scripts/ffx presets for controlling the sound Volume

[Filip Vandueren]

Hi All,

I’ve always found it a pain to use decibels to animate sound-Volume, especially for a fade-out or cross-fade.

So, I wrote a few simple expressions to convert from dB to volume-Percentages, this way sound will respond more like opacity, which we all know so well 😉

https://users.telenet.be/vandueren//forumstuff/jsx/Volume_control.ffx
https://users.telenet.be/vandueren//forumstuff/jsx/Volume_and_Pan_controls.ffx

these are animation presets that you should apply to a sound-layer.
A few sliders and an expression will be added.

With the Volume Slider you can easily set and animate the sound-Volume in percentages (eg. 200% = twice as loud, or fadeout from 100-0)

The Volume + Pan version also adds a slider that Balances/Pans the sound from left (-50) to right (+50)

I noticed that After Effects’ Stereo Mixer plugin uses a “Panning Law” of -6 dB, most DAWs use -3 or -4.5.
there’s a line in my script that lets you toggle between 0, -3, -4.5 or -6dB pan law.

(for those of us who don’t know what a pan law is: basically it’s a formula that controls that sounds in the center don’t sound louder than sounds that are panned hard left or right, this also prevents a 0dB stereo signal from clipping when it’s summed to mono)

[Colin Braley]

Nice job Filip, they both work like a charm.
~Colin

[Filip Vandueren]

Like I said, doing a quick fade out, or doing a quick edit in music with a crossfade, just to see if it’s better to animate like that, without having to go to another program.

It’s simply impossible to do a fade out or crossfade using two keyframes. Okay, I can export to protools or Logic Audio, (both certainly not faster If i’ve allready got the audio two layers ready in my comp) And what If I decide the first layers one should be 20 frames longer, back to pro-tools etc.

Of course, the final mixing I would do in another app.

But mainly, because I like to code useless expressions 😉

You should check out the 7.1 surround export expression i created for correct placement of sound emitted from 3D layers in After Effects space, including Doppler simulation 😉

No, really.

[Mike Clasby]

I like the preset volume control ideas(but haven’t upgraded yet, will soon).

I was intrigued by the Surround Sound expressions. I think you ran down the concept in an answer to an earlier post of mine, but it was way over my head. Are you saying we can download the 7.1 surround sound aep? I was intrigued and found it, but it feels creepy crusing through your directories without premission.

[Mike Clasby]

By “directories” I mean the online directories from the site with the preset downloads, not hacking into your computer directories.

[Filip Vandueren]

No problem, that’s why my forumstuff directory is open.

[Yones Rahmati]

Would love to see the surround expression. Could you make it available again?