New in Storyline 360: Background Audio

Apr 04, 2023

We’ve got news that we think will be music to your ears—you can now add background audio to your Storyline 360 courses! Thanks to this highly requested feature you can set the right tone for your training and keep learners engaged by adding a list of audio tracks that play in the background. And to give learners control over the experience and ensure it’s optimal for everyone, they can toggle background audio on and off as needed. Check out this article to learn more about this new feature: Storyline 360: Background Audio.

If you’re an Articulate 360 subscriber, you can access this new feature immediately by updating Storyline 360 via the desktop app. And if you don’t have Articulate 360 but want to try out this feature, you can start a free 30-day trial.

Once you’ve given it a try we’d love to hear what you think! Please share any feedback or suggestions in the comments below. We’ll be working on enhancements for this feature and want to know if there are areas for improvement or additional functionality that you’d like to see. We’re looking forward to your feedback!

~The Storyline 360 Team

Pinned Reply

Lauren Connelly
Staff

6 months ago11/07/23 at 3:08 pm (UTC)

Hi everyone!

Good news! I'm happy to share that we just released Storyline 360 (Build 3.81.31200.0), which includes a feature to control the background audio for each slide using triggers to play, pause, or stop the playlist.

This was highly requested, so we hope it serves you in your course creation! If you run into any snags, don't hesitate to contact our team in a support case.

98 Replies

11 months ago06/08/23 at 1:18 pm (UTC)

Good morning, Elke. No, you're not doing anything wrong. Currently, the feature isn't supported in video output. I was very disappointed to learn this myself, as published video was the primary reason I wanted to use the background audio feature.

Kim Edwards

11 months ago06/09/23 at 4:21 am (UTC)

Hi Vanessa. My question is not directly related, but it is related to Audio. I have created an interactive diagram. The Base Layer has an audio voice-over I do not want to play on the layers. How can I stop the recording from playing when they open a layer? Your help would be greatly appreciated.

11 months ago06/09/23 at 7:55 am (UTC)

Hi Kim

On the layer there is an option to 'pause timeline of base layer' that will stop the audio playing when the layer opens.

11 months ago06/09/23 at 8:41 am (UTC)

Hi Kim,

Wendy has provided the solution, other way is to block the interactivity till the audio ends.

Regards

Yogesh

10 months ago06/20/23 at 1:03 pm (UTC)

I'm having this same issue. I added a .wav file and had it loop and it's not playing at all on my video output.

10 months ago06/20/23 at 1:04 pm (UTC)

It would be nice if this was noted in the interface or on the Articulate support site about this feature. I went through all the trouble to add design elements to the course to notify learners of the audio, etc. and now I have wasted that time and need to undo them.

Katie Riggio
Staff

10 months ago06/20/23 at 4:01 pm (UTC)

Hello, Angie!

I'm sorry for the trouble—and you raise a great point. Thanks to your feedback, we added a note that background audio isn't available in published video output in the documentation for this feature.

And we're still planning the next phase of this feature, so we'll let you know if video output compatibility becomes an option. If there's anything else you'd like to see added, do let us know!

10 months ago06/20/23 at 9:36 pm (UTC)

Thank you very much!

10 months ago06/20/23 at 9:36 pm (UTC)

Yes thank you.

Natalie Palomo

10 months ago06/21/23 at 12:55 am (UTC)

Hi - in an attempt to address the erratic volume levels of background audio, I lowered the volume on the actual mp3s before importing them in, so that even at their maximum, the audio wouldn't overpower the voiceover. However, I found that possibly Storyline 360 'boosts' or normalises the mp3 file so it's still so loud. I'm trying to deliver to a client for next Tuesday and the background audio is a real issue because the course is presenter/VO led.

Even when you enable the instruction to lower the background audio when the VO plays, this does not consistently happen.

10 months ago06/23/23 at 3:29 pm (UTC)

Hello Natalie,

Sorry to hear that you ran into this snag.

I tried recreating the behavior using a simple file with background audio and narration, and I didn't experience the behavior you encountered where the background audio played over the narration. I've attached the file that I used for testing so you can test to see if we get similar results.

Have you tried making sure that the 'Optimize audio volume' option is not checked for your course before you published it?

