New iMovie Audio Ducking

After upgrading to the newest iMovie (version 10.0), I've found what seems to be dramatically less control over "audio ducking." Where in previous versions I could set a clip to duck all others to a broad range of mixes, this newest version of iMovie seems to limit that control.
Even by boosting a clip's level to 400% and setting the ducking level to it's lowest setting (strange that there's only a slider and no longer a percentage shown), my audio mix is still unacceptable. In other words, my background music still gets in the way of the audio of my primary clip.
I'd like to use this new version of iMovie but find that I must use iMovie '11 (version 9.0.9) in order to have more flexibility with ducking.
Is there a setting or solution that I'm missing? Or is there a fix? Thanks in advance.

I think I found it in the iMovie help.
Adjust audio
iMovie has a number of tools you can use to automatically enhance the audio in your movie. You can boost the volume level of quiet audio in a clip, apply an equalizer preset, reduce background noise, and lower the volume of other audio playing along with a clip.
Show
Automatically enhance audio
Hide
Lower the volume of other clips that play at the same time
When you have background sound or other clips with audio playing at the same time as a clip you want to hear in the foreground, you can automatically lower the volume of the other clips so that they don’t compete with the clip you want to hear.
For example, if you record a section of voiceover audio, you can have iMovie lower the volume of background music and other clips while the voiceover clip plays.
In the timeline, select the clip whose audio you want to hear in the foreground.
Click the Adjust button in the toolbar.The adjustments bar appears above the viewer.
To show the volume controls, click the Volume button.
Select the “Lower volume of other clips” checkbox.The volume of the clips that aren’t selected is lowered.
Drag the slider to set the volume of other clips relative to the volume of the selected clip.
Show

Similar Messages

Where is audio fade in new iMovie 10.0.1?

Just got my new iMac loaded with the new iMovie and am feeling my way through it (wish they had better tutorials). One thing i am unable to find is the manual audio fade in and fade out controls that were obvious with iMovie '09. I really hope they didn't do away with those for some reason--it's a key tool for managing audio in video clips and music. Thanks for any info.

I have a movie made up of 10 discrete clips right now. I was able to find a tiny dot to adjust the fade in on only two of the clips. No dots at the end of any of the clips to drag to make an audio fade out. I blew up the size of the clips as big as possible and hovered over the audio portion of each one, but no sign of a tiny dot any place except those two clips. (All the clips are from the same speech so I don't think it's the source.) Any ideas about finding those fade in/fade out dots? (Have to say the old way was easier--less squinting.) Thanks.

Import imovie audio - sounds like donald duck...

Hello,
I imported an imovie soundtrack that I made recently (from my camcorder). The audio track sounds high pitched, donald duck like. what am I doing wrong ?
Also, I want to process the imovie track to remove some echo that was present in the room during recording. What is the easiest method to reduce/remove this - if possible?
Thanks - Max
PowerBook G4 12 inch DVI Mac OS X (10.3.7) iLIFE 05

I imported an imovie soundtrack that I made recently
(from my camcorder). The audio track sounds high
pitched, donald duck like. what am I doing wrong ?
The pitch and tempo issue sounds like a sample rate problem, but I thought iMovie audio was recorded at 48K which would make it play lower and slow in GB. For background on this:
http://www.thehangtime.com/gb/gbfaq2.html#toofast
Also, I want to process the imovie track to remove
some echo that was present in the room during
recording. What is the easiest method to
reduce/remove this - if possible?
You can play with the Gate effect to cut out software sounds, but that would only be during the silent passages.
--HangTime [Will Compute for Food] B-|>

IMovie audio issues. Fine in timeline, but when rendering to iTunes or Media Browser, audio from certain portions of movie files are heard in places where it shouldn't be !

iMovie 11 audio issues. Fine in timeline, but when rendering to iTunes or Media Browser, audio from certain portions of movie files are heard in places where it shouldn't be !
I have created a project where I have a montage of photos and video clips edited together with music under. Some audio portions of the video files are being muted in some areas and those portions are being heard in another part of the project. This is not for all video clips only certain ones.
The project plays fine in the timeline, but when I render the project thru iTunes or Media Browser, this is when the project goes corrupt.
I tried detaching the Audio from the video clips and this somewhat worked, but the original problem still exists with certain audio still being heard where it's not supposed to be.

