How can I Disable automatic volume adjusting between different audio channels?
It is very annoying and distroys your audio planing because the program is doing its own volume adjustments which I cannot control anyhow. It tries to be too smart but destroys my projects all the time.
Hi,
Please indicate the version (year and basic or Plus / Premium ) that you are using. I presume that the program is MEP.
Different audio channels? In stereo there are 2, left and right. Do you means tracks?
"....distroys your audio planing..." do you mean planing, planning or panning?
I haven't experienced automatic volume control of my objects. They are what they are until I normalize or change the volume, myself.
There are several ways that I know of to reduce/change the volume of audio objects and tracks:
Perhaps you could explain in more detail.
Thanks for reacting to this question. OK, I explain more detailed...
I place a video captured with camera in first track including audio which goes to track 2.
Then I place background music in track 3. Now if I have loud sound (clap of hands, wind blow etc.) in track 2, program automatically reduces the audio (music) level in track 3. This is very annoying since music level goes up and down and I want music level to be stable, no matter what happens in other tracks.
I have tried to find setting where to discable this behaviour, but no success so far.
My SW is Movie edit pro MX, version 11.0.6.0.
I also downloaded the latest version Movie edit pro 2015 and it behaves same way.
Ok, I think I understand much better.
I presume that your problem happens only in an export or DVD, not on the timeline. Can you confirm that?
As far as I know, MEP mixes down all of the sound and normalizes it.
Normalization raises the level of an audio object to the maximum possible level without clipping the material. It searches for the largest signal peak in the audio material and raises the level of the object so that this position matches exactly 0 dB ((maximum overdrive). To avoid clipping or overmodulation, it will reduce the loudest noise to 0db or the maximum allowed ceiling, everything else goes below this. It guarantees that the music/sound is not too loud/overmodulated or too quiet.
In your case, a loud noise is probably causing clipping and is thus lowering the volume of everything to avoid this.
It may be that overmodulation causes the other audio to drop at that point.
One solution may be to open the Mixer (M) and watch the volume levels of the tracks. If 1 track goes into the yellow or red, you are getting clipping and you should reduce the volume, either of the track or the object or by using a volume curve.
Then adjust the sound on the other tracks, if necessary. Once you get rid of clipping, the volume of your other tracks should remain constant.
You can also try using the compressor on the video sound track (under Audio cleaning). The compressor is an automated, dynamic volume controller. Loud passages become quieter and the total value is raised. This makes the volume more consistent and speech easier to understand. A compressor is mainly useful in case background noise or music interferes with speech and simply increasing the volume of the individual objects or tracks does not result in any significant improvement.
Thanks for reacting to this question. OK, I explain more detailed...
I place a video captured with camera in first track including audio which goes to track 2.
Then I place background music in track 3. Now if I have loud sound (clap of hands, wind blow etc.) in track 2, program automatically reduces the audio (music) level in track 3. This is very annoying since music level goes up and down and I want music level to be stable, no matter what happens in other tracks.
I have tried to find setting where to discable this behaviour, but no success so far.
Actually, it doesn't happen "automatically" within the program. In fact, it doesn't happen at all! What you may be hearing is either or both of two things:
Hi
If you have the Limiter in the Mastering Suite ( M key - see image below) turned on then you will get the effect you are describing.
HiRes version is here.
HTH
John
I found the reason for this problem. It was actually in my sound card. In control panel under sound device there was a choise quite well hidden to automatically adjust sound volume. That was ticked off. So, I disabled that and now it works. Thanks emmrecs for this advice - this saved my day.
Thanks for posting back and letting us know you were able to resolve the problem. Happy editing!
@Stemu,
Glad you found the problem. I was doing variations using normalization, no normalization, limiter, no limiter, increasing the volume of the loud track to get major clipping to see what happens, etc.
I could swear that in Windows Media Player, in some cases the exported file had the background music drop at the loud part and not even come back up after it. I brought the files into MEP and I don't hear the same thing.
@All - Limiter and Mixer problem
However, I did notice a strange thing with the Limiter and the Mixer in 2015 Premium.
I moved all objects to the right so that there was nothing on the tracks for a few seconds before hitting the first object. At about 1 second before the playback marker hits the object, the sound shows up in the Limiter audio scope. Then just before hitting the object, the sound shows up in the Mixer audio scope.
I tested this with Music Maker 2015 Premium and nothing happens until the playback marker hits the object. I also tested it in Samplitude Music Studio 2015 and there is some movement a fraction of second before the marker hits the object.
I also tried MEP2014 Plus and VPX6 and the same thing happens as in MEP2015.
Can someone try reproducing this? If so, and if there is no rational explanation, I think it is a bug and I will put it with the other problems that I posted.
Thanks,
Hi
@ Stemu
Pleased you solution was a simple one.
@John CB
. . . . if there is no rational explanation . . . .
How about the laws of physics - sound travels significantly slower than light - so that the sound and video arrive at the ear at the correct times sound processing starts before the video is seen so that by the time it hits the ear it is in sync.
This could be what you are seeing - the audio being processed and sent to the buffers ready for output.
John
@John EB,
That could explain a lookahead difference, but 1 second? Also in Music Maker, it is possible to edit videos as well, but the sound displays when the playback marker hits the object, not before.
I tried with a short video clip in MMM and nothing happened in the displays until the playback marker hit the object.
Hi
@John CB,
I would venture to suggest that MEP and VPX are optimised for video playback to take priority over the processor and the audio taking a bit of a back seat, such that relatively large portions of audio can be pre-prepared and buffered in short bursts of processor time and be ready for release to the audio card at the correct time with the video rendered and playing.
I agree about MMM and wonder if the displays are connected to different points in the audio chain - Ie in MEP the meter is connected to the display the audio as it is being rendered / buffered , whereas in MMM it is connected to the audio buffer out.
It is difficult to know why we see the behaviour we do without knowing the actual data flow timing programmed in to the products.
Certainly the laws of physics apply in that the sound must hit the speakers before the video the screen so they both arrive in sync - however in a domestic situation you are only talking very low tens of milliseconds, in a cinema you could be talking about 50ms or more which can be more noticeable.
John