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How can I import stereo sound in iMovie 10.2.5?

I'm importing video clips which have 2 channels of sound on them into iMovie, but I'm only seeing 1 audio track on the clip in iMovie. When I detach the audio still only one track. The video clips on the card have a .mov file and a data file attached. The data file says the clips are 2 channel stereo, but they either aren't being imported like that, or iMovie can't see the 2 tracks. Can anyone help? I'm using iMovie 10.2.5 on an iMac. Thanks

iMac 21.5″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Aug 23, 2023 12:05 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Aug 23, 2023 12:35 PM

Hi,


iMovie will not display two audio tracks for a clip.


Start by going to Applications/Utilities/Audio MIDI Setup/Output/Configure Speakers. Click on the Configure Speakers button.




In the screen that pops up, Configure your speakers to Stereo and then test the speakers for

connectivity.



Now see if your clip will play in stereo.


-- Rich



13 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Aug 23, 2023 12:35 PM in response to johnnw

Hi,


iMovie will not display two audio tracks for a clip.


Start by going to Applications/Utilities/Audio MIDI Setup/Output/Configure Speakers. Click on the Configure Speakers button.




In the screen that pops up, Configure your speakers to Stereo and then test the speakers for

connectivity.



Now see if your clip will play in stereo.


-- Rich



Aug 25, 2023 1:49 PM in response to Rich839

Screen recording doesn't include the audio, as you found. You'd have to pick up the audio output separately - Audio Hijack would be the best way.


More to the point, you could play the original video and use Audio Hijack to record the audio. Then:


  1. Carry out any work on the audio.
  2. Load the video into iMovie
  3. Separate the audio as I described above
  4. Delete the audio track
  5. Import the Audio Hijack recording


No guarantees it will work properly. I've had problems with sync wandering when doing a slightly different process.


Aug 24, 2023 2:47 AM in response to Rich839

Hi this was helpful thanx. I found the speakers were already set to stereo. And by muting one channel and then the other I found that there are indeed 2 separate channels on the clip, and they are still there once imported into iMovie. But they just aren't available to work with - they don't display in the clip waveform or on the timeline. I can't find any settings in iMovie to tell it to display 2 tracks per clip? Does this mean that you just can't work with 2 synced tracks of audio in iMovie? Or in this version? I know you can on FCP...

Aug 24, 2023 3:32 AM in response to johnnw

If you import a clip with a soundtrack, you can select the clip and hit option-command-B to separate the audio into a separate track which you can move, adjust the volume, or edit. If the track is stereo it will play in stereo but will only show as one track,so you can't for example adjust the left-right balance. iMovie is a simplified app intended to let you make movies easily: it is fairly powerful but if you want to do more complicated actions you will need a more sophisticated application such as FCP.

Aug 25, 2023 10:32 AM in response to Roger Wilmut1

Yes, you are correct. I was thinking that the system setting might be picked up with a screen recording, if the screen recording records what is actually playing. So, the hope was that one could screen record with the left setting, and then another with the right side setting and end up with seperate left and right audio channels on the desk top that could be imported into iMovie and manipulated seperately. This assumes that iMovie initially was doing the stereo split on playback of the merged tracks.However, in limited testing I could not seem to get it to work. I suppose it might work if recorded acoustically with a mic, but there would be a significant loss in quality.


In the last analysis, I think that an app would need to be used that can do stereo track editing.


— Rich

Aug 26, 2023 8:25 AM in response to Roger Wilmut1

Hmmmm. I use the Command-Shift-5 feature, that reveals a control box at the bottom of the screen, and I select Built in Microphone from the options list. I plug in ear pods into the mic jack and then start the screen recording. I have found that unless I plug in ear pods the sound records very tinny. The sound does record fine, however, for any movie playing on the screen, including videos on the internet.


-- Rich

How can I import stereo sound in iMovie 10.2.5?

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