Streamlining Production Workflow: Extracting Audio Separately on a Mac with iMovie

How to Separate Audio from Video in iMovie on Mac?

Liza Brown

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

Apple’s video editing program, iMovie, is a popular choice. By removing background noise and raising audio levels of quiet clips, iMovie may likewise modify and enhance the audio of a project.

iMovie gives you the basic, no-frills editing tools you need to make a movie out of a collection of video clips. Without using videotape, you can easily browse from scene to scene and save your edits and changes in digital format. The end product is a high-quality digital video movie that you can save as a QuickTime file or dump back to digital videotape.

Now let’s look at how to separate audio from video in iMovie on Mac.

• Part 1. How to Separate/Detach/Split Audio from Video in iMovie on Mac
• Part 2. Separate Audio from Video on Mac with the Best Alternative to iMovie
• Part 3. FAQs about Separating Audio from Video in iMovie

Part 1. How to Separate/Detach/Split Audio from Video in iMovie on Mac

The iMovie program is capable of producing high-quality movies and videos. If you’re dealing with a video that includes both sound and pictures, you may want to split the two at some point.

To separate audio from video in iMovie on Mac, just open the video and follow the steps below.

Step 1. Remove the audio clip from the video

In your iMovie timeline, find the clip that contains both video and audio.

Right-click the clip or hold Control and click it. You can also go to the menu bar and choose Detach Audio.

The audio from that clip will then show as its own “clip” in green below the video. The little line on the left, however, confirms that the video and audio are still connected. This implies that if you delete the video, you’ll lose the audio as well. As a result, you’ll either need to move the audio clip somewhere else in your video or place it in the Background Music Well at the bottom of the timeline.

Simply select, drag, and drop the green audio clip where you want it. It will be in the background of all other noises in your movie if you set it in the Background Music Well.

Step 2. Get rid of the video

You can remove the video by clicking it and utilizing one of these techniques after you disconnect the audio and unlink it from the video.

Select Delete from the shortcut menu by right-clicking.

Or hold Control while clicking and selecting Delete.

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Part 2. Separate Audio from Video on Mac with the Best Alternative to iMovie

Want to extract the music file from a video clip’s audio and visual tracks? Or do you want to add another audio file to the video frame? In this part, you’ll learn how to easily separate audio from video and create your own MP3s with iMovie’s alternative - Wondershare Filmora. It’s a powerful video editing software available on both Mac and Windows.

You can make your own MP3 file of the amazing piece of music for enjoyment on the move, whether it’s from a music video, TV show, or concert footage. To separate your audio from your video, follow the steps outlined below.

Step 1. Import your media files into Filmora

To enter the editing mode, run the software and select the 16:9 or 4:3 ratio that best suits your demands. Then select Import to import video clips, audio, or photographs from your computer’s file folder.

It’s worth noting that this tool is highly compatible with a variety of formats, allowing you to edit them frame by frame while maintaining the original quality. Drag and drop videos onto the timeline after they’ve been imported. All files in the timeline are combined without any gaps by default.

Step 2. Separate the audio and video with a single click

Select “Detach Audio” from the context menu of the video file from which you wish to extract the audio track. You’ll see an audio file appearing on the audio track right away. Yes, this is the source video’s actual audio file.

You’ve successfully detached the audio track from the video file.

Step 3. Save the video or audio that has been split

Because the audio and video tracks have been split, you may simply delete the audio or video track you don’t need and replace it with the new one. Then press “Export” to save the audio track as an MP3 file, or go straight to the “iPod” preset to listen on the move.

You should first save the split video frame or audio track to a project file on your hard disk if you wish to save it separately in a new file. Reload the project file that contains the video frame after you’ve finished exporting the audio track, and then export it to a new video file.

Part 3. FAQs about Separating Audio from Video in iMovie

To learn more about separating audio from video in iMovie, you can check the FAQs below.

1. Is it possible to split audio and video in iMovie?

Yes, you certainly can. Select the video clip you want to separate after you’ve imported it into iMovie. Select “Detach Audio” from the context menu by right-clicking. You can now remove one of the tracks (audio or video), relocate it to a different location in the movie timeline, or alter it.

2. In iMovie, what does “detach audio” do?

The video clip’s audio is deleted, and an audio-only clip (with a green bar) is inserted below the video clip. The audio clip can now be linked to any other clip in your movie, or it can be relocated to the background music section.

3. How can I remove the original audio (from the camera) and lock the new audio to the video so that I don’t have to deal with two different parts (video and audio) when editing?

Make a movie in iMovie that simply mixes all the audio and visuals. You can align the video by listening to it or looking at the waveforms. After it’s all lined up, go into the clip inspector and turn off the video track’s volume. To maintain as much quality as feasible, SHARE/EXPORT using QuickTime and choose Apple Intermediate Codec as your codec. This will link the secondary audio and video tracks together. Now, into an Event, import the movie you just made in iMovie. You may now combine audio and video editing.

4. Is it feasible to simply take the video’s audio and save it as a sound file?

If you have other clips in the timeline, you can detach the audio and copy and paste it around, but if you want all the audio from a clip or set of clips, put them in a project and make a custom QT export and export “Sound to AIFF file”. Drag that into another movie clip or import it as an audio track in iTunes.

5. How do I get the audio from the clip to detach so that I may remove it and record fresh audio over it?

Only in the project timeline, not in the event pane, can you disconnect audio from a clip.

6. In iMovie for Mac, how can I mute a video?

Click the Create New button in iMovie to start a new project. From the resulting dropdown menu, pick Movie. Select the video you wish to mute by clicking the Import Media option. Drag and drop the video onto the timeline once it’s been imported. Right-click on the video in the timeline and choose Detach Audio from the dropdown menu.

The audio and video will be separated or detached as a result of this. Remove the audio from the video that you separated or disconnected in the previous step. The audio file (or layer) is located just beneath the video file on your timeline. Then you can either delete it by right-clicking on it and selecting Delete from the dropdown menu, or by simply clicking on it. It will be highlighted in yellow to indicate that it has been selected. And then press the delete key.

7. How do I view and download a preview?

By clicking the play button next to the Share button, you may see a preview of the video. The video can then be downloaded to your computer by selecting Download Video from the dropdown menu after hitting the Publish button.

Alternatively, you can share it directly from the app to other social media platforms. Apart from removing audio from videos, Animaker also includes other video editing tools that you’ll need to modify your videos for social media and your website.

Wrap Up

As seen in this instructional article, iMovie has countless amazing features as a video editor on Mac . Separating audio from a video is one of those interesting features on iMovie.

If a video has music, sounds, or voices that you’d like to separate from the video, following the above-listed steps is an easy way to do just that. One thing to always remember is to keep the app open while exporting.

And if iMovie can’t meet your need, don’t worry. Wondershare Filmora can be your better choice.

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Liza Brown

Liza Brown is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Liza Brown

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