Trimming Out Unwanted Volume

Xena wrote on 12/3/2009, 2:59 PM
Hi, I am very very new to Vegas Movie Studio. I have a video I have loaded in and am working with it. I noticed on the audio track that someone shouted during the shoot. I just want to level off the volume of that one part of the video so the shout is not noticeable. Is this possible? Hope this is not a dumb question but it seems like one of the first things a casual video editor might need to do but I can't find reference to this type of task. Thanks for any help someone can provide.

Comments

Allegretto wrote on 12/3/2009, 5:08 PM
Welcome to the forums, Xena!

You'll need to use an audio volume envelope to duck down the portion of the audio you don't want to hear as loud. Select the audio track you want to fix (the left area, it will be highlighted). Then select Insert -> Audio Envelopes -> Volume.

Next you'll need to add some envelope points around the loud area and drag them down to lower the volume. Add two points before the shout and two points after by double clicking the envelope line once for each point (put a little space between the first two, and between the second two). Then drag each of the points that are just on either side of the shout and drag them down.

To see what you are doing in more detail vertically, make the track taller by grabbing dragging the dividing line between it and the track above or below it with the mouse.

Look up Envelopes in the online help index for more details.

(edit: more details)
richard-amirault wrote on 12/3/2009, 8:21 PM
Sometimes you can get away with only three points .. not four. It all depends on how long the event you want to "tame" is.

It's often easier to expand the timeline horizontally (click on the PLUS icon to the right of the video slider) so you can better place and adjust your points.

Using this method you can reduce the volume of individual words .. or a table "bang" or the noise of someone hitting the mic. You can also use it to reduce the volume to zero of an accidentally uttered profanity as well.