Music/Picture Synchronisation

[Nigels]

I have created a show set to a single piece of music. It is important in the show that the slides are coordinated to music cues and I spent some time getting this right.

However, I find, when running the show that the speed with which the PC handles the pictures and transitions varies and the show gets out of sync. It is not the same every time. Have tried running it on several PCs but the variation seems quite random. I think this is because apart from deciding when the music starts, there is no connection between the music and pictures.

Has anyone come across the same problem and managed to solve the issue.

TIA, Nigels.

P.S. Using P2XE v4.31.

[Nigels]

Ok, so I've now read tutorial 5 and it looks like v4.40 will address this issue. Have now downloaded it and will be playing with this week. Going to be a bit late for the P2XE AV comp I've got tonight though.

Regs, Nigels.

[JRR]

Nigels

If you use custom synchronization on the TIMELINE, everything should stay in place no matter what computer you are on

Jim

[jevans]

I am also having some problems with music synchronisation. I am using the latest version 4.4 of PTE.

If I first make up a slide show using a number of slides with custom settings of time and transition, I need to know what the approximate total duration of the show is so that I can edit a piece of music to fit. It is difficult to work out the show duration as the slide and timing transitions are not all the same. So I add a short piece of music to the show so that I can see the total duration in the timeline window. ( Note : when the music is added, the status bar at the bottom of the synchronisation window states the music duration, but if the music duration is shorter that the total show duration, then the value shown is the show duration and NOT the music duration).

Now I know how long the show is and can edit a piece of music to a suitable duration. Suppose the edited music is just a little longer than the show duration. The when I remove the initial test music and replace it with the correct music, the show duration will extend to match the music duration, EVEN if I have automatic synchronisation switched off.

I know that I can move the slide points in the timeline window to match the music. However I do not want to do this as I have carefully selected slide and transition durations and do not want to change these.

I believe that if automatic synchronisation is NOT selected, then itshould be possible to add music whose duration is longer than the show duration without changing the show duration.

Any comments would be welcome.

[DaveG]

jevans:

I don't fully understand your comments but, SYP will give you the total duration of your show and allow for the choosing of a piece of music of the correct time.

Another way around it is to keep adding music files of silence to your show until finished, at which time you can choose your music to replace the silent files.

I hope that helps?

DaveG

[jevans]

DaveG

Thanks for your reply. As far as I am aware, SYP needs an update to work properly with PTE Vertion 4.4 and the copy I have does not show the correct slide timing. Adding blank music is a good idea and I will try that. However my tests show that if you add music to a show, the show length just increases to match the music length, even when not synchronised. This means that the last slide just stays on the sreen until the music stops. I will do some more tests to chekc this. The problem I had arose from determining a show length, then editing music to match. Adding the msuic and finding that the music finished before the slide show. As my last few slides were on screen for a very short time, it was difficult to move these accurately.

[JRR]

jevans:

Unless I have missed your query as well, but let me see if I can muddy the waters.....

There are two basic ways to do a slide show:

1. Start with the music and find the images to go with it (normally about 10 slides a minute for a basic show) and do a custom synch. (you might have to add or drop a slide, but so beit)

or

2. pick your images, set up a custom synched show using a silent track (make one that is longer than you expect to need - again calculate one minute per 10 slides plus or minus for a basic show), and then find the music for the length of your draft show. Of course there will be minor adjustments later to synch the sldies to the beat, but not as much as you might think.

Either way no show design should be so rigid that there is no flexibility.

If you need to stretch or compress the music because you really can't bear to drop one or two images, well do it ! Up to 5% plus or minus and 99% of the audience won't notice.

Not sure if that helps or hinders.....