Photo Studio 2 and envelope mixer for sound

[pdjohnson]

I have a Solitaire Plus running SE 8.1 Ever since installing SE8 (8.1) I have had trouble with the “create scene” choice in Photo Studio 2. I try to create a still of 6 sec. and it gives me only a 5 sec. scene. If I try 7 sec. it is only 5.25. Gets very frustrating. Any suggestions or fixes… It was working fine before installing the new SE. Why is it when they make a new SE, it always changes something that had been working fine???

Also when I try to edit music or a scene clip and go to the timeline then envelope, the added marks I make (and then create) won’t start playing at the green (active) mark if it is not the first one. It always starts at the beginning of the first mark. Sometimes I want to see what the change sounds like from the middle and it has to go through the entire clip until it gets to my new marker.

Thanks in advance

[jimmeeker]

Hello Dave and Pauline,

You have a problem that is due to the conversion from PAL to NTSC. The timing of the stills that we set....is based on 30 fps in NTSC but only 25 FPS in PAL.

So because the original software was designed for PAL and later converted to NTSC they sometimes forget to change all the little tiny details needed to make it work properly over here for us. So the time that you set is counting in 25 FPS instead of 30 FPS so it comes out way short....by several seconds.

For instance if you set the time for 10 seconds and multiply that times 25 FPS you get 250 frames in 10 seconds. Now if you divide that 250 frames by 30 it only yields 8.33 seconds of time in NTSC. So that's why the time settings very often don't give us the time we expect. Now that we know what's causing the problem.....it's easy to correct it by telling the machine to over time the photo by the amount needed to yield what you really want.

Just multiply your needed time by 1.2 and set the time for that fake extra time length and you'll get the correct results because the editor is "Thinking" in PAL and not NTSC. So if you want 7 seconds....multiply by 1.2 and you get 8.4 seconds so if you set your time for 8.4 it will actually record it in NTSC for the desired 7 seconds.

The "Envelope" audio problem of not playing back from the selected dot or the "Line", but from the beginning only....... has been with us for some time now and Germany has recognized the problem and says that a fix is coming very soon. This problem popped up when they "Fixed" something else.

A somewhat lengthy work around may help when you want to check audio changes from the middle of a long project.
If you leave the audio screen and go to the "Edit" screen and select the next clip downstream from the one you were working on in the STORYBOARD ....then click on "Range" then you will be able to navagate to any location in the storyboard and start playing from there. This only works if you go to a regular scene in the storyboard and not to an "INSERT" if you go to an inserted scene it'll activate the trim and Position controlls and mess up your insert shot and you'll have to do it all over again.

So just select a regular clip in the storyboard and this will work wonderfully for you to test out your audio changes. Using this trick will help you back up and play from anywhere in the storyboard any time you want to check out anything....without having to play all from the beginning. Just go to the scene right after what you want and then back up to the exact spot you need check.


The reason that I say to go to the next clip after the one you are working on, is that it is much faster to back up to the exact spot you want to play from than starting at the beginning of a 45 minute project and rolling all the way to the song at the 40 minute location. Just go to the next clip and roll back a few minutes to the exact location you want, then hit the play button and you'll hear your recent changes without having to scroll all the way from the beginning or wait for the song to play all the way through in the envelope section.

I hope these two things will make your editing a lot easier now that you know these suggestions.

See ya again in March I hope.

[pdjohnson]

Thanks for the speedy reply Jim. I will use the new formula and hopefully (if my math is still good) get the correct length for my pictures. I read the forum all the time and see that there is very little here any more for the generation II machines. Glad you know how to do all these work arounds. Have a good summer. Yes, we hope to see you again in March.

[pdjohnson]

Working on pictures in Photo Studio 2 today. Did the math and was all ready to have my 6 second still pictures..... but..... the scene button will only let me do whole seconds. No 7.2 available... I made the pictures any way and did the quick trim through power key. There's always a way, I got the pictures I wanted and , thanks to power key, the right length.

Jim, did I do something wrong? I just couldn't find anything that would let me do the 7.2 seconds..

[jimmeeker]

Hey Pauline,

No, there are just full seconds available for the beginning times. I tried it at 9 seconds for the over length number and it did yield a 7.15 still. Then I went to a 10 second length and it gave me 8.10 seconds. So if you need that kind of accuracy you will have to use the Power Key system to trim down afterward. Thank God for PK.

[RonaldPawlak]

If it's a still, why don't you just make a still scene of it in the Image Processor to any length you want,If it's to long, than just trim it. Unless I don't understand what the problem is.

[pdjohnson]

When I do photos in Photo Shudio 2, I usually do about 100 to 150 pictures for some projects. It takes too long to scene them out individually. I go to Photo Studio 2 and close the photo folder after I edit and crop them, set the scene length, and make the still scenes with a single click of the keyboard . It does them all in the folder at one time. Then I go to the scene bin and trim them all with power key. My problem was that I always got the wrong length - Jim explained the problem and now I can work around the issue. Thanks to you both for your input. So good to have help so available!!!!!

[MichaelD]

I go to Photo Studio 2 and close the photo folder after I edit and crop them, set the scene length, and make the still scenes with a single click of the keyboard . It does them all in the folder at one time.

I didn't realise that you could do that - and it is in the book, page 14.

Wouldn't life be dull if you didn't learn something new everyday

[jimmeeker]

Hey..... I always thought those darn folders should be good for something. Now I find out something new about them. That's good news Pauline.....thanks......you see we can all learn from each other.

[CasablancaExpert]

The folders in PS2 are great for that batch export (into your scene bin), they also are very useful if you have several photos to rotate the same direction - you can do a batch 'flip'. For those who are members of my website, you will find a video tutorial on this subject here http://casablancaexpert.com/articles/vt_ps2folders

Regards,
Chet