Alan Lyons

Hi all Just a quick call to wish everybody all the best for 2010. Hope you all have a wonderful year and that we see loads of sequences in the new year, and that we get the chance to meet at one or two of the many festivals and competitions around the world. My next stop is the NIPA festival in Northern Ireland in Feburary see www.niphoto.co.uk for details. Alan

Exellent show well put together. Nice relaxed commentry. A long sequence but it held me quite well. There are som images wich do not reach the standard of the vast majority of those in the show. I would suggest a re shooting of these to raise the standard of the piece. Well done to all involved

Hi Tom, when I make a sequence I always start by setting up the following folder set for the show within a folder called "Audio Visuals" on my desktop. "Audio Visuals" "Show Name" "Images" Contains all images for the sequence. "Sound" Contains all sound files such as; Ripped music, voice recordings, FX, and Session files from your audio editor. "Projects" Contains your .pte file, .exe file and any other files wich do not fall naturally into the other folders. This setup allows you to move all relevent files between computers and to archive all sequences to an external drive. It also allows for quick and reliable working on a project as you can route all saving and opening options to the relevent folder(s).

no problem there, just load your key on to the computer ( you have kept a copy haven't you ) and load the set up for P2e then show it the key and you will be up and running,

Happy Christmas and a creative new year to you all. Hope the recession does not bite too hard!

Hi Tony, I just read through your thread today and would like to add my bit. As most people come to Audio Visual through photography the come to sound as the second part of the mix. We are happy for a while to add pre recorded music for a while and then, reach the point you have just arrived at. I'm amazed by those who proudly claim to have spent a lifetime learning photography, but if you cannot teach them everything about sound in an afternoon they want their money back. Sound is just as creative a part of this dicipline as photography and once you are over the worry of cost, you will unleash a creative side you will enjoy as much as your photography. The good news is that sound technology is going backwards rather than fowards. The big thing now in studio recording is valves!!!! What this means to you is that you don't have to "chase technology" as you do with PCs and Cameras.If you invest now in good equipment it should last a lifetime. Studio mics are routeenly expected to last 30+ years. One option you could look at for recording voice at home is an external sound card wich allows you to move away from the PC as this is conected by USB to the pc and bypasses the onboard card. The background noise most recordingd pickup is due to the fact that the mic gain is too high for the voice which is near the mic so the sounds are picked up. Think of it as Depth of Field for sound. Don't be shy to use the EQ facility in Aduacity to chase down rogue hums etc. "Fixing it in Photoshop" is seen as the lazy way out for photographers. Whereas, "Fixing it in the mix" is seen as the creative genius of the sound engineer. Have a look at http://www.soundonsound.com/ it is a treasure trove of all things sound. One final quote to set you on your way "Ya buy cheep ya buy twice!" Alan

David, I asume when you say a bigger screen you are refering to a screen "display" size for your laptop/PC and not a bigger projection screen. If this is the case then your 1024x768 should stretch to fit the screen. You will see some stretching paticuarlly in text and such. I would solve your problem by sizing to 2048x1356 as this is twice what you need for current projectors and will match perfectly the higher res projectors now comming on screen. On your PC your images will fit on screen and will be compressed by about 20%. I can assure you that 1024x768 images will project perfectly on large screens. If you want to see this in action you could visit Jeff and co at Snods End, or the RPS International in Cirencester this September. I've already booked my seat and bought the popcorn! Alan

Sorry, I'm not a techie but the idea is that if you send an image which for argument sake is 1234 X 567 pixels then in order for the projector to show the image at 1024 x 768 some trade off is done somewhere? Square pegs in round holes if you see what I mean. Where as the 1024 x 682 of a 3:2 in lay mans terms "leaves some of the lights off" I would opt for "best fit " every time, Alan

Hi All, The thing with resizing for projection is that if you don't match the projector res 1:1 or 2:1 etc then you will loose pixels which will be randomly rejected by the projector. What I do is to set my with to 1024 and allow the hight to be calculated by "Preserve Aspect Ratio". This means that your image will fit the with of the screen and black will be projected where there are no pixels. If you do this with 3:2 images you get a more "cinematic" or "35mm Slide" aspect which I feel looks better on a large screen than the nearly square 4:3 Aspect. As a final fix for projection I reduce the Quality slider in photoshop to 8 for each image ( this can be done in actions) this gives you an image which is between 300 and 150 kb. Ideal for projection on cinema size screens but useless for printing. Alan

Fine piece of work Igor, Now go and enjoy your holiday with Maureen and Robert, Alan

Hi Dave, on the tech side a lot of people use outdoor recoeders with the levels up full. This results in a lot of noise you dont want. You will need to experiment witl levels to find a setting which will suit. You can get good bird song from far off with low input levels. Alao if you can get reasonably close to your subject and use low levels this will help. The same rules apply here as in normal studio recording in that clipped sounds cannot be rescued so give the recording some headroom and if nessary use EQ in the computer to take out hums and wind noise where possible. SoundFX can usually be mixed fairly low in the final mix as they are usually ment to be background sounds, (Water, Birdsong, Wind etc.) You can also help the mix by using compression on the final to help the FX stand out abit. Alan

John Putnam on Making Films, Cinema Relases, Movies, Motion Pictures, The Flicks. Yes they have loads of names too. "If you make money, it's an industry. If you don't, it's an art form, I am working in an art form"

Hi All, Instead of trying to invent another name for what we do should we not just get on with the job in hand, making the best, Audio Visual, Slide Show, Sequence, Diaporama, Presentation that you are capable of. As to what makes a good one, someone once came up with this formula Sound =1 Images =1 therefore a good Audio Visual (or any of the above) is when 1+1=3. Relax and enjoy the creative outlet. Its cheeper than Valium.