I have a fix - or rather, a workaround.
WARNING: It is lengthy, but still far better than starting a new project from scratch.
I had this same issue and none of my transitions/clips were at custom speeds, nor did I have anything else weird going on. Unfortunately there is nothing you can do within iMovie to fix this, at least there wasn't for me. iMovie is BY FAR the buggiest software I have ever used and if you haven't already spent hours slaving away on a project, you are so much better off using just about anything else to edit your video.
...But let's assume you have already spent many hours working on your project and you don't want to start all over. Well then, you have at least one option.
It's a pain in the neck, but it's infinitely better than restarting your project from scratch.
This will require:
A software called Soundflower (which is free) and some kind of audio editing software (I use Logic, but really any should work).
1.) You're going to need to export your video with the messed up audio. Typically if you're audio is messing up, you're video is at least usually working just fine (at least it always does for me).
2.) You're going to need to open that video in your audio software and import only the audio. If your software doesn't give you this option, then you're going to need to record the audio from your video using the audio software and Soundflower. You can find tutorials on how to do this, but it's honestly pretty straightforward once you start playing around with you Mac's audio I/O settings. Remember to have your computer's volume all the way up when doing this.
3.) Watch/listen to your video and make notes of where the audio errors occur. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND writing down times too, as they will be extremely helpful later.
4.) Now were going to rip some working audio from the iMovie project itself. Go back into your iMovie project and only play back audio while in the edit window for this step. Do NOT play your project back in full screen.
This part is key: if you try to play back your project from the beginning the audio will usually still mess up. So, what you're gonna have to do is go back on your edit window timeline right before these errors occur and play that specific clip back while recording this working audio with Soundflower and your audio software. Essentially we're only recording the parts of the audio where these errors occur, so try to do this in order if you can. Try to leave several seconds of audio in before the error - that way we can use it as reference when we construct our new audio track.
5.) Now in your audio software you should have your original error-filled audio track and the new clips that we just captured. This part can be painstaking if you're not familiar with audio editing softwares, but as you'll learn, it's really not that hard.
You're going to look at your original audio track and compare it to your new working audio clips. You should be able to notice where those new clips are supposed to go by looking at the identical (or close to identical) waveform shapes in your original audio track. The two should correspond with one another. If you don't understand what I mean right now, you will when you start playing around with the audio. This is why marking times is very important.
Take your new clips and split them up if you haven't already, that way you can drag them around and edit them separately from one another. Essentially your going to line these new clips up with original and then replace the original parts with new ones.
We need to get this as precise as possible, so start off by getting them as close as you can with your naked eye, and then use a zoom tool to zoom in as much as possible so that you can get them lined up PERFECTLY, or at least extremely close. In some softwares you can just drag these new clips on top of the old track, but most of the time you will need to actually cut out the old piece and replace it with the new one. In doing this, zoom in and make sure that you are NOT cutting out a bigger space than your new clip will fill - otherwise you will have small gaps in your audio.
VERY IMPORTANT: Also make sure that this new audio track starts at the EXACT SAME time as your original - otherwise your new audio will be out of sync.
I know this part can really suck if you're not used to audio editing, but at this point, there is little other choice.
6.) Once you are done with this, export your newly pieced together audio track.
7.) Now open iMovie and create a NEW project. Re-import the video that you exported earlier that has the messed up audio. This might take a while, so just be patient.
8.) Then right click the clip and select "Detach Audio". This will do just that - allowing you to edit the audio separately from the video. Now delete this audio.
9.) Now, import the new, perfect audio track that we just made and make sure that it starts at the start of the project. Make sure it's in sync and that everything works.
Now just export your new video with the working audio and you should be done. Since we have given iMovie the audio with no editing actually being done in iMovie, it does not have to generate its own audio now and you should have absolutely no errors now - unless there is some that you forgot to take out earlier.
YOU'RE FINALLY DONE!!!
I know this entire process *****, but if you're that far into your project, there is little else that you can do. Now you've learned your lesson:
DON'T USE IMOVIE EVER AGAIN.
I hope this helped!

