How to record narration in Movie Maker 2012 and add it to my Movie

You can record narration and save the file to a separate audio track and add it to your movie. The maximum length of a narration file is one hour, if you want to add more than one recording you need to create separate recordings.

How to record narration

1. From the Home tab, click Record narration drop down then select Record narration.

2. Click Record button to begin recording. The countdown timer appears under the preview window.

Please make sure to review waveforms to make sure that the narration is recording. If your microphone is not picking up audio, Movie Maker will continue to record, however, the track will be silent.

3. When the narration is stopped, save the file to add it to the storyboard, cancelling it will not save the file.

Note:  By default, other video and music tracks in the movie are muted when you are recording an audio.  When the video file is moved, the audio file moves with the video. Whereas, the audio file can be moved independently from the video file. You can drag files within the same track.

How to add Prerecorded narration or sound file to your movie.

1. From the Home tab, click Record narration drop down then select Add sound.

Additional Information:

To accompany narration, Movie Maker allows for audio ducking and emphasized audio. When you add a narration to your project, the audio from all other tracks are temporarily reduced (ducked) when there is audible content on the narration track.

You can change the priority of an audio track by emphasizing it. This reduces the volume on the remaining tracks. In addition, you can adjust the mix between the two non-emphasized tracks. By default the narration track is emphasized if present.  You can find it from Project tab.

Below is a screenshot on how to do so.

Audio Waveforms

Waveforms will allow you to track the audio in the project. The high and low points can be identified to help when making editing decisions. Waveforms are enabled from the View tab by clicking the

Waveforms button.