How to Remove Sound from Video
– It’s Easy, Fast, and Simple!

First, import your video into Movie Studio Platinum.

• Open Movie Studio Platinum and create a new project.
• In the Media Pool in the upper right, locate the folder containing your video file.
• Drag & drop the video file onto the project window. To combine several videos, place them one-by-one on the top track.
• To play the project, press the space bar. You should now see the video picture playing smoothly in the preview monitor, and you should also hear the audio.

Tip: If video playback is choppy, your system is overloaded. In this case, it's a good idea to use proxy files. To do this, go to "File" > "Settings" > "Movie" and enable the option "Create proxy files automatically". Now, instead of using the original high-resolution video files for editing, the software will use smaller placeholder videos which can be edited and played much more easily. When you export the project or burn it to disc at the end of editing, the original high-resolution files are used instead of the proxies.

• To remove the audio track from the video, right-click the video in the project window and select "Audio functions" > "Remove audio object".

This method is useful if the audio track is completely useless (e.g. full of noise).

In all other cases, we recommend muting the audio track instead. When you do this, the audio track is not deleted. Instead, it is retained in case you need to use it later (e.g. for dubbing or other audio recordings).

• To mute the audio track, right-click the video in the track and select "Audio functions" > "Mute audio object".

Now, when you play the video, you won't hear the sound even though the audio track is still there. You can unmute the audio track at any time to hear it.

The video in the top track contains both the picture and the sound track. You can't see the sound track, but you can hear it when you play the video.

To see and edit the sound track separately, follow these steps:

• Right-click on the video and select "Audio functions" > "Video/Audio on separate tracks" in the context menu.

The video will now be split into two objects: a picture object without sound on Track 1, and an audio object without picture on Track 2.

Track 1 is the video track, and Track 2 is for the video sound.

To gain a better understanding of what is happening acoustically on the audio track, you can also turn on the waveform display for the sound:

• To do this, right-click on the audio object in Track 2 and select the option "Create wave form".

A waveform will appear. The waveform isn't strictly necessary for editing the audio track, but it's recommended since it provides you with a clear overview of your audio material and allows for easier editing.

The video object on Track 1 and the audio object on Track 2 are grouped together. This means that they can only be selected, cut and moved together. This is to prevent the picture and the sound from accidentally getting detached from one another and mixed up with other material.

However, it's also possible to ungroup them. To do this, click the "Ungroup" button in the toolbar. The complementary "Group" button can be used to combine ungrouped objects into a group again.

To edit the video sound independently of the video (e.g. to remove a specific noise from the sound without having to cut the picture as well), follow these steps:

• First, cut the picture and the sound together. To do this, place the playback marker where you want to cut, and then press the "T" key.
• Hold down the Alt key and drag the cut border below on the audio track to the left. This will trim only the audio object.
• Release the Alt key. The picture and sound are once again grouped.

Oftentimes, you'll want to replace the original sound track with other audio material once you've removed it. To do this, follow these steps:

• Load the alternative sound track into Track 3.
• Enable the waveform display (see above). If you need to, zoom in on the display by holding down Ctrl and scrolling with the mouse wheel.
• Use the waveform display to synchronize the two audio tracks. In other words: Move the audio object on Track 3 so that the wave peaks and valleys line up with those of the original sound on Track 2 and so the two waveforms match.
• Then, mute the original sound. To do this, click the M button in the track header to the left on Track 2 ("M" = mute).

The original sound track has now been replaced by the alternative audio.

To add additional audio material to your video, follow these steps:

• Drag a file containing background music onto an empty track (e.g. Track 4).
• Drag a file containing noises or sound effects onto yet another empty track (e.g. Track 5) and arrange the two tracks so that they fit the video track.

When you play the video, the combined audio tracks will be mixed together, and their volumes will be summed. This can easily lead to clipping. It's a good idea to check and adjust the volume level of multiple audio tracks.

To do this, press the "M" key to open the audio mixer.

• Here, each audio track has its own volume slider.
• The "FX" button and "Master" button to the right open the effects for the individual tracks and for the overall sound. To edit the volume, we recommend using the compressor, which leaves loud parts untouched while raising the volume of quiet parts. This also improves the clarity of spoken parts.
• The peak meter is useful for finding instances of clipping. If an audio track is clipping, its respective volume slider should be turned down until all peak meters are kept below 0.

Tip: Volume curves (right-click the audio object and select "Volume curve") can be used to lower and raise the volume at specific locations.

Lastly, after the volume of all audio tracks has been adjusted appropriately and the image quality is acceptable, you can export your video in a variety of formats. All of the audio tracks in the project will be combined into a single stereo recording and added to the video file.

• Create video file: Go to "File" > "Export movie" to create a new video file, e.g. in MP4 or MOV format. There are a range of codec settings and presets available in the Export dialog.
• Burn to disc: To open the "Burn" interface, click on the button with the disc icon in the upper right corner of the program. Select a disc type (DVD, AVCHD or Blu-ray Disc), then start the burn process.
• Upload to the Internet: Vimeo and YouTube are directly connected to the program. Click on the arrow symbol in the top right to open the dialog "Finish movie" and upload the video to your profile.
• Transfer to smartphone: In the "Finish movie" dialog you will see the option "Export to mobile device". Select a device, and Movie Studio Platinum will handle the rest. The video will be exported and transferred to your device together with all of the audio tracks.