Audio in Shotcut - How to Add Background Music and Sound Effects

how to add background music or sound effects  to your video project by using two layers   of audio in Shotcut let's get started so to  demonstrate this i have first of all created   a new project added a talking head video  into my project along with a sound track   and then four different sound effects as well  the first thing i'm going to do is drag in   to the timeline the main project file as you can  see as we scrub through this is all setup time   so i'm going to cut just about here using the  s and remove the beginning part of that file   now this is David his name is David Yeasley and he  has a channel all about future proofing yourself   if that interests you then i'll leave a link in  the description below he's given me permission   today to use his footage so i can demonstrate  using his voice rather than my own now let me play   the first few seconds and you'll hear exactly how  it sounds in this video we're going to discuss a   wonderful topic about how to create your own luck  as you can tell the sound quality is reasonable   and we don't need to make any more audio edits  to that file now there is another situation here   where you have recorded your audio separately to  your video if that's the case then you will need   to import two files your audio and your video and  then it will end up looking something like this   by the time you've matched them up you'll have  your audio file and your video file on different   layers it doesn't really matter which way you  do it but they are the two scenarios that you   could have at this point now the next thing  we want to do is add an additional audio   layer it doesn't matter which order audio layers  position themselves in because all of the sound   plays equally so let's add another audio track  by clicking on timeline menu track operations add   audio track as you can see that generates a2 in my  case if you have your talking head video and your   audio on the same track then you'll only have one  audio layer at this point and that's absolutely   fine this track is now ready for us to add our  music into so this is my music file i'm just   going to drag that into the a2 track now we've  got our video our person speaking and our music   all in the timeline when we play that we  could be here for hours but no this is only   you can tell that the audio is way too high we  don't want the audio to be causing a problem with   the voice the voice is the number one important  thing that needs to be conveyed over the top of   any other sound effects or music so let's reduce  the sound here i recommend dedicating this track   in Shotcut to this particular sound file so  with that in mind i would then recommend using   the filter on the track and not the individual  clip so click onto the track so it's got a red   outline come up to filters click on the plus and  then search for gain click onto gain and volume   and now we can lower the volume levels of the  music let's try that once more think about how   to create your own luck we could be here for  hours but no this is only and as you can tell   that now sounds much better one thing to be aware  of with music tracks is they generally finish   before the person has finished speaking so as you  scroll along it will stop so there'll be no more   music on here but obviously the video carries on  playing on the talking head video so you may be   happy with it fading off and not having any more  music or you may want to copy your audio track setting your playhead here and  then pasting now you can see   that the music will play to the end because  it will repeat that once once it gets to here you also want to cut it off with the snip tool so  you can remove any excess audio so there's a few   options there it's obviously your choice on what  you want to do for your project now just before   we continue if we're meeting for the very first  time then my name is Joe and this channel helps   youtubers edit their videos and use free software  if you're creating youtube videos regularly   and not seeing the growth you'd hope for you're  probably missing one or more elements of the   video creator framework you can download the free  pdf in the description below to get started now   let's get back to the video now let's come back  to the start of the video file and consider how   we may add some sound effects on top of what we've  already created the first thing i would suggest   is using a new audio track for any sound effects  so our A3 track will now be our sound effects   track i've already found a couple of sound effects  so i'm going to push them onto the timeline now   and let's just use these two as an example and  now as we play ... that's a wonderful topic about   how to create your own luck we could be here  for hours but no this is only a short video   i'm David ... okay so now you've added the sound  effects into your project as well i realized that   i have not positioned those sound effects in very  good places at all this is just a demonstration   so you'd usually use sound effects in conjunction  with your video pop-ups or things that are   happening on screen at the same time again that's  entirely up to you how you do that but this is how   you would add sound effects and music into your  video projects now for the video i recommended   adding a filter for the whole track when you're  using sound effects every sound effect that   you download and use or create is likely to  have a different volume so you're probably   going to need to select the individual clip apply  the gain filter to each clip kind of manually   now if you use the same clip twice then you can  set it all up once and then click here to copy   and then paste it onto any other clips that  you want the same settings so that can be some   time saving but you probably will need to do  each one manually because you want it to align   nicely with the volume of the person speaking and  not to either be too quiet or too loud the last   thing to note with audio is that you also need  to have the correct license for using that audio   i have used in this project youtube's library  youtube's library is free to use and you can use   whichever clips and sound effects that you want  so your other options for that is to go and source   elsewhere or to sign up to a subscription service  that actually gives you the license to use the   audio clips that's generally a reoccurring monthly  subscription and if you stop at any point then you   may get issues from stopping that service so just  be aware of the impact that that kind of thing can   have otherwise you should be good to go for adding  background music and sound effects into your   projects please consider liking and subscribing  and before you go click or tap on the video on   your screen right now and it will continue to help  you with Shotcut i'll see you in the next video

Channel: Joe Cullen - Shotcut Tutorials

Views: 5,982

Keywords: joe cullen, ubitronics, how to add layers of audio in shotcut, layers of audio, layers of audio in shotcut, shotcut audio, shotcut audio editing, shotcut audio volume, shotcut audio filters, shotcut audio mixing, shotcut tutorial, shotcut, shotcut video editor tutorial, shotcut audio track, shotcut audio editor, shotcut tutorial for beginners, shotcut sound, shotcut volume, audio in shotcut, shotcut add music, how to add music in shotcut, add audio in shotcut, audio shotcut

Id: aOEzfQB124s

Length: 7min 55sec (475 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 21 2022