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Problem recording Magic with Voila

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rbn
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu Aug 07, 2014 8:12 am

Problem recording Magic with Voila

Post by rbn »

Hi
I have been evaluating Magic, and find it a great program. (see my post in user videos). However I have found a problem when trying to record the Magicscreen. I know you can record with Magic itself, but I wanted a quicker result by using the screen recorder program Voila to record the Magic screen. Voila recorded the video ok, but it would not connect with the audio. It uses its own voiladevice to capture audio, automatically (usually!) grabbing the current computer audio output. I looked at the audio config setting in Magic in the Audio/MIDI window and set that to voiladevice but it didn't make any difference.

I eventually gave up and instead installed flowersound and used quicktime to do the recording. This picked up both the video and the sound OK, although it was more tedious to set up.

I wonder if anyone has any idea how I can get the audio playing within Magic to record with Voila.

(I should perhaps add this is on an iMac running OSX 10.9.4)
Magic
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Re: Problem recording Magic with Voila

Post by Magic »

Hmm, unfortunately I haven't used Voila before, but the config setting in Magic's Audio/MIDI window is only for input, not output. For output, Magic automatically uses whatever the system's default output device is. So, you might want to try setting your system output device (in System Preferences) to Voila, if possible. That way, Magic's audio output will go there instead of to the speakers.

Let me know if that helps.

Eric
rbn
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu Aug 07, 2014 8:12 am

Re: Problem recording Magic with Voila

Post by rbn »

No joy yet. I've been in contact with the Voila people (globaldelight.com) and they can't solve it. here is the correspondence.

Hi Robin,

Thank you so much for sending us the detailed info.

It looks like Voila is unable to record the audio via Magic app. We even tried with different configuration. We will look into it and will get back to you if you need any further info. Thank you once again.

Ticket: http://globaldelight.freshdesk.com/helpdesk/tickets/216

Regards,
Shreyas



On Fri, 8 Aug at 11:56 pm , rbn xxxxx@xxxxxxxx wrote:
OK. The procedure I followed was this,
Start Magic 1.44
From the Help Menu choose Open Sample Project…
select say DemoProject from the list
On the resulting Audio/MIDI window select import audio file(s) from the bottom left, and choose a suitable mp3 music file to import.
You will see it loaded at the bottom of that window.
At the top of the same window you will see Input 0 and Input 1
click on the down arrow in each case and select the music file you have imported for each one.

At the top right of the audio window there is an arrow for a popup list. From this select show audio config.
You will then see across the top of that window the name of the current audio device. I set it to VoilaDevice, but I have also experimented recording with it set to BuiltInMicrophone.

If you now click the play button symbol (middle bottom of that window), you should hear the mp3 playing and see a visual (a simple white block in this case) in the black Magic window.

If this works, then press the rewind button, (to the right of the play button), and set up Voila to record the Magic window, setting it to record computer audio. Start Voila recording and press the Magic play button. magic should play again, with Voila recording. Stop Voila and check the video. I get no sound.
I suspect that Voila can’t access Magic sound, although soundflower can, or at least I can record via quicktime using soundflower.

I will contact Magic and see what they have to say too.
Robin Newman

Magic
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Re: Problem recording Magic with Voila

Post by Magic »

Ok, thanks. As I mentioned before though, the device selection in Magic is only for audio input, not output. It won't change how audio playback works. Did you try changing your default sound output device in System Preferences?

If that doesn't work I'd try Soundflower, because it definitely works with Magic.

I know you said you're not using the built-in Export Movie function because you want a quicker result, which is fine of course. But, the Export Movie function is going to give you the highest-quality output; screen recording software is almost always going to result in dropped frames (or repeated frames), especially above 30 fps. Just something to be aware of.
rbn
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu Aug 07, 2014 8:12 am

Re: Problem recording Magic with Voila

Post by rbn »

Thanks Eric. I know soundflower works, but unfortunately Voila uses its own voiladevice to intercept audio and it doesn't seem to pick up Magic.
The particular job I wanted to do which involved making 18 videos, hence the time constraint, is now completed. I used QuickTime and soundflower to do it.
I'll have a further look at using the built in video generator in Magic to get a comparison.

Maybe you could talk to the guys at Voila (Global Delight) to see what the problem is. I think neither of you are aware of the other's implementation and it might be something that is fairly easily solved. Certainly I find Voila is usually a very nice quick and easy (and fairly cheap) way to grab screen videos from a Mac.
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