iMovie 6 & iDVD: The Missing Manual

Manipulating Audio Clips

You can have all sorts of fun with audio clips in iMovie. You can move them around, copy and paste them, synchronize them with video, scrub ‘em, split ‘em—it’s hours of fun for the whole family!

Locking Audio Clips to Video

Figure 8-10 illustrates a serious problem that results from trying to line up certain video moments (like Bill-Gates-getting-hit-with-a-pie footage) with particular audio moments (like a “Splat!” sound effect). In short, when you insert or delete some video footage after lining up audio clips with specific video moments, you shove everything out of alignment, sometimes without even realizing it. This syndrome can rear its ugly head in many video- editing programs.

Figure 8-10. Top: You’ve carefully lined up a barking sound effect with the beginning of the dog clip.Second from top: Uh-oh. You’ve selected the clip right before the dog, in preparation for deleting it.Third from top: Now you’ve done it. You’ve deleted the clip that was just to the left of the dog. The dog clip slides leftward to close the gap—and leaves the barking sound behind, now hopelessly out of alignment with the video above it.Bottom: If you had remembered to lock the barking clip to the video above it, as indicated by the tiny pushpins, the sound effect would have slid to the left along with the dog clip, remaining perfectly in sync.

You may wind up playing a frustrating ...