Why doesn't my audio ducking work?

it worked all throughout my video project. now with the last touches and due date coming up quickly, I can't seem to get the audio ducking to work. I feel like I have tried everything. PLEASE, please help. I am incredibly frustrated with this program.

WHat version of iMovie, and what device are you editing on?

Voiceover in new iMovie lacks major low frequency and general quality?

Anyone else observing that voiceover in the new iMovie on Mavericks sounds remarkably different?
Me: recording voiceover with the built-in mic on an early 2013 macbook pro - compared audio with previous old iMovie/mountain lion, quite a large difference. Audio previously sounded admirably rich and decent for a built in mic, but now sounds faint, tinny, missing serous low end. I've messed with the new equalizer features for voiceover - the 'Bass boost' setting certainly helped, but it overcompensates and sounds muddy in comparison to how the previous audio was.
Haven't tried using the mic in other applications to see whether the problem is local to iMovie - curious if anyone else has noticed this?
On the plus, the new interface suits me much better, and for some reason rendering movies seems to be taking about 5 minutes compared to previously 5 hours? Ok I'll take that.

I have the same problem. Just tried using iMovie 13 for the first time (have been using FCE). My microphone is a Blue Yeti, which gives superb results in FCE.
Does anybody know what's going on?

Problems with audio ducking with Voiceovers in iMovie08

I think I have a basic misunderstanding of how audio ducking works. I have a project made up of still pictures with transitions between each picture. I have added background music to the project.
Next, I have added voiceovers using the voice over tool in iMovie08. I select the clip, then select audio, and ducking at 15%. Some of them work great, others will duck audio for 2 or 3 seconds and then the background music shoots back up to its normal volume, and finally some do not work at all, no matter what I try.
I have spent quite a bit of time trying to figure it out and could use some help.
Many Thanks in Advance.

This is sad. Discussions reports 2 helpful answers and 1 solved answer. I see no answers. I too am having problems. No matter what I set for ducking (including zero%), it is ignored for my voiceover and the background track plays full volume. I've had to resort to dropping the background volume which is not what I want for the initial part of my clip.
Looks like I found the reason just after posting this. In someone's wisdom, the ducking is ignored if the voiceover clip starts too close to the overall clip start. By moving it later, it somehow realized that ducking is required.
Ducking should cause all other audio tracks (including background tracks) to fade to the percent listed.
This is a bug with iMovie 7.1.4 at least. (Still, it's a bug. If you want to start ducking early, that would make more sense than no ducking at all)
Message was edited by: Pecos Bill

New iMovie help??

The new iMovie doesn't mark which pictures I have in my slideshow... any ideas on how to enable that preference?

I'm not a fan of movie trailers myself, they are nice but not really what I would have liked added to iMovie.
Personally I hope they abandon adding anymore features to trailers, and add better audio tools to the main editing system.
That said, iMovie iOS is what it is, a simple portable edit app that does a reasonable job.
I think trailers are just simple templates that are not made to be complex or too customizable.
tmntguy wrote:
I feel this app has a lot of potential, however, it still seems to be lacking in some areas.
You can make suggestions of what you would like to see in the app here:
http://www.apple.com/feedback/imovie_ios.html

IMovie audio stutter+ iDvD audio encoding = Toast ?

