iMovie Tutorial - Put Audio and Music Anywhere in Timeline and Music Bed

In this iMovie tutorial for MacOS, I show you how to place audio or music anywhere in the timeline by using the music bed or by using a background to temporarily place the sound file. In the iMovie timeline, audio files ALWAYS need an attachment point. This can be troublesome if you want to move audio around, so this tutorial will help you with audio placement anywhere in the timeline. Using the music bed is the only way iMovie doesn't need to "attach" to a video or image in the time line.

Thanks,
ET

[adama]

I had a video where I had one massive background image with 100+ audio clips attached to it which meant all of my footage was on the b roll row. Thanks to this video I was able to drag the audio clips to the music bed, then drop the b roll clips on the main row & then delete the background image. This video basically saved my project, thanks heaps.

[lenavoyles]

So, I was actually looking for how to do the opposite - get audio clips to attach to the video. But this seems to have answered that question. I’ve never seen anyone else point out the difference between the audio bed and the timeline. Thank you.

[paulf]

Thanks ET, this is exactly what I needed, much appreciated

[heidi_d]

Wow! I’ve been trying to figure out how to “unclip” the audio, and with all the videos I’ve watched this is the first to mention that there’s a separate audio bar down there! Man! I really appreciate your help! I couldn’t figure out how to get my audio to cooperate and not get edited with my original footage!

[tylercreasman]

Thank you! Super helpful! The thing was really throwing me off!

[nigelcarren]

Bless you mate.
I had no idea I could layer multiple audio!!!
Let's go (jumps up and down and cheers) 😊🏆

[dribble-drivethruhyperspac]

Thanks Eric! Always appreciate the videos

[pattyspeedmusic]

Ty for the fast reply.... I just needed to actually upload the images /videos first and then add the multiple audio layers.

[MrProfit]

Can you put the song over the whole project? Like a series of clips? Also do you know if there is a way to sync certain clips at certain parts of the songs timeline?

[alexanderc]

Thanks for the advice made my school protect amazing

[NaaOyooQuartey]

Hiii
So I added an audio from a file and it turned green and not allowing me to add the file to any part of the video😢. Unless it's an audio from the video

[jeaninemiller]

This is super helpful! However, every time I drag an audio file down it all goes to the bottom. I can't figure out how to stack or layer within the timeline. any suggestions?

[FlyguyLV]

Thanks for the video very helpful ! I have a question ? Can I add a music file to my video and then do a voice over, over all of it ?

[bigbadfrank]

Hey @Eric Timmer when you're dragging & dropping new audio files into the timeline, it shrinks to a thin bar...then you're resizing it up somehow to be the same height as the video bar - how are you doing that? I can't figure it out and whilst it's small, I can't edit it.

[armario]

Very good tutorials!
Btw I’m first but I don’t care really!