time being, I will be happy with knowing how to set up a good music synchronization; and with the fading effect.

Best regards,

Ligia

[alrobin]

Ligia,

By objects I was referring mainly to the "button" object at the top-left of the "Object Editor" window. If you click on it, it drops down a button which you can move with your mouse cursor to where you want it, then right-click on it, select properties, and tell it to run an external application such as another slide show.

You can create a single-slide show, place a number of buttons on it, each programmed to open a particular segment of your slideshow, and use it that way as a sort of "menu" or "table of contents".

You can find information in the Forum postings as to some tutorials on this, and information on how to set up each mini-show, etc.

[LigiaD]

Al,

I just played with the objects, cool! Had no idea that this existed, already love the feature!

I also downloaded Audition. Never imagined having so many sound editors in my computer! It is by far the easiest to understand, in my beginners' opinion; was able to fade and time the music. Nevertheless, I have not been able to even play the music with the Audacity program yet, all that it does is weird sounds. I imported the files as raw, but yet, cannot get it to play the music. I have been visiting the Audacity website for more information; have the feeling that it must be the simplest of all once that I find out how to use it. I would not mind buying Audition, the only concern is that Audacity might give me all that I need and it is free. I am not planning on getting extra fancy with the music or doing any recordings/mixing; all that I need is the fading music effect for the slide show.

By the way, your avatar is awesome!

Thanks for all your help,

Ligia

[Andre]

... Nevertheless, I have not been able to even play the music with the Audacity program yet, all that it does is weird sounds. I imported the files as raw, but yet, cannot get it to play the music. I have been visiting the Audacity website for more information; have the feeling that it must be the simplest of all once that I find out how to use it. I would not mind buying Audition, the only concern is that Audacity might give me all that I need and it is free.

Hi Ligia,

FWIW, I'd recommend starting with Audacity. It all seems a bit geeky at the beginning but once you are up and running you'll find it's a lot of fun. It's free, its stable, its about 200 times smaller than Audition (which weighs in at 470 MB!) and its Open Source - all good.

The first two things you need to be aware of:

- the actual format of the audio files you want to use

- the sound card on your computer

Once you are clear about these two things, then the Manual will start to make sense. Otherwise, just keep posting those questions ...

Andre

[Ken Cox]

Ligia

what kind of music files use the raw extension

see

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAW_image_format

now if this is correct , you are trying to play an image file with a music player

ken

[LigiaD]

Andre, Ken,

My sound card is a NVIDIA GeForce 6200.

I do not have any MP3 files in this computer yet; only wav.

I was trying all the Audacity menus, that's how I found Project/Import Raw Data and went through this option, but of course, it did not work. First, I had tried to open a wav file through File/Open, but it did not work for me either! I could see the wave form/name of the song, but I could not play the music.

By the way, I had to get rid of Audition; it messed up the CS2 Bridge and the Adobe Camera Raw. I had to reinstall Bridge and the Raw plug-in this morning, but I am still unable to see the Raw thumbnails. That's it for Audition, do not want to see it any more!

Thanks for your input,

Ligia

PS: I just realized that the files are wma, not wav; that might be the cause of the problem with Audacity. I am still a little confused though; the wma files play in Cool Edit fine.

[Ronniebootwest]

It is sad that you have dismissed 'Adobe Audition' so easily, just because you made a couple of simple mistakes. I have been using the program for a long time and find that it easily beats any of the 'free' versions out there (including Audacity).

Later on, when you become more familiar with PTE and the music options you may regret you decision to plump for a free music

editor.

Incidently, you will dedinitely need to be able to convert/save your WAV files to mp3 at some early stage.

[Andre]

OK Ligia, lets get you on the road. We'll get to your sound card after this.

We're basically going to convert your wma files to wav, so they can be editied. Later on, once you have chopped, sliced and diced your audio (with fades, of course) you can convert the wavs - if you need too - back to mp3 or whatever ... but that's later.

1) Create a new folder called "PTE_AudioEdit" somewhere where you can see it on your HD. You'll will see why in a minute.

