To make a better movie, you must have the same level of control over the sound of your piece as you do over the images. The fade music effect can help you smooth the video, music and audio transitions. This tutorial will show you how to fade in and fade out music in Windows and macOS with a list of video editing software applications, and some useful tips for editing audio.
We usually add music to a video. Sometimes, we need to fade music to make a sound appear to start “fading in” or “fading out” when it slowly appears or disappears respectively.
When it comes to fading in or fading out music, the following questions would be asked: how do you fade music, and how to fade music in iMovie.
This post will focus on how to fade in and fade out music in Windows and Mac. And give you some basic skills for audio editing.
What Is Fade-in and Fade-out?
Before you fade music, you had better know the functions of fade-in and fade-out effects.
Fade effects frequently serve as audio transitions and there are two basic types of fade effects: fade-in and fade-out. The fade effect is a gradual increase or decrease in the level of an audio signal in audio engineering.
The subtle build-up of a song can make movie transitions seamless or pack a punch in key moments.
The fade-in effect makes a song start at a lower volume and gradually increases over the next few seconds until it reaches normal levels.
The fade-out effect makes a song start at a normal volume and gradually decrease over the next few seconds until the song ends.
Fade-in and fade-out effects can change the characteristics of a sound. For instance, fade-in can soften the attack, especially in vocals where sounds of very plosive (‘b’, ‘d’, and ‘p’) can occur. Besides, fade-in and fade-out can be used to soften the attack of the drum or percussion instruments.
Some people think of editing audio as the job of an audio engineer. Now, with an audio editor, you don’t have to be an audio engineer or sound designer to get the perfect fade. In this post, we will show how to fade music either in Windows and macOS.
How to Fade in and Fade out Music in Windows
Now that we’ve reviewed the fade-in and fade-out effects, we will show you 2 audio fade tools to help you fade music.
Fade Music in MiniTool MovieMaker
To fade in or fade out music in Windows 7/8/10/11, you can try the free and simple tool – MiniTool MovieMaker.
This free audio editor lets you edit video easily and quickly because of its simple operations as well as powerful functions. In general, even a new user can easily fade music via this tool because it offers wizard-like and simple interfaces. More importantly, it is a free video editor without watermark. Thus, you can create your story without watermark.
Check out the quick guide below to see how to add audio fade effects.
Step 1: Download and install MiniTool MovieMaker on your PC
MiniTool MovieMakerClick to Download100%Clean & Safe
Step 2: Import Media Files
Open this application and close the promotion window to enter the app’s interface. Click Import Media Files to add your video and then drag it to the timeline.
Step 3: Fade in or fade out music
If your original video has music and you want to apply a fade-in/fade-out effect, click Audio in the Video Property on the right. In this window, you are able to drag the Fade in and Fade out sliders to the right or left to manually set the duration of the effect.
If you want to remove the original music and add new music, you can pull the volume slider to zero. You can then import new audio files or just add the audio built into the software. After adding the audio, click on the audio clip on the timeline to get the audio editing page on the right side.
If you only want to edit a piece of audio, you can also import just the audio file, which is supported by this software. After importing the audio, click it on the timeline to get the audio editing page on the right side.
Step 4: Export and save your file
Now, you can click the Export button to save your file. You can choose the file format.
MiniTool MovieMaker is a good tool to fade in and fade out music. This free audio editor also contains other good features to help you create a masterpiece.
Other features of MiniTool Movie Maker
- Trim video to remove unwanted parts.
- Combine videos into one.
- Split large video into small parts.
- Add transitions and effects to video clips to complete your movie.
- Create a photo slideshow with your pictures and music file. For instance, I created a Facebook slideshow with this free and simple tool.
- Add subtitles to your video.
- Change video resolution and formats.
- Reduce video size.
- Make GIF video.
If you want to know more detailed information about this free video editing tool, please read the user manual.
Fade Music in Adobe Premiere Pro CC
Professional users always use Adobe Premiere Pro CC to edit videos. However, some of them might not be aware of the steps on how to fade out audio Premiere Pro.
Step 1. Create a sequence and drag in your voice and music.
Step 2. Select Window -> Essential Sound to open the essential sound panel.
Step 3. Click on your voice audio clip.
Step 4. Go to the essential sound panel and click the Dialogue button.
Step 5. Click on the music.
Step 6. Go to the essential sound panel and click on the Music button.
