a dumb newbie question...again

[Wayne Reimer]

I'm still here, still stumbling my way through a project...and looking for advice, again.

I'm in the process of editing a couple of short videos, with multiple sources for material...some shot with a Sony VG-10, some with a Sony Nex, some with a GoPro, stills, audio from the various source cameras, audio recorded on a Zoom H1, as well as background music.

I think I've sorted out the video side of the equation; I have all of the different formats playing well with each other. My question is regarding audio fades. I have a music track separate from interview dialogue, that I need to fade in and out, with volume changes throughout the video. To maintain flow in the final product, I don't want the music track to be muted during the interview portions; instead I want it to be there, barely audible, so that at the end of the commentary dialogue, I can ramp up the music's volume for a few stills, then drop the levels again for more dialogue.

I know..."that's easy to do!"...I'm just having trouble figuring out "easy"...a complicated, convoluted, time-eating method...that's something I can probably come up with... and yes, my wife often tells me I need my head read, to see if the "keep it simple" switch has been accidntally turned off...:^(

So, again I plea for assistance from your learned professionals.........

thanks in advance!

[Mike Kujbida]

Use the Volume Envelope feature on your music track.
The shortcut for this is the 'v' key.
It will insert a thin blue line that you add nodes (aka points) to by double-clicking at the appropriate spot.
Add two points at the beginning and end of each commentary segment.
Grab the line between points 2 and 3 and drag down to the desired level.
You can also right-click a point and enter a specific level (+ or -) in db.
Do this a few times and you'll get the hang of it very quickly.

[Edward Troxel]

Use a volume envelope to turn down the audio volume in those areas. Just add a couple points at the beginning to turn it down and then a couple more at the end to turn it up.

[Wayne Reimer]

THANK YOU!!

You've just saved me even more gray hair, and countless hours of over-complicating things!

[Jeff Harper]

Wayne, for instances of needing to change volume levels when dealing with two audio tracks, (one voice and one music) I simply cut the audio at the points where the volume needs changed and raise and lower as needed. It is simple, and I don't have to fool with envelopes. I feel I have an easier time and more control.

I used to use volume envelopes, and I know that's how most guys do it. On the other hand, I often copy and paste entire projects to new instances of Vegas. With my weird way of doing it, I can copy and paste without having to be concerned with envelopes, etc.

[Wayne Reimer]

thanks Jeff. That's the direction I was heading down, but wasn't sure if made sense from a workflow standpoint. although this is a relatively short project in overall length, the diversity of source material was a bit overwhelming; I was anticipating most/all of my material would be stuff I generated...however the client ( a radio station) had a bunch of audio spanning a 35 + year career, on a bunch of different formats.

So......what looked to be a pretty straight-forward project in the beginning suddenly became something well beyond my "comfort zone" in terms of pulling all that together into something cohesive.

At least I now have choices...something I didn't have this morning. that makes me a happy guy tonight!

[D.J. Ammons]

Here is my newbie question;

If you have seperate audio on each stereo channel how do you pan to where you are using only one of the channels panned over both and then how do you swap out when you want to use the other channels audio?

In my case it is where one channel has the audio from a wireless mic on a groom or officient and the other channel the audio from a shotgun mic. I would want to use the shotgun mic channel panned over both left and right for most of the time except when the officient or bride and groom are speaking at which point I would want to swap it out.

[Edward Troxel]

I would copy the audio to TWO tracks. On ONE of them, right-click, choose "Channels" and then "Right Only". On the other, right-click, choose "Channels" and then "Left Only". Then you can simply use the volume envelope to switch between the two as desired.

[D.J. Ammons]

Thanks Edward!

[Jeff Dinges]

yup, volume envelope is best option.