iMovie '09 Changing clip volume has no effect on volume

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Level 1

1 points

iMovie '09 Changing clip volume has no effect on volume

I have been working 20 hours on a movie project. It worked fine; then I exported the video to get a preview; which was nice but I had noticed some details to fix. So, two days later I open iMovie again, and decide to fix the details I had noticed. I start by pressing the Space bar, to play the movie.

and Oh Surprise! the background music is louder than what it should be. Its clip volume is set to 20% and the Voiceover track's is set to 200%; as it was before.. but the music is so loud that we can't hear the Voiceover track anymore.

So I move the slider to 25% and back to 20%.. I hear the hard disk work.. and press Play again.
Same ! Didn't change anything.

iMovie behaves as if the background music track was set to 100%.

So I try deleting it and adding it again, SAME.

I set its volume to 0% and bizarrely it still PLAYS at the same volume!

What is going wrong with iMovie?
I updated iMovie with yesterday's update; but same problem.

I am stuck; there is no way I can export the video like this. The voiceovers can't be heard.

NB: This problem happens with the other audio tracks (background music) within this project too.

Has anyone experienced this issue? Were you able to solve it?

Regards,

MacBook 13" Unibody, Mac OS X (10.5.6), 4GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 9400M, iMovie '09 (8.0.2)

Posted on Apr 15, 2009 11:48 AM

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Answer 1

Apr 15, 2009 1:20 PM in response to GillouStyle

Check to see if you have ducking turned on. Ducking will diminish every other track relative to the track where ducking is set. If you have ducking set in two overlapping tracks, usually the first instance will predominate and the second will be ignored.

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Answer 2

GillouStyle Author

Level 1

1 points

Apr 15, 2009 1:58 PM in response to AppleMan1958

Thanks for the reply.
I have turned off ducking and turned it back on. It works fine between the Voiceover track and the Video track; whose volume is diminished.

However, the Green colored audio track (the background music), is not influenced at all by any settings! Neither the "Clip volume to 1% " or the "voice over dubbing to 15%" produce any change in the output volume of this green-layered audio track.

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Answer 3

Apr 15, 2009 2:27 PM in response to GillouStyle

You might try this...

Delete the green background music. Drag it in again from the music browser and this time drop it on the first clip. It should snap to the beginning of the first clip. It will now be a track underneath the storyboard thumbnails just like the voiceover track. This may make it easier to see what is going on.

Also, [have you seen this Video Tutorial?|http://www.apple.com/findouthow/movies/imovie08.html#tutorial=audiocl ips]

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Answer 4

GillouStyle Author

Level 1

1 points

Apr 16, 2009 1:56 AM in response to AppleMan1958

Actually what i called "background music" was a green track that was already underneath the clips. Not in the background as a whole layer.

I will try to make this background music as a "green background layer" layer... that which takes the full background area. But then i'm not sure I will be able to adjust it so that it starts when I want :-s

What is problematic here, is that I have not changed any things to these tracks between when it worked fine.. and now, when it's not working.

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Answer 5

Apr 16, 2009 4:39 AM in response to GillouStyle

and Oh Surprise! the background music is louder than what it should be. Its clip volume is set to 20% >and the Voiceover track's is set to 200%; as it was before.. but the music is so loud that we can't hear >the Voiceover track anymore.

This could happen if ducking is set on the music track. Ducking defines the music track as 100% and works everything else out from there. Ducking will diminish every other track. If you had ducking set to 25%, and volume of voiceover 200%, the music track would need to be 800% of the voiceover track.
My recommendation, turn ducking totally off. And use it only on short clips or short audio clips. If you have any long clips or music tracks, use the volume slider to set the volume.

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Answer 6

GillouStyle Author

Level 1

1 points

Apr 16, 2009 5:20 AM in response to AppleMan1958

Thanks for the quick reply.

I have tried what you described; but while Ducking is OFF on the music track; and the Clip volume of this same music track set to 1%; the music still plays loud.

This is driving me nuts. I'm going to try Repairing permissions, see if that will solve anything.

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Answer 7

inrepose

Level 1

8 points

May 25, 2009 9:39 AM in response to GillouStyle

I have the same problem. No matter what format the imported audio track is and after changing ducking etc, the attached audio track always plays at 100%. Has anyone else had any luck with this issue?

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Answer 8

ljs1666

Level 1

0 points

May 25, 2009 2:03 PM in response to GillouStyle

I've experience something similar. When I create a cutaway, I am unable to drop the sound of the original clip under the added clip or drop the cutaway sound under the original clip. I had been able to do this when I began the project but then the "gear" stopped doing its job.
Then all of a sudden it might work.Yikes! is it possible the project is corrupted?
I'll try to crete a new project to see if the problem persists.

We have tried taking out the plist but that was to no avail.

News or help?

Laurene

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