1 slide, multiple audio files, individual mute for each

Jan 14, 2019

Dear Community,

I am a relatively new Storyline user but have become familiar with many of the basic functions.

I've seen discussions about muting audio come up often but I haven't seen one that quite fits my situation.

I have one slide which has images of 10 percussion instruments. I have a song in 10 audio files - one for each instrument. Played together, they are all in time.

I have placed "sound" icons at the bottom of each image and want the user to be able to toggle on and off (mute) each individual instrument as they wish. This would allow them to hear any combination of the instruments together to see what part they play in the song.

A few of the solutions I've seen (again, none that quite match the scenario above), refer to using Javascript. This would be a new task to me. If there is a solution, and it involves using Javascript, is there a beginners resource for including that?

With thanks,

Dave

11 Replies
Alyssa Gomez

Hi David, welcome to Heroes! 

Have you considered placing each audio file on a separate layer? Learners can then open and close each layer by clicking a button on the base layer. The instrument would play when the layer is open, and it would be muted when the layer is closed. 

If it's Javascript you're after, that's outside my wheelhouse. I'll leave it to the community to share their expert advice with you!

David Hall

Hi Alyssa,

thanks again for the support and ideas. It's very much appreciated.

So, I played around with your suggestion. The learning and exploring is fun. A key idea learned was that, to hear all layers play, "Hide other slide layers" needed to be unticked. I was also initially attempting to use attributes to hide and show layers in an attempt to get audio buttons to toggle the sound on and off.

I though of a (perhaps obvious) simpler solution. With one instrument per layer (as you suggested), I have all layers show when the timeline started and have a speaker icon also per layer (and therefore per instrument). On the base layer that speaker icon is replaced by a muted-speaker icon. So, when the user clicks the speaker icon on the instrument layer, it is set to hide that layer which then shows the muted-speaker icon on the base layer in its place. I then have that button of the muted-speaker icon triggered to show the layer of the instrument again which brings it back. I hope that makes sense!

So, amazingly, I can now, via a speaker button (two, really) toggle the different instruments in and out of the mix. This is exactly what I was hoping to do.

The problem I've run into is that when I bring the layers back, it appears to have just paused the layer rather than muted it (i.e. it comes back in but out of time of the other instruments).

Showing would be much easier than explaining. So, the Storyline file is attached. :-)

Thanks again for the prompts and suggestion, Alyssa.

Dave

Alyssa Gomez

Hi David, stellar work on this! 🌟 I really appreciate you sharing what you've accomplished so far.

It sounds like you need to restart the layer timeline each time the learner reopens a layer, is that right?

If so, open the layer properties window, and select "When revisiting: Reset to initial state." 

Let me know if that's what you were after!

David Hall

Hi Alyssa,

I don’t think so.

What I’m hoping it will do is play the track from start to finish and the user can mute/unmute the various instruments, as they choose, throughout the track.

Currently, all tracks have audio of one instrument but all tracks play in time with each other. I’m wanting the user to be able to mute any instrument(s) and when they unmute the instrument it will be at the location of the song that the other instruments are at.

So, literally silencing individual instruments for a duration of the song until it’s chosen to unsilence them.

Alyssa Gomez

Hey David, thanks for clarifying. Now I've got a clear picture of what you're after! 

Closing the audio layer will either...

  • Pause the audio and resume where you left off
  • Stop the audio and resume from the beginning

While there isn't a third option to mute the audio and resume to the current place in the slide timeline, I can share that feature idea with our Product team. Thanks for letting us know what you'd like to see!

Alyssa Gomez

Hi David,

You could continue using this discussion, and also start a new one in the Building Better Courses forum. You're likely to get more eyes on it that way!

📣 Head's up, community! David could use your creative ideas! How can he achieve placing audio on a layer, mute the audio, and unmute to resume to the current place in the slide timeline? 

What I’m hoping it will do is play the track from start to finish and the user can mute/unmute the various instruments, as they choose, throughout the track.

Currently, all tracks have audio of one instrument but all tracks play in time with each other. I’m wanting the user to be able to mute any instrument(s) and when they unmute the instrument it will be at the location of the song that the other instruments are at.

So, literally silencing individual instruments for a duration of the song until it’s chosen to unsilence them.

David Hall

Thanks again, Alyssa.

Being new to the forums, I'm not sure if the above is the replica of a post you made on the "Building Better Courses" forum? Or perhaps that's some text for me to copy over into a new post in that forum?

If the former, I can't seem to see the post that has been made with that content.

Regards,

Dave

P.S. Of course, there's no expectation for you to make the post for me over in that forum. It was just that the wording of the text sounded as though it was coming from you which made me think the post may have been made. :-)

This discussion is closed. You can start a new discussion or contact Articulate Support.