Adding Sound Effects and Voiceovers to Your Project
You can add any sound effect or voiceover recording to your project and anchor it to a
particular video frame, so that it starts and stops when you want it to. You can use any
sound file available in your iTunes library or one of the sound effects folders for a sound
effect. You can record a voiceover directly over video in iMovie.
To add a sound effect:
1
Click the “Music and Sound Effects” button in the iMovie toolbar, or choose Window >
“Music and Sound Effects.”
2
Click a sound effects folder to see a list of sound effects, or use the search field at the
bottom of the pane to find an audio file by name.
You can preview any audio file by double-clicking it.
3
Select a music file and drag it to where you want it to begin playing in your iMovie
project.
A green sound clip icon appears below the video clips.
The pointer changes
to let you drag the
ends of the title icon.
Sound effect icon
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Learn iMovie
4
To reposition the audio clip over the video, drag it to where you want it to begin
playing in your movie.
5
To make it shorter, drag the end toward the left.
To record a voiceover:
1
Click the Voiceover button to open the Voiceover window.
2
Choose the microphone you want to use from the Record From pop-up menu.
3
Drag the Input Volume slider to the right or left:
 If you have a soft voice, drag the Input Volume slider to the right to make the
recording louder.
 If you have a loud voice, drag it to the left to make the recording softer.
4
Drag the Noise Reduction slider all the way to the right to eliminate ambient noise
(white noise) as much as possible.
If you want to retain some of the background sound as part of your recording, drag the
slider to the left.
5
Select Voice Enhancement if you want to make your recorded voice sound smoother.
6
If you need to hear the audio as you record your voiceover, select the checkbox labeled
“Play project audio while recording,” and then plug in a pair of headphones so that the
microphone doesn’t pick up the sound of the audio playback. Deselecting the
checkbox silences the audio playback while you’re recording your voiceover.
7
When you’re ready to begin, click the point in a clip where you want the voiceover to
begin. iMovie counts down from three to one.
Left and Right volume
level indicators
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43
8
Begin speaking when prompted.
Speak loudly and clearly into the computer’s microphone, keeping the Left and Right
volume level indicators in the green. Yellow indicates you’re speaking a bit too loudly;
red indicates you’re speaking much too loudly and your voice will be distorted
(“clipped”) in the recording.
9
To stop recording, press the Space bar or click anywhere in the iMovie window.
To make the voiceover clip shorter:
m
Drag the end of the voiceover icon to the left.
The voiceover clip can’t be extended beyond its original length.
To move a voiceover within your project:
m
Drag it to the video frame where you want it to begin playing.
To delete a voiceover:
m
Select its icon and press the Delete key.