audio

Windows 10 Audio Improvements

Setting up and confirming audio from a show computer can be tedious and confusing. But a fairly recent improvement in Windows 10 makes this important setup much easier!

Click the speaker icon in the task bar and in addition to the familiar volume slider it now lists what audio output the computer is set to – without diving into the control panel. Here I can see my computer is set to use a USB audio port for sound.

A common issue when setting up a computer is the HDMI cable used for the video out also high-jacks the audio feed, even if the audio was set to use something else. By clicking the speaker icon we can easily see what the computer is set to use for audio output. By clicking the expand icon it shows every audio output option currently connected to the computer. Just scroll and select the one needed – easy (now)!

Troy @ TLC

By |2018-08-13T09:12:57-07:00August 13th, 2018|Software/Add-Ins|

Talk Narration in the Presentation

With audio being so easy to embed into PowerPoint, we are having many clients request we create a version of the presentation with their talk embedded into the slides.

PowerPoint does have audio recording features, but we opt for pre-recorded audio that is recorded distraction free of the slides, higher audio quality and we can edit in an audio editing program. We also develop 1 audio file per slide (if a client provides one audio file for the entire presentation we chop it into multiple files using Adobe Audition, or directly in PowerPoint by trimming the file to each slide needs).

Sofnet_1

For this specific project, we were provided individual audio clips for each slide. We sync’d the animations to the audio narration, which is a great end result, but a tedious process of listening and re-listening to the entire audio file while adjusting the animation timing to get everything perfect (an animation timeline feature I would really like to see the Microsoft PowerPoint team update!). Slide transitions and all animations were set to automatic.

Sofnet_2

We provided 3 deliverables for this project:

1. Editable PowerPoint, with on-click animation and transitions.

2. Editable PowerPoint presentation with audio narration embedded and animations & transitions set to auto.

3. A video version of the presentation (exported direct from PowerPoint).

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-10T09:06:05-07:00July 6th, 2015|PowerPoint|

YouTube Downloader HD – also for audio files!

Videos are great in presentations (when used properly). Audio is also a great element to add to presentations (again, when used properly). YouTube is a great resource for audio as well as video – for example, search “applause sound effect” or “applause sfx” and there are hundreds of audio files that could be used in a presentation.

YouTube Downloader HD is free software that also allows any YouTube video to be downloaded as an MP3 audio.

Downloading audio files is easy. Go to the video on YouTube. Copy the URL address of the video.

Open the YouTube to MP3 software, and paste the video’s address into the Video URL field.

In the audio settings dropdown, select the quality of the sound.

Click download.

Now insert the downloaded .mp3 into PowerPoint and set the animation as needed (Note: PPT 2010 and above can embed .mp3 format).

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-16T09:04:55-07:00October 5th, 2012|Tutorial|

JewelBeat Review

We integrate multimedia (music, video, etc.) into a lot of projects. TLC Creative Services has also invested in a lot of royalty free music for our resource library. JewelBeat makes a lot financial sense with royalty free tracks at $.99 each.

What does “Royalty Free” mean for music? No performing rights fees, mechanical licenses, cue sheets, ASCAP or BMI expenses to worry about. For a presentation, it means when the music is purchased, you have the license to use it – anywhere.

I like that all tracks can be previewed for the full length. And there is a free demo (sound marked and low quality) to test and confirm it fits with your project. The site says 35,000+ music tracks and it is a wide range of styles. On the technical side, tracks are generally .mp3 format, 44Hz with a 128k bit rate (ie. good).

One of the best online deals is their hundreds of FREE downloads. Even better, make just a single $.99 purchase and you jump to 1,000+ FREE music tracks, SFX and loops.

Jewelbeat.com

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-16T09:05:52-07:00September 28th, 2012|Resource/Misc|

Speaker Icon Evolution

Audio files (music, narration, sound effects, etc.) are represented on slides with speaker icon.

Here is the speaker icon used in PPT 2003

Here is the speaker icon used in PPT 2007 and 2010

In addition, when you rollover a PPT 2007/2010 speaker icon a mini player bar is displayed

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-16T09:19:41-07:00July 23rd, 2012|Tutorial|

How Do I Get an Embedded Audio File From a Presentation?

