Windows Movie Maker comes included with the Vista and XP operating systems.
Sound effects act as punctuation in a movie, highlighting important actions and aiding transitions between scenes. Use a telephone ring sound effect, for example, when a phone rings offscreen in your movie; add ambient bird sound effects to create an outdoors ambiance in the film. To add sound affects to your Windows Movie Maker production, insert them onto the audio track in the program's Timeline. Windows Movie Maker supports most common sound effect file formats, including MP3, WAV and AIFF.
Instructions
1. Start Windows Movie Maker. Open the "File" menu and select "Open Project." Click the project file to which you want to add the sound effects, then click "Open."
2. Click the "Start" menu button, then click "My Computer." Navigate to the folder containing the sound effects you want to add to the project.
3. Hold down the "Ctrl" key and click each of the sound effects you want to add. Click and hold one of the selected sound effects, then press "Alt" and "Tab" simultaneously to switch back to Windows Movie Maker. Move the mouse cursor over the Windows Movie Maker window and release the mouse button to import the sound effects.
4. Drag and drop the first sound effect you want to add into the Timeline at the bottom of the project window. Drag the sound clip that appears in the Timeline left or right to set its position in the movie. Shorten or lengthen a sound effect by dragging its edges left and right. Repeat the process for the other sound effects you want to add.
