iMovie :: Import & Edit Audio

Step 1:
Open your iMovie project and click on the Audio button below the clips pane.
Step 2:
Insert your audio CD into the computer. (The eject button is the up arrow on the top right of the keyboard.)

Step 3:
The drop-down menu above the audio pane may default to "iTunes Library." Select from this drop-down menu the title of the CD you've inserted. You should then see the tracks listed in the audio pane below the drop-down menu.

Step 4:
To the far left of the play button are two box-shaped buttons, one with an icon of a film strip for adding and arranging video clips in the clip viewer, and the other with an icon of a clock for adjusting audio and video timing in the timeline viewer. Select the clock for the timeline viewer. Now you can see the three audio tracks, the top being the audio embedded in the video and the other two for adding audio tracks.

Step 5:
To extract the audio embedded in the imported video (represented on the top layer of the three audio layers in the timeline), select the clip you wish to extract from, and select "Extract audio" from the edit menu along the top. When it's finished extracting, you should see the extracted audio track below the clip in the second layer of the timeline.

Step 6:
To adjust the volume of a track, click the "Edit volume" checkbox at the bottom. You will now see a vertical line drawn through the audio clips on the timeline. This represents the volume level. You can adjust the entire volume level of a clip by selecting it and sliding the volume fader at the bottom. If you wish to make volume adjustments within a clip, click on the clip at the point you wish to adjust. This will create an in and out point for the volume, each of which you can bring up or down by dragging it with the mouse.

Step 7:
To import a track from the CD you've inserted, select the track you wish to add from the audio pane. Place the cursor, or playhead, at the spot in the movie where you want to add audio, and click on the "Place at Playhead" button beneath the audio pane. Wait while the track imports and is placed beneath the clips in the timeline viewer.

Step 8:
To crop the audio clip, adjust the start and end points by dragging the triangles at the beginning and end of the clip and selecting "Crop" from the edit menu, just as you would a video clip.

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iLife tutorials are best viewed on a display with a resolution of 1280 x 1024.