Play Markers - Fade In and Out

First, you need to make the Start, End and Fade Markers group visable by clicking its section header bar.

To better understand Fade Markers, first review the related information About Volumes and About Speed Settings. Also, the Tools -- Quick Markers operations provide a quick method to add fades and set marker positions on multiple Sound Items.

Overview

A fade marker allows you to automatically Fade-In ( increase) or Fade-Out (decrease) the volume at any position along the play timeline. You can control the Speed of the fade (faster or slower). And you can set a Target Volume, which when reached, fading will stop. So for instance you do not have to fade-in all the way to full volume or fade-out to total silence. You can apply as many fade markers as you want. See Figure 1. for visual placement of markers along the time-line ruler.

A volume of 100% represents the original recorded, unadjusted volume of the sound. A 0% volume is effective silence however the sound usually becomes inaudible before 0% is reached. A speed of 10 takes about 10 seconds for the volume to go from 0% to 100% -- this will vary somewhat based on your hardware. Higher numbers are faster speeds. If a fade effect has not completed (reached its target volume) when another fade marker is reached, the new fade effect will begin and the previous fade is stopped. Fades that are placed before the Start At marker will begin to execute when the sound is started.

Note: Also see, Enable Fade Effects in the Behavior menu that allows you to turn fading effects on and off globally without having to edit each Sound Item to enable / disable individual enable checkmarks.

LG Left Guide; SM Start-At marker; FI Fade-In marker; FO Fade-Out marker; EM End-At marker; RG Right Guide.

For the following steps, select any Sound Item in your list. It best if the sound is more than 30 seconds long so the fades you set up have time to work.

Adding and Setting a Fade-In Marker

These operations work on the Selected marker (Figure 2.) in the marker list (except add which adds a new marker into the list). Markers are automatically sorted according to time position after each operation.

1. Add the marker  - Click the Add Fade In () button (Figure 2.). A Fade In marker will appear as a green triangle the sound play timeline (Figure 1.).
2. Set the Fade Target Volume  - Type a number (0% to 100%) into the Target Volume textbox .
3. Set the Fade Speed  - Type a speed valude into the Fade Speed textbox (Figure 2.).
4. Set the Fade Postion  - Move the Play Position trackbar slider (Figure 1.) to any position. Now click the Set Position from Trackbar () button (Figure 2.) . The marker position is set to the value of the trackbar slider. You can also type the position value into the Position texbox. The value in the textbox is in milliseconds (thousandths of a second) which provides for finer tuning than the trackbar.
   
   The marker Position can also Set to Left Guide Position () or Set to Right Guide Position () by clicking the respective button. (Figure 2.) To change guide positions, see the Options -- Markers tab.

Test the Fade-In

Now test the marker you just created. If you added the marker as described above, there will be one marker Fade-In marker listed in the Fade Selector list. Fade-In will begin when the play reaches the position of the fade marker.
First, click the Refresh button (Figure 3.) which is required after any of the marker edit operations. Now move Volume trackbar slider position (Figure 3.) to the volume at which you want the sound to start playing (try 50% volume). Now click the Play button. When play reaches the marker, the volume should begin fading in ( increasing) until it reaches the Target Volume.

Adding and Setting a Fade-Out Marker

Fade-Outs are setup with the same mechanics as Fade-Ins with the following differences.


1. Add the marker  - Click the Add Fade Out () button (Figure 2.). The marker should appear as a magenta triangle along the play progress bar (Figure 1.) .
2. Fade Target Volume  - When setting the Target Volume remember Fade-Outs will decrease from the current volume until the target volume is reached. So you will set the target volume to a low value, usually 0%.
3. Fade Speed  - Same process as setting for Fade-In marker.
4. Fade start postion  - Same process as setting for Fade-In marker.

Test the Fade-Out

Now test the marker you just created. Follow the test instructions above for Fade-In. If both markers are added correctly, sound should fade in at the first marker then begin to fade out at the Fade-Out marker .

Editing an Existing Fade Marker

After you add a marker, it will appear in the Fade Selector list (Figure 2., just below the Delete Fade button) . To change values, select it from the Fade Selector list . Then any edits you make to the volume, speed or postion fields will apply to this fade.

Enabling / Disabling a Fade Marker

When the Enable checkbox is checked, the marker is enabled and will produce the fade affect during play back. When disabled, it will have no volume affect during play. Disabled markers will appear as outlined triangle shapes with no color fill along the play timeline ruler.

Deleting a Fade Marker

Select an existing marker from the Fade Selector list , then click the Delete Fade button (upper right of Figure 2).