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Toomany3
Toomany3
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How to fade in/out volume in editor?

Jan 31, 2012 12:27 PM

We do a lot of multi camera work with kids.  We constantly need to turn off their mics (in post) when not in use because they are rubbing them, coughing, etc.  We turn it up when they talk and off when they're not talking.

 

Like this:

 

Capture.PNG

 

Sometimes it's a bit more complicated than this and I want to get a full scren version of just this one track.  So I thought double-clicking on it and bringing up the waveform editor (is that what it's called?) would be just the ticket.  It's very quick especially with hotkeys 0 and 9 to go back and forth.  But I can't se those handles or the volume line anywhere inside as you can see here:

 

Capture2.PNG

 

How can I do this in the waveform editor?  I know I can do it in the multitrack editor by making the view area of the track bigger by stretching it.  But that's a lot of work when you have 6 kids and each one has 200 up/down points per session. 

 

I would like a quick "multi-track view to fullscreen of one track" with one single click or hotkey.

 

Thanks for your help!

1375 Views   8 Replies   Latest reply: _durin_, Feb 1, 2012 9:44 AM
 
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  • SteveG(AudioMasters)
    4,820 posts
    Oct 26, 2006
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    1. SteveG(AudioMasters),
    Jan 31, 2012 3:33 PM   in reply to Toomany3
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    The difference between Multitrack and Edit views is that Multitrack is a very posh non-destructive playback controller, and Edit view is destructive - quite deliberately. So you don't get the 'volume line' (aka keyframe editing) in Edit view at all, because all that does is to control what gets played back. In Edit view, playback volume is fixed at whatever level the file is at.

     

    There are some other options you could try though:

     

    In CS5.5, automation isn't fully implemented. But you can twirl down the automation lanes and make them visible, and there's one available for muting. Unfortunately you have to draw the mutes in by hand in this version, but once you get used to it, it doesn't take long. This means that although your file doesn't get altered, the mute positions will be reflected in the output - so if you do a mixdown, you get the track muted appropriately.

     

    If you don't mind permanently erasing the bits between speech, the easiest way of doing it is to assign a keystroke to the 'silence' command in Edit view, select the part you want to silence in the file, and hit the key. This is very quick, and it wouldn't take long to do a heck of a lot of those. But, when you save the file those silences are permanent. So if you do this, then use a copy of the original!

     

    There's a way of doing something very similar in Multitrack view, but because it's playback we're affecting, we have to do it slightly differently. Put your clip into one track, and using the razor tool, make cuts at the start and end of the bits you want to silence. Then you have a choice - you either drag these cut-out bits to an adjacent track (which you then mute), or simply delete them without moving the rest of the clip. When you play it back, either way you'll only get the bits you've left in. And, you haven't touched the original file this way.

     
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  • Toomany3
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    2. Toomany3,
    Jan 31, 2012 3:54 PM   in reply to SteveG(AudioMasters)
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    Great, Steve.  Sounds good.  I don't like doing anything destructive since we work in a multi-person environment. I'm afraid that with so many people touching the projects, it's easy for a mistake to be made.

     

    I like your last idea a lot (razor cuts).  Maybe to pick your brain a bit, I would still like to fade these in/out a bit so we don't get the bad background noise (if a mic has it) popping in and out just before/after the person talks. 

     

    ... Oh, I just tried this.  Do you see any probs with doing something like this to fade in/out?  This would be very easy for us?

    Capture.PNG

     

    Also, what would you recommend to keep the individual clips from shifting around accidentally?  I know you mentioned muting the other clips, which is a great idea.  But is there another way to do it with cutting out the non-used sections?  I really like that idea better, since you can visually see where a person's audio comes in/out at in Premiere (something that was a bugger there unless you have your waveform expanded very large--but if you do that, you run out of screen real estate for video editing).

     

    Since there are sometimes 6 mics to sync up to a video recording, if one clip gets bumped here or there, we're in trouble since now there's 20 little clips sitting on a track instead of one long one with up/down keyframes.  Before it would be easy--just slide the whole long clip over to 00:00;00 and you're good.  Now it could get messy.

