Alan Lyons

Hi All, I think we've lit a fire again! I feel that when we mentioned the "techniques used" in the other thread what we were looking for was more on, for want of a better word the "direction" which pulls a show together. i.e. when to fade and for how long, choice of images and sequence, how to build the soundtrack to inhance the images, ect We can easily get bogged down in the equiptment to use. Ask any of the analogue workers in this forum! I feel that you need to take your production skills as far as you can with what you've got as these skills are what make the show. If you renew or upgrade your equiptment it is easier to learn its uses from this position. Alan

Hi Jeanie, This is one of the hardest things to get right. The music can have such a dramatic effect on your show, both for the good and bad! The music, voice, and FX should serve to inhance the images. You need to be careful how you choose your piece. Just because you like a certin piece it does not follow that it's the right choice. I have seen many a good show ruined by bad but pridictable choises, and average shows lifted by using a less obvious choise which proved to be the right one for the job. The basic gidelines would be: 1. Don't use well known pieces.(You are showing "Autumn Colours", but your audience wants to buy bread). 2. Ask does the music fit the show, not do I like the piece. If both apply give yourself a lollypop 3.Don't choose a song if you intend to talk. 2 voices on a soundtrack sound like 2 voices in a room. 4.Don't change slides to the rythm of the music. Your audience will call out the changes or clap along 5. Don't be afraid to mix and match, My last show has 5 pieces of music 6. Ask someone else to view the show. You can be too close to your show sometimes 7. Consider cinema soundtracks, They were written for the screen anyway 8. Most importently, enjoy Best wishes, Alan

I agree, dare I suggest another section for this. As Al says the methods are diverse, and the final work is subjective. But the basics can be explained and applied to shows then improvments can come from discussion. Alan

Hi Jeanie, Glad to see you are inspired by all here. What ever it is about Audio visual it seems to attract people who are always willing to help. I subscribe to AV World and it is a great way to keep up on all events and people in the various groups. Alan

Harry, I would agree with George. Zone Alert is very good. It is a firewall and not only stops pop ups but prevents hackers and all thoes nasty things that clog up your drive. You buy and then get updates for a year and then have the option to renew. you can down load and have a look at a limited version same as the P2E system. Only draw back is you need to turn off parts of the firewall ti get downloads from Beechbrook ect. But when you load first you will get alerts which "train" the programme to your level of security. I have not seen a pop up since I installed, I have to come to work to see them! Alan

Hi Jean, Welcome aboard! You are lucky in that you are in the middle of a vert strong a/v comunity not just here but in the UK also. I would recomend you visit www.AVWorld.org and you will find that there are lots of workers near by. As for tutorials see Al Robinson's site www.alrobinson.com he has a tutorial on the most recent version vg I hear, need to doen load it myself soon . Also any problems you might have can be answered here by someone, so don't be shy when posting its free Best Wishes, Alan

Hi Chris, If you are just getting started with sound I would recomend Audacity, it more than handle what you or any of us will need to do. Most shows need only 4 tracks to mix the soundtrack, and with abit of planing you should be able to do everything with 4. "Sgt. Peppers Lonley Harts Club Band" was mixed on 4 track!! I lay out my tracks like this, 1 Music L 2 Music R (most digital sound editors actually present 2 tracks as 1 stereo waveform if so 1 will do.) 3 Voice. 4 FX If you find you need more you can always mix (called bouncing in the trade) say voice & music to one track and this frees up track 2 for more work. As your music will be secquencial, there is no need to use a track for each piece. NB dont delete the music from your HD until you are sure the project is finished. The waveform you see in the editor is only a virtual file of the sound files like .pte and you only secure the mix when you export to mp3 ect, Hope that has confused you Alan

Hi Dagrace, & Ken, havn't emailed you in awhile Ken been busy on a project for a festival in Dublin. Will write soon. Any way to answer the main topic. I would agree with Ken. I make a folder for each show, with folders within ie D:Myshow/Pictures/Sound/Project. The project folder contains the .pte and.exe folders which can be updated as progress is made. When a show is finished I dump the contents to a CD leaving an empty folder on the drive. This allows me to reinstate all the files if I need to change anything. As for the show creation I tend to write the script, photograph, find music, and adjust till happy (ish). Alan

What you need to do is open first the p2e filr then the key file. When they are both running they interact and your programme opens up. If this fails email Igor, and he will set you right. Alan

Unless anyone else has an idea, I'd say whack it with a hammer

Would it have anything to do with the programme print set up i.e."print grey scale". These things are sent to annoy us and are usully caused by something stupid. Last night I was combining pairs of portraits to make a standard 1024 with slide and each time I coppied to the canvas it turned to B/W???? New canvas problem went away?????? Alan

Dave, I would say if it looks good on the monitor it does not hold that it will look good for projection. As an example take a random image from a web page, these tend to be about 300 pixels wide. Put into your photo editor and zoom in. you will see the quality fall off as you go. I don't know if you have film experience or have worked in digital only, but the maxim for film is, get the best possible negitive and when you enlarge the quality will hold for longer. What compression does is remove pixels from the image, say, 1 in 5. This is not apperent at small sizes but as you enlarge, well you know the rest. Oh! don't forget, it's the weekend, so enjoy, Alan

