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User profile for user: cwensink
cwensink Author
User level: Level 1
0 points

no sound in imovie 11 for a project created in imovie 09

Hello Everyone,

I have a similar, yet different audio issue than what others have posted about in the forums. I have a friend who created a wedding video in iMovie 09 for us, we created the iDVD project, exported, burned, and shipped it to the client. The client wanted a few misc changes, and we've since upgraded our MBP's to iLife 2011, and when we open the same project with the same events in the same folder structure, the audio from the songs in the project have no volume.

The system volume is on and turned up, we tried removing and re-adding the songs to the file, that doesn't help. I can bring up and play correctly the audio file in the audio preview window without issues, and I can play the files in iTunes, but the files won't play in the iMovie 2011 project. We've rebooted, we've checked that the files aren't drm protected, we checked volume levels, ducking all the usual things. Another interesting thing, is that when just hovering in the project window, and hitting the space bar to play the project, that does not play the audio, but I can skim in the project window and hear the audio of the files.

It seems like some sort of glitch in iMovie, anyone have any thoughts?

Chris

Macbook Pro ('06/07 version), 2GB Ram, 250GB hard drive

Posted on Dec 1, 2010 12:43 AM

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22 replies
User profile for user: bobbyco57
bobbyco57
User level: Level 4
1,768 points

Dec 11, 2010 7:56 AM in response to cwensink

Welcome to the Forums.

Some further troubleshooting ideas to help isolate the source of the problem.

Make a backup of your project before doing any of the following:

1. Can one or more of the same songs be added to a new Project created in iL11?
2. If you delete a song from the problem Project and drag it back in, is it still silent?
3. Are there any sound effects, voice overs or other audio edits involved?
4. If you export the Project now, does the .mov file created have songs audio?

"...hitting the space bar to play the project, that does not play the audio, but I can skim in the project window and hear the audio of the files"

Yes, this is odd since it seems to be the opposite behavior of turning off Audio Skimming.
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User profile for user: sudsy71
sudsy71
User level: Level 1
4 points

Dec 15, 2010 1:53 PM in response to cwensink

I experienced a similar problem with iMovie 11. I have used just about every version of iMovie there has been, and this is the first time this has happened. I created a movie that plays flawlessly in iMovie, but when exported to iTunes or to the media browser or iDVD, a few parts of the movie have missing or mismatched sound (i.e., one scene plays visually while the sound that plays is from another part of the movie. Any suggestions or fixes out there?
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User profile for user: Community User
Community User

Jul 11, 2018 1:14 AM in response to sudsy71

It's really a bug, IT only happend in Projects created in imovie 9. New Projects can use sound and insert songs without problems
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User profile for user: Laurent Drion
Laurent Drion
User level: Level 1
25 points

Jan 16, 2011 10:29 PM in response to sudsy71

Same problem here with iMovie 11...
No sound on some clips and mismatched sound on others.
The problems start in my movie about after 1 hour so i feel the problem is the same as it has always been for me even with previous versions: iMovie can't handle long (2-3 hours) HD movies.
If a fix does not comes out i will be forced to cut the movie in 2-3 parts and then repaste them in quicktime...
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User profile for user: !PLPO
!PLPO
User level: Level 1
0 points

Jan 17, 2011 1:54 PM in response to cwensink

I've had same problem with iMovie '11. Made a movie in '09. Made backup. Uploaded to YouTube successfully. After upgrading to iMovie '11, I attempted to upload my backup copy to facebook. My friends said there was no audio....only video. Ended up pasting a YouTube link of the video on facebook. Still can't figure it out.

The most recent videos I've made won't publish to YouTube or facebook. Keep getting message "Alert. YouTube reports error." Not sure what that means or how to correct it.
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User profile for user: Laurent Drion
Laurent Drion
User level: Level 1
25 points

Jan 18, 2011 10:49 AM in response to !PLPO

I found a solution that although not very elegant allowed me not to waste the time is spent making the movie.

I bought Final Cut Express, exported the project from iMovie 11 (export in final cut xml), imported it in Final Cut. And after a 10 hour export my 1,5h HD movie was exported and is fine without any sound problem.

Since I have not made any changes to the sequences, just export/import and that the export now works with Final Cut Express it at least proves that the original problem was a real bug in iMovie 11, not a problem of any kind with my recordings.

Of course this solution is expensive, especially since I don't like the ergonomy of FC and I will most probably not use it for anything else than export my iMovie projects but I had spent so much time on my iMovie project that trashing it was not an option in my case.

This will remain for me one of the rare case of quality disappointment with an Apple product.
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User profile for user: dburr
dburr
User level: Level 1
20 points

Jan 22, 2011 11:32 PM in response to cwensink

Unfortunately, the 9.0.2 update does NOT fix this problem. At least for me. In my case, I created a 25-minute promo video for a local tech conference, with multiple background audio clips (the ones that come with GarageBand - "Havana," "Jacaranda," et al). This project was created in iMovie '09 and works perfectly, I exported it and gave it to them to upload to their Vimeo account. This was several months ago. This week they finally got around to creating a YouTube account (who knows why they have never thought to do this before now, but that is beside the point). Of course youtube has a 15 minute upload limit, so they asked me to re-edit a shorter version of the video I made for them last year. Between then and now I had upgraded to iMovie '11 (and yes, I am running 9.0.2). I made a copy of the project and opened it, and now only the first two background audio clips play - after that there is no more background audio (but the audio from the original movie files still plays). Really frustrating, and it means I have to spend a night reverting my machine back to iMovie '09 so I can get this project shipped off to them. Argh!

Message was edited by: dburr
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User profile for user: dburr
dburr
User level: Level 1
20 points

Jan 23, 2011 12:21 AM in response to dburr

For now I have come up with an extremely ugly, but functional, workaround. At least this will let me finish this current project with the least amount of headache. In iMovie, use the "Export Movie" command to export a copy of your movie to disk - use the format with the highest quality to do this. Then create a new "Movie" project in GarageBand, and drag the movie file you exported into the "Movie Track" in the new GarageBand file you just created. You now can add background audio by dragging it in from GarageBand or iMovie or whatever. Unfortunately I can't seem to get automatic ducking to work, so you'll have to manually duck the audio track as necessary. Like I said, it's ugly but it works.
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User profile for user: SuperBast
SuperBast
User level: Level 1
0 points

Jan 30, 2011 4:47 AM in response to cwensink

Hi, I have similar issues. I have spent hours editing a 1h15m HD video and as one of the final things just wanted to add some sound on silent sequences only existing of still photos. I decided to separate audio and video from a beach sequence, to have the "water audio background" copied to the silent periods with still photos. Well I was able to copy the sound but for strange reasons I now lost sound in almost all other clips - randomly. Have no clue how to come back to earlier stage and try again. Any good ideas is more than welcome not to have wasted days of work. Yes I use latest version of iMovie (9.02). (The project was even not created in iMovie09)
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no sound in imovie 11 for a project created in imovie 09

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