In the 8 days since I finally got into iMovie, then iDvD, I've encountered both the skittery / unstable audio Playback of iMovie audio & now iDvd's audio encoding issues . [ app "not responding" while still chuggin' away, etc\etc. ]
It was good to hear from an iApp specialist that these are known issues being 'addressed'.
But it's quite disheartening when a GoOgle ( or Forum ) Search shows woes & hope from 2005 & before.
Will iLife 7 iron out much ? [ or introduce a whole new set for us to spend months grappling with ? ]
My real question here, well the head-of-the-line question ! . . . is > after reading a Macobserver post from 2/06 on Toast 7, I have to wonder if it fills in many gaps and opens the pallette while solving some problems.
It doesn't have slide transitions , but it's work could go to iMovie/iDvd ??
( too many toys in the toybox !! -- pardon my overwhelment )
One hard-fact question that's more answerable is > After my 1st "hung in audio // not responding" Disk Image burn , a Wec-Chat Agent considered it 'dead' & I cancelled it. Is there a headless body in a folder somewhere ?, and is that what "delete encoded assets" is for ??
_TIA_
~~~=Dave

So !...I'm a' confused w/ all the ways to 'archive'
an iMovie project. i created an .img, a
Data-Disc...which could burn a DvD of the project,
but not open in iMovie...yes ?
Warning: we're going to jump a bit from topic to topic.
• An archive is a backup copy of something. The purpose of the archive is to preserve the thing as it exists today. An archive of an iMovie project "captures" it as it exists today. If necessary, months from now you can use the archive to re-create the project as it exists today.
• The archive can take many forms. It can be stored as a disk image — a file stored on your computer that uses a .dmg suffix and looks and acts like a hard disk. Or it can be a ".zip" file created in the Finder. Or it can be a simple duplicate of the project stored on a hard disk or DVD. (A disk image file or zip file does not save significant hard disk space. An iMovie project can't be compressed to any significant extent.)
• iMovie's menu command File > Burn Project to Disc is there for the convenience of iMovie users wanting to copy the project to a DVD — as a computer file. But iMovie can burn a DVD only if the entire iMovie project fits on one disc. Technically, it doesn't create an standalone archive, it simply copies the project — with all the files and folders the project contains — onto the DVD, then burns the DVD.
• The Finder lets us create an standalone archive of a file or folder, using the File > Create Archive Of command. The command copies everything to a file that has a ".zip" suffix. If we want, we can tell the Finder to burn the zip file onto a DVD. The zip file has to fit on one DVD.
• Backup applications like Retrospect can create archives too. Retrospect can store the archive on a variety of media. The backup is stored in a format only Retrospect understands.
• Most of us also have another backup solution available to use with iMovie. Exporting the iMovie project back to tape is a good backup. For most projects, the clips return as clips when the tape is re-imported to a new project. Clips like titles and transitions are no longer editable, of course. Note you must re-import the material to access it.
IS there a way to save a 29 GB project to one DvD
• Regrettably, no. An iMovie (or iDVD) project cannot be larger than will fit on one DVD. Most iMovie projects are larger, of course. For them, the File > Burn project to disk command cannot be used.
• Software exists, however, that lets us back up an iMovie (or iDVD) project across multiple DVDs. These include Toast and Retrospect, the pre-eminent Mac backup software.
• iMovie projects stored on DVDs have one huge disadvantage, however. We must copy the project back to the hard drive to open it in iMovie. iMovie doesn't let us open a project stored on a DVD, for Movie can't write to the disc. (The DVD is, by definition, a locked medium.)
Note too that if the backup DVD is created by Retrospect, Retrospect is required to copy it back to the hard disk. (Sorry, I'm not familiar with Toast.)
• The Finder's File > New Burn Folder lets us burn computer files to a DVD as files. It can copy disk images, zip files and any other kind of computer files and folders to the DVD. Used in this way, the DVD functions like a small hard disk. It can't burn across multiple DVDs.
• A DVD containing data files is different from the DVD iDVD normally creates for us. DVD Normally creates TV-playable DVDs, not data-file DVDs. For these, iDVD encodes the video of our iMovie projects as MEPG-2 video, the language a DVD player understands. No computer data files are involved, at least not files a computer normally understands.
• The iDVD command File > Archive Project serves a different purpose than the archive of an iMovie project. Yes, it backs up the iDVD project too, but we usually make it for a different reason.
