IMovie and Audio fine alignment..

Two questions:
1) I have a iMovie project where I have the movie and audio stream. I want to replace some parts of the movie with a different audio track (track 2). I have dragged and drop the second audio track to Track 2. Now how do I align that second audio track with finer granuality? When I try to move the track it moves in terms or 10-12 millisecs.. how do I make it move more precisely? or more that it starts at a particular frame?
2) I have another iMovie project where I want only the audio from it, so I need to export just the audio track to an aiff file. How do I do that?
Thanks.

Hi Seejo,
that was a very interesting question! I just made a test, and my presumption was confirmed: iMovie as a basic video edit app has a "quantization" of one frame... meaning, the smallest step in timeline is one frame, which is 1/25 or 1/30th of a second...-
and it seems so, I zoomed max into timeline, that this smallest piece of time is also valid for audio...
I'm afraid, even the BigBrother of iM, FCE doesn't do smaller steps, because here again, you need to lock to 1/25th/ 1/30th of a second...(maybe FCP offers fields = 1/50th/1/60th of a second)
to do more precise edits in audio, you need a designated audio edit app...

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Imovie and audio - dealing with separate stereo tracks in imovie

The footage I am working with has stereo recording - a boom mike (L) and a lapel mike (R) were used simultaneously. However, I want to use only the left track that has the boom mike because the guy with the lapel mike is talking too much and drowning out the conversations on the boom mike.
I see that there are separate tracks playing in imovie but I see no way to use only the left or right track in the audio. What do I need to do? if iMovie cannot handle it, can I export the audio as a stereo track and edit it in Garageband, then re-import it?

Hi
if iMovie cannot handle it, can I export the audio as a stereo track and edit it in Garageband, then re-import it?
Yes - iMovie HD or other - Can't handle this.
Export out - as QuickTime expert mode and Audio only and as .aiff
Put it into an Audio editor - like GarageBand or Audacity (free on internet)
Edit it and save as .aiff
Re-import into iMovie and put on bottom track - silencing out top-track.
Done this many times -Works.
Yours Bengt W

How to I synchronize video from Imovie and audio from garageband?

I recorded the audio in Garageband and the video thru my video camera. I then captured the video in Imovie and attached the audio to the project from garageband. I can't seem to be able to synchronize both.I clicked on the green area and clicked "trim" and when the waveform appeared, I moved the handle back and forth, but video and audio never synced. I also went to my project and tried to pull the video or the audio back and forth, but it also never synced.
What are the steps to take to achieve this?

If you want the video and audio to automatically sync, Final Cut Pro X is the tool of choice, but it is more expensive than iMovie, and it has a big learning curve.
With iMovie, you can still do this by showing the wave forms and lining them up visually. There is a nuance that in iMovie, you must have video. You cannot have sound that exists outside a video element. For you, this means that if your GB track is the same length or longer than your iMovie video track, you cannot shift it side to side. This is easily fixed by adding some dummy clips before and after your video so there is room to slide the track back and forth. You can find these "Black Background" clips (and others) under the Maps tab.
I recently had to sync up some audio with video. Here is a post that explains in detail how I did it. It may help. Unfortunately, in my case, I was syncing the audio from 2 cameras. This is easier than syncing video with an audio track, but some of the tricks may still apply.
If anything still does not make sense, please ask.
One more thing. When you have an audio track like one created in GB, it is not simple in iMovie to delete a chunk of it and delete the corresponding video at the same time. Once again, this is a task better suited for Final Cut Pro X. It is possible to export your movie to the Media Browser and then continue editing it in GB, so that may be an option for you.

TS2289 Audio in iMovie 11 files but missing in sections when shared to iDVD. The movie and audio plays fine in iMovie but my burned iDVD movie is missing some audio .

I imported a movie into iMovie 11 from a Canon Vixia HFR 300 SD card with no problem. I have a new iMac running OsX 18.8.4 I think. I added chapter markers and shared it with iDVD. And burned it to a DVD. Towards the end of this 30 minute movie the sound just stops. I do remember some screen came up when I wanted to burn DVD that said something was wrong with files but I couldn't figure what do to fix it and allowed me to continue. Any ideas?

