Hi,

I'm transitioning from Windows / Sony Vegas to Linux / Kdenlive. So far I'm enjoying it. One thing I cannot figure out though, is how, when doing a cross-fade between video clips, to get the audio to cross-fade as well.

For example, lets say I have two 20 second video clips, and I want the end of Clip A to fade into the beginning of Clip B. I want this gentle dissolve to last 3 seconds total:

In Sony Vegas I would just overlap the two clips on the same track by 3 seconds and Vegas would automatically cross fade the video AND the audio of both clips, so that not only would the video gently dissolve between the two, but the audio would also gently dissolve.

In Kdenlive, I realize I have to put Clip A on track 1 and Clip B on track 2 - overlapping by about 3 seconds. Then I click on the lower right corner of Clip A and choose "Dissolve". A little yellow dissolve box appears and there is now a nice video transition between the two video segments. HOWEVER, while the audio of both clips is combined during these three seconds, it is simply bluntly overlaid (summed). The audio of Clip B does not quietly ramp up as the video of Clip B fades in, and the audio of Clip A does not gently fade out as that clip's video dissolves out. Instead, the audio of Clip B just slams in abruptly at the beginning of the 3 second video dissolve and the audio from Clip A likewise stops abruptly at the end of the dissolve (I can hear both audio tracks overlapping during these three seconds).

The only way I have found to do this is to split the audio separate tracks and manually ramp them out / in. This is of course a very slow process as I might have 50 video clip transitions in a 1 hour video.

Seems to me this is a very basic feature should be automatic. I must be missing something obvious because I can't believe others have not wanted this feature as well. Any suggestions on how this can be done automatically? Thanks.

You want Add effect > Fade>Fade In / Fade Out
https://userbase.kde.org/Kdenlive/Manual/Effects/Fade

There is also Volume_(keyframable) https://userbase.kde.org/Special:MyLang ... eyframable)

And you can right click a clip in the time line and choose copy. And then right click a different clip in the time line and choose past effects. This will copy the fade in and fade outs from one clip to another.

ttguy: Thanks for this information about Fade-in / Fade-out. I tried it, but it doesn't seem to do much more than what I already do (manually add fade-in and fade-out the audio) by grabbing the top corner of the audio and dragging to set the duration of fade-in/fade-out.

In fact, it offers less control than manually doing it, as the fade in / out duration is fixed with this effect (until the user manually adjusts it). I was hoping for something that would manage a cross-fade automatically (fade out Clip A's audio and fade in Clip B's audio automatically for the duration that they overlap).

Frankly, I'm surprised this feature doesn't seem to exist, as it seems like a very fundamental one. Don't a lot of people do this when joining clips?

There seems to be a long-standing request for this feature here:
https://bugs.kdenlive.org/view.php?id=435
https://bugs.kdenlive.org/view.php?id=433

I agree this would be a nice feature. Know any good C++ programmers?

In the meantime - if you do not like the default length of the fade in/fade out effect you can change it.

The available effects are defined by .xml files found in $KDEDIR/share/kde4/apps/kdenlive/effects (e.g. /usr/share/kde4/apps/kdenlive/effects).

These .xml files contain the default values for the effects parameters. So if you don't like the default values for the effects in Kdenlive, you can modify the defaults by editing these .xml files.

I am suspecting part of the problem with coding this is that it is a combination of a transition and an effect. And these are two separate concepts in melt.

Hello,

Having simpler crossfades is on our todo list
https://community.kde.org/Kdenlive/Roadmap

In the meantime, you can save a little bit of time by adding as custom filters the most commonly used fade in and fade out sizes and at least that saves you from right-click adding the fades and setting the times and everything.

Honestly, the rest of kdenilve's good bits more than make up for that - it can read and write more file types than Vegas and you can use guides to produce separate videos from one timeline outside the main program.