Hi Dave, Just a quick one, I haven't seen your show yet, as I am writing from work. But the smothing line only works or apperent in some of the transitions, i.e. page turn ect. You say 3500 seems a bit slow but in the fade disolves this speed helps to reveal the "third image". There was an interesting discussion a while back on this subject which would be worth your while digging out. Unfortunatly the project was followed through bt olly one member, I am one of the no showers I find it adds to a show to mix and match disolve times. I tend to stick to the fade as I am "a twin projector 35mm slide luddite" Don't use an efect just because you can, but because the show needs it. Regards Alan

Hi all, I just thought I would throw this into the discussion. The file size you deside to use is determined by the way the show is to be published. If you have to email or uploas to a site then the smallest possibli file is best. But if you are distributing on a CD or especially if you entend to project then is a small file nessary? The only thing that comes into play at this stage is the unknown prosessor capabilities of another machine. In projection your 2:3 image is usually 1024 X 768 pixels but may be projected at 30ft X 20ft!, and if it is in competition they tend to sit the judge(s) front and centre some times less than 10ft from the screen. Even with 35mm film this can be too close for comfort. My tack would be, use the best quality that the delivery system allows. As the old saying goes, "Don't ruin the ship for a hap'orth of tar" Alan

Hi Brian, There is a thread which has just passed onto page 2 so it will not be on your screen http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums//index...t=ST&f=2&t=1851 but the guy seems to be trying to achive the same result. It might be wort having a look. Alan

Istudio, Welcome to the forum This is a problem which often comes up but needs repeating. What's happening is that the show when on a cd takes longer to load through the player to the HD and then to display. The best solution is to ask the user to copy to the HD and play from there. Always remind them to virus scan first, this shows you care . The sound problem is slightly different but the same rules apply. However if you dont use the "customise syncronisation" option for your show then if the processor is different the images will arrive late by fractions of a second each wich will snowball over the lenght of the show. Alan

Hi Brian, Welcome to the forum. The "Customize Synchronisation" is straight forward but there are a few things you need to understand before it makes sense. You need to explain what is going wrong as different things cause different problems, i.e. music file lenght, transition times slide lists ect, however try Al's download and if you are still stuck post again. If things get realy bad then Clive Timmons and I are close by in Dublin, and the Irish A/V comunity is growing all the time. Plug for workshop in Belfast Saturday 15th May 10.30 am at the Cresent Arts Center University Rd. Thats my comission earned Alan

Just before you give in, what about using buttons? compile each section seperatly, with each section having a button on the last slide "Proceed" This would be set to "run application(part 2) ect. When clicked it will start the next section of the demonstration. For the manual sections you could assign sound bites to each slide. This needs care as the prosessor will get busy, but if it is a manual change, the user will wait for the sound to play. As the auto section is a seperate show, then it can be assigned a single sound file for the "Project". Alan

Going on the info you have given, it sounds like the old problem of slide list v timeline. If a slide is added to the slide list the timeline needs to have it added there also. Unfortunatly if you add the slide mid way through a show you will have to add them all again. As you add a slide to the timeline it takes the next slide on the list, and you cannot select a slide and have it entered out of sequence. One other option is to rearange the slide list so that your sequence is right and the aditions have pushed the last few slides out of the end of the time line. Then all you need do is to add the transition points for these slides. Why this works is because the timeline takes the slides as "no.1 from slide list...ect." so the file name has no effect. Go to the last transition point and in play mode, press the spacebar to add each extra slide. Alan

Suffice to say at this point, that a person who talks a lot but makes no sense, is said in polite circles to be talking through his hat. In rougher talk, he uses another area, and this is what was originally pointed at the Blarney Stone. Alan

Al, find out what the Blarney stone really is. If you can't find out I will tell you what it is after you've kissed it. the boys in blarney will not let you into the secret. alan

Hi all, I'll join in the comments congradulating Al on the 1000 I'm sure there will be +++++ there by now. But to go back to the orignal heading of this string. "Stop this man" Al will be in dublin in June and we have arranged to meet. By the time the Irish are finished with him he should be very quiet for a long time Alan

Sorry troops, I don't use this option but remembered it as Gudo says from an eirlier version and just assumed it was still there. I still think the best way is to use a continous sound file for the auto section as this reduces the amount of time spent loading files. Regards, Alan

Al, it's in the slide options "Music" tab. It's been there a while it is not in the project options, Alan

Here is the system I use: 1.Stare at a blank piece of paper for at least a month. 2.Finnaly get an idea 3.Write the script. 4.Write a shooting list. 5.Load all into the dark table to sort. 6.Load to P2E. 7. Search the planet for the music. 8. Compile and fiddle for ever or longer if nessary. 9.Finally be happy with the show. 10. Go lie down for a year. Alan