Voice commentary with Background music

[aplman]

Last October, Peter (fh1805) wrote this advice:

The safest way of adding sound files is either via Project Options...Music tab or by Add Sound icon. Avoid adding via the Customize Slide option.

As there have been new versions of PTE since then, I wonder whether this tip still applies?

I would find all three facilities useful ...

(1) Project Options / Music

(2) Customize Slide / Music

(3) Add sound on a slide

I hope we don't ever lose the flexibility of having all three available, but if I could only have two, I would go for (2) and (3) rather than Peter's recommended (1) and (3).

Clearly it is nice to be able to put voice over background music. I prefer (2) over (1), because I can tie the start of a music clip to a particular slide. We need to be able to change the timing of earlier slides without impacting the relationship between later slides and their music.

My current hurdle is that I strike a problem (on XP or W7) when I use (2) and (3) together. In Preview, part of the background music repeats endlessly when the voice clip ends, and sometimes it is not possible to interrupt the preview.

So, I wish to ask these questions:

(A) Are all three features supposed to be usable in one project?

( Does PTE normally work correctly when all three are present?

© Igor, will this be affected by your work on PTE 6.5?

Grateful thanks to all who can shed light on my dilemma.

Ken T (APLman)

[fh1805]

Ken,

When I wrote the FAQ there was a "problem" in that sound added via Customize Slide|Music, when coupled with sound added via Project Options|Music, didn't respond correctly to "Synchronize music and slides". As I recall, the sound added via Customize Slide|Music either started playing immediately or didn't play at all; whereas sound added via "Add Sound" behaved perfectly.

As you have indicated, PTE is in the middle of a major re-write of its sound handling capability. This re-write will not be fully complete in v6.5; Igor has indicated in personal e-mail exchanges that there will be more to come in v7.0.

Therefore, all advice in the FAQs about adding sound to a sequence should, at present, be read as "applies to PTE versions prior to v6.5".

Once the dust has settled and we know exactly what we have and haven't got in PTE v6.5, I intend to review and modify the FAQs. Until then, we're all learning together.

regards,

Peter