,
Have you ever wanted to separate the audio from a video clip, chop it up, move it around the timeline as just an audio clip?
This is actually quite easy in OpenShot. It's accomplished by duplicating a clip, and then clicking the 'Hide Video' toggle button. So long as the video is hidden, it will behave just like an audio clip. By duplicating the original video clip, it will have the exact same IN and OUT settings.
Even though OpenShot doesn't show the graphical audio waveform yet, it still behaves like a real audio clip. For added effect, you can duplicate a clip multiple times, hide the video on all of them, and offset the audio on each clip... creating a cascade of audio.
On the other side, if you want to have a video clip with no audio, you can click the "Mute" toggle button, and it will only play the video. Combine those two toggles together, add in the ability to duplicate clips, and you can create just about any combination of audio & video mash-up you want to.
We also have some new exciting audio features to announce (although they seem quite basic now that I think about it): You can now set the volume of a clip (both audio and video clips). And you can now fade in and fade out audio. When fading, it respects the volume you've selected (i.e. it fades from your volume to 0 or from 0 to your volume).
[Audio Tab - Right click on a clip, and choose "Properties"]
I know what you are thinking. I can only set a single key-frame (i.e. volume)!?! What if I need to have the volume go up and down... and then back up.. and then back down, etc... This is easily accomplished by using the razor tool. It cuts a clip at a point in time, thus creating two clips. Each of these clips can have separate volume and fade in / out settings. You can make as many cuts as needed... which gives you much more control over the audio settings. Before you email me, I also plan to add a more traditional, graphical way to key-frame audio volume over a clip. But you will have to be patient for that one.
[Close-up of audio clips being duplicated and mashed up]
[Entire timeline for my audio demo video]
Here is a demonstration video that takes a Big Buck Bunny clip, adds an additional sound track, and repeats many sound effects from the original clip. This is a good example of separating the audio and video of a clip, trimming each clip independently, and then mixing them back together (which is actually many different layers of audio).
It's not real obvious, but if you listen closely, you will hear the squeaks in the beginning repeated, and the laughing... which goes on longer than normal. Also the background music is different than normal.
It's not real obvious, but if you listen closely, you will hear the squeaks in the beginning repeated, and the laughing... which goes on longer than normal. Also the background music is different than normal.
July 15, 2009 2:51 AM
Thats great Jonathan!
And the user interface for the sound looks a lot less fiddly than the one in kdenlive. :-)
This is going to save me from having to edit every soundtrack in Audacity or Jokosher (yes I do use both).
Thanks, Helen
July 15, 2009 3:28 AM
Excellent, well done.
I'm now running a VirtualBox emulation of Ubuntu and have finally managed to get Kdenlive going, just out of curiosity. Now I'd like to see what OpenShot is like - but can you answer one simple question for me please?
How do we upgrade from one version to another? If I follow the instructions to install O.S., am I stuck with that one? How do put a more recent version on when the time comes?
Thanks
July 15, 2009 4:39 AM
Keen: As far as I know, you just reinstall newer version "over" the old one (it does some cleanup work first). That's how I do it on Ubuntu - run install script again. I'm not sure if there's a flag for just upgrading.
July 15, 2009 6:51 AM
yeah, upgrade is a good keyword! :)
Also I would like to build/install in a separate/specified folder.
This way we might be able to have several versions installed.
So, user could have a stable version in folder A whereas new features could be tested in folder B.
Also removing older versions might be a lot easier then ;)
greetings
July 15, 2009 10:10 AM
Hello Reinhard,
There are ways to run several versions of OpenShot on your machine.
The simplest way is to employ the method I used many years ago for running several versions of software on a Sun Sparcstation.
After you install OpenShot, change the name of the OpenShot directory to something like openshot_0-9-0. Do this with the mv command.
Then set up a symlink to it called openshot.
If you install several versions, give each its own directory like this, and write a simple setup shell script to switch the symlink according to the version you want to launch.
Just remember to remove the symlink before installing each version, or you will still over-write your older version.
I've been testing version 0.9.0, and will be submitting some bug reports later today.
Its looking good, but needs a few details fixed.
Helen
July 15, 2009 11:04 AM
Thanks for the info, fascinating stuff this Linux malarkey!
July 15, 2009 12:05 PM
Hi Jonathan,
I just discovered OpenShot. It seems like just the thing the Gnome / GTK based desktops are lacking right now.
Thanks a lot for your effort. I hope you make the default application selection for a distro like Ubuntu. That will get you some major momentum.
Cheers.
September 8, 2011 4:49 AM
Been using this for the past month or so and I love it. I love it for it's simplicity and how stable it is. Can't wait to see more features