B.10. Problems with SoundSound problems are especially frustrating when you're working with digital video, because they bear no resemblance to sound problems with more familiar equipment. In any other situation, if sound is too low or too loud, for example, you can adjust it with a knob. But what you do about random electronic beeps and buzzes that weren't there on the original tape? B.10.1. Sound Is Too SoftIf one particular clip is too soft, see page 227. If, however, the entire movie soundtrack plays back too quietly , it's probable that iMovie has nothing to do with the problem. Instead, your overall Mac volume is probably too low. Visit the Sound panel of System Preferences and adjust the output volume of your machine, or tap the Volume Up key on the top row of your keyboard. Make sure that iMovie's own volume slider (just above the Movie Track) is up all the way, too. B.10.2. Random Electronic BeepsIt's hard to imagine anything more frustrating than finding a permanentor, worse , intermittentbuzzing, crackling, or popping in the audio tracks of your project. This problem has been on many minds, and its victims have come up with various solutions. Fortunately, most people manage to solve it by following one of these steps:
Of course, these workarounds assume that the audio glitch began life on the camera, rather than within iMovie itself. If the pop is intermittent, there's not much you can do. But if you hear the pop in the same place every time you play your movie, you may be able to repair it using a sound-editing program, like this:
B.10.3. Pops at Transition or Scene BreaksAudio pops or snaps sometimes materialize where clips intersectthat is, at transitions and scene breaks. Fortunately, these audio defects don't survive to any DVDs you may burn. If a DVD isn't the final destination for your project, the workaround is slightly more involved. First, remove the transition or title as described in Chapters 6 and 7. Next, select the video clip that will be affected. Finally, choose Advanced Extract Audio. iMovie HD places the audio from that video clip into one of its two audio tracks. If you apply the title or transition now, iMovie HD will leave the audionow an independent entityalone. |