Audio: How to Cut Music in Imovie on PC or Mac

This updated guide examines Audio: How to Cut Music in Imovie on PC or Mac and organizes the essential facts, background, and practical takeaways in clear American English.

Method 1of 2:

Trimming Music in the Media Window

1. Open iMovie on your Mac. It's a purple and white star icon labeled ?iMovie.? You'll find it on the Launchpad or in the Applications folder.^[1]
   • Use this method to trim audio that you haven't yet added to the timeline.
2. Open the project with the audio you want to trim.
3. ClickMy Media. It's one of the tabs near the top-left corner of the window. All media attached to the project will appear in the main window.
4. Highlight the audio you want to trim. Clicking the audio file once selects it. You'll see that it's now surrounded by a yellow line with handles on the right and left edges.
5. Drag the left handle to the desired starting point.
6. Drag the right handle to the desired end point. Anything outside of the two handles will be trimmed from the audio clip.
7. Drag the selected part of the clip to the timeline. The timeline is at the bottom of the screen. This adds the trimmed audio clip to your project.

Method 2of 2:

Trimming Music in the Timeline

1. Open iMovie on your Mac. It's a purple and white star icon labeled ?iMovie.? You'll find it on the Launchpad and in the Applications folder.^[2]
   • Use this method to trim music you've already added to your project's timeline.
2. Open the project with the audio you want to trim.
3. ClickMy Media. It's one of the tabs near the top-left corner of the window. All media attached to the project will appear in the main window.
4. Click the audio clip in the timeline. The timeline is at the bottom of the screen. You'll see that it's now surrounded by a yellow line with handles on the right and left edges.
5. Drag the left handle to the desired starting point. Any audio that comes before the left handle will be trimmed from the clip.
   • This doesn't permanently delete the audio you trim away. You can adjust the length of the audio again at any time.
   • If you want the audio to begin at a specific frame in the video, drag the iMovie playhead (the vertical line with a triangle at the top) to the desired position, right-click the audio, then click Trim To Playhead .^[3]
6. Drag the right handle to the desired end point. Now only the audio between the two handles will play in the movie.