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This article was excerpted from: Digital Photos, Movies, & Music Gigabook for Dummies:

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Background music for movies is nothing new. Even before the day of "talkies," musicians played in the theater to accompany the silent movies. You probably want to use music in some of your movie projects, as well.

Adding music from a CD

After you insert an audio file into your editing program, you can add the file to the music track on your timeline. The procedure varies, depending on which editing program you use, as follows:

• In Apple iMovie: Use iTunes to import music from audio CDs into your iTunes library. Then click the Audio button in iMovie, choose iTunes from the menu at the top of the audio pane, and click and drag a song from your iTunes library to an audio track on the iMovie timeline.

• In Pinnacle Studio: Place a music CD in your CD-ROM drive and choose Toolbox --> Add CD Music. The Add CD Music toolbox appears. Choose the audio track that you want to use in the Track menu and then click the Add to Movie button. Close the Add CD Music toolbox and then click the Play button under the preview window to play your timeline. The first time that you play the timeline, Studio imports the music from the CD. After you import the music, you can remove the CD from your CD-ROM drive.

Generating background music with SmartSound

Pinnacle Studio comes with a tool called SmartSound, which can automatically generate royalty-free music in a variety of styles to match your project. To generate some music from SmartSound, open a project in Studio and choose Toolbox --> Generate Background Music. The audio toolbox appears. (If you didn't install the SmartSound files on your hard drive during installation, you have to insert the Studio program disc in your CD-ROM drive.)

SmartSound offers music in a variety of styles. Each style includes several songs; most songs have a few different versions available. Click the Preview button to preview a style, song, and version. When generating background music, figure out approximately how long you want the musical piece to play. For example, when you place three 10-second clips on the timeline, their total length is a little more than 30 seconds. Adjust the duration of the music by typing a new time in the Duration box (in the upper-right corner of the audio toolbox). When you click the Add to Movie button, SmartSound automatically generates a piece of music in the chosen style, song, and version, and that music plays for approximately the duration that you choose. You can also name the selection if you want, using the Name field at the top of the toolbox.

One advantage of SmartSound's automatically generated music is that you can use it without paying royalties every time someone views your movie. Even so, remember that SmartSound does have some licensing restrictions. They're worth reviewing before you use the music in a movie that you plan to show to the public. For SmartSound license details, click the SmartSound button in the Studio audio toolbox.

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