How do I add music to my video?

Adding music to videos can provide many benefits that enhance the viewing experience. As explained by Samantha Naes in her article on LinkedIn, Benefits of Background Music, background music can help keep people’s attention, make videos seem more lively, and set the desired tone. Music stimulates the senses and triggers emotional responses, allowing viewers to connect with the video on a deeper level.

According to TechSmith, music can also reduce stress and improve mood during tutorials or how-to videos, leading to better learning outcomes (How (and Why) to Add Music to Tutorial Videos). By complementing the visuals, music makes the content more memorable. Ultimately, a thoughtful music choice aligned with the video topic results in a more engaging, higher quality production.

Choosing Appropriate Music

When choosing background music for your video, an important consideration is copyright. To avoid copyright issues, use royalty-free music that you have permission to use. Some good sources for royalty-free music include:

YouTube Audio Library – YouTube provides a library of free music and sound effects you can use in your videos.
Free Music Archive – An extensive collection of downloadable, royalty-free music.
Incompetech – Royalty-free music by artist Kevin MacLeod.

Carefully review the license for any music you use to ensure it provides permission for your intended video use. Focus on music labeled as “royalty-free” or that explicitly grants video usage rights.

Editing Software Options

There are many video editing software programs to choose from, both paid and free. Some of the most popular options include Adobe Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, Final Cut Pro X, iMovie, and Windows Movie Maker.

Adobe Premiere Pro is considered one of the best professional-grade video editors, offering advanced tools and effects for high-quality production. DaVinci Resolve is an excellent free alternative with color correction capabilities on par with software costing thousands of dollars. Final Cut Pro X is optimized for Mac and ideal for youtubers or hobbyists. For beginners, iMovie and Windows Movie Maker provide easier drag-and-drop interfaces to start editing quickly.

When choosing software, consider your skill level, platform, particular editing needs, and budget. Reading reviews of each program can help determine which one best fits your video project.

Importing Music Files

When importing music files into your video editing software, there are a few key things to keep in mind. The supported audio formats will vary by editing software, but common formats include MP3, WAV, AIFF, and FLAC. Most editing software supports importing MP3 files, which is the most popular format for music downloads and streaming services.

To import music files into your editing software using Microsoft Photos (for Windows 10):

Click the “Add Media” button and select “Music”

Navigate to the folder containing your music files

Select the music files you want to import and click “Open”

The files will be added to your video project’s media library

Always make sure to have the legal rights to use any music you import into your videos. Royalty-free music libraries like Storyblocks are a great option for adding high-quality background music without copyright issues.

Trimming Audio Clips

Trimming the length of your audio clips allows you to cut them down to the precise section you want to use in your video. There are a couple ways to trim audio clips in your video editing software:

Use the Razor tool to “slice” a clip at the desired start/end points and delete any unwanted content.
Set the In and Out points to select the desired length and portion of your audio and remove the excess automatically.

For more control over your trimming, press CTRL+X to “cut” the selected region and remove it from the clip. You can then save the trimmed version as an MP3 file (source). This allows you to cut your music and sound effects to the perfect length for synced timing with your video content.

Audio Levels and Mixing

Proper audio levels are essential for a well-mixed final video. As a rule of thumb, your overall audio mix should be normalized between -10db to -20db, according to this source. For videos with dialogue, those tracks should sit between -18dB and -9dB.

Background music should usually be quieter, around -24dB to let the foreground audio and dialogue cut through the mix clearly.

When working with multiple audio tracks like dialogue, music, and sound effects – adjust the levels of each track carefully using your editing software. Make sure no single track overpowers the others.

You want all elements to blend cohesively while still being distinct. This clear balance of different tracks working together produces a polished final mix.

Audio Effects

There are several main audio effects that are commonly used when editing videos to enhance the audio or correct problems. Some popular audio effects for video include:

Fades

Fades are used to gradually increase or decrease the volume of an audio clip over time at the beginning or end. Fades help the audio transition smoothly in or out of a clip, rather than begin or end abruptly with a sudden change in volume ¹.

Normalization

Normalization adjusts the overall volume of an audio clip so that the highest peak is at a specific decibel level. This helps standardize the loudness of different audio clips so they sound like they are a consistent loudness after importing

Equalization (EQ)

An EQ effect adjusts the frequency response of an audio clip by boosting or cutting different frequency bands. For example, boosting the bass tones or reducing high frequencies. This can help “fix” problems when an audio clip has too much bass or treble. Equalizing can also help balance different audio tracks so they blend well. ¹

Compression

Compression reduces the dynamic range of an audio signal to make quiet sounds louder and loud sounds quieter. It is often used to level out varying signal volumes or add a punchier or thicker sound overall. Compression also helps sounds remain at a more consistent level when an audio track’s volume changes a lot.

Audio Ducking

Audio ducking is a technique used to automatically lower the volume of background audio when voiceovers or other audio clips play over them. This helps make the dialogue or foreground audio more clear and audible. According to this source, Filmora video editor has an easy-to-use audio ducking feature that amplifies voiceovers while ducking background music.

To utilize audio ducking, first import your background music track along with the voiceover or primary audio clip you want to stand out. Select the background music clip and go to the Audio Ducking setting. Here you can define when ducking is triggered based on amplitude levels. Set an appropriate ducking level like -12 dB to slightly lower the music bed. Now when your voiceover plays, the background music will automatically dip so it doesn’t compete.

Proper use of audio ducking creates clearer audio in your video edits. It directs more attention to important dialogue without having to tediously raise and lower clip volumes. Just set the ducking parameters and let the editor handle the rest for professional results.

Syncing Audio

Syncing audio and video clips is a crucial part of the video editing process. The goal is to line up music, voiceovers, sound effects, and other audio tracks with the visuals in your video timeline. There are a few strategies for perfectly syncing audio and video:

Use beat sync features in editing software like Canva. This detects the beats per minute in your music track and automatically syncs your video clips to the beat. Just select your music track, visual clips, and click the “beat sync” button.

Manually align audio waveforms with visual spikes in your editing timeline. Zoom in close and precisely line up the audio waves with movements in your video like a hand clap or footstep.

Use timecode to match the time positions between your audio and video files. This ensures everything lines up based on the same reference point time.

Add visual cues like a clapboard closing to provide spike points to sync with audio spikes later.

Use in/out points and markers to label important sync positions between your audio and video.

Listen and watch your edited timeline and make manual adjustments to fine-tune the sync between audio and visuals.

Proper syncing results in professional looking videos where audio and visuals are perfectly aligned. Invest time in the editing process to master syncing techniques.

Exporting Final Video

Once you finish editing your video in the software, the next step is to export the final video file with the audio. Most editing programs will have an “Export” or “Render” option that allows you to save the completed video project out as a standard video file format like MP4 or MOV.

When exporting, you’ll want to select settings that maintain good audio quality. Avoid highly compressed formats like H.264, and instead opt for a high bitrate encoding like Apple ProRes if available. Make sure the audio codec is set to Uncompressed or Lossless quality. The Kdenlive video editor allows exporting audio in the lossless FLAC format.

Additionally, match the audio sample rate and bit depth to your source audio files. This prevents unnecessary audio quality loss. Finally, listen to your exported video to double check that the audio sounds as intended without artifacts or issues.