Fading Audio

Tallula, if the fading effect is "time" based, which is to say the slide itself is an "event" that plays to a given point and then auto-transitions to the next one, then the best method would be to do as Rich suggests, and build the fade into the slide.  If the transition to the next slide is dependent on user-interaction, then you'd probably have to keep hoping for an Articulate Expert to come to your rescue.

I also edit audio, by the way, and would be happy to make those fades happen for you if you like.  PM if you wanna discuss it.

ab

Wonderful and it's freeware, even  better! So I would just load the music file into Audacity, make my edits, save the file, and load into Articulate? The orginal file is 6 minutes. I reduced the song down to 30 seconds in Articulate, but I could not fade out. So with Audacity I will be able to reduce the lenght of the song and fade out as well?

Absolutely!  That's exactly how it works.

GREAT! You guys are awesome! I need to post questions here more often!

Hi Tallula,

Here's the sound profile of how I introduce virtually every course I build - exactly as you say, (and using Audacity).

I fade in the audio stinger (over 4 seconds), play it for 2 seconds, fade it OUT for the last 4 seconds, and then cross-fade in the "Hello and welcome...),  as the music dies in the last second.

Works beautifully

Bruce

I also use it for decreasing volume of music, within the slide while there is a narration and increasing it after.

I swear, I really need to learn Audacity.  But every time I try it's like riding a bicycle with my hands crossed over to the opposite handlebars.  I've been an Adobe Audition guy since before Adobe *owned* the software (used to be Cool Edit), and just haven't been able to use anything else.

Maybe I should make that a pet project, eh?

There are, speaking of, LOTS of tutorials about Audacity on YouTube:

Audacity Tutorials

Sheila and Andy and whoever else is interested:

Audacity also has a very active forum, and a few of the "staff" are retired audio engineers. http://forum.audacityteam.org/

I started playing around with Audacity last night just a bit...I find it a very usable tool.

However, the challenge is that I'm so immersed in the *interface* I'm accustomed to, it's just faster for me to work in that environment (although, to my ears, the results aren't essentially any different.) 

I'm going to make a plan, however, to learn more about Audacity in the coming months, given that I'm sure my current software isn't always going to be "upgradable" to whatever system I get next.

ab

This worked perfectly. Very simple to use. It only took me a few minutes to figure out. I first decreased the song from 6 minutes to 30 seconds by a simple delete. Then I used the envelope tool to fade out the song. Exported the file and imported it back in articulate...it's perfect!

YAY!  Congrats, Tallula!  To quote Obi-Wan Kenobi:  "You taken your first step into a larger world."

ab

So, if I understand the responses in this thread, there is no way to create audio effects such as fading audio in Articulate or Articulate Storyline (I'm now using Storyline)?

I have Camtasia, so will use that, no problem. I just wondered if there was a quicker way to add a fade to an audio while I was still in Storyline. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it looks like the answer is that there isn't a way to add any audio effects in Articulate or Storyline.

Thanks,

Anna

Hi Anna,

Yes that is correct, except +/- volume and adding silence.

Bruce

Audacity is an awesome program.  If I can do it anyone can do it!

Hello,

So if I understood well I didn't read any practical solution for fading out the music (or sound) based on a user interaction (clicking next for example) ?

Anyone has a idea?

Thanks

Kurt

This would be a bit cumbersome if you were doing it with a lot of slides, but if you only needed the "fade when user clicks Next" once or twice, couldn't you just have the click next take them to another slide/layer that looks exactly the same but has a new music track that begins fading immediately?

Hey Kurt, you can't create the audio fade in storyline itself so would have to use a tool like audacity to create it.  I also can't think of a way you could trigger an audio fade based on a user interaction. You can play, stop or pause audio using a trigger but that is about it. You might be able to fake it by using two audio clips - one with the fade and one without.  Put the fade version on a  layer (this version should just be the last few sections of the full length audio clip.  Then on the main layer add a button that jumps to the layer when the user clicks. You also have to remember set the layer to pause the main timeline to make sure you don't get both tracks playing at the same time. 

This might work if planned carefully but the transition from one track to the next might end up being too abrupt. To be honest, I'm not sure why anyone would want to do this

Does anyone use the Volume control in the audio editing pane (within Storyline) to fade in/out audio clips? I have tried, but it doesn't work. I may be doing something wrong. But if it is not for this, then what can one do with the volume control?  

Thanks and always glad to know I'm not the only one seeking a solution to a particular problem such as this one!

Sarah

It does work, but not as a fader. I use it to increase/decrease the level over the entire track if I have audio that sounds to loud/soft.

You could select a section and reduce volume, another section and reduce and repeat, but the amount of time involved would make it much better to use a separate program.  I've always like how easy Articulate programs make it to export the audio so that you can edit it, no reason not to do so, edit and reimport.  

This is just not good enough. A fade function should be made possible in the audio editor asap. 

Hate to sound like a schmuck, but to offer audio editing without the capacity to actually edit is kinda lame.