Newb help on creating photo slideshow with different music tracks

Question

I am interested in ultimately creating a DVD for a friend with pictures of their family. I would like to have different soundtracks play with fading in and out if possible; different effects on the transitions too (if possible). With iLife I know you could just use iDVD and play 1 track in the background. I would like to try iMovie.
I couldn't find any support tutorials or information in Apple Support.
Can anyone tell me or direct me to a place that would give the steps for a slide show, adding music, and exporting to DVD?
Thanks.

Answer 1

Can you enlighten me on this? and what program would you recommend for this?
While this can be done totally in iMovie '08, my preference would be to add the audio using GarageBand.
1) iMovie '08 strategy: In iMovie '08, simply create your video slideshow track first. Once satisfied with the video, titles, transitions, start adding your audio. Simply drag an audio file from the media browser or "drop import" a file from the Finder and "pin" it a your video clip. Once pinned to a video clip, adjust the "in" and "out" handles to select the exact portion of the music you want and adjust the fade in/out if necessary. When you have finished with this, slide the music to align it with the video track as desired. Now repeat theses steps to add the rest of your music.
NOTE: I prefer pinning all of the music to video clips so I can control the overlap. (I.e., have one file fade out as another is fading in.) However, there is a problem if you want the music to start during a "title" segment which does not overlap the actual slideshow video. In this case you may wish to place the first music file in the background and use the "Trim Music" option to select the actual portion to play in the background since you cannot slide background music for alignment to the video.
2) If you plan to use GarageBand, share/export your iMovie '08 video only project to your hard drive and then import it to a GarageBand Podcast project. In this case, each music file can be placed in a single audio track after appropriate trimming, or occupy its own audio track/alternate between two audio tracks to allow overlapping of files if desired. I prefer GarageBand since you can control the volume of individual tracks continuously, create custom fade contours, adjust track/master volumes as a whole independently, adjust the emphasis of frequency response ranges, "pan" the music, etc. as you mix and match your "musical collage" of sounds.