Step 7. In the new menu, go down to ducking and click on the checkbox. After that, click on the bar and the controls for ducking will open up.
Step 8. Now, you will see the following 3 controls.
- The first control, sensitivity, tells the algorithm how loud a voice needs to be to automatically duck for.
- The second control, reduce by, controls how much audio gain it will reduce when a voice speaks.
- The third control, fades, controls the fade time between ducking and not ducking.
Step 9. Click on the generate keyframes button after you have the setting.
Step 10. Go to music footage and make any adjustments to these keyframes that you want. (To change settings, you need to make changes and re-click the generate keyframes button.)
Adobe Premiere Pro CC indeed can help users fade music in and out music. However, this professional tool is used by Hollywood filmmakers, TV editors, and videographers. If you are a new user, you had better choose MiniTool Movie Maker. Otherwise, you have to spend much time learning this professional tool and learn how to fade out audio Premiere Pro.
How to Fade in and Fade out Music in MacOS
Mac users also can try an audio editor to fade music. According to a survey, many macOS users try iMovie to fade in or fade out music. Now, how to fade music in iMovie? How to fade out music in iMovie? Here’s the step-by-step guide.
How to Fade Music in iMovie
Step 1. Launch iMovie, import video/audio to your iMovie project, and drag and drop video and audio file to the timeline. If you cannot see the audio waveform, you need to click the file icon and then check Show Waveforms.
Step 2. Move the pointer over a waveform. Now, you can drag the fade handles to add an “audio in/out effect” to your video. The audio handles are the small white/grey concentric circles on the audio strip. To be honest, they are a little hard to spot.
- To fade in music in iMovie, you can drag the small grey fade handle at the left of the clip.
- To fade out music in iMovie, drag the small fade handle at the right of the clip
You can make the fade as short or long as you’d like. In general, it really depends on your music and the effect you’re going for.
Step 3. After you fade music, you can move the playhead to the beginning part of the clips with fade effects to check the fade-in and fade-out effects. If everything is OK, you can click Share and choose File to save it to whatever format that is best for you.
Related article: iMovie for Windows – Top 6 iMovie Alternatives for PC.
How to fade music out in iMovie? Try the above steps.Click to Tweet
2 Useful Tips for Editing Audio You Need to Know
After learning how to fade music, we will show some basic tips to help you make a cool video.
Remove Audio from Video
There is no doubt that background noise (wind noise, footsteps, etc.) would destroy your recorded video, no matter how carefully the shooting was conducted. If you want to upload and share this video widely, you should remove background noise from your video. In this case, fading music cannot help because it only increases or decreases the level of an audio signal.
Now, how to remove audio from a video? Don’t worry. Video editing tools can help you. You can read this post How to Remove Audio from Video – 7 Methods You Should Know to learn how to complete this task.
Record Voiceover, Add Voiceover to Video
Have you ever wanted to create a documentary for some important stuff? Sometimes, to make your video more compelling, interesting and emotional, you can add a voiceover, a recording of someone speaking. Then, this video appeals to more senses and involves a human voice instead of just a muted visual.
Ok, it is very easy to record a voice-over and add it to video. For instance, Windows Movie Maker, a free and simple video editing tool, offers a record narration feature to help you easily record voiceover and you can emphasize video, narration or music according to actual needs.
Bottom Line
In audio engineering, a fade is a gradual increase or decrease in the level of an audio signal. Fading music is a wise choice to have your music and voice work together in the same audio space.
Now, you can try a suitable audio editor to fade in or fade out your music. If you have another good tool for fading music, please share it with us by leaving comments. Thanks in advance.
If you encounter problems using MiniTool MovieMaker, please contact us via [email protected] for help.
Fade Music FAQ
2. Import your media files, drag and drop picture to timeline, and add a music file to track.
3. Right-click the music, and choose Edit.
4. Now, you can fade in or fade out music.
5. Save music.
2. Import media files, and add them to the timeline.
3. Split the music file.
4. Trim music file to remove the unwanted beginning or ending.
5. Fade in or fade out music as you like.
6. Save it.
About The Author
Position: Columnist
Yulia has a great passion for life. She enjoys photography and travel, and is always eager to record cherished moment through her lens. This also led to her strong interest in video editing, and she kept learning multimedia-related knowledge, hoping to bring readers better advice on images, audio, video, and related topics.