Editing Audio Only in iMovie

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Level 1

8 points

Editing Audio Only in iMovie

I just added audio media from my iPhone to iMovie. It's a 10 minute conversation I recorded with a friend that I now want to edit. As I understand it, you can add an audio track underneath a video clip in the timeline, but not on its own with no video above it. Is that correct?

I created a 10 minute title card to accomplish this and began cutting.

It works ok (it's not an Digital Audio Workstation but for this occasional use it's fine) with one exception. When I attempt to move and insert a clip (created by splitting the original longer clip here and there) to another place in the timeline that has also be split, it drops that clip to a different track rather than the main track where it would ripple the audio list.

So is insert and ripple a function of the video edit only, or can this somehow be done with an added audio track on the timeline?

iMac 27″

Posted on Jun 14, 2021 11:54 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Rich839

Level 8

47,250 points

Jun 14, 2021 12:56 PM in response to Jolt917

You can create a new project and import an audio clip into it on its own without the necessity of having an audio clip above it. As a test, create a new project and drag in an audio clip.

You can move a split-off segment of an audio clip to another place in the timeline without the clip dropping into a different audio well. Just drag the segment between the other two segments, and release. It will move in between the other segments in the same audio well. I just did it as a test and it works fine. If that is not happening for you, can you detail exactly what steps you are taking to move the audio segment and what happens when you try.

-- Rich

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Answer 2

Jolt917 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 14, 2021 8:05 PM in response to Rich839

Thanks for the prompt and comprehensive response! Yes, I can do audio edits w/o video. Thanks for that!

Here's what I did in a test project: I drop an audio-only clip onto the timeline and split it into (3) 5 second clips. I then attempted to drop clip #1 in between clip #2 and #3.

It did drop in, but it did not ripple the third clip forward in time. Instead, it overlayed the two edits on either side and maintained the original running time of the two adjoining clips i.e. 5+5=10 seconds.

Instead, I want the insert the clip between two others and ripple the list, therefore extending the overall duration of the timeline.

Two different techniques.

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