Extract Audio Problems

I am having a frustrating problem with iMovie. I am trying to make a video with sound playing over still images, bu every time i try to extract audio from the video i have, it will not work. It loads, taking 7-12 minutes, and then when i substitute the video clip for the photo, the sound does not show up. Why is this happening? The video footage, by the way, was shot with the built in iSight.

I'm not quite certain, from your description, of exactly what you're trying to do..
If you want to insert still photos in place of some of your video, first do what Bengt suggests, in order to extract all the audio from your video, which will put the audio in the Audio Track underneath the video.
Then, if you want to insert a photo which is in your 'Clips Pane' within the "media" section on the right-hand side, do the following:
(a) Choose the photo from your Library, and you can choose whether to tick the 'Ken Burns' box or not (..ticking it will apply a "zoom" effect to your photo..) then click the 'Apply' button. That generally adds your photo to the end of your movie.
(b) With the photo still Selected (..i.e; it has a blue highlight over it..) hold down the Apple key and press 'C' to Copy the photo.
(c) Position your Playhead where you want the photo to be inserted, and on the top-line menu choose 'Advanced' and 'Paste Over at Playhead' ..or just hold down the Shift and Apple keys and jab 'V' to Insert.
The photo will now be inserted to replace the same duration of the original material in your video track, and the original, extracted, audio will be preserved.
If - on the other hand - you're trying to insert some video to replace a photo, just do the same steps, but Copy, position the Playhead, and then 'Paste Over' the video clip to replace the previous photo.
Using those steps, the amount of original material which is cut out, to be replaced by the new material, is automatically calculated by iMovie, and you don't have to worry about making sure that you've chopped out exactly the right amount to match whatever you're replacing it with.
The audio, benath in the Audio Track, should be entirely unaffected.
NOTE, though ..that if you then apply any transitions [except 'Overlap'] between the original material and the newly-inserted shots - this applies to adding transitions in any circumstances - then the entire video track will be shortened by the same duration as the duration of the transition(s), so if you're trying to keep the picture synchronised to the audio, then, er, sorry, but it'll drift out of sync!

Similar Messages

Extracted Audio Problem

Hello, I'm having a problem with my current project in iMovieHD. I learned through bitter experience that it was a good idea to extract/lock my audio back when I was using iMovie 4. Since using iMovieHD I have continued this practice, even though people tell me the shifting audio problem is no longer an issue. Anyway, today I extracted & locked the audio before I burned the DVD, and I find that the audio has been corrupted. It just makes random popping noises. When I put it in "View Waveform" mode, I can clearly see that the audio is still there. It just won't play now. Any suggestions as to what I can do to fix this problem. I can't go back to unextracting the audio now - too late for that. HELP!

Well, the back and forth using the camera worked - but it was a lot of labor. First I erased the two hundred or so other clips other than the five I wanted to work with. UN-extracted the audio, with the clips still in Slow Motion, and exported to the camera (which functioned, luckily). Quit iMovie, did not save the changes, and opened her back up, and re-imported the clips. Worked like a charm. Just like you said, it tricked iMovie into thinking the slow motion clip was just how the regular clip played. Stupid computer, haha.
Lastly, just to clear it up. I was attempting to slow the clip AND the audio down the same, so, for instance, like when someone yells "Noooooo," it makes the voice deeper and longer. It's funny. But when I would extract the audio from the clip, it would go all Matrix and funky on me. No big deal anymore.
And what the heck are you doing up at 4:45 in the morning? lol. Anyway, thanx for your input and time - I really appreciate it. All seems well. Thanks again, Matt.

Slo-Mo Extracted Audio Problem

Hey all. Thanx for reading. My problem is such - I'm running a forty minute flick in iMovie 4.0.1. The other laptop I'm working on is a 1.33 GHz PowerPC G4 (10.2.7). Now, a few of the clips I have I've put in slow motion. Because the movie is so long, I have to extract the audio from the whole thing or else the sound immediatly lags when I burn to a DVD. However, wherever the clip is slowed down, the audio sounds like those parts in The Matrix when they are getting sucked through the telephone - all choppy and digitized. I'm out of ideas. I tried saving the audio clip and slowing it down - nothing. I've tried extracting the audio before I slow it down - can't slow it down by itself. Even when I put it on this laptop and my sister's "dome" mac, (don't know the proper name,lol) it does the same thing. Please, anyone, help. TIA! Matt.