     

    I know the mutted tracks would be a solution, but since you're an expert at this, is there a way I can keep things locked in place while having clip-blank-clip-blank tracks?

     

    Thanks again for your awesome help!

     
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  • _durin_
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    3. _durin_,
    Jan 31, 2012 3:58 PM   in reply to Toomany3
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    Toomany3 wrote:

    Also, what would you recommend to keep the individual clips from shifting around accidentally?

    ...

    I know the mutted tracks would be a solution, but since you're an expert at this, is there a way I can keep things locked in place while having clip-blank-clip-blank tracks?

     

    Right click on your clips (prior to splitting them, or after selecting them all) and choose "Lock in Time."  This will prevent you from moving them left-right in the timeline and will keep them in sync, though you'll still be able to move clips up and down, or delete them altogether.

     
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  • Toomany3
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    4. Toomany3,
    Jan 31, 2012 4:05 PM   in reply to _durin_
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    Thanks, Durin. That's absolutely perfect!

     

    Now, one more thing and I'm set.

     

    How can I expand my tracks without going into the waveform editor? Say I want to work in the multi-track editor, but want to work ONLY on audio track 7. I'd like it to go full-screen or at least a lot larger. 

     

    Is there another way BESIDES dragging the split-window-line-thing to expand?  Like a hot-key or something?    

     
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  • Toomany3
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    5. Toomany3,
    Jan 31, 2012 4:22 PM   in reply to _durin_
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    Is there a way to bring in all my nice new razor cuts into Premiere like that? When they import now they are all on one long clip for each track--not cut up.

     
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  • SteveG(AudioMasters)
    4,820 posts
    Oct 26, 2006
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    6. SteveG(AudioMasters),
    Feb 1, 2012 1:54 AM   in reply to Toomany3
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    Toomany3 wrote:

     

    How can I expand my tracks without going into the waveform editor? Say I want to work in the multi-track editor, but want to work ONLY on audio track 7. I'd like it to go full-screen or at least a lot larger. 

     

    Is there another way BESIDES dragging the split-window-line-thing to expand?  Like a hot-key or something?    

    I have to say that I don't think that zoom control in Multitrack is ideal at all, but there is one other thing you can do that makes it at least a little easier. If you hold the mouse over the track control window (on the LHS), you can use the scroll wheel to expand the display in quite large increments. You'll still have to align it with the mouse, but generally that's a bit quicker. It's also worth mentioning that if you use the Ctrl button and scroll, it will scroll horizontally.

     

    Personally I think that the idea of having a single key to have the selected track displayed full-window in Multitrack is a good idea, which I'll add as a feature request for you. And yes, I clean forgot to mention track locking! As for what happens during round trips to Premiere I have no idea or means of checking - I'm not a Premiere user. But as far as I'm aware the edited clips should appear in their edited form, as a lot of work was done on this. Have you tried this with the clips locked?

     
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  • _durin_
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    7. _durin_,
    Feb 1, 2012 9:32 AM   in reply to SteveG(AudioMasters)
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    I agree the ability to quickly zoom into a single a track is beneficial and will make sure the Feature Request you sent gets marked for review.

     

    As a partial workaround, there is a keyboard shortcut available for "Zoom In (Amplitude)" which will function to enlarge the height of all tracks (Opt+Num +, Alt+Num +) which, while not ideal, might speed things up for those without a scrollwheel mouse.  It may also help to press the tilde ~ key while your cursor is over a panel which will enlarge that panel to the entire view.  Pressing the tilde key a second time will toggle the view back to its previous state.

     
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  • _durin_
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    8. _durin_,
    Feb 1, 2012 9:44 AM   in reply to Toomany3
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    Toomany3 wrote:

     

    Is there a way to bring in all my nice new razor cuts into Premiere like that? When they import now they are all on one long clip for each track--not cut up.

    The Export to Premiere command renders either a full mixdown of your audio project, or complete stems of each track or bus.  We have more comprehensive timeline integration between the two applications on our roadmap for the future.

     

    You may be able to accomplish what you want by exporting to OMF or FCXML, then importing into Premiere, however both of those interchange formats will introduce potentially unexpected behaviors such as separating your stereo/5.1 clips into separate mono clips and tracks for each channel.

     
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