Hi
Either the problem is in iMovie or in iDVD
two notes
No Audio in iMovie
Most common origin is use of audio from iTunes.
Work around -
• Select needed audio to one new playlist
• Copy out this as an Audio-CD .aiff (not .mp3)
• Use this in the movie-project
Other origins are
1. strange / alient file formats as -
• .mp3, .avi, .wmv etc
• Convert them into .aiff 48kHz 16-bit and use this
2. the Mac is set wrongly in regard of midi -
• Close iMovie and other programs
• Start GarageBand
• Make a new GB-project and play some notes
• Close GB and Save
• Now try iMovie again
3. No audio when playback in iMovie 1 to HD 6.
a. in iMovie pref. - deselect ” Playback via Camera”
b. in System preferences - see that Audio out is not set to zero. Mine often does this
without me knowing why.
4. iMovie’08 & 09 & 11
• Toggle audio-scimming by cmd-K
Stuttering audio and video
1. FileVault is ON - Turn it off
2. More than 50 audio files in a movie-project
Mix down to one audio clip
3. Project is stored on one (USB) external hard disk - should be a FireWire one
4. the External hard disk is not Mac OS Extended formatted - but
UNIX/DOS/FAT32/Mac OS Exchange and this will not work for Video.
5. To little free space on internal boot hard disk.
I go for a minimum of 25Gb free space when project is imported and edited and this goes for
4x3 SD Video. For 16x9 HD my guess would be about 5 times more at least.
Neither Mac OS, iMovie or iDVD can address any other hard disk than the boot drive for it’s
scratch files. (Unlike Final Cut Express/Pro where You select scratch disk/s)
6. Network storage - DOESN’T WORK
No audio on DVD disc.
Most common origin.
1. Imported audio from iTunes.
• In iTunes copy out as an Audio-CD .aiff (Same as played on standard Stereo CD - no .mp3)
• Use this in Your movie project
2. Low - Free Space on Start-up/Boot/Internal/Mac OS Hard disk makes it hard for iMovie to work as intended.
Down to 1.3 GB and it doesn’t work - especially audio don’t migrate over to Media Browser
(iM’08 & 09)
3. Material in iMovie’08 & 09 - Shared to Media Browser and here selected as Large
large.m4v. It silenced out this project in iDVD. By making a slight alteration - provoking it to ask for a new Share/Publish to Media Browser and here selecting 640x480 - and audio was back when a new iDVD project was created including this movie.
Minuscular - - 176x144
Mobile - - - - - 480x360
Medium - - - - 640x480
Large - - - - - - 720x540 960x540
HD - - - - - - - - 1280x720
4. Strange audio formats like .mp3, .avi etc.
• Change them to .aiff. Use an audio editor like Audacity (free)
5. Main audio is set to off in System Preferences - Does this by it self - Don’t know why
Cheque Audio-Out resp. Audio-In
6. Ed Hanna
Had the same problem; some Googling around gave me a kludgy, but effective fix
Downgrade Perian from recent versions back to version 1.0.
That worked for me, and so far I haven't encountered any deficiencies — except it takes more advanced versions of Perian to enable QuickTime to handle subtitles in .srt format — that I have noticed.
7. GarageBand fix.
In this set audio to 44.1 kHz (Klaus1 suggestion)
(if this don’t work try 48 kHz - me guessing)
Before burning the DVD.
• Do a DiskImage (File menu and down)
• Double click on the .img file
• Test it with Apple DVD-player
If it’s OK then make Your DVD.
Burn at x1 speed.... (or x4)
• In iDVD 08 - or - 09
• Burn from DiskImage with Apple’s Disk Utilities application
•OR burn with Roxio Toast™ if You got it
Yours Bengt W

MPEG4 video from imovie is sluggish and audio out of sync

Hi y'all,
I am new to this. So I need some hand holding here. I am working with video that was exported in MPEG4 video from imovie on a mac.
The Camera I used is a Sony FX7 HD camera with SD tape.
So Now I am trying to edit the video using Premiere Pro CS3 creative suite.
Import into CS3 is fine. Playing the imported video in the source monitor is fine as well. All looks well.
However, here are the challenges I am having:
1. When I try to play it in the Program monitor its very sluggish. Audio plays fine but picture lags behind.
2. And once I edit the the video and try to export it as flash video or as a windows media, the video and audio are out of sync.
The video is choppy as well.
Details: source video is 720x480 and trying to export to 320x240
My project details are:
DV-NTSC standard 48khz
Video is 10 min long