Well, the back and forth using the camera worked - but it was a lot of labor. First I erased the two hundred or so other clips other than the five I wanted to work with. UN-extracted the audio, with the clips still in Slow Motion, and exported to the camera (which functioned, luckily). Quit iMovie, did not save the changes, and opened her back up, and re-imported the clips. Worked like a charm. Just like you said, it tricked iMovie into thinking the slow motion clip was just how the regular clip played. Stupid computer, haha.
Lastly, just to clear it up. I was attempting to slow the clip AND the audio down the same, so, for instance, like when someone yells "Noooooo," it makes the voice deeper and longer. It's funny. But when I would extract the audio from the clip, it would go all Matrix and funky on me. No big deal anymore.
And what the heck are you doing up at 4:45 in the morning? lol. Anyway, thanx for your input and time - I really appreciate it. All seems well. Thanks again, Matt.

Extracting Audio Problem

I have a video in .mpg format that I want to extract the audio from to listen to on my iPod.
However, the option to extract the audio isn't available for this file, so I tried converting it to a different video file first.
But when I convert it to a different video file, the audio goes missing.
Any help?
I have the newest version of QT, v7.1.5

QT will not export the sound from mpegs, as this Apple article details:
QT Mpeg Limitations
There is a freeware that will export both sound and video from mpg to various Quicktime formats:
Mpeg StreamClip</A

Garbled Audio Problem after Extract Audio

Hi Everyone,
Have a problem that I hope someone can help me with.
I extracted audio from a long iMovie (about 1:55) today. When I try to play it back, you get this awful noise. Sounds like an airplane or a very mechanical stuttering sound.
HOWEVER, when I refer back to each extracted audio file (i.e. Voice 01, Voice 02 etc) they sound fine. Something is happening when iMovie tries to play the voice files. (there are 148 such files in my movie.)
I am completely stumped. I've made many movies in the exact same manner that I've made this one, and they sound fine.
Thank you in advance!

Hi Scott - it sounds a little bit like a topic dealt with by Karl Petersen a while back. He is a very knowledgeable helper on this forum. Here is his Post:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=534252&tstart=0
Maybe that might explain why you have that problem.

IDVD 4 Audio problems

My audio works just fine in both iMovie, and iDVD. When I play the DVD I burned the audio works just fine for the menus, and slideshows. After playing a movie for about 00:01:30 the audio cuts off for the rest of the movie. Any ideas?
2.5 Ghz PowerPc G5 Mac OS X (10.4.8) Using iLife 04

There can be some goofy audio problems. One recommendation is to Extract the Audio from your problem clip while in iMovie and see if this makes a difference in the DVD. [this creates a separate sound file, which sometimes fixes audio problems]
The point where the audio stops -- is it the beginning of a clip? near a transition? or?
John

Extracting Audio program shuts down

I am trying to extract the audio from a video clip in iMovie HD 5.0.2.
I have only had problems with this since purchasing this computer. My previous iMac with OS 10.3 had no problem with audio extraction.
Any suggestions?
Thanx!
iMac G5 20'' Mac OS X (10.4.2) 2.1 GHz 1.5GB DDR2 SDRAM

I was able to extract audio from the same video clip at work on an older iMac with no problem. I also cannot extract audio or export video from Quicktime (7)....I get the message that program failed. I am trying to do the same things with the same video clips that I do with other iMacs, and will not work on mine. I have a 500GB hard drive, and don't know if that would have anything to do with it. Also, my other iMac had a built in modem, and since I live in an area where I cannot get cable or dsl, I am now using an external dial up modem. Don't know if this could have anything to do with it.
I teach school and am making a video for a state convention, and need to be able to extract audio from video to burn on a CD. Any help would be very appreciated.
THANX!
iMac G5 20'' Mac OS X (10.4.2) 2.1 GHz 1.5GB DDR2 SDRAM

Extracted audio takes up too much space?

