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  1. Member
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    Hi,
    I've recently bought Corel VideoStudio Ultimate 2022 and can't understand how to use audio ducking in the way i want.
    I have a video track (with sound), a voiceover track and a background music track.
    When I turn on audio ducking on the music track, it recognises the sound on the main video track and ducks properly. But no matter what I try, it doesn't seem to duck for the voiceover track when that has sound on it.

    What am I doing wrong? Am I missing something obvious? I've tried turning up the levels of the voiceover track, so I don't think it's a loudness/sensitivity issue.

    Help please!
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  2. Member
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    I do not have an answer to your question because I don't use VideoStudio. Did you post this question in the dedicated VideoStudio forum?

    https://forum.corel.com/viewforum.php?f=1
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  3. Member Cornucopia's Avatar
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    I don't use CVS, so this may or may not be applicable...

    With many NLEs, Ducking is usually a plugin/effect which you assign to a sound track (ANY particular sound track(s), since in most NLEs and DAWs, an audio track is an audio track is an audio track). Those types of ducking processes require a designation of guide track (sometimes called "master" or "sidechain) along with a threshold, level of attenuation, and possibly attack/release ramp times.

    One some NLEs, and I'm thinking CVS might be one, it might differentiate between "music" vs. "video sound" vs. "voiceover/dialogue" types of soundtrack. If this is the case, then by nature of what ducking is supposed to do, it would NOT duck a voiceover track, as the voiceover is usually supposed to be the guide track that everything else is ducked under. That might be what's going on here.

    Another possibility is that the NLE/DAW prioritizes by layer, with the topmost layer being the guide layer for anything/everything under it.

    Hope that helps,

    Scott
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  4. Member
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    Hi. Thanks to you all for your help.
    I was not aware of the VS forum, so I'll try to get an answer there.
    Cornucopia: Sorry, I obviously haven't explained the problem well - I meant that the background music is not ducking down when there is speech on the voice track
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  5. "I meant that the background music is not ducking down when there is speech on the voice track"

    You aren't the only one that is having that problem. Too many professionally produced videos are having that same issue. This is one of my main complaints about TV today. Background music so loud that you can't hear the speech clearly. Especially on documentaries.
    Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence -Carl Sagan
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  6. Member Cornucopia's Avatar
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    You said, "it recognises the sound on the main video track and ducks properly" and then just said, "I meant that the background music is not ducking down when there is speech on the voice track".
    So you want BOTH the video's soundtrack AND the background music track to duck, based on the guide of the voice track, correct?
    If you are applying the ducking plugin/effect to both of those tracks, and both using the guide from the voice track, and only one of them is actively working on ducking, then that is truly an issue with CVS. Either limited resources or goofy limited/prioritized coding.

    In a more professional NLE/DAW, you wouldn't have that issue and you OUGHT to be able to apply as many instances of the ducking plugin/effect to as many channels as you'd like. However, a way to get around limitations like that is to - if you can in that system - REROUTE the output of the video soundtrack's channel and the music track's channel in to a submix channel, and then apply the ducking to THAT channel.

    Scott
    Last edited by Cornucopia; 5th May 2023 at 16:28.
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  7. Member
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    Thanks Scott.
    Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. There was a little thing called the coronation going on over the weekend and, although I'm not the biggest fan of the royals, we did have a big street party and public holiday
    Anyway, back to the topic - Thanks for your analysis of the issue. Yes, I think you're right that it must be a problem with CVS. I'm not sure how or if I can set up a submix channel in CVS, but I'll have a look into that.
    You've also given me the idea that, if all else fails, I can load the audio tracks into my DAW (Ableton) and sort it out there. Though I guess that would be a pain if I need to go back and make changes after the first edit.
    Jan
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