Adjusting track volume

I am making an audio track in Cool Edit 2.0 for a video which contains both a commentary and music, and I'm having problems preventing the music from drowning out the vocal track. Is there any "smart" way of controlling the volume of the music track so that it never overwhelms the vocals, other than reducing the volume for the entire track? Ideally, the music should fade down at the points where there's dialogue.

If this is a stupid question, I apologize, but I am a newbie...


Chief Ellingar

[For example, you can automatically increase clip volume during a critical musical passage and later reduce the volume in a gradual fade out.]

From the Help files (in AA1.5, I have no idea what it is in CE 2)

"For example, you can automatically increase clip volume during a critical musical passage and later reduce the volume in a gradual fade out.

This is exactly what you want to do, right? This is the reason we use multi-tracking systems for recording and mixing different audio sources together. Everyone has to start somewhere so don't be afraid to ask questions, but please do some reading first. I assume that you know how to record or generally get audio into the track of Multitrack View? (MV) If so, make sure you have your background music on Track 1 and your audio commentary on Track 2. The process is then to mix the two tracks together using Edit/Mixdown To File. Envelopes will allow you to vary the volume of either track at the position of your choosing.

To find help on the above method of using envelopes to adjust volume levels during a mixdown, check the help files in the program for "Using envelopes" "Automating mixes" or "clip envelopes" The methods are outlined in there and are well within your grasp.

-Phil

Phil left it to his last paragraph to mention envelopes so I just thought I'd make it obvious that it looks like envelopes are what you are asking for. You'll need to manually drag the volume down under each part of speech.

There are ways of doing this automatically using compressors and sidechains but I'm not sure that it is possible in Audition.

Cheers

James.

Envelopes will work quite well. However, you may also want to try playing around with EQ in order to emphasize the commentary where it overlaps with the music. This is often done when mixing a song; it should be done in a more exaggerated manner given what it is you are trying to achieve. So, for example, you can boost at around 4 kHz (approx 1-4db) for the vocal track and reduce same from the music track. That way your vocals will stand out more. 

Envelopes will work quite well.

Sorry to disillusion you, but actually, they won't - Audition envelopes used for ducking purposes (which is what the OP is asking about) are pretty much useless. Recently though, we have discovered a much better way of achieving the desired result using a free VST plugin called Sidekick. You can read about how to use it with Audition 1.5 and 2.0 here.

Although it is true that Sidekick will work well, it is inaccurate to say that envelopes in this context are useless. In fact, there are times when envelopes will be the preferred method due to the fact that you will have much greater control over the interplay between the different tracks.  There are also times when you may want to combine both techniques.  However, I will admit that this requires far more work and as such it is often better to stick with Sidekick

Although it is true that Sidekick will work well, it is inaccurate to say that envelopes in this context are useless.

No it's not, because they are - read on.

In fact, there are times when envelopes will be the preferred method due to the fact that you will have much greater control over the interplay between the different tracks.

 

That is precisely what you don't get. Even if the technique worked at all, you would only be guessing at what the output might be from the settings - there's no way to check this in real time using a preview.

There are also times when you may want to combine both techniques.  However, I will admit that this requires far more work and as such it is often better to stick with Sidekick.

There are no times when you will want to combine both techniques, and for ducking purposes, Sidekick is the only realistic way to do this, unless you can find another processor to do the same thing. You clearly haven't tried this - there is no way that you can actually do ducking this way, because the compressor law works the wrong way around, and you end up with the effect working back to front, whatever you do. This has been tried many times, by many people, and all have given up.

Please stop making absurd statements - you clearly have no idea of what you are talking about.