2) Copy all the audio you want to use into the "PTE_AudioEdit" folder

3) Download this freeware:

dBpowerAMP Music Converter (dMC)

http://www.dbpoweramp.com/dmc.htm

4) Run and install dMC. If for some reason a shortcut is not created on your desktop you can find the program

@ C:\Program Files\Illustrate\dBpowerAMP.

The program / shortcut you need to click on is called "Music Convertor".

5) Open "MusicConverter". A dialog box will appear. Browse to the "PTE_AudioEdit" folder and select the .wma files you want to convert.

We're going to convert these .wma files (which are compressed) to .wav (uncompressed) so they can edited in Audacity.

Select the following:

Converting to (n) File > wav

16 bit (CD) | 44.100 kHz | 2 'Stereo" CD

Output to: Same Folder as Original

6) There. Now have wav versions of your audio. Open Audacity. Ctrl+O and bring the file in. Hit play!

7) In Audacity Ctrl+P gets you into preferences. Have a look at what appears on the "Audio i/o" tab for Playback / Recording. The name of your sound card will appear there. Sometimes its just the default Microsoft thingy.

Lets see what happens. Good luck!

Andre

[Ken Cox]

I hope she has not downloaded these wma files from some site that protects them from being converted

ken

[alrobin]

Hi, Ligia,

Sorry my advice re Audition messed up your programs so much. I have no problem with Audition and Audacity and Cubase SX all running side by side on my system. They each have their own special advantages. But I agree with Andre in that you should try out Audacity first, as it sounds like it may be sufficient for your requirements (for now! )

But one thing that mystifies me is the reaction between Audition and your photoshop files. I too use CS2, as well as raw images, and there has never been any interaction between them and any sound editors. Of course I have never tried to import a raw image into Audition, and after your experience, I don't think I will try.

Best of luck getting sound working in your PTE projects! MP3's are the way to go, though, and Audacity will be able to produce them for you. Beware of MP3's that you download from music supply sites, though, as they may have to be converted in another great sound program called "dbPowerAmp Music Converter". This is another great program that all AV producers should have in their toolbox.

[LigiaD]

Ronnie,

I might get Audition again later on; you are right, it seems to be an excellent program. I am a big fan of the Adobe software any way.

Andre,

Thanks !!!!!!!!!!! I did as instructed. I am listening to the music in Audacity as I write! No problem now.

Ken,

The wma files come from my own CDs.

Al,

I never tried to open any RAW image files in Audition or in any other sound editor; only the music files. What happened is that after the Audition installation was completed, and as I work often with CS2, I noticed that the RAW files from my D2X were not being recognized any more. The problem might have been caused by my rushing; might have checked the wrong box and Audition apparently had switched Bridge to an older version during the installation (?). After my previous post, I downloaded the Bridge update 1.0.3.106 and every thing is working fine once again.

Thanks to you all for a great and fast learning experience!

[Ken Cox]

Ligia

" been there done that "

graphics program are famous for grabbing file associations

it is hard enough for people trying to keep the upper hand on their system then they install another program and they think they did it right but much to their sorrow they find out the new proggie has done things you do not want it doing.

ken

[pushu]

can Audicity be used to stitch together mp3s? I could'nt seem to get it to work, and after reading all of this post I am thinking this could be my problem?

[Ken Cox]

PUSHU

from my notes -- key tips like these i keep in the program's folder for reference

ken

merge mp3's using soundforge or - audacity

19:08 5/28/03

new

project

import audio

just open a mp3 file and then Click on

EDIT and select all,

then copy...close window,

open a NEW file and paste,

minimize that one, open another mp3 file,

Edit select all, copy,

close the

window, open the new one your making or rather maximise and paste

can do that as many times as you want

Ken, Al is right, it's not so complicated!

Try to do this way:

1) Open Audacity

2) Project > Import Audio 1

3) Project > Import Audio 2

4) Select <---> symbol (top left), and move forward the 2nd file.

5) Play to check if the effect is right.

6) If so, File > Export as Mp3 (or if you prefer as a Windows Wav).