I'm editing a video that's about 1 hour and 20 minutes long.
I'm putting music over about 2/3 of it, and want to keep the audio from the rest, but I get the annoying audio blip between clips with transitions, so I tried extracting audio from the clips where I want to keep it.
It works fine for a little while, but the more clips I extract the audio from, the longer each one takes, and the whole program seems to get bogged down.
I understand the audio is extracted from the entire original clip. Is there any cure for this problem? I still have 18GB available on my hard drive and the extracted audio seems to be about 1GB.
Would really appreciate any help!
Thanks

Hi Punky,
I usually extract all the audio in one hit after I have finished editing the movie then deselect the audio box for the clips timeline. This way there are no hassles with the audio being out of sync.
As for it hanging during extraction: Which Mac are you using and how much RAM do you have? Have you run a system cache cleaner lately, like Onyx? What other apps do you have running while you are using iMovie? You could also try removing the iMovie.plist (preference) file.
Here's the link to Onyx. Install it and run 'automation'.
http://www.titanium.free.fr/pgs/english.html

Extracting Audio too Long

I've read all the forums, but just wondering if anyone know of any work-arounds to the horrendous problem of extracting the audio in iMovie5? Do I need to go back to iMovie4? It is simply not feasible to wait 10 minutes for each extraction, and having to do this 5 times in each project. I do numerous VHS to DVD conversions and this is just taking too long. Audio is out of sync unless it is extracted; and does anyone know why adding the chapter markers appears to cause this problem? Any help is appreciated!

IMovie HD extracts the audio from the WHOLE underlying media clip although it displays just the relevant part. This is why it can take a long time if the underlying media clip is large.
A workaround is to export audio from just the selected clips as 48 kHz AIF and import it back.
Anyway, I always extracted audio in iMovie 4 before burning to iDVD (to avoid audio sync issues). But I no longer do this in iMovie HD because I hope the audio sync issues were a thing of the past.

6.0.1 can extract audio, 6.0.2 can´t.

Version 6.0.2 does not allow to extract audio from a video clip within iTunes. 6.0.1 did (MP3, AAC, etc.).
Is this a bug or does Apple not want us to do so?

could be either one, just downgrade or now and see what 6.0.3 has in store for us. i've had so many problems with 6.0.2 its not even funny.

Extracted audio caused distortion in video timing

i need help!
i am making a music video for class.
from the edit menu i chose select all and then extracted audio, so that I could go in individually to each clip and delete the audio i did not need. when i tried to do a test delete and played the clip back the audio was gone like i wanted, but the song and the video were totally out of sync and my computer froze up and just played a bleep of sound here and showed a random clip there.
it took forever to unfreeze. it is still out of sync even after restarting my computer. the audio is still extracted from all the clips but the video and audio are still totally out of sync. I'm thinking if I could just unextract all the audio or revert it back to the original...that would solve the problem, but it will not let me do so?
some of the audio files are still available in my trash including audio for the whole video.
any suggestions?

