sound problems with PTEv5.6RC

[Picsel]

Here attached a file test 1,84Mo (test_son_Jan14-2009_11-25-19.zip) describing the problem.

4 slides : 1-waves 15s, 2-ships 15s, 3- ending text 31s, 4- stop music.

In Project Option/ Music tab, I have added music "a piece of heaven" 30s mp3 with "replay..." selected

In Customize slide N°3, I have added music "pantarei" 21 s mp3 with "Play new background music" selected

In the main window whatever the slide selected, the mini player will play the Project Option music even if the slide N°3 where selected and O&A editor will do the same. It seems that the music specified in Customize slide is ignored either by miniplayer, either by O&A editor. PTE developpers should correct this bug before releasing final v5.6.

(The EXE file is OK and the slideshow runs with all music effects OK)

I personnaly regret that the waveform of music added in Customize slide is still not displayed on the timeline bar. That could be just a bar in order to indicate the presence of a sound in order to help.

Daniel.

test_son_Jan14_2009_11_25_19.zip

[fh1805]

Daniel,

I think the reason for your problem may be in the way you have added the sound clip to slide no.3. Try removing it from the Customize slide option and then using the "Add sound" icon at the top right of the window to add it. Does this then give you the behaviour that you wanted?

regards,

Peter

[Picsel]

Daniel,

I think the reason for your problem may be in the way you have added the sound clip to slide no.3. Try removing it from the Customize slide option and then using the "Add sound" icon at the top right of the window to add it. Does this then give you the behaviour that you wanted?

Peter,

1) The result in exe file works perfectly well, so the bug comes with miniplayer and O&A editor and not with the way I build this slideshow test.

2) I followed exactly the Wnsoft user guide and Lin Evans tutos on this matter, I checked everything before. I do not see where I could be wrong.

I think that I used the right way to do that but..

However I tried what you suggested to do and it is worst : the background music continue to be played back mixed up with the music of the ending title slide N°3. It is not that I wanted to do. What I wanted to do is as follows : the background music plays until slide n°3 and stop, then the music specified in Customize slide N°3 is played (as usual it is not a new PTE possibility).

Daniel

[xahu34]

Hello Daniel,

Your observation also holds for version 5.5. On the other hand, I don't think that this way of adding music/sound to your show is a good one. I would recommend to use only the synchronized audio track via project options. Use Audacity as "audio-plug-in" for editing/mixing your sound (in wav format) and for exporting it in mp3 format in order to use it inside your show. See also the corresponding FAQs by Peter (fh1805).

Best regards,

Xaver

Munich

[fh1805]

Daniel,

I've downloaded your zip file and taken your project into PTE v5.52.

Your problem has occured because of the combination of settings you have used for your music tracks.

1. You have left "Repeat music after playing" ticked in Project Options...Music.

2. You have added the music to slide 3 via Customize Slide...Music. This means you cannot have "Synchronize music and slides" ticked. Which in turn means that PTE will start the project music from the beginning no matter which slide you choose to start the preview from.

To make your sequence work the way you want it to, do the following:

1. Take slide 3 into Customize Slide and remove the music item

2. In Project Options...Music untick the "Repeat music after playing" box

3. In Project Options...Main, tick the "Synchronize music and slides" box

4. Add the music to slide 3 using the "Add Sound" icon.

I think you will find that PTE now behaves as you want it to in Preview, Preview from selected slide and in the mini-viewer.

regards,

Peter

[fh1805]

Daniel,

I was writing my previous post when Xaver replied. I agree with him. Because of the problems that can occur trying to build the soundtrack using the existing features of PTE, it is usually better to build the sound track outside PTE with a sound-editor software package such as Audacity.

There are two ways of adding music (or any other sound file) to a single slide:

- Customize Slide...Music - which then forces you to turn off "Synchronize music and slides"

- Add sound icon - which allows you to keep Synchronize music and slides" turned on.

In my opinion, if adding sound to a single file is what the user wants to do, then it is usually better to adopt the second technique.

But better by far is to create a separate soundtrack file exterally to PTE and then add it via Project Options...Music.

