Alan Lyons

Mike, I'm not sure what the rules are in the US but a good place to start would be, MRCPS. The machanical recording copyright protection society. There are diferent leveles of licence for diferent requirements based on the potental audience and financial rewards. You can usually find contact info on most CDs. Happy St Paddy's day from the Emerald Isle, Alan

Hi Clive, Sorry I'm late into this but I've been on holiday! One thing which wasn't mentioned, when you play on another machine, do you load onto the hard drive. This is advisable as some CD Roms are slower to load `on the fly`. If this is considered, then it would explain why the show will not run on a faster machine. Alan

LumenLux, I agree with you about the creative side of things. Sometimes the realisation of a project can be like trying to catch the wind. I am currently working on a project about a place called Glencree in the wicklow mountains. I have all the slides, and the comentary written but the hardest part this time is setting the mood with the soundtrack. This is the part of A/V which makes it such a joy to work in. Some shows nearly make themselves, my show "After the Rain" was on 1 roll of film and 1 piece of music, but still is recived well where ever it!s shown. If you would like to find out more about the creative side of A/V I would recomend you contact your local A/V group, you!ll be suprised how many there are around the world, and nothing compares to face to face meetings with fellow workers. I help out with the IPF A/V group in Ireland and it is alwats a pleasure to see shows move from ideas on paper to full presentations over time. Iwould also recomend you subcribe to either AV World or AV News both magazines written by and for A/V workers. Details @ www.avworld.org Alan

Hi all, Yes we tend to come and go, but it is far more importent to talk when you've got something to say, rather than flap in the breeze for the sake of it. How about spending some time on the creative side of slide show presentation. What is the motovation behind your current efforts and/ or why did you make past shows? Oh! by the by, dont forget The IAC Geoffrey Round Digital AV Competition. Entries due in mid March and the details can be found on www.avworld.org Alan

Hi Genevieve, Welcome again to the forum. I'm glad to see I'm not the only one to be chomping on the finger nails every time I sit down to create a show. But the end result is always worth it. I made a show 10 years ago using slides and tape called "The King's Birthday" it was one of my first efforts at A/V but I am still aproached by people who remember the show. This weekend I am attending a competition as an observer, and it will be great to watch others sweat for a change. As for your own efforts, keep pluging away it's well worth it, and if you search the forum you will find that there are fellow sufferers near by who you can meet to compare battle scars. I found that A/V groups are very helpful in getting past the difficulties. Alan

Welcome WRAV, Is there a name behind the letters? Anyhow Jim is right about the silence, if you imagine that if you use the syncro option then your MP3 becomes a tape recording. So if you need to start your music late then you need to move it down the "tape". Most if not all music editors give you a real time display for the recording, so you don't have to record silence as such just drag the music start to the point on the timeline you wish it to start. Alan

Hi, One option I often use is to photograph a title on location. This can help keep the mood of the piece more than a programme generated text over your picture. It is not always possible but worth keeping in mind as you work. Simple things like the sign on an entrance gate or the invatation to a wedding can work realy well, Alan

Hi Guido, Acording to your profile you are ripining nicely now. I hope you are now over the great flood As for other members not having birthdays, remember that photographers are not born, they develop and if subject to too much exposure, they just fade away. Un fortunatly, if they deside to lecture they just go on, and, on, and, on, and on .......

Hi All, I agree with Clive, you need to be careful with classical music. As Guido says most of it is out of copyright and free to use. But this means that advertizerment agencies now use this alot. The danger lies in your choice of music for your show. The images tell the eyes,"what wonderfull landscapes." But your sound track tells the ears, "you need to buy a new car" ect. Alan.

Hi All, once again I see that the thorny subject of music and copyright has raised it`s head. Lets look at the positive side first. It goes without saying that the sound track is a major part of any project. If you dont agree, try playing your favorite show with no sound and see how it changes. There is a saying in Audio Visual which goes, if sound =1 and pictures = 1 then the formula for a good Audio Visual is 1 + 1 = 3. I have found that there is a good resource in cinema soundtrack CDs as these have been composed to work with images, which is what we want to do also.as an introduction to this music you can buy a CD called "Cinema Du Monde" whis is a sellection of the better soundtracks available. It's when you start to use copyright music that things start to go wrong. To simplify things, if someone has registered a copyright on a piece of music, and you use it for any thing other than your personal listining you are in breach of copy right. It can be said that if you play your CD in the car thats OK. But if you roll down the window at the traffic lights then that is a public performance and a breach of copyright. If you use P2E for amature events you will find that your local Audio Visual group will have some kind of group licence to allow you to use copyright music. If you use P2E for comercial gain then I strongly suggest that you arrange a licence for yourself. It can be quite expensive to have to pay fines to people like MRCP. An annual licence fee is by far the cheeper option. Alan

Jules, Are you uaing the internal player from P2E? If so you may have a problem with the transfare from the CD. Try clicking "use external player on your Project options and see if this will help, Alan

Hi all, you can add more slides to your already synced show by clicking on the time line after the last synched slide then sellecting add new transition. This works because each time you use this option P2E sellects the next slide in your list. As the added slides have not been sellected before they wait in the slide list until called into the show. Alan

Hi Cici, This is not a big problem. What you need to do is enter the time line after slode 40 and then add 5 new transissions. This is because you are adding to the show so the timeline needs to know there are new slides in the file. Good luck with the show, Alan

