Forum Discussion

MichelTalbot's avatar
MichelTalbot
Community Member
2 years ago

Background Music per Scene

Has anyone found a work around to have the background music play only for certain scenes of a project? I have training projects that I would like to have background music for just the quiz scene for example.

I tried a few things like adding another audio track, lowering the volume of it and selecting the lower background audio when slide audio plays to 0%. That works until the timeline ends then the background music restarts. The other issue with this method is that it will make the project file size huge.

Any thoughts please let me know.

  • Hi Michel!

    Thanks for sharing feedback on the flexibility you’d like to see when working with background audio!

    We currently have this logged as a feature request, so I’ll go ahead and include your voice! We’ll update this discussion if this feature makes it on our feature roadmap.

  • I've tried the same as you have (hiding a video in the slide, adding an audio file, lowering the volume of the background music). Nothing really worked for me in terms of getting the background audio to stop playing for certain scenes, having a different audio play for quiz slides, and restarting the background audio. Hopefully, future iterations of this feature will allow the flexibility to determine on which slides the background music plays. 

    • StevenBenassi's avatar
      StevenBenassi
      Staff

      Hi Amanda!

      Thanks for reaching out and sharing the feedback! It sounds like more flexibility with background audio would benefit your authoring in Storyline!

      We currently have this logged as a feature request, so I’ll go ahead and include your voice as well! We’ll update this discussion if this feature makes it on our feature roadmap.

  • I have tried several times and trying out some javascript code but it still does not play a continuous background audio on specific slides and scenes. It either reset on each slide or stops halfway completely. Being able to control when and where the background audio plays is very useful in creating a professional e learning experience

  • use on every slide with background music the "on timeline start" trigger

    if( !DS.courseAudio.enabled() ){
        DS.courseAudio.toggleEnabled();
    }

    use on every slide without background music the "on timeline start" trigger

    if( DS.courseAudio.enabled() ){
        DS.courseAudio.toggleEnabled();
    }

    result (chapter 1 with music, chapter 2 without music):

    https://360.articulate.com/review/content/58d38875-4f87-43e5-be46-7c8d6430a72d/review

    Update: don't use these script - there are problems with Chrome/Edge (tested with Storyline 3.80)

    • VanessaMedina's avatar
      VanessaMedina
      Community Member

      Would this work on slides that do not have autoplay enabled? Currently my title slide is not auto play, the user has to click a play button layer. I would like to pause background audio until the play button is selected.

      • Jürgen_Schoene_'s avatar
        Jürgen_Schoene_
        Community Member

        there are problems with Chrome/Edge*,  if the start slide has disabled background audio**

        • the play buttons on start appears -> ok
        • but in this session the background audio does not work at all -> error

        => don't use the JavaScript functions to disable background audio

        * no problems with Firefox (Safari not tested)

        ** there are also problems on Chrome with resume on slides without background audio

  • Thanks for sharing a possible JavaScript solution, Jürgen!

    Hyun, I added your voice to the feature request for the ability to disable or mute background audio in Storyline 360. Thank you for letting us know it would be helpful to you as well!

    If you need help with anything else, please let us know here in the E-Learning Heroes Community or privately in a support case. We'll be happy to assist you!

  • JuliaLozano's avatar
    JuliaLozano
    Community Member

    I have a playlist for my background audio and i have the setting selected that the audio lowers by 90% when my current slide audio is playing, but the background audio still seems too loud. I still want the background audio to play, just not that loud so the user can still hear it faded in the back. I've updated it to 99% lowered and its still too loud.  I've tried it all, but nothing seems to work to make it less loud. I've tried 50% and that was WAY too loud. 

    At this point, I am having to raise my slide audio volume so that its louder than the background.

    Any suggestions?

    • LaurenConnelly's avatar
      LaurenConnelly
      Staff

      Hello Julia!

      It seems like all of the background audio is too loud and not just one specific audio file. Are you noticing this behavior while editing your course in Storyline 360 or in the published output too?

      I've tested this on my end, but I am not having any issues with the volume of the background audio being too loud. Is it possible that you could share your .story file so I can better understand what you're experiencing? You can share it privately in a support case or in this discussion.

    • TimCrowe-aa34d6's avatar
      TimCrowe-aa34d6
      Community Member

      I know this is old but I came across this issue too and so was testing while looking on here for an answer. The wording is a little confusing, but in testing I found the percentage isn't the amount you want to lower it by, but the amount to. So if you want it really quiet, you put 1% instead of 99%.

  • Hi can you provide specific instructions for what triggers/variables to set up to stop background music automatically playing on the first slide/scene to allow the music to only start on the second slide or when the user clicks a button.

    • MichelTalbot's avatar
      MichelTalbot
      Community Member

      What I do is have a trigger on the first slide to stop playing background
      music when the timeline starts on the slide.
      Then on the slide before the one I want the music to play I set up a
      trigger to start playing background music when user clicks next. I do it
      this so that there is no delay in the background music starting to play.
      You can also set trigger"when timeline starts on slide start background
      music " on the slide you want music to be heard.

      Hope this helps.

      Sincerely,

      Mike Talbot
      Technical Trainer
      Phone: 204-661-8711 EXT 2320 | Cell: 204-782-1885 | Fax: 204-654-2503
      mtalbot@versatile-ag.com | www.versatile-ag.com

      • StevenBenassi's avatar
        StevenBenassi
        Staff

        Hi Michel!

        It looks like part of your e-mail signature came through when you replied via e-mail. You can remove that if needed by clicking ‘Edit’ beneath your response.