Adding Music to Your Home Movies with Windows Movie Maker 2
Updated: November 13, 2003
Adding a soundtrack is a great way to enhance the meaning and excitement of the movies you create. With Windows Movie Maker 2 for Windows XP, it's easy to add favorite songs, evocative mood music, or any other audio you'd like to include as part of a soundtrack.
Once you've assembled the elements of your home movie on the storyboard, you're ready to add music. Here's how:
1. | In the Tasks Pane, click Import audio or music (or click on File menu, then Import into collections) |
2. | Your My Music folder will open. Navigate to the song that you want and click on it, then click the Import button in the lower right-hand corner. This will bring your music clip into your collection. |
3. | Click on the Show Timeline button above the storyboard, or use the View drop-down menu and click on Timeline |
4. | Drag the audio file down to the Audio/Music track |
5. | You can move the audio clip left to right to coincide with a particular video clip. And if the music is too long for your video, you can trim it. Simply scroll along the Timeline all the way to the right, so you can see the end of the audio clip. Move the cursor onto the end of the song, and a red double arrow will appear. Drag the clip to the left as far as you want to create the end point of the music. |
You can adjust the volume of the music you add in relationship to and the volume of the audio on the video clip. For example, or you can turn the audio track on the video clip all the way down so that only the music is heard, or adjust the levels so that both are audible.
To adjust the volume of an audio clip
1. | On the Audio or Audio/Music track of the timeline, select the audio clip that you want to adjust the volume for. |
2. | On the Clip menu, point to Audio, and then click Volume. |
3. | To adjust the volume, do one of the following: | • | To reduce the volume, move the Audio volume level slider to the left. | | • | To increase the volume, move the Audio volume level slider to the right. | | • | To mute the clip, select the Mute clip check box. | | • | To reset the volume to the original volume, click Reset. |
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To adjust the volume of an audio clip relative to the audio from the video clip
1. | Just above the Timeline view, click on the Volume icon on the left. |
2. | A slider will appear, and you can drag it left or right, depending on whether you want the audio from the video to be more prominent or the music to be more prominent. 
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