OK, not my choice of workflows, but... I assume that the MP4's are H.264 encoded. There are many of these. Three common ones are Lead, MainConcept and Apple. Some find that one works better than the others. These are not the ONLY versions, but are common. You might want to explore others, depending on which one you have installed. G-Spot can tell you which you have.
Next, you can Render your Timeline, to get things as smooth as possible.
Note that the MP4 files are heavily compressed already. Quality has been lost, and there is nothing that can be done about that. When you Export to, say DVD, you will recompress that material, and loose even more.
In the future, have your Mac-person do the Capture to .MOV [Animation CODEC]. Or, do it yourself to DV-AVI Type II w/ 48KHz 16-bit PCM/WAV Audio.
Not sure of any other ways to get the MP4's playing more smoothly. Much will depend on both your CPU and on your system's I/O sub-system, i.e. your HDD's, their size, speed, controller type and how they are utilized.
Good luck,
Hunt

Sound is out of sync in iMovie and video freezes at a part but audio continues. How do i fix this???

Can someone please help me. I have even tried the youtube videos and can't seem to get the sound to sync up on my videos in Imovie. Also, one part just stalls and stays on the same frame but the audio continues on fine.
I NEED HELP!!! This is for school and I can't hand this in all wacked out

44100 Hz is fine and the audio codec is fine. Most camcorders record at 48000 Hz, but audio CDs are recorded are 44100 Hz, and iMovie handles them well.
However, your video frame rate is an odd number. A camcorder in the US will usually record at 29.97 frames per second. In Europe, the standard is 25 fps. On some cameras, you also have the option of 24 fps (same as a Hollywood movie).
Your camera is recording at 14.89, which is about half of the 29.97 standard. I am guessing that the video is from a webcam or maybe a cell phone or still camera. It is difficult to sync audio over long periods of time if your video is not conforming to the standards. Cameras like this may record at varioable rates, so sometimes you get more than 14.89 and sometimes less. Your best bet would be to make an iMovie project at 29.97 fps, so that it will basically repeat each frame of your video twice to get up to 29.78 fps. Even so, it will drift out of sync over time.
If you had Final Cut Pro X, you could use the tools in FCP to conform your video and audio to a 29.97 timeline and probably keep it synced better. Long term, your best bet is to use a camcorder that can shoot 29.97 (or 30) fps.
Short term, I would suggest keeping your clips in your project short. For your 15 minute clip, drag in the first minute, then the 2nd minute, etc. untill you have it all. Even so, it may drift. Detaching audio is probably not necessary.

IMovie duplicating audio and video

I'm trying to import PhotoBooth movies into iMovie. I'm choosing the "import movies" file in iMovie, and finding the videos from "pictures" "photobooth," and they seem to upload fine. But when they're done uploading and I try to play them some of the clips have no sound, and some of them have duplicate audio (audio from another clip, but not the one that's supposed to be playing). iMovie is also importing duplicates of my clips. I've opened all my videos in QuickTime as well, and they work fine there. I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong or if it's a glitch with iMovie. Please help me if you've had a similar problem! I appreciate it.

Everything works fine when the movie is played in the preview mode but the export process (in any format) mess up with the audio.
If you have made speed changes (such as slow motion) using your own custom speeds, audio glitches may appear in your exported movie. Only use the presets that appear on the speed slider. They are 12.5%, 25%, 50%, 100%, 200%, 400% and 800%. Don't manually enter percentages such as 33%, 75%, 128% - ONLY use the presets. The audio glitches generally don't show up in preview, only when the project is exported (shared).
This is a well known bug in iMovie '09 and there have been many posts about it. Let's hope a future upgrade will rectify the problem!
John

IMovie bad audio on some pc's and dvd's but perfect on others?