The iDVD project has no video or audio of its own, just a link to the reference movie iMovie stores inside the iMovie project. If we want to be able to burn a DVD of the current iMovie project some time later, or burn a DVD after the iMovie project has been discarded, we will have a problem. The source material may be gone. The iDVD archive solves this problem by storing a copy of the source material inside its archive.
So If you want to preserve an iDVD project as it exists today you can tell iDVD to create an archive the includes all the necessary source material from the iMovie project. Now the source material will be "static". We can open the archive sometime later, edit the DVD menus if we want, and burn another DVD.
• iDVD also offers the File > Save As Disk image. This command is not associated with archiving. This command is almost the same as burning a DVD, but it "burns" the encoded material as a disk image file instead of a physical DVD.
The disk image can be played in DVD Player on our Macs, and we can use Disk Utility to burn a DVD of the disk image.
"Burning" a disk image from iDVD is a good way to check the encoding by iDVD. If the disk image "burns" okay, the physical DVD we burn with Disk Utility will probably be okay too.
• As you suggested, the best solution may be an external hard drive. It's not only the easiest to use, it lets us access the iMovie project whenever we want.
• Much of what I've said is associated with routine backups, so I want to say a word about those. We always need backups of our important projects. At the very least, we need to keep a copy on a separate drive. Drives fail.
Experts say that we need to back up our computers daily, and maintain three backup copies, called backup sets. We need two backup sets that we alternate every day or so, both stored on site. And a third backup set stored off-site. (Off-site because our beach house may burn down and the high tides caused by global warming may carry the ashes out to sea.)
Retrospect does an incremental backup for me each night, backing up all the Macs in the house. The on-site backup not being used by Retrospect is stored in a fireproof data safe — a fireproof paper safe isn't cool enough. The third backup set is stored in a safe deposit box at a bank. I rotate the bank set every month or so with one of the two in-house backup sets. The two in-house backup sets are rotated every few days.
For backup media I use "bare" drives connected to a Firewire "dock", like this ComboDock. The drives snap on/off in seconds.
http://www.wiebetech.com/products/ComboDock.php
• Some on-line retailers include Retrospect with the drives they sell.
Hope something here is useful.
Karl

Cutaways in new iMovie 10.0.1 for OSX 10.9

How do I make a cutaway in the new iMovie that comes with OSX 10.9? I have three separate clips I want to toggle between. I have one on top of the other like is suggested in "old" iMovie tutorials, but I can't find a way to add on a third, nor can I find a way to keep toggling which is the dominant clip.
Another problems I'm having is that one of the clips was shot on an iPhone, and it has different dimensions than the other clips. When it is selected as the cutaway clip, it's just showing up on top of the clip underneath instead of showing on its own.
Finally, I am trying to get the audio (a band playing) to synch up on all clips. Then I'll mute two of the three. How do I move clips tiny fractions? It seems that the clips are always a smidge ahead of or behind where they're supposed to be.

I have a movie made up of 10 discrete clips right now. I was able to find a tiny dot to adjust the fade in on only two of the clips. No dots at the end of any of the clips to drag to make an audio fade out. I blew up the size of the clips as big as possible and hovered over the audio portion of each one, but no sign of a tiny dot any place except those two clips. (All the clips are from the same speech so I don't think it's the source.) Any ideas about finding those fade in/fade out dots? (Have to say the old way was easier--less squinting.) Thanks.

No "adjust" button in new iMovie 10.0.6 update

I just updated to the new iMovie 10.0.6 and I used to use the older '11 version with audio effects. Now there is no audio effects options anywhere. I looked up help files and I see everyone has the "adjust" button in the toolbar except me. Ive clicked the video file, audio file and no "adjust" button shows up in the tool bar.

I am in the exact same boat (had issue with 10.0.1, and upgrade to 10.0.2 made no difference). I also receive the same error message (which I saw before and after the upgrade to 10.0.2):
1/26/2014 10:25:36.359 AM iMovie[873]: -[CKiOSSetting initWithContentsOfURL:]: init failed with url "file:///Applications/iMovie.app/Contents/PlugIns/Compressor/CompressorKit.bund le/Contents/Frameworks/Compressor.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/CompressorKit. framework/Resources/Settings/EFB_iOS.plist".
If relevant, I also see the following messages repeated often after the above message:
1/26/2014 10:25:41.336 AM iMovie[873]: AVF error: Perf capability check failed: 0xe00002be