Welcome to iMovie Discussions.
'Extracting' audio just copies it and puts it in an audio track underneath the video, and then silences the original sound within the video clip. So it does two jobs, instead of just silencing the audio.
To silence audio within a clip, just click on the little clock, at lower left, to show the full Timeline view, and then in the Menu at the top of the screen use 'View' and 'Show Clip Volume Levels'. You can then select a clip, and click on the little loudspeaker icon, alongside the volume level "Clip: 100%".
Your audio going out of sync sounds more like iMovie 4 rather than iMovie5/HD. But if your hard disc is close to being full on the iBook, that can cause problems for iMovie.
To fix things, you could try the following:
(1) As your audio should now be in separate audio clips beneath the video, you should be able to click on and then slide ('drag') your audio clips to line them up with the appropriate video, then use Apple+'L' to Lock the audio to the relevant video.
(2) As all the original audio remains within the video clips, but it's just had its volume reduced to zero during the 'Extraction', you could select the video clips, and return their volume up to 100% with that little volume slider at the bottom of the screen. When you've done that, UN-TICK (un-check) the little boxes at the extreme right which switches on or off the sound from the audio track(s), so that only the video track is ticked, and try playing the video: all the audio should now be back. If that plays OK, you can then just delete all the separate audio in the track(s) beneath, then Save your project. Then re-tick (check) the audio track boxes again, so that they're not disabled.
The original audio should now be restored, and you can do what you like with it. But it's always better to just reduce to zero any sound you don't want, rather than duplicating it - by 'Extracting' - and then just silencing the original ..and possibly the duplicate. That doubles the work which your Mac has to do during playback ..as it has to keep looking for the separate audio instructions, in its master project file, as well as playing back the video.
So (a) make sure that you've LOTS of spare space on your iBook, and (b) don't strain it too much by giving it too much to do, and (c) things may go smoother if you keep your video projects on a separate, fast (5400rpm or faster) FireWire hard disc (formatted as 'Mac OS Extended' or 'HFS+') plugged in to the iBook, rather than on the iBook's internal disc, and (d) make sure that you have no other programs running when you're editing with iMovie ..as iMovie needs as much of the Mac's attention as possible, and may be sluggish on a slow Mac if there are other programs running.
Hope this helps..

Solve my corrupted audio problem for $$ and eternal gratitude

My video project has corrupted audio suddenly. I've read about other audio problems when exporting, but all I did was save the project while editing, no export. I have the prefs set to extract audio at pasteover, which I've done a lot of for this 2-camera wedding shoot. I also have the second audio track occasionally used for background music. All three tracks (video, audio 1, audio 2) on the timeline have corrupted audio for the entire length of the project. It sounds like a helicopter whirr was added, it's very choppy. Also, both cpus are maxxed out and the process monitor shows iMovie utilizing 180%+ consistently. When iMovie isn't running, it's in the single digits. As soon as I load iMovie the cpus max out. This hasn't happened the whole project, just recently. So what changed? I don't know. I've been doing the same thing the whole time, the pasteovers, the add titles, the add background track, saving the project every couple of minutes. Each time I've saved, it looks like it's listing off different files or clips, not just the changed clips. I've tried deleting the QT movie it created in the cache and let it recreate to see if that would help, but it didn't. Would deleting the files in the waveform cache help? I've got about 30 hours into this project already and would love to resurrect this audio if possible. Either that or it's Jim Beam and call it a day. I thought this was non-destructive editing, but apparently that's just the originals? That doesn't help much when the whole project audio goes in the toilet and I'm looking at redoing this whole project. Anyone who can fix this is getting a big ol' sloppy kiss on the mouth and an iTunes gift certificate.

I've never personally seen the audio problems you describe, but there's some things I'd try before giving up. As you've probably read, it's not unusual to have playback problems in projects containing complex audio. The odds for it seem to increased in QuickTime 7.
1. Try opening the "TimeLine Movie.mov" that's inside the Cache folder of the project in QuickTime Player. If the audio plays okay there, the audio data is intact and you're seeing a playback anomaly in iMovie. (QuickTime Player may choke too, but don't conclude anything from that.)
To access the movie, Control-click on the project icon and choose "Show Package Contents".
2. Try exporting ONLY the project audio to an AIFF file, then import THAT back into the project and replace the audio you have. That will "flatten" the audio and make it much easier to play. (To be safe, on a copy of the project.)
Or if you have QuickTime Pro, you might try extracting all the audio from the Timeline movie.
To export to an AIFF file, choose File > Export, click on QuickTime, set the popUp menu to "Expert Settings", press Share, then from the top popUp menu, choose "Sound to AIFF". Choose the level of quality you want from the bottom popUp menu, then Save.
What may be going on here is that extracting audio has created MANY audio files in the project, some possibly very large. (Each time we extract audio from a clip that is part of a Media file shared with other clips, iMovie extracts ALL the audio from that Media file, not just the audio of the selected clip.) To see what audio files the project contains, look in the Media folder of the project.
If you get this solved, please say how.
Oh, and if you haven't updated to iMovie 7.1, you might try that. There were improvements in handling multiple audio tracks, I read somewhere.
BTW, it's usually not a good idea to change things inside the project package. iMovie can get pretty confused. The Timeline movie is replaced each time we save, so that's not a big deal.
Karl