Hi Vid, What I do when sorting a sequence is to use Ifranview which you can down load from www.Ifranview.com it useses a thumnail viewer in which you can rename each image in a folder. 1. Collect all your images in one folder 2. Load into the thumnails section. 3.Sellect each image and rename i.e. "My Show 01 ,02 ect the images will sort into your sequence and when you load them into P2E they will already be in the right order. 4.Save in a folder named after the show. That way all files relating to theshow will have the same name. i.e. My Show.exe, My show images My show.mp3 ect. Alan

Hi all, Hope you all enjoyed the Christmas break,and that you all have a happy new year. Here then is a little something to set you thinking, a chance to send your work out into the wild blue yonder and have it compered to other workers. Details from www.avworld.org The IAC Geoffrey Round Digital AV Competition FIAP Patronage 2003/050 Rules and conditions of Entry for 2003 The event will be held in Aldbourne Village Hall (Wiltshire) March 23rd 2003 Closing date for entries March 1st 2003 1. Every attempt will be made to play ALL entered Sequences to a Jury : Robert Albright FRPS, Martin Fry FRPS & Reg Lancaster FACI, who will make the following selection: 1st The Geoffrey Round Trophy, FIAP Gold medal, a certificate and prize + IAC Gold Seal 2nd FIAP Silver medal, a certificate and prize + IAC Gold Seal 3rd FIAP Bronze Medal a certificate and prize + IAC Gold Seal 4th FIAP Mention de l’honeur Ribbon and a certificate + IAC Silver Seal 5th FIAP Mention de l’honeur Ribbon and a certificate + IAC Silver Seal 6th FIAP Mention de l’honeur Ribbon and a certificate + IAC Silver Seal 7th FIAP Mention de l’honeur Ribbon and a certificate + IAC Silver Seal 8th FIAP Mention de l’honeur Ribbon and a certificate + IAC Silver Seal 9th FIAP Mention de l’honeur Ribbon and a certificate + IAC Silver Seal Up to 50% of the total number of Sequences entered will receive FIAP recognition certificates AV WORLD Medal Award for the top Sequence selected by the Audience + IAC Gold Seal The Sequences with the above Awards will be presented at Movie 2003 International Film, Video & AV Festival on Friday, 4th April 2003, at The Jarvis Hotel, Boundary Road, Norwich TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS CONTROL All Entries must be Stand-alone Digital Productions such as Pictures to EXE or GlobFX and supplied on a CD ready for transfer to Hard Disk. Best wishes with your efforts, Alan

Hi Paul, Welcome to the forum and also to 2003! As Dana says there are a lot of sound effects available both on CD and on the web, "search" for sound effects. Any programme which allows you to play tracks side by side will allow you to mix music, voice and FX into the one sound file. It can help you to taylor your sound to your show and free you from the time constraints of pre recorded MP3s ect. But watch for the final mix, remember that you will need to have your voice audable over the music ect. Trial and error will get you there but a good start is to seperate the voice and music by 20db. If you get bogged down give us a call and we'll help out Alan

Okjack, The old reliable Ifranview, www.infranview.com is good for thumbnail sorting, it also allows you to resise in batches i.e. full image folders. This is a quick way to resize an entire secquence, Merry Christmas, Alan

As Christmas approaches, I would like everyone to be aware of the risks involved in sending and receiving electronic greetings cards and downloading or distributing similar 'festive' electronic media. The web-sites providing these items are not always well managed and often harbour viruses and other malicious codes. "A recent example is a web-site called www.friend-greetings.com. The email misleads a victim into downloading an application - ostensibly to view a web card - then sends itself to every email address in the victim's Outlook contacts file. If you do receive an e-card, you should delete it without attempting to visit the 'link' provided. This is an edited version of an artical launched on our works intranet service but it applies to all internet users. Even so, I hope ye all have a very merry christmas, and Santa is good to you all. Be good and dont end up like this

Hi, The best way to use multi sounds is to make one MP3 of all the sounds you want to use. Lay them out in the secquence you want them to play, and use the time line to have the right slide come into view at the start of each sound bite. It may take a little planing but it is worth the effort for a smooth transition from one sound to another. Used well this method can not only help your show to run smothly but you can use the soundtrack to alter rhe mood or inflection of the piece, Alan

Hi Dahol, Your problem is ne which all who are new to Audio Visual face, but as Guido said it is easy to fix. Two things which will help, there should be about 20db (Deciebells) seperating the voice track and the music track. You should also record the voice just a little flat (less bass) this helps to seperate the two sounds. A good idea is to ask someone to listen to the final recording to see if it is ok. Rembember you know what you said , so it is easier for you to hear and understand the voice than it would be for some one else. Good luck with your project, Alan.

Hi, I am not a digital camera user, but when you ask about megapixels I think negative size. The first stage to good photography is the negative / slide / file size. Good old 35mm film if it was measured in megapixels would come out at around 36mp. The quality of the final image is determined by this how you view the image will determine if you need the bigger format. for example, if you print only A5 prints the smaller will do, but, if you want to make billboard prints you will need the bigger. To see the difference take an image and resise it to a smaller demention. then try to get it to fill your screen, you will see how the quality will fall off dramatically, just like enlarging a 110mm and 35mm negative to the same size, Alan

Would the "template" option be of any use to you both. This allows you to set most of the options for a show and save as a starting point for new work. Save one as say, "start up" and use it as a base for each show. Alan

Hi to all, Great to see the new forum with all the old names signing on. Just remember to wipe your feet when you come in!