Dynamic background music volume, is it possible?

[radiance32]

Hi all,

I’m new here… I use Shotcut to make videos for my YouTube channel (it’s a new one, just 3 months old).
I mainly make technical educational/demonstration videos, where I narrate over video of computers and peripherals being used etc…
To get rid of the faint background sounds (like cars or bids or just noise) I like to add a ambient electronic mixed music track in the background that plays during the whole video, on a low volume. (usually I just add a gain filter and set it to -27 dB, depending on the volume of the music in question.

However, I’ve got the problem that the music is sometimes too loud when I am narrating, and during periods when I’m not talking, it’s not loud enough.
Is there some kind of filter, plugin or technique that I can use that dynamically raises/lowers the gain/volume of an audio track based on the volume of another (eg my narration recorded with a microphone) ?
In such a way that the music becomes louder during parts where I don’t talk for say more than a few seconds, and the volume is gradually lowered over a few seconds to a low level while I am narrating.

Is this possible, and if so, how ?
I could do it manually, but that would take a LOT of work as i’d have to change the volume in MANY places, and make it fade up/down etc… way too much work…

Thanks for your time, I really appreciate it,
Radiance

[brian]

The thing you are asking for is called “ducking” and there are a few posts on this forum about it:

Ducking how-to?

I’m working on some videos from my motorcycle trip in the Alps. There are two sound tracks: the sound recorded while riding, and a music track that overlays the bike sound. The result is mainly music, with motor noise coming through when I really got on the throttle, or when the music quiets down. On a couple of occasions I rode past cattle wearing big cow bells. I want to duck the music track (the bike sound includes the bells)for the duration of hearing the bells. And I want the duck to be gr…

Audio ducking

Hello friends. I am new to shotcut and wanted to know if this software has audio ducking? I am trying to add a voice over on top of background music and I need to lower and raise the levels so that the narration could be heard without the music overpowering it. I know I can do it manually with keyframes, but since my project is over an hour long, it makes a titanic task. Is there a simpler way to do it? I’d appreciate all your help. Thank you so much. Daniel

Audio track volume curve adjustment

Is there a way to adjust audio level in a continuous manner; for example if there is background music playing along a video where there is speech and I want to lower the volume during the speech and smoothly get it back to it previous level without sudden change in volume.

If you want “automatic ducking”, you can try the trick to import the audio into Audacity:

Audio ducking

Auto Duck process simple youtube video I found.

Else, you can do it fairly quickly manually using an audio gain filter on the audio track and adjusting the keyframes:

Audio track volume curve adjustment

I think it should be possible to do what you want using the new keyframe feature in the latest release. You can use the gain filter to set volulme points at various times throughout the track or clip and Shotcut will interpolate the gain between the points. [gain_keyframe]

[radiance32]

Hi Brian,

thanks for the information, I did’nt know it was called “ducking”.
Since I also use audacity, I might give that workflow a try
Thanks,
Terrence