Audio tracks play simultaneously on layers

Mar 18, 2014

lilian soon
By lilian soon

Hi, I thought Storyline had fixed this two upgrades ago, so I stopped adding Play Sound 2 when Sound 1 is complete and Play Sound 3 when Sound 2 is complete on all my layers.

Now I have two issues:

Sometimes, I find that when I revisit a layer, the sounds will all play at once, even though they are clearly spread out over the layer timeline.

At other times, Sound 1 doesn't play at all, then Sound 2 kicks in. 

We thought it might be a caching problem etc once the Storyline file was published and up in our LMS, but we can make this happen in the Preview in the .story file too.

Can't easily share the Storyline file without doing a bit of work to neutralise the content so I wonder if anyone at Articulate can create this scenario and try to replicate the issue?

45 Replies
lilian soon
almost 9 years ago05/05/15 at 11:10 am (UTC)

Hi Christy, for every layer where there is more than one audio track, you have to add Stop Media 2 on timeline start, Stop Media 3 on timeline start etc. That way, on revisit, only track 1 will play until it gets to track 2.

Wish Storyline would fix this as it's the sensible way to expect things to work on layers??

Daniela Figueiredo
over 8 years ago10/20/15 at 1:31 pm (UTC)

Hi, 

I'm having the same issues with SL2. When reviewing the slide, sounds play all at the same time.

This only happens on slides were learner has to click on something and opens a layer with another sound on it. So, the base layer has multiple sounds, layer from button 1 has sound and on review all sounds play at the same time.

I tried to work around and added some triggers to mute the sound on the base layer. Well, It didn't work because the sound starts with triggers. So, when sound 1 ends, sound 2 begins... and so on. I tried to change properties on the layer to "pause base layer", but that doesn't work either.

I can't set the slide to "initial state" because it has a variable that is saved and triggers the "next button" to be available when timeline starts, second time learner views the slide.

How can I have multiple layers with multiple sounds, and when reviewing playing only the sound on the layer and not the base layer?

 

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard
over 8 years ago10/20/15 at 3:08 pm (UTC)

Hi Daniela,

It may be helpful if you're able to share the .story file - even just that one slide so that folks could take a look at the set up and what you have for the triggers. If the audio is on the slide layer, and the user is revisiting that slide and the layer hasn't been hidden and the audio is set to play based off of slide triggers and you're using "resume saved state" I wouldn't think the audio would be playing again unless the user triggered it by clicking on a button or similar.  

Have you looked at this set up in terms of pausing the slide or layer? 

lilian soon
over 8 years ago01/09/16 at 4:09 pm (UTC)

Hi Sherry, Hope the following makes sense:

Put Audio 1 into a new layer called 'base audio' 
On the Base Layer, instead of playing media audio 1, show layer 'base audio' on timeline start.
Move all audio to their relevant layers.

(So there is no audio on your base layer)

Not sure why the audio on the layers won't play straight away so just add trigger to play audio when timeline starts on all layers.

Now when each button is selected, the layer audio will play and any other layers will be hidden (causing the audio to stop).

Wendy Farmer
almost 8 years ago05/30/16 at 7:18 am (UTC)

Hi Chetana

1. Create a T/F variable default to False called slide_visited

2. Set a trigger on the base layer : Adjust variable 'slide_visited' to true when timeline starts on the base layer.

3. Depending on which audio you want to stop -

Set a trigger on the base and/or the layer : Stop media 'name of audio file' when timeline starts on base/and or layer xx on condition that slide_visited=true.

Hope that helps - if not, do you want to upload your story file and someone should be able to assist you.

Christie Pollick
almost 8 years ago06/01/16 at 1:36 pm (UTC)

Hi, Chetana -- Thanks for your reply, and I may I ask if you intended to upload your file with your response? If so, I wanted to mention that when you reply to a forum notification via email, any attachments you attempted to send are not transmitted to be accessible here in the post itself. 

So, if you wanted to upload your file, you'll need to click here to be taken to the post itself, and then you'd need to use the grey ADD ATTACHMENT button in the bottom left of the reply box to browse from there. :)

Kari Cummings
almost 8 years ago07/05/16 at 11:17 pm (UTC)

So nice to see I am not the only person with this issue!  I had a presentation in AS1 that was converted to AS2.  I have the most updated version of AS2.  I had a problem initially if the user clicked to the next layer before the first audio finished - it played them at the same time.  I added "stop media" on each layer and on the main slide - that now works fine going forward in the presentation.  However, there is still a problem when I click to the previous slide and then come forward to revisit the current slide - all audio narratives on the main slide and 3 separate layers play at the same time.   HELP!

Kari Cummings
almost 8 years ago07/06/16 at 2:31 pm (UTC)

Thank you Leslie!  The problem is similar in other areas of the presentation when I have layers with audio. On this scene, watch slide 2 and then 3.... Then click BACK to 2 and forward to 3 - all audio plays at the same time. This project was due July 1 so I am desperate to find a fix before it goes out to 12,000 staff.

Ryan Davenport
7 years ago04/07/17 at 4:24 pm (UTC)

I was having an issue similar to all these in 360. Voice over on the base layer, then two layers with video that were trigger by a base layer button. On replay using the native Storyline replay button, the voice and both videos played. 

I was actually able to solve this by bumping the videos back one frame, so they weren't at the very beginning of their layer's timeline. Seems to be working fine now on replay.

Hope some other users find this helpful. 

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