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DaveG I regret to say I am old enough (just!) to remember Les Paul and Mary Ford. Your underlined phrase says it all! Someone has mentioned the Edirol R-09 on the forum before as I recall. regards, Peter

Gary, Don't let yourself become too alarmed by Stu's analysis of your sequence. The file that you offered was, as I know from our protracted dialogue, a heavily cut-down form of a much longer sequence. It is not unreasonable that there could be some "loose ends" that were not properly tidied up before you posted the files. When I turn Stu's PTE Project Reporter loose on my downloaded and extracted version of your sequence, it reports a clean file! Perhaps Stu and I need to talk "off forum" about this one! regards, Peter

John, If you want to post a short sample recording I'll tell you whether you have any latent problems still to be addressed. Five or ten seconds will suffice. regards, Peter

Gary, The "Main" image is the one whose filename PTE uses when it displays the slide thumbnail in the Slide List. It would also typically be the one that had the objects as children in an animated image - but you've chosen to have independent objects - and there's nothing wrong with that! regards, Peter

Gary, I've downloaded your zip file, extracted all files to a folder and launched your PTE project. I can see nothing obviously wrong. You wrote in your post above: "...these resized (reduced in size) images in the upper left hand corner expanded back to just about their original size..." If all of your sequence is like this sample, the problems are occuring on your "Main images" and not on any of the additional objects. Also, if all your sequence is like this sample, you are not using the Pan/Zoom/Rotate values to achieve animation; rather you are using them to place objects in a partcular part of the screen and at a particular size. You have chosen to zoom all your Main images down to 95% using the Project Options---Screen tab settings. But you have also given them non-central Pan values at their origin keyframe. I have made the above statements so that others reading this post can start to form an impression of what you are doing in your sequence. As far as I am aware, there is nothing fundamentally wrong with anything that you are doing. The only "unusual" factor (and by "unusual" I mean unusual to me and my ways of working) is that you have defined a Text comment to be applied to every slide. This is set to provide the SlideIndex number positioned top centre of the screen. Again, there is nothing wrong with doing that. Bottom line: I cannot see anything in your show settings to explain what you are seeing. But it would seem to be associated with your reduced size and offset main images. Perhaps there is a bug in the code when all the main images are reduced in size and given a non-central position. Sorry I cannot pin this one down for you (I think it's the first time you've beaten me!) regards, Peter

Brian, With regards to the "usage" issues...The professionals have the luxury of using expensive kit because it will, to them, be a tax-deductible business item. Us amateurs are looking for something that doesn't cost the earth and that gives us results better than those we were getting with whatever we used previously. As an amateur, and applying that decision principle to my Zoom H4: i.e. does it do a better job than the previous equipment? The answer is a resounding YES! Moreover, although I bought it primarily to do voice-over recordings indoors at home, I have found it to be a very capable unit for outdoor actuality recordings. Amateur A-V workers who want to move into sequences that combine music and voice-over must accept that they face a tremendously challenging time. They have a whole new vocabulary to learn and a whole new set of skills to acquire and polish. It might have taken them close on a lifetime to master their photographic skills, yet too many of them think that they can learn to do voice-overs in just a few minutes given the "right equipment". Sadly for them, their expectations are not going to be met. Having said that, the H4 (and its little brother the H2) would seem to be excellent products for an amateur to use for exploring the production of A-V sequences with soundtracks that consist of more than just music. regards, Peter

DaveG, All audio recording equipment is capable of clipping the signal. Clipping is not a fault of the equipment it is a fault of the user. Clipping will occur whenever the input signal strength is such that the recorded signal regularly exceeds a sound level of 0dB. To the human ear there will then be audible distortion of the sound during playback. Clipping is avoided by arranging the microphone's distance from the sound source so that when used with a particular setting of the microphone input gain control the signal level never exceeds 0dB. In reality a sound recording engineer would give themselves a little more "headroom" and try to keep the peak levels down to about -3dB. (Think of the gain control as a volume control). So, in answer to your question "Is it possible...to avoid clipping?", the answer is always Yes; but it might be done not by a change to the settings on the recorder but by a change of microphone position. regards, Peter

