@FF22

It's normally called "Ducking" but Magix calls it "Damping" in the manual. Search for "Damping" and read what it says to better understand. See the image below. I wanted the music on track 4 to be reduced while the selected clip plays. Right-click the clip and select "Decrease volume" to open the interface. Keep or change the amount of fading at the left and right ends, 0.7 by default. Ok. The track volume curve on all other audio will be modified as shown.

There are other ways, but this is the quickest and simplest. Just do not move anything once done. Track volume curves do not follow objects if they are moved.

John CB

THANK YOU. THANK YOU. Just what I was looking for. In the past I would cut the main sound track before and after the video/sound I wanted forefront, lower the volume on that main track segment This is SUPERB.

Follow up question. Damping seems to work most times but on a few selections it only damps part of the clip. The attached image shows, more or less the extent of the video, the section damped and a larger portion of the clip undamped.

Won't let me upload. I get a little jaggy icon. It won't even let me upload an image I uploaded earlier today.

The image I wanted to attach looks something like your above, but the dip/damp is for only about a 1/3 of the video's length

I saw your screen shot. Did you first apply Damping to a trimmed clip and then extend it as you showed in one of your other posts? That is about the only way to get the result that you show. Either that or you moved something.

It would help you greatly if you put audio and video on separate tracks as per my image.

EDIT: Did you try doing it again? It should adjust the ducking to the length of the selected clip.

John CB

@FF22

Hi

. . . . the dip/damp is for only about a 1/3 of the video's length . . . .

To fix this drag the two handles circled in yellow below to the right - note the mouse point where you drag is the 'thumb' of the mouse icon.

John EB

@FF22

There are also other ways to adjust the volume.

For a track, other than damping, there is track automation available through the mixer. Turn it on for a track, play back, adjust the volume slider while playing and points will be create on the green curve. The only problem here is that it can generate a lot of points as you move the slider. You can always go back over it if you don't like the result.

To adjust points on the track volume curve, you will see a hand. Move the thumb over the point to grab it.

For an object, turn on the volume curve (Ctrl+Shift+V) for the object and then click on the green line to set points or keyframes. Or, you can turn on Drawing mouse mode (shortcut 9) and draw on the object. These can also be adjusted under Effects, Audio effects, General. Set a keyframe and adjust the Volume, move along the timeline, adjust the volume, etc.

@johnebaker

Redoing the damping should correct the points. I did a test with the object trimmed and a gap to get the curve as shown by FF22. Then I extended the right side of the object to the next object and did damping again. The volume curve was modified appropriately. This should be easier than adjust the points, however, I often adjust the points to do some fine-tuning.

John CB

@FF22

Hi

. . . . the dip/damp is for only about a 1/3 of the video's length . . . .

To fix this drag the two handles circled in yellow below to the right - note the mouse point where you drag is the 'thumb' of the mouse icon.

John EB

Hmmm. I thought I tried finding something to latch onto at those "marks" where the slope occurs but it did not seem that the mouse gave me anything specific at those points. I will try again in a bit as overnight I decided to do a export to mp4 file and then closed Magix about 5 minutes ago. Going for my socially distant walk before the crowds wake up.

(I know I still have a few phantom sound areas remaining in the video. I may just bite the bullet and remove all video clips and re-insert them after killing the sound in those that don't need it).

I appreciate you help and strategies on lower/ducking/damping only specific areas of sound

@FF22

You could just use the mixer slider if that would be easier. Make sure you have the draw curves icon in use and then play the project and adjust and hold the slider where you need it for each track you need adjusting.

Be aware that this method creates many more points or 'handles' that can be difficult to adjust after but you can always left-click and drag a box around any handles you want to erase by then right-clicking and selecting erase.

Some people here like working with keyboard shortcuts while others prefer using the mouse. Both can be rapid, it just depends on practice and your natural way of working.

Ray.

@FF22

As I mentioned, to adjust points on the track volume curve, you will see a hand. Move the thumb over the point to grab it with the left mouse button. It has to be the thumb, not any other part of the hand; at least it is in my version of MEP - it's the arrow in VPX. With the thumb over the line, double-click to add points.

John CB.

@CubeAce

Hi Ray,

Unless something changed in the most recent version of MEP, you do not need to have the Draw Curves icon on to do automation with the mixer. The Curves icon button or selection is for drawing curves on the object, whereas the Mixer automation creates and modifies the track curve. These are two different curves.

Keep in mind, the object volume curve will move with the object, but the track curve stays fixed.

John CB

@browj2

Hi John.

Possibly if you are already showing curves John. But if not, in the past I have had to set that if I just let the project play in a loop and adjust individual faders on each pass. On the subject of the mixer, I would love to be able to hide individual track in the mixer as it sometimes saves a lot of screen space and makes watching comparative levels easier if all the active sounds tracks lay next to each other.

