How to Separate the Voice from the Background Music with iMovie

High-quality audio is an important part of any movie.

Editing movies in iMovie often requires editing the audio and adjusting levels to find the right balance. In many cases, you may have a video where the person onscreen is talking, but you would also like to have background music playing at the same time. In some cases, the background music may make the voice difficult to hear, so you will need to adjust the levels of both audio tracks to achieve separation between the two.

Instructions

1. Click the audio waveform icon in the lower right of the editing window. The icon looks like an audio waveform and is located next to the slider. This will show the audio waveform that is connected to the video footage in blue and the background music in green.

2. Double-click the green audio waveform for your background music to open the Inspector window.

3. Click the volume slider to adjust the volume of the background music up or down by sliding it right and left. Play back the video to test the new volume level.

4. Double-click the blue audio waveform that contains the voice track to open the inspector. Click the box next to the "Equalizer" heading and choose "Voice Enhance." Make sure the box next to Equalizer is checked. This option will help to enhance the voice, making it more audible.

5. Click the box next to "Ducking" to enable the ducking feature. The ducking feature reduces the volume of the background music whenever someone is speaking in the voice audio track. Click and move the slider to adjust the amount of ducking until you clearly hear the voice above the background music.

References

• Mac Pro Video: 5 New Audio Editing Features in iMovie '11

Resources

• Apple: iMovie '11 Audio Editing Features