[David Clabaugh]

I have added the .selection parameter, but the function doesn’t execute.

win=new Window("palette","The Fluent Shadow",undefined,{resizeable:true,independent:false,minimizeButton:false,maximizeButton:false,resizeable:false,});
but_1=win.add("button",[20,60,120,80],"Fluent Shadow");
but_1.helpTip="Select a layer";
pixel_size=win.add("dropdownlist",[20,20,120,42] ,["1px","2px","3px","4px","6px","8px","9px","12px","16px","24px","32px","48px","64px","80px","96px",""]);
pixel_size.selection = 0;
pixel_size.helpTip="Choose your Shadow size";
win.center();
win.show();

but_1.onClick = function(){

if(pixel_size.selection == "1px"){
var effectsGroup = app.project.activeItem.selectedLayers[0];
myEffect1px = effectsGroup.Effects.addProperty("ADBE Drop Shadow");
effectsGroup.property("ADBE Effect Parade").property(1).property("ADBE Drop Shadow-0002").setValue(5.1);
effectsGroup.property("ADBE Effect Parade").property(1).property("ADBE Drop Shadow-0003").setValue(180);
effectsGroup.property("ADBE Effect Parade").property(1).property("ADBE Drop Shadow-0004").setValue(1);
effectsGroup.property("ADBE Effect Parade").property(1).property("ADBE Drop Shadow-0005").setValue(4);
myEffect1px = effectsGroup.Effects.addProperty("ADBE Drop Shadow");
effectsGroup.property("ADBE Effect Parade").property(2).property("ADBE Drop Shadow-0002").setValue(15.3);
effectsGroup.property("ADBE Effect Parade").property(2).property("ADBE Drop Shadow-0003").setValue(180);
effectsGroup.property("ADBE Effect Parade").property(2).property("ADBE Drop Shadow-0004").setValue(1);
effectsGroup.property("ADBE Effect Parade").property(2).property("ADBE Drop Shadow-0005").setValue(4);
myEffect1px = effectsGroup.Effects.addProperty("ADBE Drop Shadow");
effectsGroup.property("ADBE Effect Parade").property(3).property("ADBE Drop Shadow-0002").setValue(15.3);
effectsGroup.property("ADBE Effect Parade").property(3).property("ADBE Drop Shadow-0003").setValue(180);
effectsGroup.property("ADBE Effect Parade").property(3).property("ADBE Drop Shadow-0004").setValue(0.5);
effectsGroup.property("ADBE Effect Parade").property(3).property("ADBE Drop Shadow-0005").setValue(4);

[David Clabaugh]

Thanks Andrei,

I will swap in the .selection

How would you put together a switch in this case?

[David Clabaugh]

The pitch shifting is occurring because of sample rate. When a lower sample rate audio file is played back at a higher sample rate, it sounds like the voice has been down pitched, like last year’s trend in house music. This is because sample rate is a clock speed, the reverse happens if you play a higher clock speed back at a lower rate(like the chipmunks).

The problem goes away after the audio has been cached. So you have to play it back once and let AE figure everything out, and then when it has cached, you can listen to it at its normal sound. Annoying? yes, but at least we are on our way towards full audio scrubbing and preview like the video editors. This has been going on since the last CC edition, surprised you aren’t getting crashes with the preview.

[David Clabaugh]

Update…. This is defo an audio problem, I was just able to preview a comp that had no audio in it, and it was fine, as soon as I switch to a comp with audio, BOOM…at least AE is saving my file.

So Adobe, FYI check your audio engine, there is a problem with audio encoder playback, probably sample rate conflicts with OS audio playback engine as I mentioned before.

Now I have to figure out a way to stop myself hitting the space bar while I work.

[David Clabaugh]

We can’t be too hard on Adobe, they are only trying to bring AE up to speed with the preview thing, I am sure there’s lots o’ math involved with 2.5D, vectors, etc. and like Dave said, every new release is bound to be riddled with bugs, no company can escape it.

That being said, here is my workaround. I find that scrubbing is the only way to avoid the crash. While there is now sound, at least we can still work while they fix this.

I have a hunch that this has to do with audio sample rates. In the last update, audio first came out as a distorted down pitched version until the comp was cached. This leads me to believe that AE is downsampling the clock speed of the audio (playing 44.1K at 22K etc) while it caches the comp. This can always lead to problems in Audio DAWs and I think this is where the crash might be coming from, most soundcards don’t like playing different clock speeds at the same time and every modern DAW converts any rogue sample rates to conform with the document. Just a guess.

I was also able to have a good preview by turning off sound, and checking “cache before playback” like you did Tom, but that isn’t always helpful as you have to wait until it caches the entire comp and that can take lots of time. So scrubbing it is. I guess if sound were super crucial then porting it over to Premiere might be the best workaround for that.