Eric, I don't have the option of switching off Automatic Gain Control on the H4 so I don't know how it might affect the recordings. For voice-over work done in a home studio setting I would have thought having AGC on would be OK. Fot outdoor "actuality" recording, being able to turn AGC off and set levels manually might be an advantage. We really need the opinion of someone else who uses a H2. I wonder if John (JEB) or Dennis (denwel) is reading this and would care to offer an opinion based on their experiences. regards, Peter

Eric, You can use Audacity to check your upper threshold of hearing. Just Generate some 2-second samples of pure tone. I did this with 10KHz, 12KHz, 14KHz, 16KHz , 18KHz and 20KHz samples. I could hear up to 14KHz but not 16KHz. The loudspeakers I use are spec'd at 20KHz so all the tones should have been coming out of the speakers. It's not a scientific test of hearing but it will give you a good idea of where yours starts to fall off. regards, Peter

Gary, In terms of posting something we can look at to assist the diagnosis, all we need is the *.pte file - not the *.exe. Typically the *.pte file is only a few tens of KB in size. I have had one further thought but I don't know how relevant it might be: When you do your editing of objects in the O&A window, do you always without fail end that edit session by using the Close button? Or do you sometimes click on the "X" button in the top right corner to close the O&A window? My thoughts are going along these lines: if you click on the "X" to close the O&A window, does this throw away your changes on that particular slide? In other words are you making your changes but not actually saving all of them. Although I've never investigated this, I suspect that O&A changes may well be subject to a "two-stage save". Stage one - when you "Close" the O&A window the changes are added into the pte file in memory. Stage 2 - when you finally save the pte file, the file is then written back to your hard-disk. regards, Peter

Eric, Take the mic back to two feet away and try again. Just do short test recordings until you know you are getting it right. Don't waste time and effort on the full length voice-over just yet. Don't "project" your voice as you might in an auditorium without a microphone. Just speak in your normal voice. At this stage all we're trying to do is establish the correct settings on and placing of the H2 to get the proper sound level. Re the rates: 44KHz is a good standard to adopt. The extra definition captured by 48KHz is only going to be discernible by young ears - us adults have subjected our hearing to so much noise that we have lost the top-end frequency detection. Kids can hear up to about 20KHz (and that is a sound frequency that a 44KHz sample rate will capture very well); us "oldies" are down to about 12-15Khz at the top end of our hearing. regards, Peter

Eric, The beauty of sound editing using software such as Audacity (or Adobe Audition) is that you can learn as much, if not more, about the sound by looking at the display as you can by listening to it. So don't worry about your hearing difficulties. You will eventually acquire the skills to "read" a sound recording and know whether it has any serious faults. As I said in my previous post, Normalization simply lowers the overall sound level by -3dB. If the original signal was "clipped" then that "clipping" is still present in the Normalized version, its just that it now occurs at a "loudness" that is -3dB lower than it was. What you have to achieve is an original recording that shows the -3dB clearance away from the edge of the track display without you having to resort to using Normalize. I'm afraid I cannot help you decide what settings to use on your H2 because the controls on it are very different to those on the H4. On the H4 I can choose which microphone gain level to use: Low, Medium or High and whether to record as WAV or MP3 and that is pretty much it. The three mode values you mention: 48/24, 44/24 and 44/16 are (and I'm guessing now): - Sample Rate 48KHz, Sample Format 24-bit - Sample Rate 44KHz, Sample Format 24-bit - Sample Rate 44KHz, sample Format 16-bit. If I am right then your choice of one of these over another is not going to affect the "clipping" issue. How far away from your mouth was the microphone? regards, Peter