08:58 7/14/03

Posted: Jul 13 2003, 10:23 AM

http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums//index...ct=ST&f=2&t=847

Lately, there's been lots of questions on how to create a slideshow with multiple songs. The show would hang when the song changed.

There were some solutions given, but I was still confused after reading them.

After fiddling around for a while, I stumbled onto the solution. Just thought I'd share it here...in very simple terms.

Yes, you have to make all of the music tracks into one single track. To do this, download the free Audacity software. If you use mp3 tracks like I do, you'll also need to download the free LAME software.

1) Open up Audacity.

2) Under Project, import your music files.

3) Use the "time shift tool" to locate the end of track #1.

4) Use the "selection tool" to copy and paste track #2 .

5) Copy & paste the remaining tracks in the same way.

6) Export your combined single file. (mp3 needs LAME file)

7) Add this combined single file into your pic2exe slideshow.

There might be a better way to do it, but this works. Try it. It's lots easier than I probably made it sound! ;-)

Joyfully, -david soderman- <><

Alan Lyons Posted: Jul 14 2003, 07:20 AM

David,

Have a look at where the two tracks meet. I have not tried Audacity yet but there should be drag bars at both ends of a track, by playing with these you can create a crossfade over the two tracks which sounds much smoother than just laying them in train on the MP,

Alan

--------------------

Alan Lyons

Dublin Ireland

3:20 PM 9/14/2004

ContaxMan Posted: Sep 14 2004, 07:41 AM

Senior Member

Group: Members

Posts: 114

Member No.: 736

Joined: 9-July 03

The waveform display in PTE is simply to help with positioning image transitions to the music, e.g. you may wish to have a particular slide appear at a peak in the sound wave. It is not a music editor - you need to stick to Audacity or similar.

To combine music in Audacity simply get the two pieces onto the screen, select one waveform by dragging over it, press CTRL C (to copy it), position the cursor at the end of the other wave, press CTRL V (to paste). You will then have the two waves combined.

Look at the Audacity link where you'll find links to tutorials etc.

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/windows.php?lang=en

I hope this helps.

--------------------

Roger

ContaxMan Posted: Sep 14 2004, 01:41 PM

Senior Member

Group: Members

Posts: 114

Member No.: 736

Joined: 9-July 03

I've located this in the tutorial material available when you download Audacity.

Try this:

Open the background music).

Select Import Audio... from the Project menu and open the other sound , e.g. a recorded narration.

Listen to your sound using the Play button.

Audacity automatically mixes them together.

Choose the Time Shift tool and adjust the position of one track or the other until they're synchronized the way you want them. You can even move tracks around while they're playing.

If you hear clipping which wasn't present in either of the original files, it means that the combined volume of the two tracks is too loud. If so, elect one or both of the tracks and then use the Amplify... effect to reduce the volumes until you don't hear clipping anymore.

Save as mp3 for pte.

--------------------

Roger

York, North Yorkshire, UK

4:59 PM 10/7/2004

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WnSoft Forums > PicturesToExe > Music

Posted by: John C Oct 7 2004, 04:12 PM

I have a question. I want to be able to fade music at the end of a slide show. If I download 'Audacity', will it do that for me?

Thanks,

John Catalano

Posted by: ContaxMan Oct 7 2004, 04:14 PM

Yes - it's very easy to fade music with Audacity.

Posted by: Ken Cox Oct 7 2004, 04:41 PM

Roger

I recommended 'Audacity' to John but i could not tell him how to fade the music -- will you explain it for us?

ken

Posted by: shelton Oct 7 2004, 04:57 PM

I'm not Roger but the way that I do it is go up to the selection tool at the top left. It's the large I. You select the amount at the end of the song that you want to fade out and go up to effect and click on fade out. That's it. Hope that this helps.

[Andre]

Andre,

Thanks !!!!!!!!!!! I did as instructed. I am listening to the music in Audacity as I write! No problem now.

Ken,

The wma files come from my own CDs.

Great news Ligia!

Looks like you have the original CDs. Why not rip the music CDs straight into your "PTE_AudioEdit" folder (or whatever ... )? Then you can edit everything in Audacity to your heart's content.