1/26/2014 10:25:41.336 AM iMovie[873]: AVF error: Branch_QT0::pushBits, Context Creation Failed.
Also confirmed that the existance of the plist file and it looks exactly the same
This is extremely frustrating, especially after the release of the fix by Apple (with a fix for this issue specifically mentioned in the change log). For the record, I have also removed iMovie multiple times and re-installed (requiring a 2GB download from the App Store each time).
Since Sharing is a critical feature, it makes iMovie rather useless without it working. Open to any suggestions...

Is there anyway to take a downloaded app from one computer and put it on another without rebuying it. I have a macbook that I bought the new iMovie and iPhoto on, but I would rather it be on my iMac. So is there anyway I can change it?

Is there anyway to take a downloaded app from one computer and put it on another without rebuying it. I have a macbook that I bought the new iMovie and iPhoto on, but I would rather it be on my iMac. So is there anyway I can change it? I thought that if I bought it the apps on my macbook, they would be avaliable on my imac like the mobile devices operate. The macbook has 10.6.8 cause its a older model and I think lion would slow it down. Any help??

Just redownload it on the other computer by logging into the App Store with the same Apple ID you used to purchase it.

Problem importing video from a DV camera into the new imovie 10.0? I have a Sony DCR TRV17 connected via Firewire port that worked in 9.0.9 but not under 10.0...

I have a Sony DCR TRV17 that I used to pass through VCR tape video via Firewire port to my Mac Pro under Imovie 9.0.9 without an issue. Now under Imovie 10.0 the video shows in the import window, I can start recording yet when I stop recording the recorded clips do not show up anywhere. The movie file I'm creating still indicates that I still need to import video. Anyone having similar problems?

Hey Dave,
I had this issue only once before but was lucky enought to find it was a specific event causing the import to freeze. It took me some time to isolate the problem though. I would recommend letting it sit there for some time before you try any troubleshooting. Larger libraries can take long periods of time to update.
This is a good thread for this issue. I would first try removing the iMovie.plist as elikness mentions.
1. Open Finder
2. Click on "Go" in the menu bar.
3. Click on Go To Folder on the dropdown menu.
4. Type "~/Library/Preferences/" in the text field and click Go.
5. Find the com.apple.iMovie(some number).plist file and move it to Trash.
Quit and relaunch iMovie to see if this took care of the issue before attempting the next step. If you're still having an issue then you can try what I needed to do which is isolating the problem event.
1. Open Finder.
2. Go to the Movies folder. You should see iMovie Events here.
If you have a larger event library I'd recommend renaming the iMovie Events folder to say, "iMovie Events COPY". Then create a new empty folder named “iMovie Events”. When you launch iMovie 9.0.9 all events will be missing at this point. Quit iMovie if it is open. Then you can either drag each event from iMovie Events COPY to iMovie Events or you can select and drag several at a time. Each time you drag an event folder back into the new iMovie Events folder launch iMovie 9.0.9 to see if you are having the same issue. Wash and repeat until either you have found the problem event or you have imported all events.
If you find the problem event you can reimport the clip from iMovie 9.0.9 by going to File > Import > Movies and navigating to that events iMovie Original Movies folder to find the clip.
Hope this helps!

HT2203 How do I export a file from the new iMovie 10.0.2 to iPod size?

How do I export a file from the new iMovie 10.0.2 to iPod size? I used to be able to do this and it would save as a m4v file but I can no longer do this and the files are too big.

iTunes: May be unable to transfer videos to iPhone, iPad, or iPod
iTunes: Frequently asked questions about viewing and syncing videos
You may need a third-party computer app like HandBreak. That one is free and has preset outputs for iOS devices

Hi - just using the new iMovie for the first time - apparently there should be a sidebar containing tools like "Content Library". Not on mine - even in Window view, Content Library features like text etc are all greyed out - obviously it's me - help?

Hi - just using the new iMovie for the first time - apparently there should be a sidebar containing tools like "Content Library". Not on mine - even in Window view, Content Library features like text etc are all greyed out - obviously it's me - anyone help please?

Sorry - I should have added that I have imported a Quicktime movie, originally created as an iPhoto slideshow.
I want to create rolling credits at the movie end and apparently you can only do this using iMovie - can you help please?

New iMovie Audio Ducking

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for