HI,
Does any has any idea how to insert audio to slideshow under Photostory deluxe 2021? The entire program is total different from 2015 and 2016 etc... So complicated and not user friendly at all...Regretted doing the upgrade purchase
Welcome to the Magix user to user forums.
I've never used those now old versions of PS but I strongly suspect PS 2021 is not that different!
First, make sure you are in Timeline mode. That gives access to several tracks. For a simple slideshow the images will go on the highest track and the audio on one of the lower ones. See the example screenshot below, which is the beginning of a slideshow I created:
HTH
Jeff
Forum Moderator
I am having the same issue. I have a MP3 of original music that I would like to play with the slideshow but cannot find out how to add it to the photo show I've created.
UPDATE: I discovered you insert music into the slideshow using the Explorer icon (the four boxes) and navigating to your audio/music files and dragging and dropping the desired audio into the show just like you do with the photos. Ignore the Audio icon. Once inserted, the soundtrack /music automatically adjusts to the length of the slideshow. From there, you can go to the timeline mode and manipulate it.
Maybe this worked in 2021 but it sure doesn't work in 2025. I did use the "explorer" icon (thank you!) to find my music file on the hard drive, but no luck at all dragging anything from it into the slideshow. Photostory Deluxe is garbage. Bring back Photostory Easy!
Hi,
Are you running PhotoStory as Administrator? If so, don't. Windows blocks the Admin from using drag and drop.
I have 2025 and it works as you have been shown and told. There is no simpler method in any program to get objects onto the timeline than drag and drop or what I'll show below. In fact, pretty much every program on the market does it this way.
Rather than drag and drop, another way is to select multiple files, then click on the download button, either on one of the selected files or at the top right of the window. In the image below, I've selected 17 photos.
I'm in Timeline mode in the above images. The arrow is pointing to the Storyboard button. If it says Timeline, then you're in Storyboard mode.
An Audio file is media, just like photos and videos. You import audio the same way.
Select your music. Click on the import button. Audio goes on track 3 by default.
Scroll along the timeline. Use the +/- buttons to change the zoom factor of objects on the timeline. Place the playback marker at the end of the audio object if you want to add another file. Select a file and import it. It will probably go to track 4. Press on the Enlarge view button to see more tracks.
Drag the object on track 4 to track 3 or vice versa.
You have 8 tracks to play with. You can add narration to another track below the music and lower the music, for example, just for the narration part. You can adjust the volume of each audio object and even use a volume curve.
In my image, I don't have enough photos to cover the audio, so I'll import more. There should be photos/video at least to the end of the audio.
John CB
Thanks. Purely through trial and error I was able to import a musical track. Are you familiar with Photostory Easy? That is my only other experience with a slideshow builder. It was phenomenal and did everything I want to do. But it is no longer supported and multiple features have stopped working so I "upgraded". MAGIX managed to ruin a perfectly good program.
Now the latest problem is how to get a music clip to end at a specific slide. In Easy, this was super easy. Just grab the right end of the track and pull it left till it reached the desired slide where it was to end, and then drop the next track into the timeline to follow it. All those features are now gone. I have no idea how to shorten a track to end at the right place. Crucially, the manual has absolutely no instructions on how to use audio in any useful way.
Just grab the right end of the track and pull it left till it reached the desired slide where it was to end, and then drop the next track into the timeline to follow it. All those features are now gone.
Assuming you are, as previously suggested, in Timeline view, the procedure is exactly the same! From what you write it would appear you are in the Storyboard view, where you cannot drag the end of any track.
HTH
Jeff
Forum Moderator
Hi
Please do not duplicate post the same question.
EDIT: I will delete your other post, here is my response I originally posted in the duplicate question:-
To add your own music to your slideshow you can either use:
John EB
Forum Moderator
Hi,
To answer this question:
When I click on the musical notes icon in the program itself, I get an ad for "free music" but there doesn't seem to be any way of accessing my own music.
As indicated in the manual, this is where any audio files that you purchase from the Store will be located. You should have some Free Songs and Free Sounds. You may have to download them first.
You have indicated things that PhotoStory Easy had that you say are not the same in PhotoStory Deluxe. As you have been shown, they are the same. Magix didn't invent some other way to do the same thing. In fact, all of Magix' video editing programs, Video Pro X, Movie Studio, PhotoStory share the same basic features, including importing and trimming (changing the length of an object like the audio object).
About multiple import, all I can think of is that you are clicking, releasing and clicking again before dragging multiple images. If you release the mouse button, even for an instant, the multiple selection is cancelled.
When you change the end of the audio object by dragging or trimming (look it up), the method is the same in all of Magix's editors. You can drag the end to the right, exactly the same as in PhotoStory Easy. Or, you can place the playback marker at the end of the images, select the audio object and trim the right hand side by using the shortcut U or by opening the scissors on the button bar above the timeline and you'll see the options. Learn to use these as they are amongst the most useful and oft-used tools for editing - videos, photos, and audio.
When you trim your audio like you did, it will end suddenly. You may want to fade out the music by dragging the right handle inwards.
Also, you can increase the duration of a photo by dragging the right end to the right, just like you dragged the right end of the audio object. Of course, a video or audio cannot be extended beyond its original duration, but a photo can.
You can change the default duration of photos (happens upon import, not after they are on the timeline) by going to File, Settings, Program, Options tab and changing the Image length to what you want.
You can change the duration once on the timeline by either dragging the end or right-clicking on a photo, View duration - change the duration. You can select multiple photos and do this to all selected photos, or to all photos on the timeline in one shot.
And so on.
John CB
OK... so what I found (through trial and error) is that if you click on the audio track enough, a small white triangle will appear on the bottom right of the track. You can grab this to shorten the track itself, which is what you could do in Photostory Easy (where there was no separate "create the white triangle" step). So that problem has been solved. It would be helpful for the user manual to mention this detail. I also notice that the audio track will jump from blue to green for no reason occasionally but this doesn't seem to affect it.
Another audio question. In Photostory Easy, you used Photostory Easy to pull up a Windows window to access your audio files, which meant I could right click on the audio file to listen to it (e.g. to make sure it's really what I want). In Deluxe, the audio icons appear in the Photostory Deluxe environment, where right-clicking on the audio icons does nothing. Is there a way to "preview" the audio files in Deluxe without having to open a separate Windows window to listen to them there?