I would agree with some of what Anthony says,but even if we only take "snaps of the family", good composition will make them memorable. My advice is listen to what is said, take on board what is relevent, and be able to stand by your efforts. As one movie director whos name I cant remember said: "Some of us are here to save the world, some of us are here to sell popcorn. There is room for both"

Hi Glenys, So long as you don't have a screen saver or a Standbye/ Hibernate time setting in place it will run untill the escape is pressed. One thing you might consider though is to have a last slide which will show for a number of minutes. This will be part of the show and can be the company logo or poiduct label. This allows time for audience change or talk time between showings. An example of this would be in a tourist site where the last slide would say "Thank you for watching, now go th the Gift Shop and BUY SOMETHING!!!' This could stay on screen for 20 minutes with the show looping for the next audience. Good luck with the project, Alan

Hi All, I read this topic with intrest and a wry smile. I believe that A/ V is a broad church and that there is room for all types of sequences. But when you mention "slides to music" and "quick and convenitnt" in the one breath I get the vision of a randomly selected piece of music which does not fit to the images or the mood of the sequence. If you are proud of your images then treat them with respect. There are many sequences out there which have been ruined by bad disions in the production stage. This applys to both the "slides to music"and the "full production numbers". I have sat behind many a projector and watched many a show which fell by the by because the author has not gone the extra mile to make the sequence what it could be. The snob value comes in when advice is given in a way that talks down to the author. Good advice well given should encourage, not raise the hackles. Barry, you needent wory the statment you recieved is not the worst critizem I have heard. That goes to the lady who wad in the audience for a competition and at the breake saought out the auther of the sequence and as proud as can be said, "The music you used for your sequence was so nice, i just closed my eyes and drifted away" To this day she thinks it was a complement If any one has heard abetter put down I would love to hear it. Alan

Hi Stonewall, You asked about competition Audio Visual. Other than tet requirements of .exe files and credit for all involved, the basic requirement for competition is that you do not excees 12 mins per sequence. Most good producers rarely stray beyond 5 - 6 mins. I've seen classic shows of 2 min or less! If you are intrested in competitions or workshops then have a look at www.avg.rps.org this is the UK based Audio Visual group of the Royal Photographic Society. If you are in the UK they will help you get in contact with local workers in your area. Also, have a look at visiting the 18th International Audio Visual Festival in Cirencester 19 to 21 sept 2008. Here you will see the best that the world of AV has to offer and meet the great and the good . If you are here in Ireland contact http://www.irishphoto.ie/ the home of the Irish Photographic Federation or www.niphoto.co.uk for Northern Ireland. Both have excellent Irish AV contacts and information, Hope this will get you started and we'll see you in Cirencester Alan

Happy New Year and the best to all in P2E

Hi, the quickest and best fix for this is to combine both sound files into one MP3. This will make for a smooth switch from one to the other and will also give you a full time for both tracks and one waveform on the timeline, Alan

Hi Bob, you've certainly got all the brains working on this. The import seems to be your main problem. I bought a programme a long while ago but it keeps a special place on the HD it is called Audio Cleaning Lab and it will import "anything" and convert to "anything" It was designed to record and restore records and tape to CD output, but is worth the price for the conversion ablities alone, You can get a trial or buy at magix.com. You also have control over sample and bit rates and ins and outs volume control Alan

Hi Bob, The Hz numbers are indeed important to your sound quality. As Ken says CD quality is at 44100 Hz This refers to the rate at which the sound is sampled by your sound card. The higher rate the higher the quality. The human ear can hear sounds from 20Hz to 20 kHz, so a sample rate needs to be higher than this. The standard used is at least twice 20 kHz. CD quality recordings use a 44100Hz. You need to insure that all sounds are either recorded or imported at the same rate. You can set the sample rate in aduacity's preferences and if you re import the CD tracks at 44100 you will find that the sound quality will be more even. What may have happend in your case is that the sample rate for the CD import is 2set at 2050HZ re set this to 44100 and re import. As the DL tracks are imoprted to Aduacity you are reducing the sample rate and in turn the quality. The other factor you need to consider is the Bit Rate. This is the binary string in which the information is storded on the computer. This is in batches of 8 bits and most use a 24 Bit Rate. Compare this to photographing at 10MP as apposed to 1MP Happy Christmas Alan

Downloaded fine to the Emerald Isle Happy Christmas to Me