Subtitles changing extracted audio position

I'm having a problem with my inserted subtitles. When I add them for some strange reason it causes my extracted audio clips to move around to radom places. I can't figure out why this is happening. Any help would be appreciated. I'm trying to reach a deadline and this is slowing the process up big time.
Thanks in advance

Hi Sue,
Yes I worked on this all day yesterday and just started again on it today. I made sure the clips were locked but they are still moving and overlapping each other as well.

Audio problem when importing analogue video

Hi
I use a Miglia Directors Cut box to import analogue video (VHS tapes) into imovie.
I've always had a problem of a mechanical sounding background noise totally obscuring the sound. In previous versions of iMovie extracting audio always solved the problem. Now I have upgraded and am using iMovie HD, extracting audio doesn't solve the problem.
Any ideas????
Thanks

I've always had a problem of a mechanical sounding background noise totally obscuring the sound
That does kinda suggest that the Miglia is not the ideal tool for the job!
Have you asked Miglia about the problem?

Audio Out of Sync in iDVD 6 Even When Extracting Audio iMovie 6

I realize this issue has been addressed since the first release of iDVD, but the previous workarounds of “Extracting Audio” in iMovie 6 no longer seem to keep the audio in sync when burning to iDVD 6. In fact, the audio is even out of sync in the iDVD preview now; i.e, the preview correctly shows the audio will be out of sync on the DVD-Video.
I have read at least one post that states Extract Audio (in iMovie) does nothing but pastes the audio on a separate track, but Apple’s own Knowledge Base offers this as a solution.
For those of us that have years of video that is analog or 12 bit, the Extract Audio seemed to be the solution, but no longer.
As a noteworthy side comment not meant to make this post too long, iMovie 6 is significantly slower in extracting the audio for a 2 -hour project, taking hours, and making the iMovie file 50MB. The process sometimes stalls to the point where “Force Quit” shows iMovie in Red and “Not Responding” but the process does eventually complete. The previous versions would keep the audio and video files in a separate folder and the iMovie file was a more manageable size. Any suggestions or insight would be appreciated.

I am fairly new to iDVD 6 and iMovie HD (widescreen), but I an currently assembling a highlight DVD for my daughter's softball team. We are in mid season. I had been creating separate movies (per game). I extracted audio and/or added sound and video effects to some of the movies clips. Alas not only do the extracted (original audio) and added audio (outdoor cheer) disappear but also the video special effects (slow motion) are not maintained in widescreen but are pillarboxed when copied/pasted.
At any rate, I am have now created a compilation iMovie and will be dumping new footage into it as we go. Editing the compilation, as well as editing separate "save as" individual game movies.
I only had 2-3 clips that had been audio manipulated and shared those back to my video camera and then reimported from camera back to the compilation project. The extracted audio with separate tracks are now a single audio clip but at least I have audio during those clips.
To end this ramble, knowing the limitations of messing with audio and trying to cut and paste to different movies I will now create duplicate movies with a master having no audio enhancements.
Dave
Thanks, Len
I hadn't thought about this option. It seems like a
lot of work. I wish there was an easier way. I have
archived ("Shared" to full dv quality) to DVD-ROM
discs all the raw .dv clips AFTER extracting the
audio, hoping that I could use these clips to
assemble custom DVD-Videos in the future, without
having to "Extract Audio" a second time. The .dv
clips all play perfectly with the audio synced in
Quicktime. Of course, the clip's audio was in sync
before the "Extract Audio" was applied. This sync
problem ONLY rears it's ugly head with iDVD Video
discs (don't know about DVD Pro). Thanks again for
the suggestion.
iMac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Extract Audio Problems

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