I'm using iMovie 09 8.0.4.
After creating my movie from video shot on a digital video camera, everything seems to be fine on my iMac. I add music files, titles, etc.--all looks great. But when I upload the finished video to YouTube, some pc's won't play the audio from the video shoot. Oddly, it plays the iMovie music just fine...but the audio of the people being interviewed is skippy, scratchy, and barely audible. Again, that's only on some PCs...on others, it seems to work fine.
Thinking it might be the direct iMovie to YouTube upload, I tried exporting the videos to Quicktime first and then uploading to YouTube. That didn't change anything...same problem on some PCs. And those PCs that have problems with my videos' audio play other YouTube movies just fine.
Here's the oddest part of the problem: I created a DVD with iDVD and the Quicktime files from my iMovies. On my DVD player at home? Worked perfect. But on a DVD player at work, same audio problems occurred: music from iMovie worked fine, but the audio from the filmed interviews was distorted. Any ideas why this might be?
Our YouTube channel is www.youtube.com/ifalconcerritos should you want to see firsthand what I'm referring to.
Thanks for any ideas,
Steve

I'm using iMovie 09 8.0.4.
After creating my movie from video shot on a digital video camera, everything seems to be fine on my iMac. I add music files, titles, etc.--all looks great. But when I upload the finished video to YouTube, some pc's won't play the audio from the video shoot. Oddly, it plays the iMovie music just fine...but the audio of the people being interviewed is skippy, scratchy, and barely audible. Again, that's only on some PCs...on others, it seems to work fine.
Thinking it might be the direct iMovie to YouTube upload, I tried exporting the videos to Quicktime first and then uploading to YouTube. That didn't change anything...same problem on some PCs. And those PCs that have problems with my videos' audio play other YouTube movies just fine.
Here's the oddest part of the problem: I created a DVD with iDVD and the Quicktime files from my iMovies. On my DVD player at home? Worked perfect. But on a DVD player at work, same audio problems occurred: music from iMovie worked fine, but the audio from the filmed interviews was distorted. Any ideas why this might be?
Our YouTube channel is www.youtube.com/ifalconcerritos should you want to see firsthand what I'm referring to.
Thanks for any ideas,
Steve

New to iMovie, create live video and audio?

Hello, I am trying to create a video of a live musical performance to post on youtube and have figured out how to use the isight to get a video but can I use the biult in mics to record live audio with the video?

Hello, Nateomite
As Karsten says, you will certainly get better results and much more convenience with a camcorder.
However, if you decide to use your MacBook, the built-in mic can record audio with your video:
in iChat: iChat > Video > Record Chat records both video and audio.
in iMovie: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=iMovie/7.0/en/10172.html
tells you how to record using your MacBook's built-in iSight (and mic.)
Other movie/video recording apps may work differently, but most allow sound with video.
EZ Jim
Message was edited by: EZ Jim for other apps
G5 DP 1.8GHz w/Mac OS X (10.5.7) PowerBook 1.67GHz (10.4.11) iBookSE 366MHz (10.3.9) External iSight

With newer MacBook Air, sending both video and audio to an LG TV works fine, but I want to send the audio to a sound bar attached to the TV. Any way to do this?

I am trying to get audio to play through the soundbar attached to the TV for great sound. Works fine with Apple TV, but on the MacBook Air, system preferences will only find the TV speakers. If I change the settings on the TV to external speakers (the soundbar), then I get no sound at all. The HDMI connection does what it is supposed to do, providing video and audio, but the audio can only go to the TV. I don't know if you can go backward and send only video through HDMI and then connect to the soundbar through the mini jack ports on the computer and the soundbar. Any solutions will be appreciated.

its important to do this in the correct order so the camera will be senced by the Mac and to prevent the Firewire connection from electrical damage:
power down your Mac
connect firewire from camera to Mac
power on camera and insert tape in camera and play back
power up Mac
start QuickTime
File > Preferences > record tab
video source - select the camera you have
sound source - select the camera you have
quality - select device native
the video should show in the QuicTime window
a green line below video will show presence of sound-it will play through the speakers if they are selected in system prefernces
rewind tape and playback
click on red button to start recording

I am trying to use imovie and i have never had this problem before. All of my videos are completly grey and when you try and play them all i get is a black screen but i still hear audio. Can you please help and tell me what i need to do. Thank you

I am trying to use imovie and i have never had this problem before. All of my videos are completly grey and when you try and play them all i get is a black screen but i still hear audio. Can you please help and tell me what i need to do. Thank you

Make sure all of the videos used in the project that is having that problem are from the same event. If they are from multiple events, move them all into one event.

