dpletts

Sorry, got that wrong somehow. Download here, hopefully. David

Hi, I have prepared a short slideshow to demonstrate some of the audio features of the latest P2E - 6.5 beta 7. The download zip includes Ex1.exe plus the zipped project plus a few notes in another file. Download from here. Hope it might be of some use to someone somewhere. Cheers, DavidP

Thanks for the kind comments, guys. Davy - I used 1024x768 for two reasons: 1. I wasn't sure how good the picture quality would be on a larger screen so I played on the safe side. 2. I actually quite like pictures placed on a black background - it seems to visually enhance them. Well, thay's my excuse. I have a new camera which can take large size images, but I haven't yet photographed anything that would make a decent slide show - I don't get out that much at the moment - but time will tell! Ambient soundtracks are not for everyone nor for every slideshow, but I feel that the new audio facilities now included in P2E could encourage audio experimentation. Cheers, David P

Hi Davy, Another of your brilliantly evocative shows. Superb! Loved the sequence of clock and rollercoaster. Respect, David P

As you are probably aware I am very keen on ambient music etc. If you listen carefully to some of the documentaries broadcast on TV you will notice that many of them use some kind of ambient music or soundscape in the background (amongst other styles of music). So I thought I would do a 'traditional' slideshow and use some of my electronic ambient sounds. I had available some snaps taken when I spent a little time with the North Yorkshire Moors Railway in April 2007 so I put this show together. I also added some 'real' sound fx gleaned from the internet. There are 10 different sounds, 2 of which are duplicated to extend the sounds, using a total of 4 tracks. I have used the fade in/fade out/crossfade/duration etc facilities of P2E rather than prepare a soundtrack in an external program. The show can be downloaded here. I have also provided some (37) ambient soundscape MP3 clips of varying lengths for you to incorporate in your projects if you so wish. Download from here. (29.4MB). None of the clips are loops. I would be happy to provide more if people would like to use them. Cheers David P

Don't try this: Project Options/Music/Customize Click on Crossfading then try to change the Offset time or vice-versa. After clicking [OK] in the resulting message, cancel and start again. Cheers, David P

Thanks, Igor. Regards, David P

I am also an Audacity user, but I can see (hope) that the audio arranging features of P2E could be a useful alternative to Audacity when undertaking audio arranging work without having to swap programs. Already simple arranging (provided one keeps to just 1 track) with not too many different files to work with is easily accomplished, but a lot more work needs doing to this part of the program, which, of course, we have been promised. One example of what I think is needed (just a personal opinion, and it may not be right): I am told, and provided I didn't misunderstand, that it will never be possible to repeat a sound track with crossfading by clicking on Repeat music after playing in Project Options/Music thus making the whole track seamless. The work-around is to add in all the same files again and set the crossfading time again. Anyway, even this won't work if you choose Repeat show until ESC is pressed in Project Options/Main which is a pity. This is something which Audacity can't help with. My vision would be to use audio in P2E as a sophisticated audio clip arranging tool dedicated to easily adding audio files with accurate timing. The basics are there and I believe that the programmer(s) can and will improve on this. David P

Hi, What does the following mean? When you use "Synchronize music and slides" option, you cannot use personal playlists of slides I have been trying to put music on 2 tracks. If I turn off "Synchronize..." option I get no sound at all in Preview nor when I create the .exe file. However, I get sound when playing the slide show in the Preview Window on the main screen. Cheers, David P

Hi Dave, Thanks for sorting the timing out ... it works perfectly. The trouble is that if you click on the Crossfading button next to the Customize button it adds the crossfading time that you set to every sound, including the first one. Couldn't agree more. Cheers, David P

Hi, Audio I have three files entered in Track 1 under the Project Options/Music. All three are 30 seconds long, but the third one has a reduced duration (Customize/Duration) of 22 seconds. I wish to have a total of 1 minute 12 seconds of sound. I have a Fade In on the first file of 5 seconds and a Fade Out on the third file of 5 seconds. The Crossfading for all three files is 5 seconds. Taking into account the overlap of the Crossfading this amounts to 1 minute 12 seconds of sound. However, the total time displayed on the Track 1 line is only 1:07. The waveform display is correct, filling up the whole 1:12, and the audio plays correctly. Bit if a discrepancy here, I think. Cheers, David P

Hi, I got this error when closing PTE 6.5 beta 5 DavidP

Hi Mark Yes, a very impressive collection of photos. I like the abstract nature of many of them. I also feel that they wouldn't be anything like as dramatic in colour. Food for thought for someone just getting into photography at the moment. (me ) Cheers, David P

It's great that the Repeat music feature now works. However it seems only to work on track 1. Would be good if it worked on subsequent tracks as well. Some more observations and wishes: (I use the word segment below to mean just one file of a sample or loop or piece of music etc) When track 1 is repeated I would prefer to have the option to crossfade with the start of the track, or even have that behaviour as the default. Play in random order: would it be better if this happens every time a track repeats rather than merely repeating the order played the first time round. If the duration of an individual music segment is extended, should that segment be repeated until the end of the duration? Might this be optional? Could Music Parameters be applied to all segments in a track with the option of overriding the parameters for a particular segment? I think being able to mute or solo a track, possibily an individual segement even, might be useful. I am aware that work is still on-going on the audio features, so some of these ideas might already be planned. Cheers, David P

Thanks Peter, I will try PNG where needed in future. David

Many thanks for your help on the compression matter, gentlemen. David

Here is another 'abstract' style slideshow to accompany an ambient soundtrack. Can be downloaded here. The soundtrack is very much drone based - but, hopefully, you won't find it too boring! There is no real attempt to correlate sound and music. I am aware that there are some JPeg artifacts which are particularly noticeble when using large areas of one colour. Is there a better way to compress graphics? Or should I include the graphics as .bmp files and zip the resulting executable? I made this show using version 6.5 beta 3 and have included an animated gif at the end. The soundtrack is just one long take. Cheers, David P

Hi Davy, Although I am a pretty keen railway fan, I'm not much into steam trains. However, I really enjoyed your show and the way in which it highlightd the 'quaitness' of railways past, helped by the sepia effect. I thought that some of the more detailed pictures could perhaps be displayed for a little longer than the less detailed ones. Sorry, but I didn't really like the soundtrack; it seemed out of keeping with the subject. But you do make 'jolly good' shows! David P

I need to add an update to my earlier comment about "Access Violation" as I have subsequently tried audio on 6.5 without such a problem. I am pretty sure it was a RAM problem as I was using P2E at the end of a busy day - and as we know some software is not good at tidying up after itself. David P

I liked this and admire your persistance in getting the audio to work. For myself I can't get beyond the "Access Violation" message when I try to work with audio in 6.5. Cheers, David P

Thank you, Don and Andrew. Yes, Don, I would be happy for anyone to use my music. They can do what they like with it provided they share the result and don't use it commercially (unless there's something in it for me !) David

Davy, If only - just a senior citizen moment! Agreed - a chance to try a lot of ideas - still trying! Thanks for your encouragement Kind regards, David

I seem to have picked up the wrong link for Waiting. The original post now has the correct link and here it is again: Waiting

Hi everyone, I have posted another attempt at adding visuals to an ambient soundtrack. Can be downloaded from Waiting For those who are interested an audio only version of this track which will remix the audio loops and samples on a continuous basis until you stop it is available at (10.4 MB) from WaitingAF Useful as background music while you work, go to sleep or generally relax etc

Davy, I thought the raindrop background worked well. What would have been better? David