fh1805

Gary, Why are you trying to download betas? V7 was released a couple or so weeks ago and the latest bug fix release (v7.0.3) is available via www.wnsoft.com. regards, Peter

Igor, I have just updated AVG to latest database (see below). It still reports a virus in some of my PTE EXE files. regards, Peter

But he's back now! regards, Peter

Hi everyone, I've checked back through this topic and the only post from Igor was back on 2 Nov and was about the customised icon that was suspected as playing a part in the original problem. I suspect he isn't watching this topic any more. Therefore I have e-mailed him a "heads up" to take a look at this topic and then put some pressure on AVG Support. Let's all cool it for a few days and give him and AVG Support a chance to sort this out. regards, Peter

Mick, "Normalising" sound levels in Audacity is primarily about reducing the loudest parts of the sound to a user-specified "headroom" level, and then bringing the rest of the sound down in proportion so that dynamics between one passage and the next are preserved. Note that I said "...down in proportion". That is my experience; it takes sound down more frequently than it takes it up. "Headroom" is the term used to describe the gap between the highest spike in the sound file and the 0dB level, above which audible distortion will occur. To see this properly in Audacity you need to click in the name bar of one of your tracks and select "Waveform(dB)" instead of the default of "Waveform". You might also need to expand the visible area of that track by sliding the mouse pointer to the bottom of the track until you get a double-ended arrow and then dragging the lower boundary down. Audacity version 1.2 used to default the headroom to 3dB when normalising. Audacity v1.3 seems to default to 0dB and I usually bring that down to 1 or 2dB in order to create a little headroom. So what's the benefit of normalising? Well, for a start, ripped music shouldn't need normalising if the sound engineer did his job right. But your voice-over is a different matter. You will not be aware that your voice level changes during a recording session. But it does! Your voice gets tired and starts to fade a little. Applying some normalization to the voice track before you start cutting it up into sound bites will help to smooth out those slight variations in your voice level. (Note I said it will help: it will not solve any problems, only assist you in possibly masking them). It is a truism of sound recording that there is only one point at which you can get it right - when you make the original recording. Unlike an over- or under-exposed image, especially if shot as a RAW file that can be corrected in Lightroom or Photoshop or whatever, an over-recorded or under-recorded sound file is a disaster waiting to be mis-used. The only correct place for a bad recording is the cutting room floor (or as it is in our digital studio - the recycle bin). regards, Peter

Take a look at that text object in the O&A view. It will have some keyframes (at start and end of the timeline) you will have set Pan values on these (look in the Animation tab) regards, Peter

Mick, That's a massive improvement over the original! And I can now assure you that there is nothing wrong with your voice for voice-over work. However, I felt that the balance between voice and music was still not quite as good as it could be. For your own education, rather than our enjoyment, I would suggest you make two more mixes of the soundtrack. In one of them, set the music to a level that does not clash with your voice at all (a little lower than you have used in this sequence), and leave it at that level throughout the sequence. For the other mix, take what you currently have but extend the duration of the fades around your voice over clips. Some of these seemed rather abrupt. I generally aim for a fade of between 0.75 and 1.5 seconds at each piece of voice-over. By making these two variants, you will be able to decide for yourself, which style you prefer: variant 1, variant 2 or the version as presented here. regards, Peter P.S. Thank you for quoting my article. I'm glad you found it of interest, but can I point out that I have no connection whatever with the Staffs AV Group. I'm chairman of the North-East AV Group (and will be off to our AGM and Christmas Social in the next half-hour). Someone in the Staffs AV Group has evidently seen my two articles, thought they had merit, and added them to the Staffs AV Group website. They were originally published here on the forum.

