Use Windows Movie Maker to Create a 'Multi Track' Soundtrack

Have you ever wanted to create at least a very basic sort of soundtrack that sounds like it has multiple tracks but don't have any professional software? Well then, you've come to the right place. It's possible to use Movie Maker to do the job without any additional software at all. In fact, you can theoretically have a soundtrack sounding like is has as many tracks as you like. However, it can get very time-consuming so you will need to have a bit of patience. Note that this article isn't meant to describe how to make your own music with Movie Maker, it's simply meant to describe how to assemble a soundtrack using existing music and audio files. Also note that all the tracks will ultimately be merged into two tracks, so if you want a file that actually does have more than two tracks running simultaneously, you may need to look elsewhere. Keep in mind that you will need Windows Vista, not XP, to make your soundtrack.

Steps

  1. Open the Start Menu and go to the "All Programs" menu. Now look for an icon labeled "Windows Movie Maker" and open it. The application window should open up.
  2. If you don't already know how to use Movie Maker, it should be fairly easy to learn. Click and drag whatever video and audio files you need (or want) into the large empty area. Now click "Storyboard". A menu should open up. Select "Timeline". If Timeline is already selected, you don't have to worry about this. Now there should be three tracks visible at the bottom of the window in the Timeline view: Video, Audio/Music, and Title Overlay. Now drag the desired audio tracks onto the Audio/Music track in the order you want them.
  3. Get an image file - any will do fine. Click and drag it into the video track.
  4. Now go to the "File" menu and select "Save Project", then type in whatever file name you want. Optimally, you want to type in something you'll remember, such as "Track1". It doesn't matter too much where you save the project file, however. Now click the "Save" button. Note that this step is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT if you want to go to the trouble of making modifications to your project later.
  5. Go into the File menu again and select "Publish Movie", or alternatively hold down the "Ctrl" key on the keyboard and press the "P" key. A window should show up asking you where you want to publish your movie. Select "This computer". Now press the "Next" button.
  6. Now Movie Maker will ask you what you want the file name to be. Make the file name something you can remember, such as "Track1". If it's already the name you want, don't do anything. Also, by default, the drop-down menu labeled "Publish to:" should be on the "Videos" folder. If it's not, browse for the "Videos" folder by going into the folder labeled with your User Account name and looking for the folder labeled "Videos". If the Videos folder is already selected, leave the menu like that and click the "Next" button.
  7. The computer will now ask you to choose the settings for the movie. If you don't know what to do here, it is recommended that you click "Best quality for playback on my computer (recommended)", not because the computer says it is recommended, but because it would probably be irrelevant to this this article to explain what the other settings mean. Now click the "Publish" button.
  8. Depending on your computer hardware, this can take a while (you were notified that this required patience). Once it says "Your movie has been published", you're still far from done! Now open up the "Videos" folder (you did publish your movie to the Videos folder, right?). If you don't know where it is, open up the folder labeled with your User Account name. It should be in there. Now find the movie you just published. It should be a ".wmv" file with the name you designated.
  9. Click and drag the movie file to the formerly empty space in the Movie Maker window where you dragged the audio files you wanted. Now hold down the "Ctrl" key on the keyboard and then press the "N" key, or just go into the "File" menu and select "New Project". If Movie Maker asks you if you want to save the changes you made to your project, click "No" unless you didn't save and want to save now, or made desirable changes to the project after you saved it the first time. The "Video" and "Audio/Music" tracks should be reset. However, you haven't lost anything.
  10. Drag the movie file you created into the "Video" track. If you hit the Play button, you will hear the audio files you put in even though the track is labeled "Video". Why? Because the Video track has it's own "Audio" track, but in order to use it, you have to put a movie file into it that has an audio track, and then Movie Maker will automatically place the file's audio track into the "Video" track's "Audio" track. Now you see why you had to go though all of this, right? Now put the next set of audio files you want into the Audio/Music track, in the order you want.
  11. Now you repeat steps #4-10 until you have as many audio tracks as desired. It was warned that this could be very time-consuming, correct? At step #4, be sure to enter a different project file name every time you add a new track. Also, every time you add a new track, it will be merged with the previous track. Lastly described by this step, at each step, try to be VERY SURE that you have the desired results because it can potentially be quite time-consuming to make any modifications to the final result (the reason is described under the "Tips" section).
  12. At this point, all your audio tracks should be crammed into a single movie file. How to convert the movie file into just a plain-old audio file? Very easy. Click and drag your 'final' movie file to the formerly empty space in the Movie Maker window described in step #9. Now click and drag it again. However, this time, don't drag it to the "Video" track; instead, drag it to the "Audio/Music" track. Now repeat steps #5-8. 4 is recommended as well, but not as strongly. At step #7, there should be a few changes to the window that displays. If you're not sure, leave the settings as they are, but if you want a specific sound quality, you can select "More settings", click on the drop-down menu labeled "High-quality audio", and then select which quality you want. This should take much faster than it did with the movie files because this is a straight audio file without any movie. Now you're done. Find your finished file, open it up, and enjoy. Hopefully, this article was helpful to you. If not, make sure you followed the steps very carefully.

Tips

  • Note that these steps may only apply to the version of Movie Maker that comes with Windows Vista as the creator of this article had no experience with Windows XP's version of Movie Maker whatsoever.
  • To make a later modification to a specific audio track, open up the Project file that had that track in its Audio/Music track and make any modifications you want. Then repeat steps #4-11 followed by #12 until you have your new final result. Note that this is precisely the reason why it can be so difficult to make any modifications to your soundtrack.
  • It could be noted that in a sense, by saving every project that has a new audio track added to it, you have one multi-track 'audio file' in the form of several separate Project files.
  • If you want your finished soundtrack to play during a video, at step #12, besides dragging the movie file with your soundtrack into the Audio/Movie track, also drag the desired movie file into the "Video" track. If the movie has its own soundtrack and you don't want that playing alongside your own soundtrack, then click the little plus sign next to the word "Video". Now you should be able to see the "Video" track's own "Audio" track. Right-click the audio track and select "Mute".

Things You'll Need

  • A computer running Windows Vista, optimally with a lot of hardware
  • All the necessary audio files

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