How do you add music to cute cut?

Cute Cut is a popular and highly rated video editing app available for iOS and Android devices. It was developed by X Media LLC and launched in 2014. With over 100 million downloads worldwide, Cute Cut has become one of the top choices for quick and easy mobile video editing.

Cute Cut provides users with a full set of tools to trim, merge, and manipulate clips, add transitions, text, filters, music, and more. Some key features include:

Intuitive timeline editing interface

Hundreds of fonts, stickers, filters, and effects
Tools to crop, rotate, split, and combine clips
Green screen masking and chroma key features

Frame-by-frame animation
Support for multiple video and audio tracks

While more advanced than some mobile editors, Cute Cut prioritizes ease of use with its drag and drop workflow. Its balance of power and accessibility has made it a go-to choice for everyone from casual home users to social media influencers and professionals.

Why Add Music to Videos in Cute Cut

There are several key reasons why you may want to add music to your videos in Cute Cut:

Make videos more engaging – Adding music can help capture and hold viewer attention ¹. An engaging soundtrack can elicit emotional responses and heighten interest in your video.

Set the mood – Music is a powerful way to establish a certain mood or tone for your video ². Choosing the right background track can help convey emotions and make your story more impactful.

Avoid blank background noise – Silence or ambient noise can be distracting in a video. Adding complementary music fills in audio gaps and creates a more polished production.

Finding Music to Add

When adding music to videos in Cute Cut, you’ll first need to find some music files to import. There are a few main sources to get royalty-free music that you can legally use in your Cute Cut projects:

Downloaded Songs: One option is to purchase and download royalty-free songs from stock music sites like AudioJungle, Pond5, PremiumBeat, etc. These give you full rights to use the songs commercially. Just be sure to download high-quality MP3 or WAV files.

Free Online Libraries: Many sites offer free creative commons or public domain music to use, like Free Music Archive and YouTube’s Audio Library. These allow you to use the songs at no cost, but be sure to check the exact license terms.

Creative Commons Music: Some artists release songs under Creative Commons licenses, which allow reuse if you follow certain conditions, like attribution. Sites like Free Music Archive, Jamendo, ccMixter, and SoundCloud offer this type of music.

Once you’ve identified some songs to use, you’ll need to download them as MP3, WAV, or other audio files that can be imported into Cute Cut for your videos.

Importing Music Files

Cute Cut supports common audio formats like MP3, WAV, AAC, FLAC and more. To import music files into your Cute Cut project:

Click the Music tab
Click the Import button

Navigate to the audio files on your computer you want to import
Select the files and click Open

The audio files will now be added to your Cute Cut project’s media library, ready to add to the timeline. You can preview the audio clips before adding them.

If you ever need to add more music, simply click the Import button again to choose additional files. Cute Cut makes it easy to build up your project’s media library with all the audio you need.

Adding Music to the Timeline

Once you have your audio clips imported into Cute Cut, it’s time to add them to the timeline. Music should be placed on a separate track from your video clips. This gives you more control and flexibility when editing the audio.

To add music to the timeline, simply drag and drop the audio file onto the empty track under your video clips. You can have multiple audio tracks to layer different songs or sound effects.

After adding your music track, you may need to trim the clip or adjust the audio levels. Double click the audio clip to bring up the clip editor. Here you can drag the edges of the clip to trim it to the desired length. The editor also has volume controls to increase or decrease the audio level of that clip.

Getting the audio balanced with the video is important. You want the music loud enough to be heard clearly, but not overpowering the video. Play back your project and tweak the audio levels until you achieve the mix you want.

With music properly placed and balanced on the timeline, you can now edit the video to match the audio pacing and accents. Adding music is a great way to make your Cute Cut videos more engaging and dynamic.

Syncing Music to Video

One of the keys to creating a compelling video with music is to properly sync the audio to the visuals. Specifically, you’ll want to sync musical hits and beats to video cuts and transitions. This helps emphasize those video edits and makes the music feel like an integral part of the video.

Here are some strategies for effectively syncing music to video:

Match big beat drops in the music to major scene transitions in the video. The audio impact will enhance the visual impact of the change.

Sync rhythmic hits to quick cuts between video clips. This can create a cool rhythmic editing style.
Find a section in the music that builds up energy and tension. Having that align with a montage or other video section that builds will create synergy.
Pick music with a steady, consistent beat. That makes it easier to find cuts that snap to the beat.

Use the audio waveform preview in your video editor to precisely match beats to cuts by eye.
Adjust video edits to match the musical hits if needed. The music can serve as your editing guide.

