Section 17.1. The Two iMovie Soundtracks


17.1. The Two iMovie Soundtracks

Much like traditional film cameras , iMovie separates the audio and video into separate tracks, which you can view and edit independently. In iMovie, you can view the contents of your soundtracks with a single click on the clock icon shown in Figure 17-1.

The top horizontal band of the Timeline Viewer displays the video component of your movie. It shows tiny thumbnails that help you identify which clips you've placed in which order. For the most part, you won't do much with this strip when you're editing audio; its primary purpose is to show where you are in the movie.

The two horizontal strips underneath it are your playground for audio clips. Both audio tracks are equivalent; each of them can hold sound from any of these sources, which you're free to drag between the two tracks anytime : iTunes tracks, narration, sound effects, sounds files like MP3, WAV, AIFF, and AAC, music from a CD, plus the original audio from your camcorder.

This chapter covers all of these sound varieties.


Tip: Ordinarily, when playing your movie, iMovie plays the sound in both audio tracks. But you can use the three checkboxes at the right end of these tracks to control which ones play back. When you want to isolate only one track, turn off the other two checkboxes (Figure 17-2). (These checkboxes also govern which soundtracks are exported when you send your finished iMovie production back to tape or to a QuickTime movie.)

Figure 17-1. Top: In the Timeline Viewer, horizontal strips represent narration, CD tracks, music from iTunes, or sound effects.
To identify a sound clip, either click it so that its name appears at the bottom of the window, or just point to it without clicking (middle).
Middle: If the soundwave scribbles are a little distracting, you can adjust their size by tapping the up and down arrow keys. See how the top audio clip has smaller waveforms now? (This doesn't affect the volume level, only the onscreen graphics.)
Bottom: You can also turn off those visual soundwaves altogether by choosing View Show Audio Waveforms ( -Shift-W, or choose the same command from the clip's shortcut menu). Hiding waveforms reduces visual clutter and reveals each clip's name right on the clipbut leaving them visible is a great way to align video with audio "hits."





iLife 05. The Missing Manual
iLife 05: The Missing Manual
ISBN: 0596100361
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2005
Pages: 314
Authors: David Pogue

flylib.com © 2008-2017.
If you may any questions please contact us: flylib@qtcs.net