5.1 Sound - fading all audio tracks at once?

dalemccl wrote on 3/9/2010, 1:48 PM

I posted this question about a month ago with no replies so thought I would try again.

I'm using SV Movie Studio Platinum 9. I'm editing AVCHD clips from a Sony camcorder with 5.1 sound. When I place clips in the time line, the video occupies one track and the audio occupies 4 tracks: Front (stereo), Center, LFE, and Rear (stereo).

Sometimes I want to fade-in and/or fade-out the audio for a clip. When I fade a clip's audio in the first audio track (which is the "front" channel), only that track fades. The other 3 audio tracks for that clip do not fade (Center, LFE, Rear). I have to manually make the identical fade in the other 3 audio tracks, one at a time, being careful to make the fades identical in length. Two questions:

1. Is there a way to fade all four 5.1 audio tracks for a clip in the same operation rather, than one track at a time? Someone in the Creative Cow Vegas forum suggested using an audio bus, but I think buses are only available in the Pro version of Vegas (right?)

2. In a related question, if I want to apply the same audio fade to several other clips in the time line , is there a way to do it without dealing with each clip individually? I tried copying and pasting "Event Attributes", but that does not seem to include fades as one of the attributes that it copies/pastes from one clip to another.

Thanks.

Comments

Markk655 wrote on 3/9/2010, 7:35 PM

I wish I had an answer. I saw your last post but didn't reply since I was hoping someone else would give a useful answer. Coincidentally, I posted the same question in Oct 2008 (http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?ForumID=12&MessageID=618614) and no one responded then either! Looks to be a relatively specific request.

I have now grown accustomed to fading out each track by itself, but still long for the simplicity) of an audio fade that would autoripple for all audio tracks grouped to the video track. As far as I know there isn't a way to manipulate all of the tracks at once in this manner.

A related way to pose the question would be, can volume envelopes be copied between tracks? Since that could be an alternative.

dalemccl wrote on 3/9/2010, 8:53 PM

Thanks, I kind of thought there were no replies last time because, as you said, this is a relatively specific request. Many forum users may not use 5.1 audio.

One alternative that occurs to me, if you don't mind trading 5.1 audio for stereo, is to render the 5.1 audio to a stereo track, and then replace the 5.1 in the time line with the rendered stereo. The stereo track can be faded in one operation. I haven't found that the 5.1 audio from my Sony Camcorder really adds much to the sound compared to stereo. I am not sure it is a true 5.1 anyway, since (I think) it probably only has one microphone.

Still, I would rather have a way to link the 5.1 tracks together so a fade operation performed on one applies to all.