In your sample, where your first piece of music is exactly the right length, you could have added the second piece of music as a second item under Project Options...Music. It would then start playing immediately after the first piece ended. This is an even simpler solution to the problem as you have presented it in your zip file.

regards,

Peter

[Picsel]

Hello Daniel,

Your observation also holds for version 5.5. On the other hand, I don't think that this way of adding music/sound to your show is a good one. I would recommend to use only the synchronized audio track via project options. Use Audacity as "audio-plug-in" for editing/mixing your sound (in wav format) and for exporting it in mp3 format in order to use it inside your show. See also the corresponding FAQs by Peter (fh1805).

Best regards,

Xaver

Munich

Hello Xaver,

I agree partially with you, yes your right saying that could be better to use Audacity or other sound editor, I know all of that but it is not my purpose here.

The possibility to use and to start music slide by slide exists in PTEv5.6 even in PTEv5.5 and I used this facility for several reasons. With PTEv5.5, the music was not played at all neither by the miniplayer neither by the O&A editor. There were a lot of posts on this subject on the forum. With v5.6 the miniplayer and O&A editor do not play the music specified in Customize slide/music tab that is anormal and I would say : nothing is better than something wrong!

Daniel.

[Picsel]

Peter,

once again, the slideshow works perfectly well, which confirms that I used the right way to do that. You can check by creating the exe file and you will see.

So I maintain there is a bug inside PTEv5.6 which should be corrected otherwise nobody, except PTE experts as you are, will be able to work with.

But I must thank you for giving me some craftiness to solve the problem, I will try to explain that to other PTE users in my club that will not be easy to do at all.

Please refer to "PicturesToExe Deluxe Version 5.5 The User`s Guide by Wnsoft" page 28

1. You have left "Repeat music after playing" ticked in Project Options...Music.

Yes I know, I tick this option because I need this option for the project , as far as I know PTE offers this possibility

2. You have added the music to slide 3 via Customize Slide...Music. This means you cannot have "Synchronize music and slides" ticked. Which in turn means that PTE will start the project music from the beginning no matter which slide you choose to start the preview from.

Please, Peter have a look on the Project Options and you will see that Synchronization is disabled

To make your sequence work the way you want it to, do the following:

1. Take slide 3 into Customize Slide and remove the music item

Why? Please, could you explain why it is not the right way to do that. Which is the purpose of music tab in Customize Slide? If we cannot use it, it must be removed from PTE.

2. In Project Options...Music untick the "Repeat music after playing" box

Sorry but I disagree with you, yes I do not need for this slideshow test because I put 2 slides whose total duration is exactly the duration of the music but it is not always the case, if I add one more picture with the same music your suggestion will not work any longer.

3. In Project Options...Main, tick the "Synchronize music and slides" box

4. Add the music to slide 3 using the "Add Sound" icon.

Why the add the music to slide button has a different effect in comparison with music tab /Customize slide. It is another issue with PTEv5.6.

I think you will find that PTE now behaves as you want it to in Preview, Preview from selected slide and in the mini-viewer.

Yes Peter, but sorry to say that you are masking the real problems which comes with PTEv5.6, finding other ways to do the same thing.

In any case I must thank you I learn other different possibilities to work with PTE but I fear that a lot of people will not have the same understanding!

regards,

Peter

[JPD]

Normally you must not have both, Sound A in general option and sound A in a slide. Before there was a message to indicate it was impossible. If you have a synchonized slideshow, you must use Sound B in slides (on the right-top of the screen).

[Picsel]

Normally you must not have both, Sound A in general option and sound A in a slide. Before there was a message to indicate it was impossible. If you have a synchonized slideshow, you must use Sound B in slides (on the right-top of the screen).

Hello Jean_Pierre, quite funny to discuss the point in english with you!

Please note that, as I said to Peter in my previous post the synchronization was disabled in main tab of Project Options.

If I understand well, Peter and you are suggesting to use the add the music to slide button rather than music tab /Customize slide why not. But I would like to understand what is the purpose of Music Tab in this case? ..and what is the difference in PTE action using the add the music to slide button or the slide's music tab?

In any case if I use the customize music tab as it is specified in the official PTE user's guide p28, the music should be played by miniplayer or P&A editor otherwise PTE does not work correctly.

Have a good year

Daniel.

Here is the abstract of OFFICIAL user's guide for PTEv5.5 page 28.

"Music Tab

If you want to add music to the slide, you should use Music Tab.

Note, that the sound file you choose, will be

added only to an individual slide. If you want to

add music to the whole slide show, you should

use Project Options, Music Tab, where you

adjust not a single slide, but all the slides in the

slide show.

You should remember, that if you add music file

in this way, the music will be stopped after the

slide is shown.

