Tips

Sample different songs with your video

It’s amazing how much impact a soundtrack will add to a movie or montage. Sample different songs with your footage to see how different music can affect the mood of your iMovie project.

Preview your movie with or without music

When playing your movie, you can isolate which audio tracks you want to hear. Use the checkboxes at the far right side of the timeline viewer to turn the three music tracks on and off. The top checkbox controls the audio included with your video clip.

Find your iTunes music quickly and easily

If you have a large iTunes Library, you can access specific iTunes playlists from the Audio pane. You can also select a playlist or your library and type the name of a song in the Search field. As you type, you’ll see your list of music shorten to match what you’re typing.

Check the iTunes Music Store for ideas

Look in the iTunes Essentials section of the iTunes Music Store to find a nice variety of musical styles and genres. If you know you want a song that contains certain words, try an Advanced Search of the Music Store to see what new ideas for music you can come up with.

Drag songs directly from iTunes

Rather than accessing your music from the iLife Media Browser in iMovie, you can search your music library right in iTunes to find just the song you’re looking for, and then drag it your movie project’s timeline.

Lock audio to a clip

You can ensure a sound effect or any audio clip stays in sync with a point in your video by locking it to the video clip. This is especially helpful in the early stages of editing your movie when you are still moving many clips around. To lock an audio clip to a video clip, move the playhead to the point in your audio clip you want to lock and choose Lock Audio Clip at Playhead from the Advanced menu. You’ll see two yellow push-pins added to your clips to indicate they are "pinned" together.

Add sound effects

iMovie comes with Skywalker and standard sound effects that you can use to enhance your movie. If you have sound effects that you created yourself or purchased from a sound library, you can easily add them to your iMovie sound effects list. Place the sound effect file in the Sound Effects folder located in the iMovie folder in the Library folder in your home folder. The next time you open iMovie, you’ll see the file in the list of sound effects. Sound effect files are either AIFF or MP3 format.

Use GarageBand to score your iMovie project

GarageBand 3 lets you score your iMovie project. To start, import your movie into a GarageBand project. You’ll be able to play your movie inside GarageBand, while creating your new soundtrack.

Steps

Add a soundtrack to your iMovie project

1. Click the timeline viewer button. Notice the two additional audio tracks beneath the video track.
2. Move the playhead to where you want the music to begin in the timeline.
3. Click the Media button and then click the Audio button. Notice the source list showing you have audio available from GarageBand and iTunes, as well as sound effects that come with iMovie.
4. Click the disclosure triangle to show your iTunes Library. Click your library to see your iTunes music. Your songs will be displayed in the track list, right below the source list. You can resize the track list if needed.
5. Select a song and click the audio Play button to listen to the song. Click the Place at Playhead button to import the song into your movie. One the song is imported; you'll see it added to an audio track in the timeline viewer. Click the Play button to listen to your movie with your new soundtrack.
6. To adjust the volume of the track, use the clip volume controls underneath the audio tracks. Notice the percentage update to reflect your new volume.
7. Adjust the length of the track by dragging the end of the song towards the middle. You may have to scroll to reach the end of the song.
8. To place a soft fade at the new song ending, select Show Clip Volume Levels from the View menu. Your song will now show a line indicating it has a constant audio level setting for the entire song. To fade the end of the song, click the end of the clip level line and drag it to the bottom of the clip. Notice only the end of the line changes, indicated by the yellow color. This shows the volume is fading out at the new end of your song.
9. Move the playhead to a few seconds before the end of your song. Press the Space bar to review how the song sounds with your new fade at the end.
10. From the audio source list, close your iTunes Library and select Skywalker Sound Effects. From the track list, scroll down until you see Outdoor Cheer. Select Outdoor Cheer and click the audio Play button to hear how it sounds. This could be a fun ending to your song. Drag it from the track list and place in alongside your song ending in the empty audio track. Play your movie again to hear the new ending to your song.