Can you use Garage Band recordings as a Voice Over for iMovie?

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Can you use Garage Band recordings as a Voice Over for iMovie?

Hi

I am making a movie with my grade 2/3 class and I wanted to make it in imovie so that I could edit it and make it look great. What I need to know is, can I record the narration for the movie in another program on my computer (for example garage band) and then import it later to imovie to include in the video? I'd like to do a voice over on the video and I know you can record it IN imovie BUT can you record it IN another program and still use it? If so, how do you do it.

The thing is that I want to be able to edit and rearrange the narration that the kids do and it's easier to do it this in the garage band podcasting section. I need to know if I can now put the file I've made into imovie.

PLEASE HELP! My grade 2/3's and I thank you very much~

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Apr 24, 2010 7:38 PM

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Answer 1

isteveus

Level 5

4,334 points

Apr 25, 2010 4:50 AM in response to squigglez

Of course you can iMovie uses audio files garageband makes audio files. iMovie has a media browser that will browse itunes just add audio to iTunes and they will appear in imovie then drag and drop.

But it would be simpler just to record the voiceover in iMovie.

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Answer 2

Apr 30, 2010 4:35 PM in response to squigglez

I complete my iMovie project visually - all the transitions, titles, everything. But iMovie's audio tools a rudimentary at best.. the narration tool works fine until you make a mistake.. backing up, deleting the mistake and restarting your narration is a huge pain. So OMIT all audio editing inside iMovie.

then SHARE as a Quicktime file.

Open a GB movie project and drag your movie into it.

You can now use GB's superior timeline based interface to edit/automate any audio coming from the original video, add EDITED narration, and drag in music from iTunes - AND mix it all properly using Track Automation.

Then use GB's own SHARE menu to re-export the movie with its shiny new audio tracks

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Answer 3

isteveus

Level 5

4,334 points

May 1, 2010 3:34 AM in response to Karl_out_West

Of course using garageband would do a better job with audio. But for second/third grade classroom much simpler just to do in iMovie.

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Answer 4

squigglez Author

Level 1

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May 18, 2010 12:52 PM in response to squigglez

It was simpler to do it in iMovie but because I wanted to be able to work with the iMovie program on my own to do the editing I had the kids record in Garage Band. It actually worked ok - although it was a lot of work.

After the kids recorded their narration I saved it to my iTunes. Then when I went into iMovie I was able to add the narration through my iTunes.

It worked out in the end. My only caution is that it was a lot of work for me to make the narration short enough and the filming of the movie long enough so that they fit. In the future I don't think I would record the narrators until AFTER I had filmed and edited the whole movie. It would work better if the narration was done while watching the silent filmed part so that you can make sure it is long enough/short enough.

I ended up spending so much time in garage band trying to delete sentences and unneeded words so that the narration fit the filming.

Another word of CAUTION....give your self LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS of time for a huge project like this. I attempted to film the whole movie, make all the props, and record the narrators in 4 days. Then I attempted to edit this whole movie and put it all together in one day. That way they could watch it on Friday (my last day because I am a student teacher). I was pulling my hair out all week and super stressed out. If I ever did it again I would spread it over more weeks. All this work for a 15 minute movie :S. But the kids LOVED the movie and the final product was FANTASTIC.

I even learned about iDVD - which may be my new favourite thing on my mac.

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Answer 5

May 18, 2010 3:29 PM in response to squigglez

You think that was hard, you should have tried it on a Windows PC!

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