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You've slaved over a video and now it's time to add the sound track. It takes hours to find just the right music. You worry about not having permission from the artist to use the music. You try to soothe your conscience by telling yourself that it won't be on national television, so not that many people will be aware of your free use of copyrighted material. Finally, everyone is gathered to watch your masterpiece. The room is silent as your audience watches intently. You realize that you've never really listened to the music you've chosen so publicly or so loudly. A cuss word here, a sexual innuendo there and suddenly the words on your sound track seem to be under a huge magnifying glass.
Enter SonicFire Pro 5. This version has lots of new features, but it is still the same amazing program and the greatest thing since sliced bread for the anyone, at any level who does slideshows, presentations or videography.
In a nutshell, SonicFire Pro 5 is an application that you can use quickly and easily to create perfect, legal soundtracks for your productions. You purchase thematic CDs from SmartSound by the track or by the CD. Even a few CDs can form the basis of a remarkably flexible sound library. On the other hand, the SmartSound 130+ CD library of music is wide ranging and you can find whatever you need for any job. Also, if you are on the SmartSound email list, you'll receive offers for outstanding discounts.
The software consists of a browser/organizer called Express Track and an editor called the Scoring Edition.
The Express Track was formerly only found in the Network edition, but now it's available with all SmartSound music. As you scroll through your music library, you can sort by Title, Album, Intensity, and Tempo as well as by Stereo or Multi-track music. Multi-track music gives you more control, since you can actually edit the mix with individual tracks and change the sound in a myriad of ways.
You preview your music in Express Track and you can also easily preview music you don't own on the SmartSound Internet Library. If, heaven forbid, you can't find the music you want in your library, you can click the "Smartsound Store" option and the entire Smartsound library will be available for you to sample and purchase.
You purchase sound track CDs from SmartSound and install them in your own music library. A CD will use about 2.5 gigabytes of space, so it's a good idea to put your library on a dedicated, external hard drive. These special SmartSound CDs are the foundation of your musical creations and they can be modified in numerous ways that we'll discuss later when we look at Mood Mapping in more detail. You can, of course, work from your Smartsound music CDs themselves, but installing them makes a lot of sense.
There are so many fabulous features it's difficult to pick a favorite, but one feature I use often is generating an audio clip the exact length of my video. The audio is generated with a beginning, middle and end. I adore this feature. I regularly churn out DVD slide shows and various permutations of video and stills. When I'm done, I make a note of the exact length of the video, fire up Express Track and quickly generate a professional sounding music track that precisely fits my video. You can even export directly to your project in Premier or Final Cut.
On longer videos, I want to keep the same music but vary it enough to keep it sounding fresh and interesting. I can apply a selection of variations and moods to the central theme music and yet keep the sound integrated and in the background.
At the most basic level, you pick your music, set the length, alter it as far as instrumentation and mood are concerned and export it to your project file.
Express Track is a huge help in finding a specific type of music. You can search by keyword, style, and intensity. On top of that, you can combine search parameters to narrow down your selections even more. If you find something you are especially fond of, you can mark it as a favorite and add a note about what you used it in or where you are planning to use it.
SonicFire Pro 5 has some marvelous, new features. For instance, if you find a clip you like, but it isn't fast enough or slow enough, Express Track can search of clips that are like the clip you have chosen but a little faster, slower, more intense, less intense, and so on until you have exactly what you want.
And then there's the Tap Tempo search tool. When I'm working with video, I can hear the music in my head that I want to go with it. I can tap the beat with my fingers, and then with the mouse to find the exact tempo I want.
Okay, let's say you actually want to score the music to your video. For that, we'll leave Express Track and move over to the Scoring Edition. There are five windows: Timeline, Properties, VU Meters, Bin/Spotting, and the Video Window. You can map the mood to the video and add Hit Files (A Hit file that gives you a brief audio flourish for emphasis.) You can also make decisions about where you want the beat to fall.
In Mood Mapping, there are numerous options for presets so you can mark sections of the music to decrease the volume to accompany dialog or voice-over. You can make changes to the number and type of instruments to emphasis and enhance parts of the video and you can subtly change the music, while keeping it basically consistent to add interest and keep the music fresh. You can add markers and the program will calculate a beat (the spotting feature) that will work with the pacing of your video.
Utilize the Timing Control to change various segments within the music to more closely synchronize the sound to pacing of your video. After you have fine-tuned your music to your video, you export the soundtrack and continue in your video-editing program.
I especially appreciate the online, ten-part tutorial (http://www.smartsound.com/sonicfire/). Larry Jordan does a perfect job with clear, easy-to-understand explanations and instructions. I think Smartsound lives up to its name by making this excellent tutorial easily available. Jordan does the tutorial on a Mac, so the interface isn't exactly the same, but you can figure out the conversion to Windows easily enough.
I usually don't talk about the installation process because it is generally straightforward and simple but Vista has changed that. What was once simple is now fraught with complications. SonicFire Pro installed without a hiccup on my XP computer. When I installed it on my Vista machine, the program wouldn't start. I contacted Scott Clark by email at SmartSound Software Support. He quickly diagnosed the problem and emailed detailed instructions for the fix. I followed the well-written directions and SmartSound SonicFire Pro 5 was up and working within seconds.
Give yourself a break. Your videos will be less stressful so much more professional with the perfect sound track. SmartSound SonicFire Pro 5 is the way to go.
Click Here to see more reviews about: SmartSound Sonicfire Pro 5 Scoring Edition w/Extra Disc
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