If you need a CD ripper then you could use this: CDex. Grab the *.zip version. No install required - just unzip and run from the folder.

Check your CDs if they have any kind of copy protection (CP) software - it will be on a small label on the back. If so, then there * could * be way of dealing with that if I can * remember * how to do it ...(we'll get to that later ...). For your own sanity don't try and play these CP CDs on your computer. Some of them auto-install software that will crash your system.

Tip: turn off "Autorun" on your CD drive - use TweakUI (you'll see the Autorun menu). It will save you the hassle of Windows scanning your CD / removable drives, firing up unwanted software and possibly installing all sorts of "merde". For any reason, you can easily turn Autorun on again later.

If the CD looks OK, fire up CDex and plonk the CD in the tray. Browse to your CD Drive just rip the music from CD as *.wav, into new folder. All audio files ripped from the CD will be 16 bit / 44.1 kHz - same as your default settings in Audacity (Ctrl+P and have a look). Just so you remember.

NB: Now that you have got a handle on "Music Convertor", later on you can - if you want to - convert those .wav files to another format, like mp3.

Power on!

Andre

[LigiaD]

Looks like you have the original CDs. Why not rip the music CDs straight into your "PTE_AudioEdit" folder (or whatever ... )? Then you can edit everything in Audacity to your heart's content.

Thanks, Andre; the information is very useful.

If you need a CD ripper then you could use this: CDex. Grab the *.zip version. No install required - just unzip and run from the folder.

Have one; however, I better go with the expert's advice!

Check your CDs if they have any kind of copy protection (CP) software - it will be on a small label on the back. If so, then there * could * be way of dealing with that if I can * remember * how to do it ...(we'll get to that later ...). For your own sanity don't try and play these CP CDs on your computer. Some of them auto-install software that will crash your system.

Never in my life had read any writings on the CDs, except for the name of the songs/performers.

Tip: turn off "Autorun" on your CD drive - use TweakUI (you'll see the Autorun menu). It will save you the hassle of Windows scanning your CD / removable drives, firing up unwanted software and possibly installing all sorts of "merde". For any reason, you can easily turn Autorun on again later.

Love this tip as well; the autorun has been driving me nuts!

If the CD looks OK, fire up CDex and plonk the CD in the tray. Browse to your CD Drive just rip the music from CD as *.wav, into new folder. All audio files ripped from the CD will be 16 bit / 44.1 kHz - same as your default settings in Audacity (Ctrl+P and have a look). Just so you remember.

Had noticed the kHz, but not that I could rip the music directly as *.wav. Very good to know!

NB: Now that you have got a handle on "Music Convertor", later on you can - if you want to - convert those .wav files to another format, like mp3.

Is it advisable to use MP3 files with PTE, rather than the wav?

PS: I also noticed the envelope tool in Audacity. To fade the music, would it be the same using this tool, instead of the "I" tool? It makes it look so simple for controlling the wave form.

[Andre]

Hi Ligia,

OK, Copy Protection. Google "SONY DRM" SONY rootkit". Be aware. These CDs are OK on your player but not so good on your computer (understatement). EMI and SONY have made quite a few CDs using CP (aka DRM Software). The notice usually appears in tiny, tiny wrting. Even Catbert would do things differently!

Fades. Make sure Audacity is in Stop (not Pause). Hit the "Z" key a couple times to make sure.

- Select say 3 seconds in from the start of the music.

- Go to the main menu bar, click on Effects and choose Fade In.

- You'll see the waveform ramp up from silence to full volume, over the selected area. Now Fade Out should be pretty easy to work out ... (hint: same menu)

Experiment with the Envelope function and see if you can work out how it might be different from Fade In / Fade Out.

The advantage of mp3 is a reduced file size (but a somewhat reduced audio quality). Think of converting *.tiff to *.jpg. Similar deal. It could be handy for keeping the overall PTE project file size reasonable. Easier to distribute via the internet, for one. But I've made huge projects in PTE with uncompressed audio - no problem.

Andre

PS: Isn't life without Autorun just bliss?

