Audio in PowerPoint

[Darryl and Jodi]

Hello Gurus,

I have a question about syncing audio in PowerPoint. Here is my situation.
I have some video from a conference where there were many presentations
given. I have stripped the audio from this video, and my client wants this
audio synced with the original PowerPoint presentations so that the slides
would transition properly when someone views the presentation.

So I saved the audio portions and noted the timecodes on when the slides
were changed. I have then put this single audio track into PPT and have
made the presentations where they transition as they are supposed to. This
track starts at the beginning and runs to the end of the slideshow.

This is fine, except now my client is wanting to be able to advance the
slide and the audio advance with it (i.e., they want to skip to slide 20 and
have the audio skip to there as well). Currently, if the slideshow is
advanced the audio just keeps on playing and they get out of sync. Now I am
thinking that I can create a WAV file for EACH slide and put that in for the
slide, but not only is that time consuming but I am afraid the presentation
would be choppy (at best) as I'm no sound engineer. Is there any way to
tell PowerPoint that if I am on slide 15 to go to whatever timecode I need?
Or do I need to bite the bullet and make a WAV file for each slide? (If so,
any good suggestions or programs that would allow me to pull out sections of
a WAV file)?

Another thought would be to export the presentations to video. How good
does this look, and how well does that work overall?

Thanks in advance for your help and suggestions.

Darryl

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

I wonder if you'd be better off with one of the various methods of converting
PPT to Flash that's available. Shyam ... any ideas on that?

 

[Echo S]

If the audio is just narration, then your best bet would be to create a
WAV file for each slide and embed that into the slide transition. Yes,
it will be time consuming, but if it is just narration, it probably
won't be too bad as far as being choppy. Most sound editing software
makes it pretty easy to add a beat of silence if necessary. (I find that
adding that to the beginning and end of the individual WAV files is
often helpful.)

Otherwise, Steve's suggestion about converting to Flash is a pretty good
idea. I wouldn't go with the video option, as the quality often suffers,
and it's harder than just creating individual WAV files.

For sound editors, you could consider Sound Forge Studio (little brother
to Sound Forge, which is way more than you need for this), Cool Edit, or
Gold Wave. All have had good things said about them on this newsgroup.

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

For sound editors, you could consider Sound Forge Studio (little brother

to Sound Forge, which is way more than you need for this), Cool Edit, or
Gold Wave. All have had good things said about them on this newsgroup.

The sharks have been by since you were last in the pool. ;-)

Sound Forge has been snapped up by Sony and there doesn't seem to be any
reference to baby bro' on their site. Big fella's US$400 for the downloadable
version, fifty more for the box and whatever's in it.

Cool Edit stuck its toe in the water, Adobe's jaws snapped and after a suitable
pause for digestive purposes, voila, Cool Edit Pro is now Adobe Audition.

"Syntrillium’s other products — Cool Edit 2000, Red Rover, Snoqualmie, Wind
Chimes, Kaleidoscope, and the content available on the Loopology.com site —
have been discontinued." Thus saith the Mudhut, adding "Cool Edit will cost
you US$299."

GoldWave is still owned by GoldWave, they have a fully functional demo and
sells for so little I'd feel a bit guilty only taking one. <g>

I've updated this on the FAQ with the latest info and links:

Sound Editors
http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00305.htm

 

[Rick Altman]

HI Darryl --

You are right at the line in the sand as I define it. And when I'm there, I
ask the following quesiton of myself:

How easily could the audio be sectioned off?

Does the audio stream allow natural breaks at each slide? In other words, if
you played it straight through, would the audio breaks between slides be
expected or objectionable?

If the answer is objectionable, I think you have stepped outside the bounds
of what can reasonably be expected of PowerPoint, and I would steer you
toward a production package. You might be able to accomplish your task with
a product as simple as Camtasia Studio (www.techsmith.com) before conceding
to the more expensive Adobe Premiere et al.

But my experience is that the degree to which the audio can survive the
slide breaks will determine this for you...

 

[John Langhans [MSFT]]

[CRITICAL UPDATE - Anyone using Office 2003 should install the critical
update as soon as possible. From PowerPoint, choose "Help -> Check for
Updates".]

Hello Darryl,

This sounds like the kind of think that Microsoft Producer for PowerPoint
2003 is designed for.

If you're using PowerPoint 2002 or PowerPoint 2003 you can get more
information and download Producer from:

http://www.microsoft.com/office/powerpoint/producer/prodinfo/default.mspx

If you (or anyone else reading this message) think that it's important that
PowerPoint provide this kind of functionality natively (multi-slide sound
synchronization), don't forget to send your feedback (in YOUR OWN WORDS,
please) to Microsoft at:

http://register.microsoft.com/mswish/suggestion.asp

As with all product suggestions, it's important that you not just state
your wish but also WHY it is important to you that your product suggestion
be implemented by Microsoft. Microsoft receives thousands of product
suggestions every day and we read each one but, in any given product
development cycle, there are only sufficient resources to address the ones
that are most important to our customers so take the extra time to state
your case as clearly and completely as possible.

IMPORTANT: Each submission should be a single suggestion (not a list of
suggestions).

John Langhans
Microsoft Corporation
Supportability Program Manager
Microsoft Office PowerPoint for Windows
Microsoft Office Picture Manager for Windows

For FAQ's, highlights and top issues, visit the Microsoft PowerPoint
support center at: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=ppt
Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base at:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=kbhowto

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