30-second answer: Music and audio in Edits work best when speech stays in front and music stays behind it. Add your soundtrack from the audio tool, place it under the whole video or under specific sections, then lower its volume so speech is always clearly audible, and fade it in and out at the start and end. Check the result on headphones and on a phone speaker, because a mix that sounds good on one can sound muddy or harsh on the other.
On this page
- Choose music that fits the video
- Add a soundtrack to a project
- Balance music against speech
- Use fades and cut points
- Fix clipping, muddiness, and noise
- Check the mix before export
- Using this in a desktop workflow
Music changes how a video feels more than almost any visual choice. The same footage feels energetic with an upbeat track, serious with a quiet one, and awkward with a track that fights the speech. That power is also the risk: music that is too loud, too busy, or badly cut will distract from the message, and viewers will turn away even if the visuals are excellent. Good audio work is mostly about restraint and balance, not about finding a perfect song.
Edits is a phone app, so all audio work happens on the timeline in the app, with your finger and your ears. This tutorial assumes you are using music available inside Edits or music you have the right to use; it does not encourage using copyrighted tracks without permission, and it does not explain how to strip audio from other creators’ videos. The goal is a clean, legal soundtrack that supports your video rather than competing with it.
Step 1: Choose music that fits the video
Start by deciding what job the music should do. Is it setting energy for a fast montage, providing a calm bed under narration, or marking a change of mood between sections? A track that fits the job will feel almost invisible, in a good way: viewers notice the feeling, not the song. A track chosen only because you like it, without thinking about tempo, mood, or density, will often feel wrong once it sits under speech.
Prefer simpler tracks under speech, and save busy, vocal-heavy, or rhythmically complex music for sections without talking. A track with lyrics competes directly with narration, because the brain tries to follow both sets of words. Similarly, a track with a strong, irregular beat can make speech feel rushed or uneven. Listen to a track under your actual narration, not on its own, before you commit to it; a song that sounds great solo can still be a poor soundtrack.
Step 2: Add a soundtrack to a project
Open your project in Edits and make sure the picture edit is roughly finished before you add music. Adding a soundtrack to a video that will later be heavily re-cut means re-timing the music as well, which wastes time. Open the audio or music tool, browse or search for a track, and add it to the timeline as a separate audio layer, underneath your main clips.
Place the track so it starts where the music should begin, not necessarily at the very start of the video. Some videos work better with a few seconds of natural sound or silence before music enters, because the entrance then feels intentional. If the track is longer than your video, trim its end to match the video, and plan a fade-out, covered in step four, rather than letting it stop abruptly. If it is shorter, consider whether it should loop, repeat for a later section, or simply end before the video does.
Step 3: Balance music against speech
Balance is the single most important audio skill. As a starting point, set music clearly below speech, so that every word is easy to follow without straining. Then play the video and listen only to the speech: if you miss a word, the music is too loud, no matter how good it sounds. If the music disappears entirely, it may be too low, but that is a far smaller problem than drowning out speech.
Balance is not one setting for the whole video. Music can come up slightly during pauses, transitions, or sections without speech, and duck down again when someone starts talking. If Edits offers volume automation or ducking, use it to create that shape; if it only offers a single volume control per track, split the track at speech boundaries and set different levels for each section. The result should feel like a conversation with music in the room, not a competition between two audio sources.
Step 4: Use fades and cut points
Fades make music entrances and exits feel deliberate. A short fade-in at the start of a track avoids a jarring blast of sound, and a fade-out at the end avoids an abrupt stop that feels like a mistake. Keep fades short — usually a second or two — unless you are deliberately creating a slow, atmospheric ending. A fade that is too long can feel like the music is hesitating, rather than arriving.
Cut music at musical boundaries when you can: the end of a phrase, a beat, or a change in the track, rather than in the middle of a bar. A cut on a beat feels intentional; a cut mid-phrase feels like an error, even if the listener cannot explain why. If you must cut mid-track, add a very short fade at the cut point to soften it. Also check that music does not start or stop at exactly the same moment as a picture cut unless that is a deliberate effect; staggering them slightly often feels more natural.
