Artists Please Include the Whole Track

As a video creator I typically drop the preview mp3 I download into the video and time my assets to it. Many times I have to cut it up, retime it, etc. But often those preview mp3s are a combination of multiple versions (lengths) of that song.

When I decide a song works for the video, or more importantly my client does, I buy a license to use it, only to discover that the zip contains a folder filled with cut up versions of that song (15 sec, 30 sec, 1 min, etc.).

I get that the artist is trying to make things easy by giving different files for the different versions, and that is appreciated. However, the easiest thing would be also include the whole track as it appears in the preview, minus the watermarks of course. That way video creators like myself can just do a quick “replace asset” before doing my final render. Otherwise we have to find the length that works, import and recut and retime that file and preform whatever audio envelopes on it we had before. It becomes a whole extra thing.

So please, as a favor to us video creators, include the whole track as it appears in the preview.

Thank you :slight_smile:

This doesnt depend the author, it is from Envato policy.

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Yes, that is the standard expectation, and as @Manriquedelara states above, it is required. Please let the author know directly so that they can correct this oversight.

You may also let Envato know, as this sort of oversight should have been detected during the review process.

Interesting. There have been very few if any combo tracks that I download that come with the whole combo track as a single file like the preview. Most just include a bunch of individual files for each length.

Good to know it’s policy that it should include the combo (preview) track.

I had the same problem a lot of times, when I edit audio preview to match some video. Easiest way for me to get over that problem, is to open some new project in any audio editor… put Preview track in one audio channel, and in other channel below it, separate tracks without watermark. Then I sync them all with Preview track. (usually goes from longest to shortest track). When I’m done with sync, I just turn off first channel with preview track end export audio from second channel in the same duration as preview track… At the end in my video project, I just replace preview track with that new track. Because they are in sync and the same duration that will be it. It maybe sounds complicated, but it takes just couple of minutes, and it’s much faster than to edit track again, especially if you made a lot of changes to match your video.

As far as I know, we’re not allowed to include the preview file in the zip. I think that was what @Manriquedelara meant in his response. Envato should make it possible to preview the files separately, but it seems like that kind of black magic code is out of their league.

@roxics,
I’m sorry, but I think I’ve mislead you - based on how @NextFrameFX and @Hyperprod responded, I think I’ve misunderstood your original point.
Unlike some other libraries where each edit is available as a separate download, AJ doesn’t allow this - all edits must be grouped together. I originally thought you were saying that you had encountered download packages which DIDN’T include the complete, full-length track, ONLY the cut-downs. My apologies for causing needless confusion!

Knowing now that having the intact preview track available would help your workflow, I wonder if we SHOULD be including the un-watermarked preview in the download package? And as @Hyperprod says, is this even allowed by AJ? Is this a typical workflow among video editors? If it helps you do your job, I think it’s worth including.

Other thoughts, anyone?

If having a preview file available as an included wav file within the zip file is useful to the buyer then why not.

Yes, but there must be permission from Envato for that. Otherwise, because of this, the preview without a watermark in the zip file will simply be rejected.

Why would they do that? It doesn’t make sense that they wouldn’t let the artist include the full preview file without watermark in the final purchased zip. I’m curious what the logic is there.

I think the logic is just that the full preview was never meant to be an asset in itself. Rather, it is just a concise way of displaying in sequence the different versions, so the viewer can easily listen to each one.

The best way to solve this (which I have already seen many authors do) is simply in the description to list how many versions are included, how long each version is, and the audio timestamp of where that version starts in the preview file.

Finally, I think most authors would be willing to make edits to their tracks if you request it. Personally if someone bought one of my tracks and requested a custom edit for a different length, I would provide it. It usually doesn’t take that long and is just a good thing to do in the spirit of good business practice and quality customer service.

@roxics I’ve experienced this exact issue myself. I used to edit on FCPX and it would have been so much easier to just swap out the watermarked file with an all-but-identical non-watermarked version. When you replace it with the shorter audio file found in the zip, it doesn’t work, and you have to re-cut the music all over again, which is annoying, to say the least…

If you’re editing on FCPX, there is a work-around if you have an audio file editor. Audacity will do the job and it’s free. This only works if you have only used sections of music from the first version of the track found in the preview. If you’ve used bits from the other versions, it gets a bit more complicated.
The idea is, FCPX is looking for a specifically named .mp3 which is of a certain length. So what you need to do is change the shorter file so that it has those same attributes as the watermarked file that you’re trying to replace.
For instance, an awesome track which I purchased a while ago by @lifeplanetearth (I hope they don’t mind me using their track as an example) has the main 2:20 track and they’ve included three different 10sec loops, so the preview file is 2:50. The preview is named 3D20549376_technology-ambient_by_lifeplanetearth_preview.mp3. The first thing to do is open it in Audacity. Then you can add an appropriate amount of silence to the end of the track to make it longer than the preview file. in my case, I’d add at least 30 seconds. 40 just to make sure. It doesn’t have to be exact. As long as it’s longer than the preview, FCPX can use it. Click ‘export as mp3’ and give it exactly the same name as the preview. Now replace the file in the FCPX library, relink and your good to go.

If I did happen to use some audio from one of the three loops, I would have to re-build the preview by pasting the 4 separate audio files together in Audacity in the same order that they are in the preview, but this is only guaranteed to work correctly if the author has constructed their preview file without any extra gaps in between the tracks, but I’m sure that in most cases that won’t be an issue.

I think @add9audio might have the better solution though by simply asking the author to provide a watermark-free preview mp3 for you. I know I would be happy to oblige and I’m sure many other authors would too.

As for why Envato don’t allow us authors to put what you need in the purchasable zip, I can only guess. Maybe they don’t realise how useful it would be and they are trying to save some server space. I feel your frustration.

Agreed that we should be able to get a file identical to the preview file, but I’ve also found that there is sometimes a slight time difference between the preview and the full quality file. Which means that replacing the file makes all your edits slightly off, which is a huge hassle!

Ok, got it. We need another upload option field: ZIP Preview for download
So you have

  1. Audio Preview (as MP3 - Compressed Preview File with all tracks as one MP3 for AJ player)
  2. Audio ZIP Preview (All track versions with watermark as single tracks - with exact lenght as the buying version)
  3. Main File(s) (ZIP - All files for buyers, not including preview images)

Instead of a “Download Preview” Button thay can put a “Download ZIP Preview” so you have all the track versions with exact lengthes with watermark.
And this is not a high effort for us authors to create additional ZIP previews.

Would that be an idea?

That’s because mp3 encoding (on the preview) adds a tiny bit of silence at the beginning of the track; the full quality file doesn’t contain that silence, so you need to nudge it right to make it fit the preview. It’s easily seen when you line them up next to one another. That’s the technology, totally out of our hands.

In my opinion we should be able to upload every version separately and the watermark should be automatically added. The customer could then download the preview of that/those versions he needed. I get the impression that a lot of buyers don’t understand that the preview file is compilation of all included version and not one long weird track…

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@Hyperprod . I use to be specific in the item description. What versions are included and durations. Also ,i insert 2 seconds between each variation of the track. I believe that a customer understands that this is a preview file ,not a weird long song.But you may be right. I think i will be more specific in the item description regarding that matter. I don’t think AJ should use an algorythm which auto inserts watermark. I had some unpleasant surprises on other platforms due to this procedure. Distorted preview file and overall diminished quality.