How to control the volume when playing the video from the timeline?

Alok-Sharma wrote on 6/22/2021, 9:57 AM

Hi,

A few days ago, I edited a small video and when previewing it, I lowered the Master volume in the Master Bus window. I then rendered the video, only to find out the volume was too low. Initially, I couldn't figure out what could have possibly gone wrong, but I guess I was able to fix it after increasing the Master volume.

I believe the Master volume controls & effects the final output and the rendered video.

From the help guide, I found the setting to control the preview volume. I right-clicked on Master Bus window and enabled show Preview Fader. But no matter whatever I do, it does not reduce or increase the preview volume.

For the time being, I am managing the volume from the Windows 10 Volume Mixer, which is very inconvenient.

Is there any way I can control the volume when previewing the video being played on the timeline?

Comments

rraud wrote on 6/22/2021, 3:29 PM

Not within Vegas without changing the render level.
NirSoft's Volumouse is a handy utility to change system volume with mouse commands ('Alt+ Mouse wheel' for instance). Nirsoft has lots of really useful utilities.
If you a have a Dell laptop, most of them can change the system volume with the F1, F2 and F3 (function) keys.

btw, this is audio related and this p ost should be in the VP Audio forum.

Marco. wrote on 6/22/2021, 4:31 PM

The preview level slider is meant to control the preview of clips playbacked via the windows Explorer, Project Media or Trimmer.

Alok-Sharma wrote on 6/22/2021, 11:33 PM

@rraud - The problem is that not all the video clips have the same volume levels. Some have low while some have high. So I frequently have to reduce or increase them. I thought there was a function in VP to control the volume of the video being played on the timeline.

I am already using a few utilities from Nirsoft and downloaded Volumouse also.

btw, this is audio related and this p ost should be in the VP Audio forum.

I was confused whether to post in Audio or Video forum because I thought that Audio is for Sound Forge Pro and other sound related products. I tried to edit the post, but I can't find the option to change the forum.

@Marco. - Actually, VP should have had made the provision to allow the users to change the volume for the timeline playback also.

karma17 wrote on 6/22/2021, 11:44 PM

Why can't you use an audio volume envelope? I use it all the time to control the volume levels.

Alok-Sharma wrote on 6/23/2021, 12:40 AM

@karma17 I believe you are referring to the one available in Track Header.

If so, then won't it affect the rendered volume also?

3POINT wrote on 6/23/2021, 12:59 AM

@rraud - The problem is that not all the video clips have the same volume levels. Some have low while some have high. So I frequently have to reduce or increase them. I thought there was a function in VP to control the volume of the video being played on the timeline.

By selecting and right mouse clicking and selecting Switches-Normalize you can max level, or level to a certain level as set in the audiopreferences, all selected audioevents.

Marco. wrote on 6/23/2021, 1:52 AM

I think what Alok-Sharma asks for is a way to control the speakers volume from within Vegas Pro (the level after the output which would not affect the rendered levels).

Alok-Sharma wrote on 6/23/2021, 3:06 AM

@3POINT - My bad, I am not able to explain properly. It would certainly normalize the volume of the video clips in the timeline, but as @Marco. said, I am looking to control the speaker volume from the VP interface without affecting the rendered levels, just like we do in MPC, VLC or any other media player.

EricLNZ wrote on 6/23/2021, 3:50 AM

Easily done from Windows? On bottom taskbar Right click on Speaker icon, select Open Volume Mixer, and drag volume down for VP.

Alok-Sharma wrote on 6/23/2021, 3:53 AM

@EricLNZ Yes, but not as convenient as doing it straight from the interface, especially if I have to do it many times in a succession.

I am trying to configure Volumouse but for some reason or the other, it is not working.

Dexcon wrote on 6/23/2021, 5:32 AM

Wouldn't the volume-up/volume-down keys on the computer's keyboard easily achieve the desired control over the volume from the speakers? After all, you still have to 'do something' in order to adjust the volume with media players.

Cameras: Sony FDR-AX100E; GoPro Hero 11 Black Creator Edition

Installed: Vegas Pro 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 & 22, HitFilm Pro 2021.3, DaVinci Resolve Studio 19.0.3, BCC 2025, Mocha Pro 2025.0, NBFX TotalFX 7, Neat NR, DVD Architect 6.0, MAGIX Travel Maps, Sound Forge Pro 16, SpectraLayers Pro 11, iZotope RX11 Advanced and many other iZ plugins, Vegasaur 4.0

Windows 11

Dell Alienware Aurora 11:

10th Gen Intel i9 10900KF - 10 cores (20 threads) - 3.7 to 5.3 GHz

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER 8GB GDDR6 - liquid cooled

