@GeorgeY (George Yates) posted a new topic, subject "Changing the volume in a background audio track?". It read:

   Is there a way to change the volume in different tracks? I can't find one. Wanting to fade volume in background audio track @ beginning & end of video. Volume control has been around as long as video editing software, so what am I missing?

After which, @Elusien (Neil Storer) added

    There is an audio fade-in and an audio fade-out filter as well as an audio gain-volume filter. Am I missing something from your query?

So @GeorgeY (George Yates) replied

    No, I don't believe you are missing. But, I do not see those in the filter tab. I've opened the audio loudness tab, but couldn't determine a way to adjust volume.

Then @Elusien (Neil Storer) said

    The filters should be in the AUDIO filters toolbar (see below), also see the Fade-In filter parameters (the duration of the fade-in. I can't understand why you do not have them, unless your installation of Shotcut was not correct.
    
    Audio810×1381 43.4 KB
    
    Fade-in820×750 20.5 KB

After which, @GeorgeY (George Yates) added

    Thanks! That was a big help as I am brand new to this software - a newbie novice. Now that I've made the adjustments to this additional audio track (using the gain/volume filter) all audio is very broken and garbled. Do you (or anyone) have any idea what happened or how I can fix it. it was all fine earlier. That audio adjustment was the last touch before exporting it. I sure don't want to have to start over.

After which, @Elusien (Neil Storer) added

    I'm afraid I have very little experience of the audio filters, someone like @brian may be able to help. If all you want is to fade-in the sound at the beginning of the track and fade-ou at the end I would have used the other two filters, as they are designed for that.

After which, @ejmillan added

    A screenshot would be desirable where you could see the filters applied and if possible, the setting.  
    Maybe you applied too much gain and it's saturated.  
    When you play the audio, peak meter does it go up to red?
    
    Without removing any filters from the list, you can try the following:
    
      * Uncheck the checkbox of each audio filter one by one and play to see if the problem persists.  
    This way you can do a little self-check to give us more clues to find a solution.  
    The audio filter gain/volume, by default, has a value of 0 dB. This means that it doesn't increase or decrease volume with this value. Negative values decrease the volume, positive values increase the volume of the audio.

@GeorgeY (George Yates) replied

    Yes. Thank you for your help Elusien. Those worked fine once you pointed me in the right direction. I don't know what happened after that to cause the sound in both tracks to go bizerk.

So @GeorgeY (George Yates) replied

    Thanks EJM. I have removed all audio filters (one by one) and it is still all broken/garbled. The video appears to be moving smoothly. The peak meter never gets close to the red. The beginning music does reach -5db very briefly, but never goes above that. Most of my speech (the main track) never reaches above -15. Even the audio raw video in the Recent box is distorted. Though the original videos on my PC are okay.

So @ejmillan replied

    Hello again:  
    All I can think of is to start a new project and drag that video into the playback window.  
    Is the audio okay?  
    can you give us some information about the video and audio?

To which @GeorgeY (George Yates) replied

    I saved it under a different name, closed it & started a new project. I reopened it after reading your last comment. It started fine, audio broke up about the 1:30 mark, but was fine in the later moments of the video. Rechecked it. The 1:30 mark ff was fine.It must be something in the software. I am rendering it now to play it in other software. I'll let you know what happens. Not sure if deleting and reloading the software will help or not. Just downloaded Shotcut for the first time on Tuesday.

So @Elusien (Neil Storer) replied

    Each filter you add to a project takes more and more CPU to process. If your computer is not powerful enough you will see lag and stutter in the source player and the audio will break up as the computer cannot do all the processing required in real-time, so it will skip frames. When you export the project the computer has all the time in the world to do the processing, as it does not not have to be done in real-time. If there is a problem after the export then this needs investigating further.

After which, @ejmillan added

    To be able to help in a more precise way it would be convenient to know some minimum data about the video file:  
    Things like resolution (a two-hour 4k video is not the same as a 5-minute HD file) and data rate might make something clearer (not a guarantee of success but would help focus the problem).  
    The 1:30 mark, can I assume it's 1 hour and 30 minutes?  
    If so, I read something here in this forum about some issue with processing long videos.  
    As indicated by @Elusien, real-time processing can consume a lot of resources depending on the video.  
    I think in that case it would affect the display of the video before the sound. But I may be wrong.  
    Depending on your operating system you can view the video file data in different ways.  
    In W10, right click and choose properties. There you will see in the General tab, the file type (mp4, mkv, avi, etc) , the size of the file.  
    In the details tab you will see the duration of the video, the resolution (height and width of the frame), the data rate, the frame rate (fps), a little further down is the information about the audio (channels, sampling).  
    This data can also be obtained in Shotcut, in the properties tab.
    
    I'm sorry I can't tell you more because Shotcut has had a functional gap today for me (something unusual for me) and I'm trying to fix it.

So @GeorgeY (George Yates) replied

    El, I believe you hit the nail on the head. It rendered fine. I just watched in its entirety. no flaws or breakdowns. While I have a pretty good computer, it is 5 years old. Been thinking about replacing it before it crashes on me on the road somewhere. (That's how I bought this one)

@GeorgeY (George Yates) replied

    You've been a great help! It is a short, 8 minute video for educational purposes. I believe @Elusien hit the nail on the head. It rendered fine. I just watched in its entirety. no flaws or breakdowns. So you both are correct & very helpful. I am grateful to you both & as I need help in the future look forward to your advice & suggestions.

After which, @ejmillan added

    It's nice to hear you've solved your problem. And it's also nice to read your thanks.  
    When I have a problem or doubt about Shotcut, I go here and other users help me too.  
    Welcome to this community.  
    Enjoy Shotcut.

After which, @ejmillan added

    Soon, there will be a new version (now in Beta phase) that brings performance improvements.  
    Basically Shotcut can make a copy of the project files but at a lower resolution than the original. This file is used for previewing, thus reducing resource consumption for real-time processing.  
    This is called “Proxy”.  
    Then in the export, Shotcut calls the original file (at the original resolution) and filters are applied to it in the rendering.  
    I think the release of that version was scheduled for this week.  
    Greetings.

@system (system) replied

    This topic was automatically closed after 90 days. New replies are no longer allowed.


{'source': 'discourse', 'url': 'https://forum.shotcut.org/t/changing-the-volume-in-a-background-audio-track/19002', 'title': 'Changing the volume in a background audio track?', 'views': 1864, 'has_accepted_answer': False, 'word_count': 1279, 'like_count': 2, 'reply_count': 12, 'participant_count': 3, 'posts': 18, 'tags': '', 'author': '@GeorgeY (George Yates)', 'participants': '@GeorgeY (George Yates), @Elusien (Neil Storer), @ejmillan, @system (system)', 'image_url': [None], 'created_at': '2020-06-24T18:32:31.598Z', 'last_posted_at': '2020-09-22T18:36:59.088Z'}