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iMovie can't edit sound for a portion of an event

Is there anyway of editing just a portion of the sound track from an event? I coughed during a video, and rather than have to redo all 12 minutes, I'd like to just edit the sound out for that portion, then put in a picture (my next effort) so you can't see me coughing either. But when in sound edit mode, iMovie auto-selects the entire event, so any edit I make, like reducing the volume, is done to the entire event. When I select a portion of the video, then try and invoke sound editing, it just won't happen. This just plain doesn't make any sense to me, but I don't know anything about sound/movie editing, so maybe this is just a limitation of iMovie.

Any suggestions?

Al iMac 20", Mac OS X (10.5.2)

Posted on Jul 26, 2010 10:01 PM

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8 replies

Jul 27, 2010 7:13 PM in response to AppleMan1958

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately, iMovie has gone wonky again. Last night, I finally figured out how to move an event into my project by clicking on the strange button in the middle with the arrow and the star. Tonight, it has turned into the Edit button, and does nothing I can discern. But it sure doesn't add an event to my project, like it did last night. So I gather that all these buttons do entirely different things depending on who knows what. Maybe the phase of the moon.

I'm finding iMovie very daunting. I've been working with all kinds of software for over forty years, and have seldom found any app as unpredictable as iMovie. There are good training videos I've found, but hunting through hours of videos to find the one thing I want to do is frustrating. Does anyone know a better way to learn iMovie that doesn't involve a couple of hours of time to figure out each and every step?

Jul 27, 2010 7:40 PM in response to salgud

No wonder I was so confused. I finally figured it out. You can't take the whole event into the project, you have to clip just a tiny bit off the event in order to drag it to the Project! None of the tutorials I looked at mentioned this vital piece of information!

I'm looking forward to the other little omissions in the tutorial that completely hamstring my efforts.

So now I've figured out that when you are first adding an event to a new project, you select the event, then click on the Edit button to move it to the project. But after that, to add an event to the project, you have to select a portion of the event, then click and drag it into the project.

This information should be posted somewhere so that other newbies don't have to hunt for hours to find out these clever little tricks all by themselves. Anyone have any ideas where they could be posted other than here?

Jul 27, 2010 8:38 PM in response to AppleMan1958

Thanks for your reply.

I've been using Stone's tutorial, and it is well written, just not much of a reference source. I spend almost as much time hunting through that as I do through the videos. And he didn't mention in there that you use the Edit button to move an Event into a new project, but that you have to select a portion of an Event and click and drag to put it in an existing project. It tells me to just click and drag, without mentioning any of the little tricks I've learned in the last few days. I need a reference that tells you these minor little tips rather than spend another 2 or 3 hours doing the next step in my project. Even if I read the entire tutorial, how much would I remember when I sat down in front of iMovie?

You probably think you're helping, but in fact, that's not the case. I don't need to be referred to 10 hours of videos or 50 pages of tutorials. I just want someone to tell me how to edit out the sound of a cough in a video. It would even be a help if someone told me you can't do that in iMovie so I could stop wasting my time, if that's the case. So if you don't want to tell me how to do that, please, step aside and give some other helpful person a chance to answer my questions.

Jul 28, 2010 4:23 AM in response to salgud

We-ell, it probably seems to AppleMan, and possibly others, that you DO really need "..10 hours of videos or 50 pages of tutorials.." ..and a good place to start is Apple's own iMovie Tutorials; there's a whole pile of them here: http://www.apple.com/ilife/tutorials/#imovie .

You say "..I finally figured it out. You can't take the whole event into the project.." ..but you CAN. Just click anywhere on an Event (..that's any single clip in your 'Events' window..) then - as is standard throughout Apple programs - hold down the Apple ('Command') key and press the letter 'A' ..and that "Selects All" of that clip.

You can then drag all that clip into your 'Project' window. (..Dragging, I find, is far simpler than, as you say, "..select the event, then click on the Edit button to move it to the project"..)