Phil, It is working in v7.0.3 for me. I selected a slide in the Slides view, did Slide...Edit Slide in command bar, chose my own editor (navigated to and selected Photoshop Elements 9) and when I OK-d out, Elements launched and opened the selected slide. Are you chosing a "real slide" and not one that is based on a Blank Slide, or whose main image is a rectangle, frame or other "psuedo-image" object? regards, Peter

I notice from your screen shot that you use Dropbox. Why not drop the offending MP3 file into it and post a link so that we can see if we get the same problem? regards, Peter

Are you selecting the Timeline tab (bottom right) instead of the Slides tab? You see the waveform only when you are in the Timeline view. Peter

Mick, I enjoyed that. It made me want to go there - or to somewhere closer to home that would be equally magnificent. The comments have already been made about the balance between the music volume level and the voice-over volume level. I don't know whether you assembled the soundtrack items within PTE or using an external sound editor such as Audition or Audacity. Which-ever it was you need to reduce the music level considerably. Do this as an "across the board" reduction to all of the music. That will leave you with a new concern: that the music is now too quiet for those parts where you are not speaking. My rule of thumb for that situation is as follows: if there are just one or two images without voice-over, leave the music level low but if there are three or more, raise the music level a little - but not all the way back to full volume. You don't want the music level to be yo-yo-ing up and down. Both PTE and the extarnal sound editors have an "envelope" tool that allows you to adjust the volume of just part of the recording. Once we have a better sound balance, it will then be possible to decide what, if any, further changes might be needed to the voice-over recording. One thing that came across to me was that you seemed to be not entirely relaxed with the idea of "talking to yourself" into the microphone. That will come with more practice. Even then, it is often a good idea to record all the voice-over and then go back and re-record the first two or three items of the voice-over. You will have relaxed as you have worked through the recording session and the second take of the early items will sound much more like the middle and end items - i.e. more relaxed. The images seemed to be very even paced and mostly (if not all) simple fades. It helps maintain audience interest if you can engineer some variety into the sequence. Try using one or two of the other transitions - but very judiciously! I would suggest "Circle" - both from and to centre and "Page" - both top to bottom and side to side might find a place in that sequence. Make sure you set a very soft edge to those transitions (Own thickness of smoothing line greater than 70%). [N.B. If I am wrong about the use of simple fade, then you have no problems. You've already mastered using different transitions in a manner that keeps them non-intrusive]. Did you take any close-ups of any leaves? If so, a sprinkling of close-ups will add visual variety to a show that was mostly mid- and long-shots. I look forward to seeing the next version of this show. regards, Peter

Stonemason, I think I would rather have a few occasional "false alarms" and know that the software was working than have a silent system and wonder how much was slipping through undetected. Previous database levels of AVG have "seen" the sequence files that the latest database is "failing", and have passed them as clean. This tells me that, whatever the root cause of this current problem, it lies with AVG and not with PTE or myself. But it is very annoying when it happens. Throughout this recent rash of problems with AVG I have remained confident that, with my working methods and my portfolio of hardware/software defences, my system was and is free of all forms of virus, trojan, worm, adware, spyware and all other such malwares. regards, Peter

At last, some light in the darkness! One of the sequences that AVG has been complaining about was built using v6.51 of PTE. My current level of v6.5 of PTE was v6.54. I still had the download zip for v6.51 so I installed that and tried to do a fresh create of the failing EXE using PTE v6.51. Now AVG will not let me do that create. It says that the file PCExecutable.exe in C:\Program Files(x86)\Wnsoft PicturesToEXE\6.5 has a Trojan in it. This suggests to me that it is the PTE kernel code that the Anti-virus software is complaining about, rather then the actual sequence itself. It also suggests that either Igor is not ensuring that each new version gets formally accepted onto the anti-virus companies "white list" of acceptable code, or that, from time to time, these companies corrupt their own white lists and remove previously valid entries. My next step will be to re-instate PTE v6.54 and attempt to create the failing sequence using that. Will report back shortly. regards, Peter

I confirm that AVG 2012 Free with database 4637 now allows the Provence show to run on my system. But the other sequences (i.e. my own) are still being failed with a suspected infection. Peter

Ken, If comments are going to be constructive (i.e. making suggestions as to how a sequence might be improved) the person making the comment has, perforce, to concentrate on the things that seem wrong or weak. It is an inevitable fact of life that, in the world of camera clubs and photo societies, the judge has to be a "nit picker". The skill comes in doing it so that the individual receiving the judge's remark sees it for what it really is - a pointer towards improvement of their work. Peter

Good idea, Dave. I have done so under the Off-topic section. Peter

Thanks for that link Dave!

