Narration and copyright laws...

[Jonathon]

Ok... I got two questions for you guys.

I am trying to make a slide presentation, but I want to add narration to it. I have made many slideshows in the past, but I have never included narration. So how would I go about adding it? and do I basically have to mix the background music with the narration to create one MP3 or can I have the two layers seperate? I am planning on only sticking narration into specific slides... it would be a pain, if not impossible to try to mix the two layers and synchronize them properly. So, any suggestions there would be awesome!!!!

My second question is: I have seen many slideshows that people have created and many people use music from CDs for the background. I have always thought that that is technically speaking, "illegal"; is this one of the fine points of copyright laws or is this alright to do it as long as you don't use it for commercial purposes???? I thought I might get an answer from someone who knows more about copyright laws than me.

Anyway, thanks in advance for any help!!!

[fh1805]

Hi Jonathon and welcome to the Forum!

I cannot speak on the subject of copyright law as it affects you in the USA. I'm familiar only with the UK situation. You'll have to wait for one of the Forum members with relevant local knowledge to respond on this aspect.

On the subject of adding narration (or voice-over to give it its proper name). What I suggest you do is download a freeware program called Audacity. This is a well-featured soundtrack editing program. All you will need to do to create your soundtrack is upload your existing music track from your CD source to your hard disk by doing a track rip from CD. Then in Audacity you do Project...Import Audio... and navigate to and open your ripped track. That loads up your music track into Audacity. You will need to prepare your voice-over recording via some means. I use a digital voice-recorder which captures the recording on an SD card in WAV format. I can then connect this device to the computer via a USB port and the card is seen as another removeable storage device. I then Project...Import Audio... the voice-over track into Audacity.

The two tracks (music and voice-over) appear in the Audacity window and you can then do things like cut pieces out, paste pieces in, slide parts of one track along the timeline relative to the other. Achieving synchronicity is a piece of cake especially if you've already got the basic synchronisation of the images and the music in your PTE project file.

[jfa]

Welcome to the world of PTE AVs and the user forum Jonathon, you will find lots of help and advice here.

I am trying to make a slide presentation, but I want to add narration to it...<snip>... do I basically have to mix the background music with the narration to create one MP3 or can I have the two layers seperate? I am planning on only sticking narration into specific slides... it would be a pain, if not impossible to try to mix the two layers and synchronize them properly.

At the present time there is no way to mix the background track and narration in PTE, this is best done in a sound editor and is somewhat a pain as you said. It will come in the near future as Igor has indicated he plans to improve the global timeline, and make it possible to add any tracks, (at any place in the timeline), with simple effects, (fade in/out, cropping, etc). The new music player he added to v5.00 allows these effects. See:,

http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=6806

You can add sound files to individual slides using the sound field under the preview window, but there is no way in PTE to adjust the volume, or mix it with the background track.

You can download Audacity for free from here:

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

In regard to the copyright laws it would appear that almost anything we do with media these days is "technically illegal". The general rule of thumb I follow is if it's not for commercial use and not too "public domain" it's OK. So far so good. Not to sure how thinks are in the USA.

[Conflow]

COPYRIGHT ~ General Principles.

The American Media Moguls have made great play about 'Copyright' for some time now, but in the past

few years both the European and American Legal Systems have agreed basic rules whereby these Moguls

can no longer dictate the Law in contravention of basic human rights in terms of "Products and Services"

supplied and sold by them and subsequent use of these "Purchased Products" which include any Disc or

Tape Media and indeed Printed Media.

The Basics

1)

You can not Copy for Resale ~ Media Products for your own Personal or Business gain ~ that's Piracy.

2)

You can use up to 30 seconds of any Media in a Personal Recording with an enclosed EULA.

3)

You can not copy/use any "Artistic Creation' from a 3rd party (that includes personal A/V Media)

without the Authors written permission.

4)

In Europe and in the States you are legally required to include a EULA within the A/V Media if this is for

personal distribution (non-profit or otherwise) and most certainly for Business Distribution purposes.

5)

A "EULA" is an 'End-User Licence Agreement' which is implanted within the Media which acknowledge's

the origional Authors of that Media (You) and any Contributors to that Media, ie:-Creative Media and/or

other Software used in the production of that Media, this whether a "Fee" has been paid/unpaid or waived.

This is recognised by ALL Copyright Associations worldwide.

6)

A "EULA" set's the premise that no Copyright infringement was intended and rightful acknowledgements

were made to 3rd party Contributors, consequently no deliberate "Illegal Act" of Piracy took place.

7)

Finally, "Usage Fees" are proportionate to the end-usage of the Media whether that's Personal or Business

or Full Commercial Distribution.

Example:- Personal Copyright Licence in England/Ireland and most of Europe is approx Euro 30 per

year and I assume the same is available in the States but not generally publicised.

I hope this has been of some use...

Brian.Conflow.

[Ronniebootwest]

This question of copyrite has always been a thorny subject and confuses most people. Brian has, as usual, provided an elequent explanation but I do feel that a more detailed article would be useful. Some many month ago now, Brian assisted me with creating a EULA (End User Licence Agreement) that I still use to this day. It need not be an elaborate EULA, indeed mine is very short and to the point and the software for creating it is available on the internet from the 'Click Team' - I can't remember the URL but I am sure Brian will know it.

It is well worth reading up on this subject because it is becoming more and more essential to thos of us who create slide shows. For example, the belief that you can use music from your own CD's without charge, is false.

Ron

[Barry Beckham]

Jonathon

When I add commentary I do so by using the free program Audacity to record the commentary in short related clips. I save these as individual sound files. Doing it this way makes it easier to record and place into your music track. It also makes it easy to correct a mistake rather than having to record the whole commentary

To locate the precise point along the music to add your commentary try this.

Program your slide show using the PTE time line with just the music track. When you have it fully complete, use the time line to determine where every sound track needs to go. You can read off the minutes and seconds and make a paper note of them. You can open those commentary files up alongside the music (multi-tracking) and slide them into position. That way you can reduce the volume of the music when the commentary starts and increase it again when that bit of commentary ends. (unless the commentary is continuous). This reduction in music volume is almost essential if you want your commentary to be clearly heard.

After you have two commentary sections done, save the whole this as a project in Audacity and then export what you have as an Mp3. You can test the resulting file in PTE to make sure the first two are right, then go back to audacity to do the third, fourth etc, then save and test that.

Build up the soundtrack slowly as your bound to want to move a slide or two as well. As long as you save a project file in both PTE and Audacity you can always come back and add changes.

Another tip, save/export your project file and Mp3 files in Audacity with different names. Mixdow 1, mixdown 2 etc. That way if you do get something wrong, you always have the opportuity to recover an earlier version.

Hope that helps

www.beckhamdigital.co.uk

[Jonathon]

Hey, thank you all for your answers! It really helped to get me going. I think I figured out how to do the narration satisfactorily. I also have decided to just buy royalty free music for the slideshow.

[neil]

"creating a EULA (End User Licence Agreement) that I still use to this day. It need not be an elaborate EULA, indeed mine is very short and to the point "

Can someone please explain what this actually is,and if it really is needed when shows are just for showing to members of this forum,friends etc.

Thanks Neil

[Ken Cox]

see

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EULA

Neil

it is called

CYA

in Ronnie's case that is what he is doing

ken

[Ronniebootwest]

Hi Neil,

The answer is NO! A EULA is not really required if you only intend to give your slide show to friends/family/forum members but if there is any possiblity of your show falling into the wrong hands and then copied (or the images it contains) then a EULA would be useful in order to help protect your interests.

Ron

[neil]

Thanks.

Neil