Audio Fade in and Out Not Working

I don't care what anyone says, this used to "just work" and now doesn't. I've edited close to a hundred different projects with iMovie ('08 and '09) all of which had some form of fade in or out on clips I've used. The clips themselves were either iTunes songs OR the pre-loaded iLife and iMovie audio and all of them worked fine before. WHAT CHANGED?!?! Now everything sounds like crap, audio doing a "hard" cut out when it should fade out into a scene. Complete BS.

I'm with you. This has been an upset in my plans for this weekend which were to produce a movie and be done with it. This fading thing is horrible. I realize that someone noticed that it happens when you add a movie that was green screened. It seemed to work at first. Then all of a suddend, songs don't fade out, they just end abrubptly. Increasing the fade has no affect whatsoever. Whoever posted the solution regarding the automatic reducing of the sound was not paying attention to the problem. I want to overlap sound clips as I have with other movies. Otherwise, this documentary will not be polished. this is horrible.

Since today (25 august) same problem

I found this helpful from an online posting. I think it will help you. Consider testing it?

Paste starts here (Thanks to the guy who wrote this):

Here is how to fade audio in iMovie '09.

Editing audio levels in iMovie '09 is very "video-centric." In iMovieHD, editing audio always involved going to the actual audio track and making changes. If you wanted a track to be quieter than another track, you reduced the volume on that track. With iMovie '09, you will have a much easier time by generally focusing on making audio changes to the video track. Put your song in place. Put your sound effects in place. Once they are in place, focus your audio level editing on the video tracks. This might seem counter-intuitive to you like it did to me, but it helps me focus on how the new iMovie works.

How do I make the song quieter than the video?
First it's important to understand how audio ducking works in iMovie '09. In the interest of simplicity, Apple automated the audio ducking process. Instead of having to manually fade an audio track in a sound or video clip, iMovie will subordinate one track to the other depending on the audio settings for a given clip. This is pretty reasonable, as long as you like the actual levels iMovie gives to the quieter track.

To auto-duck other audio tracks, select the clip you want to dominate and either hit the letter "A" or select the "Adjust Audio" button.

That will bring up this floating window:

Notice that I have already checked the box titled, "Reduce volume of other tracks." You, too, will need to check that box. Once checked, all other audio tracks that run during that video clip will fade to become quieter and then, when the clip is finished, will fade back up to full volume.

To this you may say, "Wow! That's great. No more fiddling around with the sound levels. All is as it should be." I suspect a lot of you are saying, "Boo! Bad iMovie! Who's in charge here? I am the director of this movie, not some algorithm!"

Source: http://www.unlockingimovie.com/2009/01/how-to-fade-audio-within-clip.html

This just happened to me in a movie I have been working on for a couple of weeks. Can't get the audio fade in/out working again. I read in this thread that it happened to someone when they introduced a green screen clip. It happened to me when I introduced a picture in picture clip - so am wondering if it only happens with advanced tools turned on and being used?

Here's a way to reproduce the issue at the top of your movie....

1. Start a project and one or two video clips with sound
2. Add a transition to the very top of the project (1st clip)
3. Go to Precision Editor at the end of the first clip and drag audio only to either end before or after the end of the clip.

Results

No sound plays during opening transition of project.

4. Now repeat step three but end audio exactly with the end of the video clip, like it was originally

Results

Sound once again plays under opening transition of project.

Also, the above happens sometimes (often?) in a movie being edited after the audio during a transition has been edited. At this point edits audio crossfades stop playing correctly, with the sound of the outgoing or the sound of the incoming abruptly stopping. To "fix" it, while in precision editor, drag the audio slightly before or after the edit, and it will once again work. The issues I've described existed in 08 and 09. In 09 there are even more audio issues because of changing the speed of clips.

I am also very disappointed in Mac and iMovie. Typically, I'm a huge supporter, but having a lot of heartache over issues I'm facing with the audio fades and the resulting pops in volume. Additionally, after 85% of my exported video, the audio on the video does not sync up with the video. It's perfect in program, but once exported via iDVD, Quicktime, YouTube...anything, problems persist. I've looked everywhere, but can't find a solution. Please help us MAC... you're our only hope.

I'm dismayed at this audio fade problem, being a newcomer to video editing. It sounds as though I'm sharing the same difficulty – being unable to achieve fade in/out. I've tried both automatic and manual control, switching back and forth numerous times, with no result. In iMovie Help it says that the audio will fade out at the end of a clip. It just doesn't.

Apple, there's a serious fault here.

I just finished a 15 minute movie which plays fine in the program, but once "shared" in ANY format or size, the audio on the clips is totally out of sync with the video.

It begins in sync, then slow drifts out as the time goes on. By 8 minutes, it is a full 2 or 3 seconds out of sync. By 12 minutes, the audio on the clip doesn't even play at all - just the lips move!

I tried all export formats, tried export with Quicktime, nothing works.

Snow Lep.
iMac 18.Ghz
iMovie 9

Thanks

were you ever able to figure out the problem? I have the same exact issue. I have a 15 minute video that is fine in iMovie but the audio is off in every possible export that i've tried.

No clue how to fix.

I figured it out... for me anyway.

It all actually started when I added a "picture in picture" video clip. I also had an iTunes track which was broken or missing.

1. Audio Ducking suddenly reversed itself for any audio in the project inserted after the PIP clip. Instead of ducking the background sounds, the audio ducked itself and left all background audio at full volume.

2. All fade in/out stopped working but again only for any audio in the project inserted after the PIP clip.

I removed the PIP clip and re-inserted the bad iTunes track. Almost all the audio fixed itself. Whichever clips were still not fading or ducking, I deleting and re-inserted. It worked.

Same issues -- while working on a project suddenly the inspector does not work. When I use the ducking feature, it actually does the reverse -- it ducks the track I am trying to feature, leaves the other track at full volume. Fading in and out also not working. Has anybody else figure this out? (My problem has nothing to do with exporting, it is happening while working on the project itself in imovie '09)

Not sure if this will solve your problem, but I was having fade in/out issues. Initially all my sound bites were in AAC format. I deleted all of them, changed to MP3 and reinserted. Fade in/out worked like a charm.