Narration not working (no sound during preview)
Jul 07, 2020
Ok, I have a weird one.
I got pretty big project, but I will use the example of 2 slides.
I have 2 slides that I have done a voice recordings for (from the mic directly in storyline) and they both worked fine right after the recordings were done and timelines were set up. Saved project, when to try the scene out - no audio on one of the slides. Went back to investigate - here is what I found on my slide 2:
But when I check slide 4, it looks like this:
The problem is that slide 2 audio only plays when I am in the Audio Editor or when I right click and say Preview Audio. It does not play on Playback, Preview or after being Published. No sound at all.
This has been a repeated issue. I have tried checking the mixer, playing with the headphone connections, restating program, restarting computer - it unexpectedly would come back and work again, only to quit randomly. And then today ALL my slides in the entire project, with exception of my last slide recorded (slide 4) have all turned the same way. I would have re-record the entire project.
So my IT gets creative. We saved the narration and pasted it in. Yeah, no. It didn't work. IT updated drivers. Nope. Disconnected all possible playback devices with only my primary headset. Nada. Updated Articulate, Flash Player and restarted computer. Zilch. Short of reinstalling Windows I think they have tried it all.
Please Help!
5 Replies
Hi Alisa,
Happy to jump in to help here!
It looks like you have done quite a bit of troubleshooting here. I am sorry that you have been running into this snag, but let's see if we can discover what is causing this!
For Slide Two that contains the audio with no waveform, the appearance of audio clips removes those waveforms when a trigger is associated with it. Could I have you check to see if there are any triggers connected to the audio clip?
In case this helps, you can find more details about audio waveforms in the timeline here:
If you can share your file with us, we're always more than happy to help troubleshoot! You can share files in this thread, or you're welcome to share them privately here. We'll let you know our findings and will delete it after having a closer look!
Hello Vincent,
I was playing around with the slides last night, and I did notice that only those slides that have a trigger attached to the audio file have that problem. My understanding of the function was that if a file is part of the timeline, the file plays in the timeline.
I have a slide set up where the audio file plays as part of the timeline. If the user so chooses, there is a trigger set up allowing the user to replay the same audio file again.
The only way I managed to get this to work is if I have same audio file twice. Once for the timeline and once for the trigger.
I'll send you the file to tinker with. Case# 02345500
Thanks for sharing your case number, Alisa. It looks like our support team is taking a look and you should be hearing from someone soon.
So if anyone else is having the issue - I figured it out. When you assign a trigger to the audio file the audio file is not fully controlled by the trigger.
To solve this and not to have to duplicate the file - I just set up a second trigger to play audio file when timeline starts. This had a pleasant side effect: because I had a "replay audio button" trigger on each of the slide, before I would have to time the button to appear after audio was over, otherwise some mouse clicker happy user could start the second audio and mess up the narration. By making both triggers work from the same slide this prevented the user from being able to play the same audio file before it is done. So... win-win.
I appreciate you popping back in and sharing your solution with the community, Alisa :)
This discussion is closed. You can start a new discussion or contact Articulate Support.