Following these tips, you can make your video editing pop by taking advantage of the natural rhythm and pacing of your chosen music. Cutting video clips to the beat will create a lively, dynamic viewing experience.

Mixing Multiple Audio Tracks

One powerful feature in Cute Cut is the ability to mix and layer multiple audio tracks. This allows you to combine things like background music, voiceovers, and sound effects seamlessly in your video.

To mix multiple tracks, you simply need to import all the audio files you want to use into your Cute Cut project. You can drag and drop MP3, WAV, and other audio files directly onto the timeline. Cute Cut will stack the audio tracks on top of each other in layers.

You can adjust the volume levels of each track independently. Lower the music track and increase the volume of the voiceover for clear narration. You may also want to reduce the volume of sound effects so they don’t overpower the other audio elements.

Use crossfades to smoothly transition between audio tracks. You can fade a music track out while fading a new track in. This prevents jarring audio changes during your video. Apply crossfades by simply dragging the transition handles between clips on the timeline.

If the audio tracks overlap, Cute Cut will mix them together. You can also stagger and layer tracks to create intricate audio beds. For example, fade a soft music track under a louder track for depth.

The key is to experiment with track volumes and panning to get the mix you want. Listen with headphones to finely tune the audio. Balancing and blending multiple tracks takes practice, but the editing tools in Cute Cut give you the control you need.

Audio Effects and Enhancements

Cute Cut provides a range of audio effects and enhancements to improve the quality of your music and audio tracks. One of the most useful is the Equalizer effect. This allows you to boost or attenuate different frequency ranges in the audio to get the desired sound. For example, you can increase the bass or treble frequencies. The Equalizer interface shows a visual graph to help shape the sound.

The Normalize effect is also very handy for evening out the volume levels in your audio tracks. This can help prevent parts that are too loud or too soft. Normalizing analyzes the waveform and adjusts the gain to bring the highest peak to a target level. Just enable the effect and set the target level in decibels to activate it.

There are also effects like Compressor and Hard Limiter that can improve the overall audio quality. Compressor evens out the dynamic range while still preserving the peaks. Hard Limiter prevents any peaks from exceeding the threshold to avoid clipping. Using these and other effects judiciously can really polish your audio for a professional sound.

The key is to listen carefully as you add effects and make adjustments – rely on your ears rather than just the visuals. This will ensure you enhance the audio while preserving the natural quality. With some practice, you’ll learn how to get the best results.

Exporting Video with Audio

Once you are happy with the edited video and audio mix in Cute Cut, the next step is to export the final video file to share or use in other projects.

When exporting, pay close attention to the render settings and audio codec options to maintain quality.

Under the Export tab in Cute Cut, you can choose from presets like 1080p HD or customized export settings.

For the video codec, H.264 is a good universal choice that balances quality and file size. For higher quality, try ProRes. The bitrate depends on your needs – for sharing online, 5-10 Mbps is typically sufficient. For the best quality, go up to 30 Mbps or higher.

For audio codec, AAC at 192-320 Kbps gives excellent quality for music and audio tracks. Uncompressed or lossless codecs like ALAC and FLAC give the highest quality audio but large file sizes.

Make sure the sample rate matches your audio tracks – 44.1 KHz is typical. Select stereo or mono based on your audio channels.

Finally, check the box for “Export audio” to include all audio tracks and music in the final rendered video file. The included audio makes sharing seamless.

With the proper export settings, you can render a video from Cute Cut with high quality audio and music ready to share with the world.

Final Tips for Adding Music

When adding music to videos in Cute Cut, follow these final tips for best results:

Adjust audio levels carefully. Make sure the music volume complements the video and dialogue audio rather than overpowering it. Use volume envelopes and keyframes to dynamically adjust levels.

Avoid abrupt audio changes. Fade audio in and out gently to prevent jarring transitions between songs or background music. Use crossfades when transitioning between music tracks.

Pan stereo audio judiciously. Subtly panning the music left/right can help separate it from center-panned dialogue. But avoid extreme panning which sounds unnatural.

Equalize audio for clarity. Use the built-in EQ effects to sculpt the music tone. Cut muddy low-mid frequencies and boost presence with a high shelf.

Watch for repetition and variation. Looping the same music clip can get repetitive quicky. Vary sections, use fades, or lower volume temporarily to provide interest.

Prooflisten with headphones. Preview the final mix with headphones to catch subtle audio issues that are hard to notice on speakers.

With practice and these tips, you can add great-sounding music that brings your Cute Cut videos to life. Play around and find what works best for each unique project.