Eric, Your test recording shows very clear evidence of "clipping". When you open the mp3 file in Audacity, notice how the top and bottom edges of the blue waveform are hard up against the edges of the track display area. This indicates that your signal is too strong (too loud) and there is very obvious audible distortion. You need to find a recording set-up that keeps the peak levels at about -3dB from the edge of the track display. You might think that you can correct this with Normalization in Audacity. All that will do is bring the signal level down by -3dB: but the distortion will still be there. Once you've got a bad recording there is nothing that you can do to make it a good recording (Can't make silk purses out of sows' ears). You need to experiment with one of two solutions: - increase the distance between the H2 and your mouth (try doubling it, if that isn't enough, double it again) - lower the microphone gain level on the H2 (on my H4 this is a simple 3-position switch: Low, Medium, High and I run it on Medium) You are heading in the right direction; you just need a few more experimental sessions to find what works for you in your room with your equipment. We all have to go through this process. Then, once we've found the arrangement that works, we stick with it. Keep at it buddy! Peter

Jim, Take a look at the FAQs on PTE Usage in the Tutorials and Articles section of the forum. There's a detailed one on copying slides from show to show. regards, Peter

John/Eric, If you haven't yet read it, you might find this useful: http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=8003 I always try and do the voice-over recording for a sequence in one session (perhaps in many takes; but just the one session) so that the room acoustics and my own voice are consistent. If you try and spread it over two or more days there is a real risk that the room acoustics will be slightly different and that your voice will be different. That latter can happen if you coming down with a cold or shaking one off. You may not be conscious of the difference in your voice because you are hearing it every second of each day and the changes are not obvious. The microphone picks it up at two discreet points in time with a "step change" between them and the difference in sound is very marked. I've even heard a difference between the start and the end of a long voice-over session. You've both embarked on a new learning curve. Don't get discouraged if it seems difficult at first (it is!) Persevere and you'll find the overall quality of your AV productions is going to take a quantum leap forward. Have fun, fellas! Peter

OK, so now we know you use Vista. But we still need more detailed info about the other problems. You state: "The transition problem I am having is with an animation..." Transition is the Effect that you choose in order to get from one slide to another. Animation is the use of Pan/Zoom/Rotate/Opacity changes applied to objects that sit upon a single image. Please clarify whether or not your problem is with a transition from one slide to the next slide or with the animation of an object on one of your images. In either case please provide precise details of which transition effect or animation effect you are using (i.e. its name and any parameter settings associated with it). Also explain clearly what you see when it works and what you see when it doesn't. Remember, we cannot see your PC - you have to give us all the details so that we can build up a picture in our minds of what it is that you are seeing. Also please confirm whether or not you have both v5 and an earlier version of PTE installed on your PC. Click the start button, then All Programs and scroll the list. If you have both v4 and v5 you will see two entries for PTE: Pictures to Exe and Pictures to Exe v5.52. regards, Peter

Xaver, We have two different teaching backgrounds; two different teaching styles - both of them correct for the situation and pupils that we each had. If I had left my pupils to work out a particular traffic problem just by giving them hints, we would have had some serious accidents! Even when I told them exactly what to do we still had some scary moments. regards, Peter

Your first problem (cannot stop the sequence using Esc) suggests very strongly that you are running under Vista operating system and that your PTE sequence is or was built using PTE v4. This phenomenon is a known problem with PTE V4.48 or earlier running under Vista and is resolved by PTE V4.49. Your other problems could be caused by you becoming confused as to which version of PTE you have used to create which sequence. PTE V5 does not replace PTE v4: it co-exists with it. So you probably have both versions available on your PC. The association of the *.pte file extension may still be with v4 rather than v5. If you have different Project Options between the two versions and are opening sequences made with one version using the other version then results will have the potential to be, as they say, "unpredictable"! When you launch PTE take great care to note what version number is mentioned in the PTE window's Title bar. As both Lin and Barry indicated in their responses: we need better, more precise information. regards, PGA P.S. For Lin: I think we have the subject of another FAQ here: Why does the Esc key not stop my sequence as it used to? I'll add it to one of the next batches of FAQs that I prepare.

