Forum Discussion
New in Storyline 360: Background Audio
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
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.
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.
Hi
Very good, the new option of inserting background music but... can we insert it on a single scene only? Is the reading list obligatory for the entire duration of a module?
It would be so nice to be able to choose the scene(s) with the background sound (and others without)
THANKS
Frederic
Hello Frederic!
Thanks for sharing that you'd like to be able to mute the background audio in Storyline 360 scenes. We have this logged as an additional feature request, so I'll go ahead and include your voice. Here's a peek into our process for managing feature requests.
Hi Ian,
See the attached story. Publish to Web, SCORM or Review 360. If it works for you, apply the same JavaScript code to your project.
So so pleased that the background sound option is finally available. My question is, I've got an attached video in two slides and when I play the video the background sound volume doesn't lower and it all gets messy. Any idea how I can fix that?
Hello Sh,
Hm, were the videos inserted from disk or are they embedded (website videos)? Please note there is a limitation where the `Pause background audio when video content on a slide plays option` does not apply to website videos.
If the videos were inserted from disk, would you be willing to attach your .story file here for troubleshooting?It is a web object, yes. Had to download a hard file to make it work but thanks for getting back. Another question, how do we adjust the background audio volume as I will also be adding some voice over to the slides and I need them to be clear but still to keep a little background noise. :)
Hi Sh,
Thank you for confirming you were working with an embedded video and that switching to one inserted from disk addressed this for you.
Regarding adjusting the background audio volume when your voice over plays: does setting the `Lower background audio when slide audio plays` checkbox and modifying the % there address your use case? It defaults to 50% of slide audio volume but can be decreased/increased as needed.
Hi, this is wonderful news! I have a question about the option for lowering the audio while the narration is playing. The 50% default was a little too low, so I was wondering if the percentage is to lower the volume by 50% or does that represent the total volume? For example, if I wanted to lower the background music by 30%, would I adjust the background audio settings to 30% or set it to 70%, which would indicate that the background music is at 70% of the total volume?
I hope my question makes sense; I've tried setting it both ways, but it sounds identical to me (which could be the fault of my computer's speaker, to be honest). Thank you!
Hello Laura,
Thank you for checking out the feature! If you find that the background audio volume is too low while your course is playing, you could try one of these options:
- Set the `Lower background audio when slide audio plays` option to a value higher than 50%
- Use the volume slider on your player controls to adjust the overall volume for your entire course (which will also affect background audio)
Hopefully one or both of these will help!
hello, would it be possible to choose the volume of background audio for the whole scene ?
Hi Laura!
Thanks for sharing how you'd like to use background audio in your course!
We currently have this logged as a feature request, so I’ll go ahead and include your voice! We’ll update this discussion if this feature makes it on our feature roadmap.
I need this too. I want looping audio throughout, don't have any narration, but there is no way to adjust the audio. It's so loud that I can't use it. Surely, there will be an option to adjust overall volume of overall background audio? I'm not using the player but buttons for manual user movement for slides.
Hi Dusti!
Thanks for sharing how you'd like to use background audio in your course!
We currently have this logged as a feature request, so I’ll go ahead and include your voice! We’ll update this discussion if this feature makes it on our feature roadmap.
First: I love that you implemented this feature. It's actually something I was just discussing with my supervisor (as something I wish Articulate would implement).
Second: It would be nice if there was an option to pause the background playlist when the course is manually paused (by using the "Pause" player control). Currently, the course/timeline pauses, but the background playlist continues to broadcast. This isn't a dealbreaker, but for those reviewing the course, it could be inconvenient (perhaps even a bit annoying) to pause the course to discuss, take notes, leave Review comments, etc., but have to continue hearing the audio from the playlist.
Hello Robert,
Thanks for checking out the Background Audio feature, and it's great to hear how timely this was!
We currently don't tie the course play/pause button to the background audio, but would one of the following player keyboard shortcuts perhaps help in this situation for course reviewers?- Ctrl+Alt+A: Toggle background audio
- Ctrl+Alt+M: Mute/unmute overall course audio
Vanessa - It might, yes, but ultimately, when sending the course up the ladder for multiple executives to review, the less instruction I have to impart about how to operate the course, the better. Being able to tell them just hit play and pause is much more direct.
Hi Robert,
If you enable "accessibility settings" on the player, the learner can toggle the background music on and off if they'd like.
I hope this helps!
I found a workaround for the background audio bug, where the background audio doesn't duck, if you jump to the next slide when current slide audio is playing. Hopefully, there will be a fix soon.
Like others I really need a way to manually control when the background audio is off/on or at least adjust it's volume myself. The auto reduction in volume is nice however i've got some MP4s that contain no audio and I'd like the background audio not to auto adjust when it encounters these silent videos. I've encoded these videos with no audio track... is the player simply adjusting because it detects a video file period? Any tips on how I can have a video not trigger this auto adjustment in volume? Thanks.
Hi there, I am using the background music for a step-by-step explanation which I finally want to embedded in Rise. The problem: On my last slide the background music in Rise doesn't stop. It goes on and on.... Any ideas please how to stop this? Thanks
Hi Karl!
It sounds like you were trying to customize the controls for background audio in your Storyline 360 imported Rise course. I'd be happy to share some insight!
At the moment, that type of functionality is not available in Rise 360. However, we currently have a Feature Request logged which would allow you to add custom triggers to control background audio in your Storyline 360 course. I've included your voice, and if that feature makes it on our feature roadmap we'll be sure to update this thread!
Once that feature becomes implemented, you would need to set up custom triggers within your Storyline 360 course first and then reimport it to your Rise 360 lesson.
Please let me know if you have any more questions!
Many thanks Steven, that was exactly what I was looking for. A trigger in Storyline where I can set up when the music has to stop / start / fade. And then import it into Rise360. Looking forward that this hopefulls will come soon. Thanks.
