When you use iMovie 4’s Timeline snapping feature, the program makes a little “pop” noise to indicate that the Playhead has snapped to an edit point. But let’s just say that you’re tired of that unobtrusive pop.
That sound is just an AIFF audio file. So, just to see if I could use my own custom sound for the snap, I created a one-note song in GarageBand (a low C played by a Big Electric Lead with a British Crunch amp), and exported it to iTunes. Then I located the song file (Control-click the song in iTunes and choose Show Song File), and renamed it “iMovieSnap.aiff”.
To get it into iMovie requires a trip into the iMovie package file. After making sure that iMovie wasn’t runing, I Control-clicked the iMovie application and chose Show Package Contents from the contextual menu. A new window appeared.
Next, I opened the Contents folder, followed by the Resources folder. (Now is also a good time to say not to poke around in here too much unless you have an idea of what you’re doing. If you’re nervous, make a copy of the iMovie application before you start burrowing into its package contents.) I located the file “iMovieSnap.aiff” and dragged it to the Desktop to make sure I wasn’t deleting the original. Finally, I copied my own iMovieSnap.aiff file into the Resources folder, closed the windows that I had opened, and launched iMovie.
Sure enough, when I press Shift while dragging the Playhead (a shortcut for enabling the snapping feature without making a trip into the preferences), I get a crunchy guitar riff instead of the dainty little pop.
Jeff Carlson | Never Enough Coffee Creations 