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How to Edit Music in iMovie on Mac

This wikiHow teaches you how to edit music in iMovie on a Mac computer. iMovie is a basic video editor made by Apple for MacOS and iOS products. iMovie is primarily for editing video, but it also has a lot of audio editing features. Click...
Part 1 of 12:

Import an Audio File

  1. How to Edit Music in iMovie on Mac Picture 1How to Edit Music in iMovie on Mac Picture 1
    Click to open iMovie. It's the app that has an image of a purple star with a camera in the middle.
    1. Download iMovie from the App Store
      How to Edit Music in iMovie on Mac Picture 2How to Edit Music in iMovie on Mac Picture 2
      , if it's not already installed on your Mac.
  2. How to Edit Music in iMovie on Mac Picture 3How to Edit Music in iMovie on Mac Picture 3
    Click Projects at the top. It's the button with a back arrow
    How to Edit Music in iMovie on Mac Picture 4How to Edit Music in iMovie on Mac Picture 4
    on it.
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    Select a project, or click Create New. "Create New" will start a new project from scratch.
    1. Click Movie, if you are creating a new project.
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    Click the Audio tab at the top. This will connect to your iTunes library.
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    Drag a song to a blank space in the timeline. The timeline is the large bar at the bottom that contains all the audio and video clips in your project. You will see the audio in wave form in the timeline.
    1. Drag the slider bar next to "Settings" to zoom in and zoom out in the timeline.
Part 2 of 12:

Adjust the Volume

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    Click an audio clip in the timeline. It will be highlighted in yellow to indicate that it is selected. The timeline is the bar at the bottom that contains all audio and video clips in your project.
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    Click the volume button above the previewer. It's the button that looks like a speaker with sound waves coming out of it. The previewer is the screen that displays a preview of the video clips in your timeline.
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    Drag the slider bar above previewer to adjust volume. It's the slider bar next to the button with a speaker icon (the mute button).
    1. Alternatively, you can click the horizontal line in the middle of the wave file and drag it up and down to adjust the volume.
Part 3 of 12:

Slow Down the Audio Clip

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    Click an audio clip in the timeline. It will be highlighted in yellow to indicate that it is selected. The timeline is the bar at the bottom that contains all audio and video clips in your project.
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    Click the "speed" icon. It's the icon that resembles a speedometer above the previewer.
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    Click the pulldown
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    next to "Speed:". It's above the previewer at the top.
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    Click Slow in the pulldown menu.
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    Click 10%, 25%, or 50%. These buttons are located next to the pulldown menu above the previewer. This will determine how much you slow down the audio.
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    Click the checkbox
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    next to "Preserve Pitch" (optional). This will prevent the pitch from lowering as the audio slows down.
Part 4 of 12:

Speed Up the Audio Clip

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    Click an audio clip in the timeline. It will be highlighted in yellow to indicate that it is selected.
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    Click the "speed" icon. It's the icon that resembles a speedometer above the previewer.
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    Click the pulldown
    How to Edit Music in iMovie on Mac Picture 22How to Edit Music in iMovie on Mac Picture 22
    next to "Speed:". It's above the previewer at the top.
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    Click Fast in the pulldown menu.
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    Click 2x, 4x, 8x, or 20x. These buttons are located next to the pulldown menu above the previewer. This will determine how much you speed up the audio by.
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    Click the checkbox
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    next to "Preserve Pitch" (optional). This will prevent the pitch from raising as the audio speeds up.
Part 5 of 12:

Customize the Speed

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    Click an audio clip in the timeline. It will be highlighted in yellow to indicate that it is selected. The timeline is the bar at the bottom that contains all audio and video clips in your project.
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    Click the "speed" icon. It's the icon that resembles a speedometer above the previewer.
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    Click the pulldown
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    next to "Speed:". It's above the previewer at the top.
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    Click Custom in the pulldown menu.
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    Type a percentage number in the box next to the pulldown menu. 100% is normal speed. If you type a number lower than 100%, it will slow the audio down. If you type a number greater than 100%, it will speed the audio up.
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    Click the checkbox
    How to Edit Music in iMovie on Mac Picture 34How to Edit Music in iMovie on Mac Picture 34
    next to "Preserve Pitch" (optional). This will prevent the pitch from changing as the audio speeds up or slows down.
Part 6 of 12:

Reverse the Audio Clip

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    Click an audio clip in the timeline. It will be highlighted in yellow to indicate that it is selected. The timeline is the bar at the bottom that contains all audio and video clips in your project.
  2. How to Edit Music in iMovie on Mac Picture 36How to Edit Music in iMovie on Mac Picture 36
    Click the "speed" icon. It's the icon that resembles a speedometer above the previewer.
  3. How to Edit Music in iMovie on Mac Picture 37How to Edit Music in iMovie on Mac Picture 37
    Click the pulldown
    How to Edit Music in iMovie on Mac Picture 38How to Edit Music in iMovie on Mac Picture 38
    next to "Speed:". It's above the previewer at the top.
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    Click the checkbox
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    next to "Reverse". This will play the audio clip backwards.
Part 7 of 12:

Reduce Background Noise

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    Click an audio clip in the timeline. It will be highlighted in yellow to indicate that it is selected. The timeline is the bar at the bottom that contains all audio and video clips in your project.
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    Click the "equalizer" button. It's the button that has numerous vertical lines of varying length.
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    Click the checkbox next
    How to Edit Music in iMovie on Mac Picture 44How to Edit Music in iMovie on Mac Picture 44
    next to "Reduce background noise:".
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    Click and drag the slider bar. The slider bar is located next to "Reduce background noise:". This will determine how much background noise will be reduced. The more background noise you try to reduce, the more likely it is to affect the quality of the audio.
Part 8 of 12:

Apply an Equalizer

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    Click an audio clip in the timeline. It will be highlighted in yellow to indicate that it is selected. The timeline is the bar at the bottom that contains all audio and video clips in your project.
  2. How to Edit Music in iMovie on Mac Picture 47How to Edit Music in iMovie on Mac Picture 47
    Click the "equalizer" button. It's the button that has numerous vertical lines of varying length.
  3. How to Edit Music in iMovie on Mac Picture 48How to Edit Music in iMovie on Mac Picture 48
    Click the pulldown
    How to Edit Music in iMovie on Mac Picture 49How to Edit Music in iMovie on Mac Picture 49
    next to "Equalizer".
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    Select an equalizer settings.
    1. "Flat" is the default setting with no change to the audio.
    2. "Voice Enhance" will emphasize the singing in an audio clip.
    3. "Music Enhance" will emphasize the instrumental music in an audio clip.
    4. "Loudness" will give the audio clip a slight boost in the bass.
    5. "Hum Reduction" will try to reduce any audio hums caused by microphones and equipment.
    6. "Bass Boost" will emphasize the bass in an audio clip.
    7. "Bass Reduce" will subtract the amount of bass in an audio clip.
    8. "Treble Boost" will emphasize the treble in an audio clip.
    9. "Treble Reduce" will try to subtract the amount of treble in an audio clip.
Part 9 of 12:

Split the Audio Clip

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    Place cursor over a audio wave in the timeline. The timeline is the bar at the bottom that contains all audio and video clips in your project.
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    Click to place the playhead. The playhead is the grey line that appears in the timeline.
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    Click the Modify tab. It's in the menu bar at the top of the screen.
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    Click Split Clip. This will split the audio file into two separate audio files where the playhead is at.
Part 10 of 12:

Move an Audio Clip

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    Click and hold an audio clip in the timeline. The timeline is the bar at the bottom that contains all audio and video clips in your project.
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    Drag the audio clip left or right. This will adjust when the audio clip starts in the timeline.
Part 11 of 12:

Delete an Audio Clip

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    Click an audio clip in the timeline. The timeline is the bar at the bottom that contains all audio and video clips in your project.
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    Press Delete on the keyboard. This will remove the audio clip from the timeline.
    1. Alternatively, you can right-click on an audio clip and click Delete.
Part 12 of 12:

Export the Song

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    Click the File tab. It's at the top of the screen.
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    Place mouse cursor over Share.
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    Click File….
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    Type a title for the file. The title goes in the bar with the large text at the top of the popup.
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    Type a brief description below the title (optional).
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    Type any tags you want to include (optional). This could be a music genre, the name of an artist, or anything else that can be used to classify the file.
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    Select a format. Click the arrows to select a format.
    1. Select "Video and Audio" if you have video clips included in your project
    2. Select "Audio Only" if you have no video clips.
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    Select a file format.
    1. For "Audio Only", you can choose, AAC, MP3, AIFF, or WAV formats. MP3 is the most commonly used audio format. AAC is standard across iTunes products.
    2. For "Video and Audio" you will need to select the video resolution, quality, and how to compress. Higher resolution, quality, and "Better Quality" compression will result in a better quality file, but it will be larger and take longer to render.
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    Click Next
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    Type a title in the bar next to "Save As:"
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    Select a location to save the file.
  12. How to Edit Music in iMovie on Mac Picture 70How to Edit Music in iMovie on Mac Picture 70
    Click Save.
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