Hi,
I need to replace two audio files in clips in an audio montage of about 40 little pieces in total. (The montage already contains “CD” markers at the start and end of each clip, created by applying the CD Wizard function.)
The problem ist that the two new versions are longer than the corresponding old audio files. I expected WL9 to adjust the length of the clips automatically, while, at the same time and also automatically, kicking / pushing markers (clip start & end) and following clips to the right so that the pause of 2 seconds between the tracks remains identic as well.
What happened instead was that WL keeps the length of the edited clip untouched so that it still matches the length of the old audio file. So the music / new file ends abruptly at the end of the clip. The rest is missing. When trimming the clip’s end, the missing part of the music reappears, but then WL produces a crossfade with the follwowing clip. The markers and the following clips stay where they were.
Both WL 7 & 9 showed the same behaviour. In V 9, in “preferences - audiomontage”, I ticked the box where it says that when replacing audio in a clip, the following clips should be pushed to the right. Still the same, even after closing and restarting the application.
But I’ve found a workaround which helped me finish the job with just a little more effort. At some point I realized that the following clips’ start and end markers were not attached to the clip but kinda “free floating”. That was the reason why, at first, even when moving the clips the markers stayed at their fixed positions. So now I attached them to their clips, dragged the clips manually to the right (the markers followed obediently),trimmed the clip with the “shortcut” new audio, then adjusted the pause in the clip list to 2 seconds which brought the clips back in the timeline.
That was ok in that case, but i still wonder why the other way is not working here…
Are you sure the clip wasn’t adjusted at some point, even by one sample? Testing it here, it works as expected if the clip is exactly as the audio file, but if either of the clip edges is pulled in by even one sample, it fails as you’ve described. I think it’s great the feature has been added, but that requirement would make it fail in 99% of the cases I would use it for. It really would need to be changed to accommodate adjusted clips.
PG, would it be possible to make it so this isn’t required? I don’t remember the last time I didn’t pull in either the front or end clip edge on a clip, either of which makes this procedure fail. Maybe it’s technically impossible, but I’m just asking because I can’t think of a case where I could use this because of that.
Just make the clip the same length as the new audio file?
I think that would be a lot more usable than having the function not work in many cases, and having the right edge of the clip locked where it was.
I often replace files before this extend/shorten feature was added, and the replacement files are sometimes not trimmed exactly as the original files, so I slide the file within the clip after replacing to sync it where the previous file was. It works fine.
If the clip could just be made the same length as the new audio file then any necessary fine adjustment afterwards with ripple or slide of the file within the front of the clip would be fairly easy. Much better than being locked out from doing anything, or having some new insertions in a montage work, and some not.
Also, I think this new option is “on” by default in the preferences (it seems to be in my 9.5, it was on when I first looked there the other day, and I don’t think I turned it on at any point, though if I’m mistaken my apologies). I personally think a default “on” is a bad idea because it hasn’t worked like that in the past, and I’ve always depended on the clips staying exactly the same length and spacing when replacing files in clips, and adjusting the file within the clip to the previous sync if necessary. If this new option is “on” by default I can see it’s operating differently and possibly changing the clip end point and therefore the total time and “apparent gap” without warning, depending on the length of the replacement file, which might have a different amount of end silence only than the original file, but I don’t want to affect the clip length.
Sounds good for some cases, but I hope it will be an option then, since I usually replace the audio and want the trim of the clip to be exactly the same (at the beginning and end of it).
I checked another 9.5 install on another computer, and I see the same thing in the preferences: this function appears to be “on” by default, because I didn’t turn those settings on. And I even went back to 9.0.0 and see the same thing.
Like I said, I had no idea this was even in there, because I’ve always replaced files in clips expecting the clip to stay exactly the same, because it’s worked that way as long as I remember.
“Fortunately” this function doesn’t work at all on any of my stuff, because I “always” adjust either the front or end of the clip by at least a few milliseconds, but if it had worked I could easily have missed the change it would make to the clip if the file length difference was small enough, and for me that would have been an unexpected undesired change in the clip. That’s why I think this preference should be “off” by default.
Granted it’s been this way for a long time (when did 9.0.0 come out?), but I still think the preference should be “off” by default, and I still think the function should be modified to enable it’s use if original clip doesn’t exactly match original file, because as it is I can never use it. I almost always adjust clips, and I think most others do too. That’s probably why it apparently hasn’t affected anyone else. I really think that’s what happened with the OP, because it only takes an original clip adjustment of one sample to make the function not work at all.
I don’t see how that would change, the clip trim should remain the same. Are you talking about replacing with same length file or different length file?
No, with different file length I want the clip sizing to remain the same (as it always was, and apparently not the current default). It can happen that a new mix for me is slightly different, especially at the end since I record back in WL what’s mixed realtime in Cubase.
