Enhancement of Waveform Display

[XR400R]

Igor

I'm a new PTE user, but I love it and I've already used it successfully to create a training slide slow. Thanks for the great product!

Because I prefer to insert a stand-alone .mp3 narration with each instructional slide, I find the inability to see the waveform for each individual voice file in the timeline bar to be a difficulty. If I could see the voice print attached to each slide, that would make it much easier for me to properly position each slide in the timeline without having to repeatedly preview the presentation to ensure the first slide+.mp3 is not cut off by the following slide.

Please forgive my lack of experience if there is a way to accomplish this already & I just haven't found it yet.

[fh1805]

XR400R,

Welcome to the Forum!

Try ticking "Don't interrupt sound comment when next slide appears" in the Project Options...Main tab and unticking "Synchronize music and slides" on the same tab. I think this will give you what you want except when you have two successive slides both with voice-over and the first not having a long enough duration.

regards,

Peter

[XR400R]

XR400R,

Welcome to the Forum!

Try ticking "Don't interrupt sound comment when next slide appears" in the Project Options...Main tab and unticking "Synchronize music and slides" on the same tab. I think this will give you what you want except when you have two successive slides both with voice-over and the first not having a long enough duration.

regards,

Peter

Many Thanks, Peter

Your advice & experience are greatly appreciated.

Coincidentally, my slide show was set up as you suggest to begin with. As I will be using PTE to make instructional slide shows, each slide will have a voice-over. If I don't set following slides farther enough along on the time line, they still take over & cut off the previous slide & voice-over. So I find I have to preview the presentation, check the timing of each slide relative to the previous one, then go back in & either decrease the timepoint (to avoid too much dead space) or increase it (to avoid cutting off the previous slide's voice-over).

It would seem to me that if I could see the voice print (as I can when I have only a single huge voice .mp3 for the entire slide show), it would be far easier to pick out where the previous voice-over ends, then set the following slide with attached voice over at that point.

Again, thanks for taking the time to consider my conundrum.

Jerry

[fh1805]

Jerry,

Since you already have each voice-over as an mp3 file, it would be a straightforward matter to combine them into a single voice-over file using sound editor software such as Audacity (free) or Adobe Audition. You would then, as you already know, be able to add this file at the project level and see it in the Timeline. However, you are quite right in that it would be so much easier if we could see all the sound clips whenever we view the Timeline.

regards,

Peter

[XR400R]

Peter

Thanks again.

You are quite right. I, in fact, did combine 30 smaller .mp3 files into a single huge voice-over file using Audacity.

And that does, indeed, work as you recommend.

However, I am making instructional slide shows which require multiple variations on a theme for different recipient groups, so I need to add slides for this one; remove for that one; change the voice-over slightly for another; etc. so I find it much more convenient to tack a small voice-over to each slide, as needed, rather than re-work the entire voice file for a small change.

Jerry

[JEB]

Hi,

Would it not therefor be more of a compromise simply to list each small mp3 one after the other in the Project Options location and that would give you the same graphic as one large mp3 but retain the flexibility you are looking for?

John

[fh1805]

Nice one John! And there are even the "Up" and "Down" buttons on the Project Options ...Music tab to allow Jerry to resequence the files if he gets one in the wrong order. All he needs now is a good, solid naming convention for his files (both images and sounds) and he's "away with the mixer" as we say locally.

regards,

Peter

[XR400R]

Hi,

Would it not therefor be more of a compromise simply to list each small mp3 one after the other in the Project Options location and that would give you the same graphic as one large mp3 but retain the flexibility you are looking for?

John

Indeed! That sounds like a very functional compromise.

I shall give it a try with my next series of slide shows.

Thanks very much John & Peter, for your ideas & assistance!

Jerry

[susiesdad]

Hi Jerry.

An alternative thought although, more time consuming than previously suggested, would be to set the Display time setting of each slide (using Customise slide/Main) to the known length of the MP3 maybe adding extra time for pause gaps as required. This way any changes or re-introductions could easily be accomodated.

Regards

Alan

[XR400R]

Alan

Thanks for the input. That is essentially what I do now (or at least have done so far - I'm very new with PTE).

