Questions for owners of iMovie 08

[GFLPraxis]

Alright, there's annoying amounts of FUD in other threads.

I've got a few questions about iMovie I'd like people who have actually used it to answer if possible :)

I've tried making a podcast before, but I was frustrated by the amount of time editing took. I'm very interested in the new iMovie for this. Once video clips are in the library, it looks like all the "Import" time is eliminated (one of the most frustrating things I found), as he was dragging clips in and out rapidly with no problem in the keynote.

1) If I drag an MPEG-4 or MOV file in to the video library, is there a long import time?

2) With the new iMovie, is it possible to drag a few clips in, overlay my voice over it, and overlay a music track over it? I just want music and voice over the video. If it's not a drag-and-drop process, is there any trick to combining the two?

3) Also, how is the encoder? iMovie HD took three or four times longer than iSquint to encode MPEG-4 for my iPod, and I usually liked iSquint's results better (I couldn't deinterlace in iMovie).




#2 is probably the deal maker/breaker for me.

[belovedmonster]

Tutorial on voice over in iMovie 08
http://www.apple.com/ilife/tutorials/#imovie-making-13

Tutorial on adding music in iMovie 08
http://www.apple.com/ilife/tutorials/#imovie-making-11

Note that its a completely different process for each, and thus one shouldn't stop you doing the other. A lot of the FUD flying around is from people who haven't even bothered to check the information on the site.

[GFLPraxis]

Perfect, absolutely perfect. Thanks :D

EDIT: So was it correct that there's no Audio rubberbanding? Not a dealbreaker, I'll buy it anyway, the thought just popped in my head about making music fade when I start speaking.

[belovedmonster]

It appears that iMovie has 3 tracks for audio in addition to video audio

- "Background" audio - which you drag to the background of the project
- You have a second sound effect layer which appears below the clips when you drag a sound file in the appropriate place (see the sound effect tutorial video)
- Voice over audio - which appears when you record some audio

All tracks have volume settings, as well as the option to do auto ducking where it will for example automatically fade the video audio down when your voice over starts.

This is at least... you might have more control hidden away somewhere, but this what I can tell from reading the Apple site.

IMO that will suit the needs of 95% of iMovie users. Anyone who needs more from their audio can just open their iMovie project in Garageband (a feature added in iLife 06) and use all the bells and whistles that Garageband has, which is a much better solution for complicated audio jobs than iMovie would have ever been. In the professional world you wouldn't dream of doing audio mixing in Final Cut, you would use Sound track pro or something else. So all those "Power users" are actually being less amateurish if they learn to use garageband.

[GFLPraxis]

Then I have absolutely no complaints or reservations whatsoever. RIP iMovie 6, bring on iMovie HD. Deal with it, FUD-spreaders.

Thanks, belovedmonster :D


Also, to the naysayers, iMovie 6 is available as a free download if you buy iLife 08.