Here you can also Add several music files,

choose among them, Remove them and Clear

the playlist."

In side the window : "

[xahu34]

Hi,

I think that this discussion shows again that the present audio concept in PTE is by no means optimum. Let me therefore refer to my earlier suggeation of having several independent audio tracks, see here and here.

Best regards,

Xaver

Munich

[Igor]

Thanks, I've understood this problem. It came already in previous v5.5

The problem in logic of music system in the program.

Your project has personal playlist of 4th slide and "Synchronize slides and music" option is turned off. All is OK for EXE file and video output. But to correctly show preview of this project in MiniPlayer we have to turn on "Synchronize slides and music" option in internal temp copy of project for MiniPlayer. And this option excludes capacity to work of personal playlists of slides. Regrettably there is no quick solution. We have to rework sound engine. It will possible in the next version only. In future version 5.6 we already plan improve sound engine and we also will fix this problem.

I personnaly regret that the waveform of music added in Customize slide is still not displayed on the timeline bar. That could be just a bar in order to indicate the presence of a sound in order to help.

It is in our plans.

[Antbrewer]

Hello Igor,

While we are discussing 'sound' issues may I bring up again the possible inclusion at some stage (next version hopefully or soon after) the ability to move from PtE to our sound editor ie, Audacity with a selected track open as we do with Ctrl /W to open image editing program with a selected image.

In the View menu..Advanced options....'Path and name of sound editor'. What is this for?

Is my request which I know many others would also find very useful possible?

Thank you for all the tremendous work you and your team do to create this super program.

Anthony

[Picsel]

Thanks, I've understood this problem. It came already in previous v5.5

The problem in logic of music system in the program.

Your project has personal playlist of 4th slide and "Synchronize slides and music" option is turned off. All is OK for EXE file and video output. But to correctly show preview of this project in MiniPlayer we have to turn on "Synchronize slides and music" option in internal temp copy of project for MiniPlayer. And this option excludes capacity to work of personal playlists of slides. Regrettably there is no quick solution. We have to rework sound engine. It will possible in the next version only. In future version 5.6 we already plan improve sound engine and we also will fix this problem.

It is in our plans.

Thanks Igor for your reply, so now I understand where is your problem and the answers given by Peter. In the time between, may I suggest that an explanation be added in the user's guide in order to avoid users misleading. Waiting for the future version 5.6.

Thanks for your work.

Daniel

[nobeefstu]

Anthony,

In the View menu..Advanced options....'Path and name of sound editor'. What is this for?

This menu option has been around for a long time. Its used to edit the sound files you entered in the Add Sound box for each Slide.

Usually this Editor was sndrec32.exe before things got fancy and most added sounds were just wave files.

Paste the full file path of your own sound editor ( or just sndrec32.exe ) as the selection for Path and Name of Sound Editor.

When you right-click a Slide in the Slide List ... If the Slide has a entry in the Add Sound box you can use the Edit Sound Comment in the menu selection to edit your sound file. This function only works for selections in the Add Sound box or previously named Add Sound Comment in earlier Pte versions.

Actually when you use Ctrl+W or Open Image function ... it really only opens the image file using your windows default open file value. Other users open file default may be some other program ... like Windows Picture & Fax Viewer.

[Antbrewer]

Thank you Nobeefstu,

That is interesting and later on I will follow it up to see how it works. I felt there must be a reason for it's inclusion as there seems to be for everything in PtE.

However I would still like to see the facility of opening the sound editor of one's choice straight from PtE.

We'll see.

Anthony

[nobeefstu]

Anthony,

However I would still like to see the facility of opening the sound editor of one's choice straight from PtE.

We'll see.

Adding external Music editing is not so simple a task as it is in Add Sound editing.

Add Sound editing only affects a single numbered slide which occupies it own individual timeslot within the overall Tmeline.

Music editing will affect the entire Timeline and all its ever increasing complexity.

Adding the use of the editor is the simple part ... the real task is properly introducing the edited file back into the overall Timeline. Plus remember, the Slide Music also plays its own seperate roll in all this time equation.

In not saying Igor cant do his magic to achieve this function ... its just a matter of when he can fit it into all his current and ever increasing user expectations.

[Antbrewer]

Nobeefstu,

Again thanks for the info....

I have no idea whether the request is possible and we all know how many requests Igor has to cope with don't we???? (and I don't live in Iran)

Anthony