Ray.

@CubeAce

Hi Ray,

The draw icon does not need to be selected to do track automation - never has, as far as I can recall. You cannot draw on the track curve with it, only on the object curve.

Agree, it would be nice to be able to hide tracks in the mixer, plus I would like the track colour and title to show up in the mixer, at least for VPX.

Magix should add the Samplitude Mixer to VPX. In the image below, track 4 is hidden.

John CB

@browj2

Hi John.

Agree with the track titling as well. Could be a lot cleaner. I don't think Magix feels the audio is as important within their video editing packages. While the quality of the plugins is reasonably good, the lack of being able to resize the effects boxes is also a bit hazardous in use.

Ray.

@FF22

Hi

. . . . the dip/damp is for only about a 1/3 of the video's length . . . .

To fix this drag the two handles circled in yellow below to the right - note the mouse point where you drag is the 'thumb' of the mouse icon.

John EB

Wow, grabbing that point with the "thumb" is not that easy. But thanks, again.

Hi

Just a general tip on moving points on an effect curve - picture or audio - if there are keyframes relating to these points in the effect in the Key frame editor - to easily move a bunch of them along the timeline and keep their relative positions, you can control click (or shift click) any of them so that they turn blue and drag as many of them as you like to another position. I have not (yet) seen a way to do this with points on a track curve however.

Peter

It's a mystery to me that MEP doesn't have a true "auto ducking" feature that damps the sound on a background track in favour of what's happening on the main audio track. I don't know about other programs, but both Pinnacle Studio and Videopad have a one-click feature that does just that. It's not perfect in either, and usually needs a little adjustment, but it's a jolly good start. "Decrease Volume" in MEP just applies a selected but fixed attenuation to the clip - hardly the same thing.

Richard

Hi

Just a general tip on moving points on an effect curve - picture or audio - if there are keyframes relating to these points in the effect in the Key frame editor - to easily move a bunch of them along the timeline and keep their relative positions, you can control click (or shift click) any of them so that they turn blue and drag as many of them as you like to another position. I have not (yet) seen a way to do this with points on a track curve however.

Peter

I've not had much luck finding the keyframes or whatever or audio. In the Audio track I can grab the slider and lower/raise the volume. But don't see individual points to grab onto. I know when I hover over an audio track and I "click right mouse button" for curves but I then get a menu. With curves as an option. I have to look around more. And yes, I even looked in the manual (g)

@FF22

Please reread carefully what I wrote:

For an object, turn on the volume curve (Ctrl+Shift+V or right-click on the audio object) for the object and then click on the green line to set points or keyframes. Or, you can turn on Drawing mouse mode (shortcut 9) and draw on the object. These can also be adjusted under Effects, Audio effects, General. Set a keyframe and adjust the Volume, move along the timeline, adjust the volume, etc.

Below is also the object volume curve, not a track curve, with the points drawn using the mouse in draw mode:

@Richard-Curtis

Yes, the Pinnacle solution would be useful for a narration track, but I would still want the current method. I do not usually want to apply ducking to everything on the track.

John CB

@browj2

To some extent I agree with you. It's a moot point as to whether it's better to start with a straight-line volume curve or a pre-adjusted one, since both have to be tweaked anyway to get the right result. I just think the latter is quicker, since much of the adjustment is acceptable from the off - but it's definitely not a great enough advantage to persuade me to change programs (even allowing for the start-up freeze that still persists...!)

Richard

@Richard-Curtis

When I do narration, I usually end up with many audio clips, and then just do ducking one by one. I also may have to modify the volume of the narration object itself for plosives. An alternative is turning on automatic volume reduction of other audio tracks (ducking) in the recording settings. I don't like this because I often move, trim, modify the recording.

However, if I was to mix down the audio track before doing any ducking, then the automatic ducking would be a great feature to have. Right now, I would have to put cuts on either side of the parts to be ducked and then apply ducking.

We should put this on the wish list.

Until then, at least we have a method that works.

John CB

@FF22

@johnebaker

@browj2

@Richard-Curtis

How many of you do your mixing on headphones as opposed to using speakers? Or do you check both?

I would always mix using speakers first. While using headphones may seem to give a more controlled environment, I find it difficult to judge comparative sound levels.

@CubeAce

Hi Ray

Headphones always, background/ambient noise levels change too much here.

John EB

@CubeAce

Hi Ray.

Speakers, always, for me! Speaking personally, I rarely, if ever, monitor on headphones.

I am, perhaps, quite "fortunate" in that my desktop set-up includes a pair of Presonus Eris E-8 powered monitors, purchased as a result of a very positive technical review in Resolution magazine. And I have quite a quiet room!

Jeff