Synchronizing Sound to Slides

[Tejano Bob]

I was amazed at how easy it was to synchronize a sound effect with a slide. In my project, I have music on one track, and the sound effect on its own track. It worked beautifully . . . except for one thing. The sound effect is longer than I would like and, while I can shorten it  get it to end exactly where I want it to end, the sound can be heard at a lower level a couple of slides later. If I shorten the project to include only the slide with the sound, a slide before and a slide after, the problem does not occur. If I add a blank slide at the beginning, the sound DOES occur.  I created  a "Backup in Zip for the file with the problem, and another for the file with no problem. But each file, even after being zipped, is 24 MB.

If I knew how to shorten the source sound file I believe it would be easy to fix the problem. Short of that, I may have to rerecord the sound.

[Barry Beckham]

It sounds like you have audio key point further along your sound effect and while it’s now out of view it’s still working.

right click your sound effect and remove all audio points, then click the end of the sound effect file and drag it back to where you want it. Now Add your audio points and make sure you can see all 4. I suspect that will sort the issue.

[Tejano Bob]

Well, I only had three audio points, two to set the overall amplitude, and a third to drop the level to 0 at the end of the desired sound. After reading your reply, I stretched the sound to the end of the project and removed all audio points. Then I adjusted the range of the desired sound. The sound was now louder and it still had the "echo", so I put my three audio points back in. This explanation probably won't help, but the sound is of a Radio Flyer wagon traveling down stone steps, then rolling forward a short distance forward on level ground.  The "echo" is heard when the wagon reaches level ground, and no sound should be heard. My sound source file is longer than what I need. I don't know of a way to shorten it, so I may just have to rerecord the sound. Thanks for your response. UPDATE: As stated in a prior post, I deleted all of the slides in my project except the one using the sound bite, and the one before and the one after, the problem would not appear. If I added a blank slide at the beginning, the problem WOULD be heard. By starting at the problem slide and adding project slides and working toward the beginning, I now have progressed to the point that I have all of the project slides back in from the beginning to and including the problem slide and the one following, The problem "echo" is not heard. I am working between two project files and alternating between the two. I noticed that with the problem project file playing, the sound has quite  a bit more volume than the good file. I compared the level setting  between the two project files. They are identical. But I noticed something that might be significant. The area surrounding the sound bite on the timeline of the good project file is pink. On the problem file, it is grey.

[Tejano Bob]

There is a good reason why I was not hearing the "echo" as I added frames back to my project. After the sound bit plays I don't have ANY sounds, even though my music track is visible on the Timeline. My music track plays, the sound bit plays along with the music track. At the end of the sound bite, NOTHING on the audio Tracks plays. It's as if I suddenly clicked the MUTE button.

[jkb]

to shorten an audio clip, put your mouse on the right hand end.

It will change to a double headed arrow. Simply click and drag the end to the left to make it the length you need.

You can then adjust the volume to the required level.

 

post a screen grab of your timeline if you are still having problems.

Jill

[Tejano Bob]

Update: Wondering if the sound bite had crosstalked into the music track, I adjusted the music volume to 0. No "echo." Corrupt music file? I replaced the music file on the music track with a different file. Same problem as with the previous music file. The music plays up to and including the sound bite. At the end of the sound bite, no sound, even thought the music track is shown on the Timeline.

[Tejano Bob]

Jill: I've done all of that except the screen grab of the Timeline, but it's showing the music track at the same level as before the sound bite. Adjustment of the sound bit in time and level . . . couldn't be easier or more precise. It's just that the music is causing the sound bite to have an "echo."

[jkb]

Look in project options audio tab to make sure there isn't another copy of the sound bit hiding underneath the music.

Jill

[Tejano Bob]

I looked in project options, and I found nothing suspicious. The music start time is 0:00:000. the duration is 2:27:905. No fade in or fade out.

The sound bite offset is 0:58:850. The start time is 0:00:000 and the duration is 0:02:050. No fade in or fade out.

[Tejano Bob]

 Update 4/22/2020: Problem fixed. I'm attaching a new screen print of my timeline. If there is an "echo," it's so low I can't hear it. My thanks to those in the Forum who worked with me on this. One note for others who may experience this problem.: I had just finished another project that had two helicopter scenes and two airplane scenes with sound effects. They did not have this problem. The difference was that those sounds tapered off as the aircraft passed. This sound bite required an abrupt end. . . . Uh oh! I spoke too soon. The echo is still there, but it's now occurring later. Previously, it occurred immediately after the desired sound bite ended. Now it's occurring during Slide 10. It's less troublesome there, but it's still happening. Whatever is causing it seems to be hidden. I'm going to continue trying a few things. I love mysteries, especially when they can be solved. THE SAGA CONTINUES . . . only this time I'm happy to report that the problem and the mystery is solved. One thing I learned years ago is that when you're all out of logical troubleshooting steps, you have to try SOMETHING, so try something that doesn't make any sense. What I tried was just removing the sound bite. That part made sense. Then I played the project again. The "echo" was still right there in Slide 6. I removed the music. no echo. I tried different music. no echo. I reloaded the original music. The echo was back. I removed the music and deleted the music from my source folder. I went back to the original recording and copied it to my source folder, then loaded the new music file into the soundtrack and replayed the project, all the way. No echo. The original music somehow got corrupted by the sound bite, probably by something I did. But how did the corrupted music get into my source file? I'm not even going to TRY to explain THAT one.

[Paul L]

Not sure if it would have been a solution, but what I would have tried is not using key points to lower the volume of the "bite" but rather trim it by grabbing the end and drag it to the left.

[Tejano Bob]

Paul: I had originally grabbed the end and dragged it to the left to limit the sound bite to the desired area of the slide (the wagon traveling down the stone steps). The problem I experienced was that when the wagon reached the level ground, there seemed to be an echo of the sound bite at a lower volume. One of the things I tried was to grab the end of the sound bite and drag it to the right (exposing more of the source sound) and using the audio key points to abruptly lower the volume of the sound bite to 0 precisely when the wagon reached level ground. I thought this had fixed my problem, and I reported that it had in the Forum. But then I found out that it had not removed the "echo." It had simply moved it from Slide 6 to Slide 10. As I explained in my last post, I discovered that the music had somehow been corrupted by the sound bite.  Removing the sound bite, while leaving the music, did not get rid of the "echo." the problem had to be in the music. I removed the music from its track and reinserted it from the file list. The "echo" returned, so even the music in the file list had to be corrupted. I deleted it and moved the original recording to the file list, then moved THAT file to the audio track. The "echo" did not reappear. This time I watched the project file all the way to the end. No echo. Thank you for your response, and for giving me an opportunity to summarize these steps. I was thinking of doing that anyway, but I had already posted so many times about this problem that I was hesitant.

[Paul L]

Thanks for the info.

So you already tried my suggestion before and it didn't work, apparently.

[jt49]

It is up to each user how to present his posts. For people who are not native speakers the work with long texts is somewhat tedious