Setting precidence between two audio tracks

antbarron wrote on 4/26/2020, 9:49 AM

Can someone point me to the right place to help me understand if there is an easy way to do the following:

I have an audio track with a set of voice recordings (with gaps in between) and I have a continuous music track. I want the music to dim when the voice is playing. In the past I would have split the music track up and manually adjusted the volume when there is a voice playback, adding fade etc... Is there not a way to overlay the two and tell MovieStudio that the voice tracks take precedence with respect to volume?

I hope that makes sense!

I have MovieStudio 16 Plat.

Anthony

Comments

rraud wrote on 4/26/2020, 10:27 AM

That is usually refereed to as "ducking" and can be done with side-chaining a compressor... the problem is, Vegas does not natively support side-chaining (despite requests going back to the audio-only Vegas beta.) There are workarounds though. for instance, see this recent post. Without rewriting the many options, search his forum for other methods.

 

antbarron wrote on 4/26/2020, 10:35 AM

Thank you so much. I didn't even know what it was called so this is a good start. "Ducking" is exactly what I want (where one track ducks behind another, presumably). I'll check it out.

Musicvid wrote on 4/26/2020, 10:42 AM

Yes, compression, and Vegas Mixer allows you to ride gains in realtime, just like I was taught in college, 50 years ago. Although autoducking is now the norm, board jockying is a skill worth having and maintaining.

rraud wrote on 4/26/2020, 11:05 AM

'db audioware's Sidechain Comp works with VP, It ain't free though. As MV stated, none sound as good as manual ducking. If i have the time and the budget allows, I also attenuate some of conflicting music frequency range that interferes with the dialog using EQ with automation envelopes. SIde-chaining a multi-band comp is similar, but another 'cant do that in Vegas'.

antbarron wrote on 4/26/2020, 2:59 PM

Got it! I set an envelope then dragged it around and can even smooth the transitions!!! Thanks!

Musicvid wrote on 4/26/2020, 3:22 PM

Yes, you can do that, but as I explained, using the Mixer console is much better because you can ride gains with the sliders during real time playback. You have to train yourself, but you can always go back and tweak your rough spots later.

Try it. And then try it again....

;?)

antbarron wrote on 4/26/2020, 3:37 PM

I don't think I have that - I have Plat, not Pro.

Musicvid wrote on 4/26/2020, 4:24 PM

Having posted on the Pro Audio forum, I didn't even notice your "disclaimer. "

Best of luck