PE: Narration Recording Stops After 30 Seconds

INTRODUCTION

"Narration Recording Stops After 30 Seconds" calls for help have been received periodically from Premiere Elements 11* users as well as from users with versions earlier than 11.

One user wrote
"As I record the narrative, the recorder stops at 30 seconds...long before I'm done. Starting at the 30 second point, I record again and the recorder stops again in 30 seconds. There are no narrative recordings ahead in the timeline. The help section in Adobe says that the recorder will stop in 30 seconds if you do not press stop after recording, but I'm recording when the recorder stops."

The Adobe document titled "Premiere Elements/Create Narration" gives details on creating narration* for the project as well as tips on producing the narration.

          Note: If your speakers are turned on, move as close to the microphone as possible, and
          keep the microphone as far away from the speakers as possible to prevent feedback.

Note: If you do not click the Stop button, recording automatically stops at the beginning of the next file in the Narration track, or 30 seconds past the end of the last clip in the Quick view timeline or the Expert view timeline.

ISSUE

The Adobe document does not address the why for this "Narration Recording Stops After 30 Seconds" situation.

SOLUTION

First hand analysis of the situation revealed  that content is required on either a video track, an audio track, or the Soundtrack to avoid the"Narration Recording Stops After 30 Seconds" situation. The examples to follow demonstrate how what is on a video track, an audio track, or Soundtrack can influence the duration of the narration clip generated.

Depending on the circumstances, use of the free audio editor Audacity might be looked at to produce the narrations which can then be imported into Premiere Elements 11 with its Add Media/Files and Folders to Project Assets and from there dragged to the Timeline.

TYPICAL NARRATION RECORDING SCENARIOS

EXAMPLE 1

No content on video tracks, audio tracks, nor Soundtrack when narration recording started. At narration start, the Timeline Indicator is at the beginning of the Timeline. After narration is started, no narration recording stop button nor Narration Tool Done button hit.

Result: Stops at 30 seconds Narration Clip
Narration recording and the Timeline Indicator stopped at 30 seconds mark on Timeline, leaving a 30 second narration clip on the Narration Track.  Refer to Figure 1. The Timeline timecode went from 00;00;00;00 to 00;00;29;28. The results were unaffected by the location of the Timeline Indicator at the start of a narration recording.

Figure 1. Narration Recording With No Content On Video Tracks, Audio Tracks, Nor Soundtrack. Narration Recording And Timeline Indicator Stopped At Timeline 30 Seconds Timeline Mark (29 Seconds28Frames). No Narration Recording Stop Button Nor Narration Done Button Hit After The Start Of The Narration.

 Also, if another narration recording was started at the end of this first 30 narration clip, it would stop 30 seconds later with no narration recording Stop button nor narration Done button hit.

EXAMPLE 2

No content on Video tracks and Audio tracks, but mp3 soundtrack (200.87 seconds) on Soundtrack when narration recording was begun with the Timeline Indicator at the start of the Timeline. No narration recording Stop button nor Narration Tool Done button was hit after starting the narration recording.

Result: Stops at 230.83 seconds Narration Clip
Narration recording and the Timeline Indicator stopped at 230.83 seconds mark on Timeline, leaving a 230.83 second narration clip on the Narration Track.  Refer to Figure 2. The resulting 230.83 seconds narration clip in this instance appeared to relate to the 200.87 seconds of the mp3 soundtrack file on the Soundtrack plus the 30 seconds as indicated in the Adobe document when it wrote

If you do not click the Stop button, recording automatically stops at the beginning of the next file in the Narration track, or 30 seconds past the end of the last clip in the Quick view timeline or the Expert view timeline.

Figure 2. Narration Recording With No Content On Video Tracks, Audio Tracks, But With Mp3 Soundtrack On Soundtrack. Narration Recording And Timeline Indicator Stopped At Timeline 230.83 Seconds Mark (3 minutes50Seconds25Frames). No Narration Recording Stop Button Nor Narration Done Button Hit After Start Of Narration.

The same 230.83 seconds Narration clip could be obtained as seen in Figure 2, if the mp3 soundtrack on Soundtrack was removed and a 230.83 second video placed on Video Track 1 or a 230.83 second audio clip was placed on Audio Track 1 prior to the start of the narration recording.

EXAMPLE 3

No contents on Video tracks and Audio tracks, but two mp3 soundtracks on Soundtrack, one extending from 0 time to 200.87 seconds followed by a space of 105.30 seconds, followed by a second mp3 soundtrack with duration of 200.87 seconds. (Total coverage of Soundtrack with 2 mp3 soundtracks and gap between = 507.04 seconds.) No narration recording Stop button nor Narration Tool Done button was hit after starting the Narration Recording.

Result: Stops at 536.97 seconds Narration Clip
Narration recording and the Timeline Indicator stopped at 536.97 seconds mark on Timeline, leaving a 536.97 second narration clip on the Narration Track.  Refer to Figure 3. The resulting 536.97 seconds narration clip in this instance appeared to relate to the 200.87 seconds of the first mp3 soundtrack file plus 105.30 gap plus second mp3 soundtrack on the Soundtrack plus the 30 seconds as indicated in the Adobe document when it wrote

If you do not click the Stop button, recording automatically stops at the beginning of the next file in the Narration track, or 30 seconds past the end of the last clip in the Quick view timeline or the Expert view timeline.

Figure 3. Narration Recording With No Content On Video Tracks, Audio Tracks, But With 2 Mp3 Soundtracks On Soundtrack Separated By A Gap Between The Two.Narration Recordings And Timeline Indicator Stopped At Timeline 536.07 Seconds Mark (8 minutes56Seconds29Frames). No Narration Recording Stop Button Nor Narration Done Button Hit After Start Of Narration.

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*Narration recorded with the Narration Tool has the .wav file extension. The typical properties of the file are seen in the MediaInfo properties readout in Figure 4. Properties common to all narrations produced with the Narration Tool appear to be:

• Format
• Format Profile
• Format Settings
• CodecID
• CodecID/Hint
• Bitrate Mode
• Bitrate
• Channel(s)
• Sampling Rate
• Bit Depth

Figure 4. Premiere Elements 11 Typical Narration Clip Properties. Narration Clip Used For This Figure Is From Example 3.

 **Principles involved in this blog post are applicable to earlier versions of Premiere Elements as well as to Premiere Elements 11. Study was conducted on Windows 7 Professional SP2 64 bit computer. Premiere Elements 11 project preset was manually set for NTSC DV Standard although results appeared independent of project preset setting.


ATR