[LigiaD]

Thanks, Andre! I will use the uncompressed files then. My slide show project is for a large auditorium, the sound should be the best possible. I think that the whole project, after approximately 10 segments, it is going to be between 500 and 600 MB; divided into several exe segments. I would not like to compress the images very much; as I understand, PTE would be able to easily handle a show this big. I do not find any reason why it shouldn't ... hope that I am correct!

How huge have your projects been?

[JohnFeg]

I've been reading this thread with great interest, and learning a lot from it. A difficulty that I have encountered is that, when I piece together one long music track, from several shorter lenths, often from diverse sources, there often prove to be aurally unaesthetic sound level differences.

I'm using Cool Edit (but have only, lacking the required expertise, skimmed the surface of what this application is so obviously capable of doing)

At the moment I select a section that needs to be "brought into line" with adjacent sections. Then, do a 3 or 6db cut or boost. Something tells me this is not a very scientific approach!

I would be very grateful if somebody can advise a better method.

John

[Andre]

Ligia - Well, from my experience creating large PTE *.exe files can be convenient but can get you into trouble. I was bragging a little about "huge" - a 900 MB full screen show running off a very fast machine. The same show would be just too much for a smaller machine. You'd get flickering, dropouts etc. Maybe others here have gone to the 2 gig limit using an optimal machine.

I think it's sensible to err on the side of caution - especially if you presenting off a laptop > projector. It's a bit of maths and a bit of planning - here's an example:

Note: 1 MB = 1024 kb

AUDIO

One minute of 16bit / 44.1 kHz audio = 10.3 MB

45 mins x 10.3 MB = 474 MB of audio approx

VISION

A 45 min project with 2 sec transitions (average) = 30 transitions / min x 45 mins (duration) = 1350 images

1350 x 768 MB per image (average) = 1 gig approx

AUDIO + VISION

474 MB + 1 gig = 1.5 gig approx

In this scenario I could break the project up into 5 parts @ approx 300 MB each. Then I'd test out a 300 MB project on 2 different computers - one that screams, another that just plods along.

If you don't want to sacrifice image quality but need to compact the audio files a little, then you could use 320 kbps setting when you encode your MP3s. This has a higher quality.

Andre

[Andre]

.. A difficulty that I have encountered is that, when I piece together one long music track, from several shorter lenths, often from diverse sources, there often prove to be aurally unaesthetic sound level differences ...

Hi John,

In the old days this was called "level matching" - for sound editors working in film it was something of an art, to make sure all the dialogue tracks sounded consistent from scene to scene. It's easier to do these days but it still requires attentive listening and quite a bit of practice.

[You're using Cool Edit 2000? I found an old copy around here ...]

A great way to learn about this is to make a test compilation. Lets say you have a variety of material you've ripped from CD onto your your HD. Use say 30 secs from 5 or more different tracks (and I mean "different"). Make a note of each track, the order etc.

Trim the edges of each clip with a small fade (so the cuts are smooth) and compile the lot and save it as one file, e.g "CD_LevelTest_Compile_01".

Play it back, as is. You'll probably hear wild changes in "perceived volume" even though some of the tracks might * appear * to show the same rise and fall on the meters. Interesting, eh? (Btw, use View > Vertical Scale Format > Decibels.)

See if you can adjust the levels this time so that the "perceived volume" seems more consistent.

Select the area you want to edit (mouse + drag). Adjust the amplitude using Transform > Amplitude > Envelope. A pop-up dialog will appear with graph and a bar whihc you just adjust with your mouse. There are a number of pre-sets you can use as well, to get you started. Switch on "spline curve". Work your way through the compile like this.

Save your edit as "CD_LevelTest_Compile_02"

Then listen back to your edits 1) loud 2 ) medium 3) very soft. It will be obvious what needs to come down / up. Then compare the two Compiles.

Sometimes a + /- 2 dB change can make a big difference! In this balancing act, you use your ears to make the distinctions and the meters only as a reference.

Also: when you listen back to your edits (say, though a good pair of headphones) look away from the screen or close your eyes - you'll hear it all so much better.

Hope that helps.

Andre