Still, considerable time is required to fine-tune the flow by repeatedly previewing the slide show to ensure a smooth presentation. I'm training some hard-bitten types on the subject of the regulatory aspects of hazardous waste management, and if the flow is jerky, or with noticeable out-of-sync pauses, they tend to erupt in, shall we say, unkind criticism and I quickly loose the crowd, at least for a while. And due to the serious nature of the subject matter, I can't afford to loose their attention even for a while.

Jerry

[fh1805]

Jerry,

Just checking your understanding of PTE.... You do know that you do not need to preview from the beginning all the time, don't you?

The little icon that sits between "Preview" and "Video" allows you to preview from the currently selected slide. So, if you've got the timing OK up to, say, slide 15, you can select slide 16 and then click on this little button and it will start the preview from slide 16.

regards,

Peter

[jfa]

XR400R

Because I prefer to insert a stand-alone .mp3 narration with each instructional slide, I find the inability to see the waveform for each individual voice file in the timeline bar to be a difficulty. If I could see the voice print attached to each slide, that would make it much easier for me to properly position each slide in the timeline without having to repeatedly preview the presentation to ensure the first slide+.mp3 is not cut off by the following slide.

Please forgive my lack of experience if there is a way to accomplish this already & I just haven't found it yet.

I too would like to see this function in PTE, (see my suggestion half way down the page in this post)---

http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=8550

At the moment I do not know of any way to achieve your requirements just in PTE. The best work-flow for you, I believe, would be to make an accurate written list of the desired timing points while previewing the images in PTE then mixing all the audio tracks to this timing in your audio editor and bringing the final mixed track into PTE. Then synchronising the start of both in PTE. This is cumbersome and very time consuming, (I have worked this way on several shows), but I thing the end result will be what you require.

[XR400R]

I too would like to see this function in PTE, (see my suggestion half way down the page in this post)---

http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=8550

John

Agreed. Thanks for your input.

Also, your referenced post was most interesting. Any additional functionality (particularly audio mixing) added to PTE would be most welcome. Although I have no complaints at the moment. I used to use Irfanview for the same purpose, and while it works, it is way more cumbersome (and much larger final product) than PTE.

As it is, I take necessary photos; use Irfanview or Corel Photo-Paint to alter/correct them; use CorelDRAW! to construct any needed graphics; use PowerPoint to construct the slide with company logo & written info then re-download slide as .jpg; use Audacity to cut/alter the voice-over with sound effects & music; then combine it all with PTE. A single application that would include all (or even numerous) of these functionalities would be the cat's-meow (as we say in the States).

Jerry

[fh1805]

Jerry/John,

...A single application that would include all (or even numerous) of these functionalities would be the cat's-meow (as we say in the States).

It would also run the very real risk of being a compromise for "all (or even numerous) of these functionalities". I'm a big believer in "jack of all trades, master of none". My preference will always be to do the work on the component parts outside of PTE (in my case, editting images in Adobe Photoshop Elements v5 and sound files in Audacity) and then bring those component parts together in PTE for final assembly where some minor re-tooling may be both necessary and desirable. Note my stress on minor.

To be able to have several different files in the sound track and to be able to slide them along the timeline to get just the right positioning, yes, that would be a nice-to-have. To be able to apply fade-in/fade-out to the ends of soundfiles, yes, that would be nice to have. To be able to see the sound waveform no matter whereabouts in PTE we were (main window or O&A window), now that would be worth having. Right now it is impossible to achieve precision synchronization of object animation with the soundtrack because we cannot see the soundtrack or hear the soundtrack whilst editting the keyframes. Having the ability to see and hear the soundtrack whilst in the O&A window is, to me, an essential next-step for PTE to take.

regards,

Peter

[xahu34]

.... Having the ability to see and hear the soundtrack whilst in the O&A window is, to me, an essential next-step for PTE to take....

Wouldn't that mean an integration of mini-player and O&A-window?

Best regards,

Xaver

Munich

[fh1805]

Xaver,

How Igor and his team choose to implement is their decision. They know the existing code and how it works. They know how much existing code could be reused if they do it a particular way. I have, in another thread, suggested that an integration of the O&A window and function into the main window (in a manner similar to the integration of the Timeline view and function) would seem an obvious next step in further rationalisation of the user interface.

But just how that rationalisation is delivered (if it is delivered) has to be left to the developers. PTEv5.5 was primarily a major enhancement to the user interface. I am hoping that PTEv5.6, whilst it probably will add more new function, will also take the user interface forward another step.

regards,

Peter