Can I import audio from YouTube clip into iMovie?

January 23, 2009 11:11 AM

YouTube/iMovie: Is it possible to somehow take the audio from a clip found on YouTube and import it into iMovie? I don't want the video, just the audio.

I'm not concerned with legality, as I'm just making a little movie that probably only five people will ever see. There is a YouTube clip of a live concert that I want to use as my soundtrack. I can't find a live version of the song on iTunes, so I'm hoping there is a way to take it from the YouTube clip. Obviously I'm not very sophisticated in these matters, so please speak slowly. Thank you!

posted by HotToddy to technology (10 comments total)

Option 1: record audio playing on your computer, save as some useful format, and import to iMovie.

Option 2: use DownloadHelper (Firefox Extension) and either import directly to iMovie, or convert it. (Apparently iMovie 4 doesn't allow importing flash)

I don't have access to iMovie, so these are generic tips that could well work.
posted by filthy light thief at 11:21 AM on January 23

Audacity. It'll take any audio output and convert it to an MP3 (or whatever). You just have to "sit with" the video and make sure to stop and start it at the right time (remember taping songs off the radio?).
posted by HerArchitectLover at 11:23 AM on January 23

I can't remember if I've used this particular site (there are many), but they're all similar: you put the URL of the video in, it rips the audio and provides you with a downloadable .mp3 file. As for integrating that into iMovie...I can't help.
posted by rtha at 11:23 AM on January 23

Get Tube will download Youtube movies and has a preference setting to output mp3
posted by bonobothegreat at 11:37 AM on January 23

Here's another Youtube to mp3 converter that I use and like.

I'm pretty sure that iMovie makes it extremely easy to add mp3 files to the project's audio track; it's probably drag and drop.
posted by Third at 11:43 AM on January 23 [1 favorite has favorites]

Awesome, thanks! I've got rtha's site working on it right now but these all look like they'd be easy to use so I'm not going to favorite. And yeah, the iMovie end of it is very simple, I just didn't know how to get from here to there. Thanks so much for your help!
posted by HotToddy at 11:54 AM on January 23

You probably dont want to extract to mp3. Extract to wav. If you extract to mp3 youre recompressing already compressed audio before you even insert it into imovie.
posted by damn dirty ape at 1:10 PM on January 23

What you could also do is download the trial of Audio Hijack grab the audio while the movie plays and just save it out as a mp3, AIFF, what ever you need.
posted by ShawnString at 1:13 PM on January 23

Is there any program like Audio Hijack (or WireTap) for Windows PCs?
posted by msalt at 10:53 PM on January 24

1) google a website that you can download an application from that rips youtube videos. I think mine's called TubeTV.

2) rip the video you want

3) drop it into iMovie

4) click on "Advanced" (at the very top of the screen)

5) scroll down to extract audio (this separates the video and audio)

6) then click on the video part and hit delete

Now you're audio is isolated and you can put it over other clips and such. Good luck!
posted by jay.eye.elle.elle. at 7:34 PM on January 25