But you asked about audio editing. There are several ways to do what you want:

You said "..I'd like to just edit the sound out for that portion, then put in a picture (my next effort) so you can't see me coughing either.." ..If you've already got, in your Events clips, a picture - or video clip - which you want to use to "cover up" your coughing, select that Event and drag it on top of the section of clip which you want to obscure in your Project window. When you release the mouse button to drop that clip on top of the clip which you want to obscure, here's what iMovie's Help file says will happen:

User uploaded file

(..You have looked at iMovie's Help pages, haven't you? ..Search under, for example, 'Replace'..)

Anyway, when you drag a clip from Events onto a clip in your Project and release the mouse button, this little menu pops up:

User uploaded file

..You can then choose what you want to do with that "cutaway" clip, such as "Replace at Playhead" or "Cutaway". Using it as a "cutaway" (..temporarily cutting away to that different shot, and then coming back to the original..) will then position it above the original clip. You can then click on the little "cogwheel" icon at the start of that cutaway clip, and then, in its drop-down menu, click on 'Audio adjustments', and choose 'Ducking: Reduce volume of other tracks..' and that will reduce - to zero, if you like - the sound from the underlying original track for the duration of that cutaway, so that your coughing disappears.

A second - and maybe simpler? - way to remove the coughing is to simply Split the video clip which has the coughing: Split it so that the sequence with the coughing ..let's say it's 3 seconds long.. becomes a separate 3-second clip. Then just click on the "cogwheel" icon at the start of that 3-second clip, and choose - as before - 'Audio adjustments', and then just drag the clip's audio level down to zero. So that you're not left with no sound at all, copy a short section of audio from elsewhere (..how? it's in the Apple Tutorials..) and paste it underneath that 3-second clip, or add music, or add an audio clip of general nondescript "ambience".

AppleMan did his best to help you. You might have offered him some thanks instead of just stamping your virtual foot and saying "..I don't need to be referred to 10 hours of videos or 50 pages of tutorials.."

He offered you help, and you spat at him. If you try a little courtesy next time; it'll get you much further.

(P.S: I see that AppleMan already succinctly explained to you exactly how to do this in your other question called "Can the sound track be deleted from a small portion of video?" ..!)

Jul 28, 2010 9:46 AM in response to David Babsky

Thanks for the very detailed, focused reply to my query. This was what I was looking for. And, yes, I have been using the iMovie help, as well as the iMovie online tutorials and Stone's very helpful and detailed webpage. But as I've said before, with that approach, I'm spending 2 to 3 hours on each step of this process, and at that rate, I'll be long dead before I'm done with this project.

As for selecting all of an event and moving it to a project, I hadn't tried the "Select All" method, and I will try that. When I just double click on the clip, it appears to be selected, but it cannot be dragged into the Project area, which is what it says to do in some of the tutorials and online help I've found. I can only guess that there's some sort of modality issue here - my "Edit" button becomes a "Add event to project" button mysteriously at times. I have no idea what triggers that. I'm beginning to suspect, based on my experiences, that iMovie is very modal and that what works when I'm in Mode A doesn't when I'm in Mode B, whatever those modes may be. I also suspect that the writers of the tutorials sometimes forget to mention that you have to be in a particular mode in order for the instructions to work. I've seen that many times in other tutorials I've worked with in other apps. So one of the things I'm looking for is information on which Mode I have to be in in order to click and drag an Event to the Project window because I know I can't do it most of the time.

As for Appleman, that's between he and I. I will say, he was not very helpful in solving my problem. He was beyond succint.

Thanks again for your reply. I'll give your suggestions a try later in the week, when I'll have some time. I had figured out that I have to split the video around the cough, then either remove the piece of video with the cough, or put a picture over it. With what you posted, I think I can move forward more quickly and easily, which is what I posted here for in the first place.

iMovie can't edit sound for a portion of an event

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