Minor mis-information in previous post. It was five files that AVG detected: two were created with v6.00, two with v6.5 beta 15 and one with 6.51. Those PTE version numbers were obtained by opening the relevant PTE project files into Notepad and reading the version data from there. The only way I could find out if I had any other sequences that were made with those specific versions would be to open each and every project file into Notepad to be able to read the PTE version data. At a rough estimate I have over two hundred separate PTE project files (real sequences and menu sequences; and some of my projects have had their project file saved at multiple stages during development so that I could use them to illustrate how my thinking about a sequence developed over time). Sorry folks but I'm not prepared to put that amount of manual effort in. I'm not going to change anything for the moment, but over the weekend I might take a look at uninstalling AVG and installing Microsoft Security Essentials. I have downloaded MSE in anticipation of that. I now need to research how to completely uninstall AVG Free 2012. I'd rather get on and do something more useful, but I suppose it keeps my out of mischief! regards, Peter

I have just completed an exercise with interesting results. I downloaded and installed MalwareBytes and let it upgrade itself to the latest software version and database version. I then set it off to do a full scan of my C: drive (all my installed software), my K: drive (a clone of my digital images disk) and my M: drive (a clone of my general data disk). It took it about 40 minutes to complete and it found nothing to report. But during that processing, as files were opened, AVG found four "infected" PTE EXE files. All four were files I had created on my own systems. None were ones I had downloaded. "Postcards from Provence" was not flagged by MalwareBytes - nor by AVG, which surprised me. On checking, I realised that AVG was not checking the contents of zip files. So there's a weakness in the protection that it provides. When I try to run the Provence EXE from within the zip file (i.e. I do not unzip the file, I let the software make that decision) then AVG does report a threat. I then manually unzipped the file to a USB flash drive and let Malwarebytes take a look at it. It reported no threat - AVG reported a threat. Since Malwarebytes is touted as one of the very best of the threat detectors and removers, I am inclined to believe it and disbelieve AVG. I am going to try and establish the version of PTE that was used to make the four sequences that AVG quarantined. I'll report back shortly. regards, Peter

From my personal experience, which may not be typical, I would caution against recording via the PC. The innards of any PC system are a hostile environment for the low intensity signals associated with microphone and line inputs. I firmly believe that a digital sound recording device is a much better option. The recording then becomes just another data file passing over the USB connection into the computer. regards, Peter

As far as I know there is no Sy(P) version for PTE version 6 or higher. regards, Peter

Colin, In the UK, AV workers such as Howard nearly all use some form of digital sound recorder. There are now many options, so search around on the Internet. Remember the old adage: "you get what you pay for". The use of such devices opens up the opportunity to do location sound and ambient sound. The soundtracks are assembled outside PTE using sound editing software such as Adobe Audition or Audacity. When building a sequence with an extensive amount of voice-over, it is the voice-over which plays the major part in determining the timing of events. Some AV workers, myself included, use a "storyboard" approach to help plan the sequence; e.g. in terms of what voice-over is to go where and with what images. I find that when I work this way, there is a steady alternation between building a section of soundtrack then assembling that part of the sequence, then building the next part of the soundtrack, etc. I'd be happy to discuss in more detail off forum if you wish. regards, Peter

Leo, I've deleted the duplicate of this topic that you inadvertently created. regards, Peter

Hilary/Brian, I have regularly run multiple version of PTE at the same time (two or three of v4.49, 5.52, 5.64, 6.04, 6.57 and 7.02) in order to determine at what release level a bug first manifested itself. Over the years I have done this on XP, Vista and Windows 7 PC systems. The mere running of several instances of PTE at different versions has never caused me any problems. And I do mean running PTE itself (i.e. working on a project file) and not running executables created by the different versions. regards, Peter

Dave, My apologies. I had overlooked the fact that it was the originator's reaction to Anti-virus problems that had sparked off the problems described in the original post. However, their posted concern was with their sound problems - and that is what we now need to try and focus on in this topic. regards, Peter