Step 5: Fix clipping, muddiness, and noise
Clipping is harsh distortion that happens when audio is too loud for the system to handle. It sounds like crackling or crunching on loud words or beats, and it cannot be fixed after the fact by lowering volume — the distortion is already in the recording. Prevent it by keeping levels conservative and by recording speech at a sensible distance from the phone, not shouting into it. If a clip already clips, the only real fix is to re-record it, or to replace that section.
Muddiness is different: it is a lack of clarity, where speech and music blur together into a thick, indistinct sound. It usually means too many low-frequency sounds competing at once, or music that is too dense under speech. Reduce the music level, choose a simpler track, or, if Edits offers it, reduce the low end of the music slightly. Background noise, such as room hum or wind, is best reduced at recording time; in editing, keep it consistent rather than trying to remove it entirely, because aggressive noise removal often makes speech sound unnatural.
Step 6: Check the mix before export
Before exporting, listen to the whole video three times: once on headphones, once on your phone speaker, and once in a slightly noisy environment if you can. Headphones reveal detail and problems; the phone speaker reveals what most viewers will actually hear; a noisy environment reveals whether speech survives real-world conditions. If speech is hard to follow in any of those checks, rebalance before you export.
Also check the beginning, end, and every point where music starts, stops, or changes level. Those transitions are where mix problems hide, because a level that sounds fine in the middle of a section can sound wrong at its edges. Then export using our export settings tutorial, and listen to the exported file itself, since export compression can change how a mix sounds, especially for music with a lot of detail.
Common music and audio mistakes
The most common mistake is music that is simply too loud, often because the editor listened on headphones and forgot that viewers will hear speech and music together, not separately. The second is a track with lyrics under narration, which makes both harder to follow. The third is abrupt starts and stops, which make a video feel unfinished, even when the picture edit is good.
Another mistake is using the same music at the same level for an entire long video, which becomes monotonous and tiring. Vary the music’s presence: let it breathe in sections without speech, pull it back under narration, and consider silence as a legitimate choice for a serious or intimate moment. Finally, do not ignore the audio from your original clips. Natural sound — footsteps, room tone, a door closing — adds realism, and removing it entirely in favour of music can make a video feel strangely empty.
Using this in a desktop workflow
Audio is best judged on good playback equipment, which is where a desktop setup helps. After mixing in Edits, export a draft and listen to it on your computer with decent speakers or headphones, where balance problems, clipping, and muddiness are easier to hear than on a phone. Note the timestamps of problem sections, then adjust levels in Edits and re-export. This listen-and-fix loop is the audio equivalent of reviewing cuts on a larger screen.
A computer is also useful for organising audio assets: keep a folder of tracks you have the right to use, with notes on which ones work under speech and which are better for montages. If you edit on an emulator, the audio steps are identical, because you are still using the phone app, but use real headphones for mixing decisions rather than relying on computer speakers alone. A mix judged on the wrong speakers will not translate to viewers’ phones.
Frequently asked questions
How loud should music be under speech?
Clearly below speech, so every word is easy to follow without straining. If you miss a word, the music is too loud, however good it sounds on its own.
Can I use a song with lyrics under narration?
It is usually a poor choice, because listeners try to follow both sets of words. Save vocal tracks for sections without speech.
Why does my audio sound distorted?
That is usually clipping from levels that were too high at recording. It cannot be fixed by lowering volume afterwards; re-record the affected section.
Should music fade in and out?
Yes, with short fades at entrances and exits. Abrupt starts and stops feel like mistakes, while short fades feel deliberate.
How do I check a mix properly?
Listen on headphones, on a phone speaker, and in a slightly noisy environment. If speech survives all three, the balance is probably right.
What if a track is shorter than my video?
Let it end before the video does, loop it if the loop is clean, or use it for one section only. Avoid stretching a short track to fill a long video.
Next: Text and Titles in Edits →
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