Hi Terry,

There are a couple of ways to do this.

For both cases:

1. Put all narration on one track.
2. Mute the other audio tracks or Solo the narration track.
3. Mixdown audio - Shift+D and note where the file will go to for future reference. This will replace your narration audio files with one, and it will be red when it comes in.
4. Copy this to clipboard.
5. Undo. This will put back your individual files in case you want to go back - you can skip this step, but I like to have mine back on the track in case I mess up in cleaning the mixdown file.
6. Paste the mixdown file that was in the clipboard.
7. Mute the old narration or Solo the new narration.
8. Normalize this just to make sure that it is normalized (Alt+N)

Two cases:

1. Double-click on the mixdown file to open the cleaning tools and do your fixing. No need to apply all. Or,

2. Right-click the mixdown file and select Edit wave externally. If you have not changed it, the default editor, Music Editor 3, will open with your mixdown file. Here you can do much more than with the basic cleaning tools that are in MEP. Once done, exit. It will ask to save the file, do so, and the modified file will have replaced the one on the timeline. This is a destructive process as the wave file is actually modified. If you messed it up, delete the mixdown file and start again. EDIT: ok, maybe not quite so destructive. Listen to the result in MEP. If not good, undo and the previous version comes back. Yes! Then export it again.

My programs, MEP and VPX, are linked to Audio & Music Lab Premium, so I have many more tools with which I can mess up my audio (or not), including a spectral editor. This is also a better interface than in MEP for automating (adjusting) the volume, IMHO.

Let me know if I got any of the steps wrong. I haven't used ME3 for a long time.

Lots to learn about audio editing.

Hi

@ John CB

Interesting method - have never used that, just tried it on some video clips with a surprising result which I think is another gotcha, and worth mentioning in case any one applies this to video audio.

During the combine (mix - down) the audio is removed from video clips which have been combined rather than muted as I expected.

John EB

Hi John EB,

I haven't tried it, but I do know that any audio that is not muted gets mixed down. I was trying to but MEP froze on a simple trim.

Of course, the other way is to export just the audio and use that file, opening ME3 or AML separately, cleaning, saving the project, exporting, then importing the cleaned file.

Thanks John, appreciate your spelling it out in such detail. I'm a relative novice with audio so I'll have to try those steps carefully . Meanwhile, Edit > Combine Audio...is new to me and will plainly be very handy. Apart from this topic, it will let me free up tracks. A few short but complex sections in a project screw up any attempt at tidiness, unless you're happy to have some tracks out of sight!

BTW, my key settings are non-standard, so here it's Shift+M that corresponds to Edit > Combine audio...

Hi Terry,

I have started colouring certain objects now and I have been trying to make things more orderly, thus I end up with tracks that are off-screen. I now use Alt + mouse wheel to scroll up and down the tracks a lot. I try to keep track 5 available for any audio that MEP wants to put there by default. I have moved titles and captions down to tracks 7-9. But yes, tidiness comes with added complications.

Since I have started naming tracks, a nice feature would be to see the track names show up in the Mixer.

As for audio editing, it is a daunting subject, but interesting. You may want to do some reading up on the features of Music Editor 3, accessible from within the interface or by opening the chm file under

C:\Program Files\MAGIX\Movie Edit Pro 2016 Premium\MusicEditor

I did not find a pdf for this.

Hi John,

Colouring objects? Do you mean with Background design?

My first use of Combine audio yesterday delivered the result in track 13, presumably the first one available after 5?

Haven't had my first coffee yet, so "naming tracks" had me puzzled for a minute; hopefully looking for a command to rename tracks 1, 2, 3...
But can you expand a bit. I give some frequently used video objects new names (such as rectangles or ellipses highlighting place names or map features, with several stacked in separate timeline tracks). Is that the sort of thing you mean? Do you rename audio objects too?

Hi John CB

. . . . . Since I have started naming tracks, a nice feature would be to see the track names show up in the Mixer. . . . .

Where is this feature?

I can find no way of doing this or any reference to it in MEP or VPX, only in Music Maker

John EB

Hi John,

As per my reply earlier, I'm guessing John CB means he renames the object (via Properties).

Hi John EB, Terry and John CB,

Where is this feature?

If you increase the track height, at the beginning, below the symbols for Mute etc., a white box appears (in VPX at least) into which you can type. Simple screenshot attached.

Jeff

Hi Jeff,

Nice one, thanks! Documented anywhere? Or is Magix just hiding a few goodies?

John CB, John EB,

So my guess on that was about as good as it was on the USA election...

Terry, East Grinstead, UK

Hi

@ Jeff

Thanks for that - there is no mention of this in the manuals.

@ Terry

That would have been my guess too - the Properties that is.

John EB