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Timing shift

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Buckeyelights View Drop Down
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  Quote Buckeyelights Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Timing shift
    Posted: 30 Sep 2009 at 1:53pm
I created my sequences on a desktop pc, saved them to a flash drive for two reasons, one as a back-up and because I plan to use a laptop as a show computer.  When I open some, just some sequences on the laptop, there is a timing shift. Suddenly my sequences are starting anywhere from 0.5 seconds to 2 or 3 full seconds before the song begins.
 
I found a "timing shift" feature, so I assume this happens a lot, sometimes, often enough that Aurora has provided a fix.  A little window is there for an adjustment of X milliseconds.  Well, I had to look it up, but 1000 milliseconds = 1 second.  So I take it this feature will move the events all together however many milliseconds I instruct it to?  Is it that easy?
 
Some sequences remained consistent, no changes.  Is there a way to prevent the timing shift from happening?  Is there a sequence of actions that I should follow to prevent the issue?
 
Once I make the timing shift change, resave it to the flash drive and then try to make any revisions using the desktop system, is the timing going to be off again?
 
Tks!
Joe
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deweycooter View Drop Down
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  Quote deweycooter Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Sep 2009 at 3:26pm
It's recommended that you used WAV files for your audio instead of MP3 for more consistent timing.  You can use a free tool like Audacity to convert them.
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MrChristmas2000 View Drop Down
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  Quote MrChristmas2000 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Sep 2009 at 5:31pm
You may have different sound files of the same song on your desktop and on your thumb drive. I would open each version of the sound file with Audicity to be sure that the same amount of silence exist at the begining of the sound file.

I move Aurora files between machines and thumb drives all the time and have never seen any time shifting going on.

I do agree WAVs are better for editing and output quality.

The time shift was put in Aurora because of shared sequences. If you download a shared sequence for a song you own or purchase it is not guaranteed that the start of the song and the sequence will be the same. With the time shift you can match the sequence start with the sound start without having to edit the sound file. If there is a lot of silence in the beginning I recommend to edit the silence out so there is minimal delay in your show start.


Edited by MrChristmas2000 - 30 Sep 2009 at 5:32pm


Holding breath for DMX.
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Buckeyelights View Drop Down
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  Quote Buckeyelights Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Sep 2009 at 7:19pm
Originally posted by deweycooter

It's recommended that you used WAV files for your audio instead of MP3 for more consistent timing.  You can use a free tool like Audacity to convert them.
 
Do you recommend that I convert the mp3 to wav files now after I created the sequence? Or is this good advice to follow when starting a new sequence?
 
Tks!
Joe
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Buckeyelights View Drop Down
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  Quote Buckeyelights Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Sep 2009 at 7:24pm
Mr. Christmas, you recommended:
"If there is a lot of silence in the beginning I recommend to edit the silence out so there is minimal delay in your show start."
 
The mp3 file on the desktop doesn't have any silence at the begining but the same file saved on the flash drive, when played on the laptop does.  I need the length of the song to match my sequence length, so I can't shorten the song.  I have to adjust the timing but shifting the events.
 
Tks!
Joe
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deweycooter View Drop Down
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  Quote deweycooter Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Sep 2009 at 7:53pm
It won't hurt to try converting the file to wav and then attaching your sequence.  With a time shift (or none?) the whole thing might line up fine.  If it doesn't you can just switch back to the mp3.

But in the future, just use wav files when creating new sequences.
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ChrisL1976 View Drop Down
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  Quote ChrisL1976 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Sep 2009 at 11:56pm
I am pretty sure..unless it got removed.....you can do a time shift in Aurora. 

P.S.   there was another user getting the same silence up front with some MP3's.  Switching it over to a WAV solved the problem.
Chris

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Jonathan View Drop Down
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  Quote Jonathan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Sep 2009 at 11:56pm
The problem lies not with Aurora, but in how mp3's are encoded.  There are so many different encoders and each computer's hardware is different and thus things can get ugly real quick when different computers try to read strange mp3's. 

For your info, Aurora converts all sound files into a wav file, but it does so using the hardware on your computer. 

It is for this reason that we all recommend using wav files exclusively.  The chance of strange errors like this one diminishes greatly with wav file format. 

And yes, some people put a space at the beginning of a song, others do not.  The timing shift tool is meant to correct that for your particular length of the song.
~Jonathan
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