I HAVE COMPLETED SEVERAL IMOVIES AND FINALIZED JUST FINE. NOW I GET THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE FROM MY LATEST PROJECT. "The project could not be prepared for publishing because an error occurred. (File already open with write permission)"! What is going on

I HAVE COMPLETED SEVERAL IMOVIES AND FINALIZED JUST FINE. NOW I GET THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE FROM MY LATEST PROJECT. "The project could not be prepared for publishing because an error occurred. (File already open with write permission)"! What is going on?

Hi
Error -49 opWrErr File already open with write permission
Trash the preference files while application is NOT Running.
Easiest way to find out if this is the problem is by:
• Create a new User-Account
• Log out of Your old one and into this
• Re-try iMovie
If it now works OK - then 99.9% the problem is iMovie pref. file that needs to be trashed.
from Karsten Schlüter
Some users notice on exporting larger projects from within iMovie that this operation is aborted with an 'error -49'
This issue occurs only on MacOs machines using 10.7x
try switching-off the Local Mobile Backup
in Terminal copy/paste
sudo tmutil disablelocal
Re-launch Mac
Yours Bengt W

I made a movie with iMovie and cannot get the audio when I burn into dvd. I would like to transfer video to a dvd to be played in any computer and TV

I made a movie with iMovie and cannot get the audio when I burn into dvd. I would like to transfer video to a dvd to be played in any computer and TV

Go to the Map mode in your iDVD project and make sure the blue bin at the left is empty. That's where you drag slideshows to if you want the DVD to open immediately to that slideshow and bypass the menu.
Click to view full size
If there is an item in there drag it out.
OT

How to align or sync video and audio?

In Premiere 13, once I have added a video/audio clip and then either slow down the clip or add photos in between the clip causes the video and audio to be out of sync. How does one re-align or re-sync the clip once it has been edited? Thanks

mrsndmn
On what computer operating system is your Premiere Elements 13 running?
There are several ways to avoid disturbing an existing Timeline when you are adding to it.
1. Using what are called keyboard modifiers, such as Ctrl or Alt (Windows).
2. Grouping block of clips so that the clips move together
The following video tutorial is offered for informational and not promotional reasons
Premiere Elements: Arranging clips on the Timeline using modifier keys | lynda.com - YouTube
It uses a version of Premiere Elements earlier than 13, but the principles involved are the same.
The video and audio that are going out of sync.... are they linked or grouped before the addition to the existing Timeline?
After the fact, you will need to move the Timeline components back in place.
If the video and audio are not linked or group, you can
(a) highlight the clip, hold down the Alt key of the computer main
keyboard and tap the appropriate arrow key for a 1 frame per tap nudge of the clip.
(b) highlight the clip, hold down the Shift+Alt key of the computer main
keyboard and tap the appropriate arrow key for a 5 frames per tap nudge of the clip.
Please review and consider. If questions or need clarification on the above, please do not hesitate to ask.
Thank you.
ATR

IMac will not play the DVD that I have made on imovie and burned on iMac SuperDrive ?? (DVD plays fine on household DVD player and also play fine in Toshiba laptop ) Why not on the iMac - anyone know???

iMac will not play the DVD that I have made on imovie and burned on iMac SuperDrive ?? (DVD plays fine on household DVD player and also plays fine on Toshiba laptop ) Why not on the iMac - anyone know???

There are many reasons this could be the case but whether an optical disc can be read or not is a function of:
The reflective media layer of the disc
Whether the burned disc was a DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW
The brand, model, and production lot of the disc
The specific frequency of the Write lasers that burned the disc
The specific frequency of the Read lasers that are attempting to read the disc
Are the Read lasers in the drive working (it is common for one set of lasers in a drive to fail while others continue to work)
How old are the Write and Read drives (laser frequencies change with age)
Is there dust on the read laser
Is there dust on the read lens
etc.
At one time it was estimated that fewer than 80% of all burned discs were readable in 90% of the drives. That has, I believe improved over time but at the same time it seems the faillure rate of lasers in the drives has increased but that may simply be the result of how many different read and write lasers there are in today's superdrives. Fortunately todays drives are a lot less expensive the replace -- now that Apple no longer installs optical drives in their computers.

IMovie and Audio fine alignment..

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