Keeping Soundtrack locked?

[TimAnim]

Hey - I'm new here, and not much of an animator... But I've been tinkering with this stuff for years and I'm really liking AnimeStudio Pro.

But I've been having a problem getting my Soundtrack to stay put! Is this a bug, or am I missing something?

I have a dialogue track about 2 minutes long. I import the .AIF and everything looks and sounds fine. BUT when I try to set the 'playback' area to a specific frame range (so I can work on a particular shot), the audio MOVES, and starts on whatever the first frame of my new play range is.

This is, of course, the last thing I want. I want the audio to stay locked in place, and have the ability to jump around to different sections so I can work on them one at a time...

So - is there a reason this is happening to me? Is there some kind of 'lock sound' command?

For what it's worth, I'm on a MacPro, using AS 5.5

cheers

[Víctor Paredes]

audio features are very limited in AS (and seems to be there won't be improvement in long time)
the audio will start where the animation starts.

meanwhile, you can edit your audio in another software and animate each part in different anme files (you can use audacity, for example)

[TimAnim]

Wow = thanks for the reply... though the news makes me a bit sad.

I know all about audio editing (I'm a composer with a studio full of audio toys). But I'm kinda' surprised AS has this limitation, and doesn't let you set playback regions independently of the audio.

Oh well. Guess I have to sync to the dialogue line by line.

Is this really how most people do it? Seems like the kind of thing enough people would complain about to get it fixed.

Or not.

[synthsin75]

I assume you are changing your animation length for editting segments. If you ctrl click the number line of the timeline you can set a playback segment without changing the audio start time ( which is always the beginning of the animation).

Ctrl left-click for segment start and crtl right-click for end. Then just repeat this on those markers to play the whole thing again.

[synthsin75]

Although on second thought, you may be having this trouble because of the .AIF format. AS is happiest with .wav.

[heyvern]

You can set a "looping" area of the time line that won't effect the playback.

On the mac you click on the gray top area of the time line with the CMD (command) key pressed to set the start point. The key frame should highlight with green.

Then click on the gray time line area holding down CMD + CNTRL for the end point. This key frame will highlight red.

When you play back it will loop that section between the green and red highlighted frames and the audio will be "in sync".

-vern

[heyvern]

Right and left mouse click much easier... if you have a two button mouse for your mac.

-vern

[TimAnim]

You can set a "looping" area of the time line that won't effect the playback.

On the mac you click on the gray top area of the time line with the CMD (command) key pressed to set the start point. The key frame should highlight with green.

Then click on the gray time line area holding down CMD + CNTRL for the end point. This key frame will highlight red.

-vern

Super! That's it - tried it and it works. I think what I was doing was Option-Clicking in the grey area to set my playback start/end points. It appeared to be working, but as I say, the audio moved to the new start points every time. I guess it's my fault for trying to figure stuff out by just clicking around instead of searching the manual.

Thanks again!

[heyvern]

I guess it's my fault for trying to figure stuff out by just clicking around instead of searching the manual.

Don't apologize... I only learned that trick here on the forum less than a year ago.

And yes... it is in the manual... I looked it up... I am ashamed...

Mr. "read-the-freaking-manual" Vern doesn't practice what he preaches... sometimes... occasionally...



-vern