If leaving this box unticked doesn't fix the behavior, would you be willing to share a copy of your project file here or in private by opening a support case so we can take a closer look at what's happening? We'll delete it when we're done testing!

demo_with_bg.story

Justin Stortzum

10 months ago06/27/23 at 12:45 pm (UTC)

Can there be an option added in the next update so that the background audio starts on the second slide to avoid the big play button when the project loads?

10 months ago06/28/23 at 8:18 pm (UTC)

Hi Justin!

Thanks for reaching out! It sounds like you need to add a custom trigger for more background audio control in your Storyline 360 course!

We currently have that logged as a feature request, so I'll be sure to include your voice in the report! We’ll update this discussion if this feature makes it on our feature roadmap.

Have a great rest of your week!

10 months ago07/05/23 at 4:53 am (UTC)

Hi Joe

I got my solution from Nejc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNQlWD84AT8

It's when you press next in the player mid voiceover that is mostly causing the erratic background audio volume changes.

It meant I had to do every slide in all 3 modules, but for the purposes of delivering to the client, I was just happy to get it solved.

It would be really great if this could be solved in the software itself so that this trigger doesn't have to be applied for every slide containing foregrounded audio.

10 months ago07/05/23 at 10:10 pm (UTC)

This post was removed by the author

10 months ago07/06/23 at 12:33 pm (UTC)

Hi Natalie,

Thanks for sharing what fixed the issue for you. It looks like the bug in the Youtube video you shared was fixed in a recent release of Storyline 360. Did you already have the latest version of Storyline 360 installed when you tested the issue? If not, please try updating to the latest version and then test the issue again to see if it will now be fixed.

Let us know how it goes!

Natalie Palomo

10 months ago07/10/23 at 2:20 am (UTC)

Hi Joe,

The version v3.75.30269.0 had the issue, will install v3.77.30587.0 and test.

Cheers
Natalie

Eric Santos
Staff

10 months ago07/10/23 at 2:25 pm (UTC)

Hi Natalie,

Thanks for trying out the latest version of Storyline!

Let us know how it goes, and we'll be more than happy to assist further!

10 months ago07/10/23 at 2:49 pm (UTC)

I can create a trigger to for audio to play when timeline starts, but I still have the large play button that appears at the beginning to start the project.

Is there an alternate trigger I can use so that the project autostarts without clicking anything?

Gareth McGuigan

10 months ago07/13/23 at 3:33 pm (UTC)

This is a great addition to Storyline. Can I ask if it's possible to trim the background audio to fit the Storyline length? I cannot see the background audio in my timeline, as I can with other audio, and therefore cannot click on it to edit. TIA

10 months ago07/14/23 at 3:22 pm (UTC)

Hello Gareth,

Happy to help!

There isn't an available feature right now that will allow you to trim the background audio in Storyline 360. If you would like to add a background audio which matches the estimate of your Storyline 360 course's duration, you'll need to edit the background audio using a third-party application to set your desired length. A tool like Audacity can help you with this.

Joe Hauglie

9 months ago07/17/23 at 4:33 pm (UTC)

It would be great to have the ability to set background audio for different scenes. In a current project I already have a couple of short clips during the intro scene (tied to different slides) and the exit, but the bulk of the course would greatly benefit from having background audio. So the ability to make it scene-specific would be a great feature.

Luciana Piazza
Staff

8 months ago08/22/23 at 1:22 pm (UTC)

Hello, Everyone! ✨

I'm happy to share that we have released a new update for Storyline 360 (Build 3.79.30834.0).

In this update, we have an enhancement where:

Background audio is now supported in the published video output.

As a first step, I recommend updating Storyline 360 to the latest version. Here's how:

Update Authoring Apps

If you have any questions, please let us know in this thread or privately in a support case.

Have a great day!

Meagan Griffin

7 months ago09/14/23 at 11:31 pm (UTC)

Hi!

I want to start by saying that this feature is so cool! I'm excited about how this is transforming the feel of our courses.

I am having some trouble with the volume, though. Even when I set the "lower background audio volume when slide audio plays" to 100%, it still plays loudly in the background and competes with the slide narration. Is this a known bug?