Another question I receive a lot goes directly with the previous post (about finding video files): “Where are audio/music files that are embedded inside the .pptx file?”

Here is one process for getting to the actual audio/music files that are embedded in a PPT 2010 file.

1. Locate the presentation file in Windows Explorer and make a duplicate of it (we are going to “break” it).

2. Change the file name from .pptx to .zip

3. When you change the file extension you will get this warning dialog – click “Yes.”

4. Double click to open the new .zip file.

5. Go into the “PPT” folder.

6. Go into the “Media” folder.

7. Copy any of the video files (.mp3, .wav, etc.) from here to a folder on your computer.

8. Done!

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-16T09:53:27-07:00September 28th, 2011|Tutorial|

#6 – Video and Audio Options

The Microsoft development team has added some really, really great usability options for working with video and audio files!

First, when a video or audio file is inserted it can easily be previewed from the edit view with full playback controls:

A. Play/Pause
B. Playback duration, which is draggable
C. Step forward/back (approx. 1/4 second per click)
D. Timecode
E. Volume control

In slideshow a pop-up playback bar can be activated – just move the mouse to view it (note: the pop-up playback bar can also be disabled during a slideshow (my preference)) that has play/pause, playback duration indicator (also draggable) and volume control.

When a video is inserted it by default shows the 1st frame of the video (often black) which is called the “Poster Frame”. In PPT 2010 the Poster Frame can easily be set to any frame in the video or an external image!

Here is the new Ribbon tab to Edit video files:

It makes many of the current options easy to find and set. It also adds some new features, like the “Trim Video” button.

The Trim Video button opens a new dialog box that most of the time replaces the need for video editing software!

A. Playback preview
B. The orange left bar can be moved to any point and the video begins playback from there (called ‘trim’).
C. The red right bar can be moved/slide to any point, but not past the begin/orange bar, and the video ends there
D. Shows the timecode position of the begin/orange bar
E. Shows the timecode position of the end/red bar

There are even more fine tuning options for both videos and audio files. PPT 2010 really opens PowerPoint to the power of multimedia integration!

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-09-16T09:21:21-07:00November 14th, 2009|PowerPoint, Tutorial|

#3 – Insert and EMBED Virtually ANY Audio File

Just like the videos, PPT 2010 supports a whole host of audio formats and embeds them all! Take a look at the audio formats supported (Yes, all flavors of quicktime, .mp3 and more are supported!):

PowerPoints backoffice also recognizes when audio files have been inserted and offers conversion and optimization options.

– Optimize Media Compatability: converts audio files to Microsoft’s preferred/native format, .wma.
– Reduce The Size of Media Files: will convert (same as above) and also offer a range of compression levels.
In this sample I inserted a 7.5MB .m4a and converted to a .wma at the highest quality (presentation) to have a 100k audio file embedded – without any noticeable quality difference.

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-09-16T09:22:50-07:00November 8th, 2009|PowerPoint, Tutorial|

Photos.com (and Clipart.com)

Photos.com is venerable, being one of the few companies around before the internet. I have a collection of (costly) Photo CDs from them. And if you every purchased one of the bright boxes full of “4 Million Images of CD/DVD” you know photos.com. Of course, that long history means some of the images are a bit dated, or perhaps seen in many other layouts over the years.

But the images are good quality, the search is nice and the thumbnails easy to review and use. The subscription rates are some of the best, so another reason you see the images a lot. You can also get some things here not available at others: a sound effects library, custom fonts and Flash animations.

Raster/Photo images: Yes
Vector images: Yes
Video: Yes
Audio: Yes
Pay Per Image: Yes – approx. $5 for standard PPT use (‘multimedia’, 500-800px)
Subscription Download: Yes (eg. 1 year unlimited of photo images only = $450 OR photos+vector+Flash+audio+fonts = $1,200)

Test Search Results:
1. “Fast Car” = 4,670 results
2. “Medical Consultation” = 7,348 results

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-09-16T09:36:55-07:00September 30th, 2009|Resource/Misc|
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