64GB RAM - Dual Channel HyperX FURY DDR4 XMP at 3200MHz

C drive: 2TB Samsung 990 PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 PCIe SSD

D: drive: 4TB Samsung 870 SATA SSD (used for media for editing current projects)

E: drive: 2TB Samsung 870 SATA SSD

F: drive: 6TB WD 7200 rpm Black HDD 3.5"

Dell Ultrasharp 32" 4K Color Calibrated Monitor

 

LAPTOP:

Dell Inspiron 5310 EVO 13.3"

i5-11320H CPU

C Drive: 1TB Corsair Gen4 NVMe M.2 2230 SSD (upgraded from the original 500 GB SSD)

Monitor is 2560 x 1600 @ 60 Hz

EricLNZ wrote on 6/23/2021, 6:27 AM

Or click on the Taskbar speaker item and drag the volume slider which is similar to adjusting the volume level in players like MPCHC etc.

Former user wrote on 6/23/2021, 7:37 AM

As you are discovering, any volume adjustments you make in Vegas will affect the final render. To control the audio monitoring level, you will have to use the volume controls for the computer itself. That is the only way. I run mine into a Stereo amplifier that is external and control it that way either for my headphones or speakers.

Alok-Sharma wrote on 6/23/2021, 8:41 AM

@Dexcon Yeah, but not in VP. In MPC-BE, the volume can be easily increased or decreased using the up & down arrow keys, which is very convenient when watching a video.

@EricLNZ That is one possibility. However, I found an alternative. Please see my reply at the bottom.

@Former user I think Magix should seriously consider looking into this. I did read about using an external sound card, especially with a laptop. I would research a good one which has volume control knobs for easy access.

-------

As I was researching more on this problem, I came across EarTrumpet for Windows 10. It allows the users to control the volume for individual applications simply by clicking on the volume icon in the taskbar. I had installed this app earlier, but removed it (as it was not working correctly) after doing a fresh installation of Windows 10. But reinstalled it until I get an external sound card.

rraud wrote on 6/23/2021, 11:14 AM

As I was researching more on this problem, I came across EarTrumpet for Windows 10.

'Ear Trumpet' is basically the same as the default system volume, but with more options. It is still necessary to open the EarTrumpet panel, which is similar to the default system volume panel.

I am trying to configure Volumouse but for some reason or the other, it is not working.

VoluMouse apparently does not work when VP (or SF) is the foremost running application.
I recall the mouse commands must be configured within VoluMouse, I am not sure what the default is .. or if there is one. I set my VoluMouse command to 'Alt+ Mouse-wheel".. but the above still applies when VP is on top.

Wouldn't the volume-up/volume-down keys on the computer's keyboard easily achieve the desired control over the volume from the speakers?

Maybe.. my Dell XPS volume keys F1, F2 and F3 work regardless of which application is in use.

In Sound Forge Pro, SCS (Sony) eventually added an output volume control (View> Hardware Meter) that does not affect render levels. That was never added in Vegas.

To summarize, it is still not possible to adjust the system audio volume within Vegas.

3POINT wrote on 6/23/2021, 12:30 PM

Adjusting volume for monitoring should be done at the end of the chain and not at the beginning or somewhere between. I control the volume directly at my monitor speakers, all other volume controls before stay at 0 dB.

Alok-Sharma wrote on 6/23/2021, 11:19 PM

 

'Ear Trumpet' is basically the same as the default system volume, but with more options. It is still necessary to open the EarTrumpet panel, which is similar to the default system volume panel.

Yes, but with EarTrumpet, a single mouse click opens up the panel and allows to adjust the volume of all the applications whereas with system volume, we have to right-click on the volume icon and then click volume mixer. That's a slight advantage with EarTrumpet.

VoluMouse apparently does not work when VP (or SF) is the foremost running application.
I recall the mouse commands must be configured within VoluMouse, I am not sure what the default is .. or if there is one. I set my VoluMouse command to 'Alt+ Mouse-wheel".. but the above still applies when VP is on top.

I tried with Alt, Ctrl, Shift & Windows keys and even various combinations, but it didn't work. Today, I will try to debug it out.

In Sound Forge Pro, SCS (Sony) eventually added an output volume control (View> Hardware Meter) that does not affect render levels. That was never added in Vegas.

To summarize, it is still not possible to adjust the system audio volume within Vegas.

Yes, and that is the biggest problem.

Adjusting volume for monitoring should be done at the end of the chain and not at the beginning or somewhere between. I control the volume directly at my monitor speakers, all other volume controls before stay at 0 dB.

That's a point. I will keep that in mind. Actually, I was going to ask the same thing.