Well, you've placed your request in the correct part of the forum for it to come to the attention of the developers. All you can do now is wait patiently and see what happens! Best of luck with your request. I can assure you that the development team do read and consider all the requests we make. Each new release includes some of our requests and some of their own ideas for improving the product. We (the user population) are expecting the next version (v5.6) due out in its first beta release any time now. regards, Peter

Xaver, I hope I didn't offend you by giving the fuller explanation of the solution that you indicated in your post. The fact that I gave a step-by-step explanation is probably a legacy from my last job before I retired: I was a driving instructor!. I found that the pupils learned best if they understood why they were doing what I was asking them to do, rather than simply getting them to do as I said, with no understanding as to why. If an apology is required from me, consider it given. No offence was ever intended. regards, Peter

I have no experience of screensavers or dual-monitor setups but are you sure this is an issue with PTE? Might there be some settings in Windows or your graphics card drivers that would achieve what you want when the screensaver kicks in? Just a thought! regards, Peter

Malcolm, You need to set your tree image up so that it's "centre point" is anchored at its bottom edge. Starting afresh with your "tree" object newly added to a background image, proceed as follows: Reduce the size of the "tree" object to 50% with the x,y zoom values properly connected (this is purely so you can see the effect of the other changes we're going to make). Now change the right hand field value for "Center" to be 100. If you do this by using the little arrowhead beside the field you will see the centre marker of the object image begin to move towards the bottom edge of the object image. Once you understand what is happening you can key in the value 100. Next, go up to the Pan fields and set the right hand field value to 100 (This will move the entire object down to align on the bottom edge of your background image) Reduce the zoom to, say, 5%. Add the second keyframe and set the zoom to, say, 75% leaving all the other settings untouched and play it. Is that what you wanted? regards, Peter

Lin, Forgive me if I am misunderstanding everything, but isn't this exactly what Jean-Claude achieves by assigning his masque as a Copyright image? In PTE we can assign Backgrounds at the Project Level and at the Customize Slide level. If my understanding of Jean-Claude's video is correct (and I'm not at all fluent in French) then in order for us users to have both background and foreground flexibility, all Igor needs to do is add the Copyright capability as an option to the Customize Slide tabs. (I know, I know: "all" is only a little word but the programming load might be considerable!) regards, Peter

Hi Gary, How strange that you should post this tonight (UK time). I had one of these myself earlier today. It turned out to be my fault (user error, or to be more precise operator error). I was wanting to check the end credits slide (a vertical scrolling text on a background within a mask) of a sequence. I positioned the sequence to the third last image, clicked the little icon to start the "Preview from current slide", PTE started to clear down the screen and put up the message in the Info line to the effect that it was preparing the preview...and then nothing. I don't recall exactly what I did next (It certainly wasn't the well-thought out diagnosis that I recommended to you in your other recent post! That's a classic case of "do as I say and not as I do" isn't it?) The bottom line is that I had somehow managed to press the space bar immediately after starting the preview and the sequence had gone straight into a "paused" state. When I eventually thought this might be the state and pressed the spacebar again, the preview commenced exactly as I had originally expected it to. I don't know whether this explains your glitches, too - but it might be worth bearing in mind next time you get an unexpected pause. regards, Peter P.S. Lin got in before me on your question about borders (masks). The answer would have been the same from me. I use "windowed masks" extensively in my sequences for exactly the reason you gave - to hide the enlarging image when zooming in.

Peggy, I'm not wishing to cause any confusion by butting in late in this discussion but I run Vista on my PCs. Vista, just like XP before it, can associate each file extension (in your case the .pte file extension) with only one product. So you must decide which version of PTE you want to start when you double-click on a PTE project file. At present it would seem that your system is set to associate v4 PTE with the .pte files. This can be changed - but it's got to be your decision. If you would rather that double-clicking a .pte file opened it in v5 I can give you some instructions to follow to make the change in Vista. Your other option is to launch the version of PTE that you want first and then do File...Open...to locate and open the actual pte file that you want. regards, Peter