lesson 3.3.5 the edit (part 2)
Add professional polish! Learn to layer titles, music, and voiceovers in your video edit.
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Welcome back to the cutting room, Video Editors! Your rough cut tells the story, but now it's time to add the sparkle. Today, you'll learn the professional techniques for layering media. We're talking bold titles, a powerful voiceover to guide your audience, and a music track to set the mood. The real skill of a Content Creator or Audio Engineer isn't just adding sounds, it's balancing them perfectly. Let's get mixing!
Learning Outcomes
The Building Blocks (Factual Knowledge)
Recall the purpose of a multi-track timeline for layering video and audio.
Describe the function of titles and credits in a video project.
The Connections and Theories (Conceptual Knowledge)
Explain how layering different audio tracks (voice, music, effects) creates a soundscape.
Analyse the importance of audio mixing to ensure the dialogue or voiceover remains the primary focus.
The Skills and Methods (Procedural Outcomes)
Apply formatting to text overlays to ensure they are legible and visually appealing.
Create a multi-track audio project by combining a voiceover with background music.
Apply volume adjustments to balance the audio mix for clarity.
Digital Skill Focus: Today, you will create a multi-track audio project combining a recorded voiceover on one track and pre-recorded background music on a separate track to produce a cohesive radio advert.
Layering Media on a Multi-Track Timeline
So far, you have worked on a single track on your timeline, arranging video clips one after another. Professional video editing, however, relies on a multi-track timeline. Think of it like stacking sheets of clear plastic on top of each other. Each track is a separate layer, allowing you to have multiple things happening on screen at the same time.
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Video Tracks: These are at the top. If you place a clip on a higher track, it will appear in front of the clip on the track below it. This is how we overlay titles onto our video.
Audio Tracks: These are at the bottom. You can have multiple audio tracks playing simultaneously. This allows us to mix a voiceover, background music, and the original video's sound all at once.
The key to a professional-looking video is ensuring all these layers work together to support the story, not distract from it.
Turn these words into pictures! Draw 3 small doodles, icons, or emojis that sum up the main ideas that you've read. You don't need to be an artist - making it visual helps your brain remember!
Task 1 Roll the Credits!
1
Add the Main Title
In Clipchamp, click on the Text tool in the left-hand toolbar.
Find a simple title style (like 'Plain text') and drag it onto the timeline.
CRITICAL: Place it on a new track above your video clips, right at the beginning.
Click on the text clip on the timeline. In the properties panel on the right, change the text to match the client's brief: "The Green Campus".
Use the properties panel to choose a bold, clear font and a colour that stands out against your first video shot. White is usually a good choice!
2
Add the End Credits
Now, drag another text clip to the end of your video.
Open your Asset Collection Log from two lessons ago. You need this to give credit where it's due!
Edit the text to include a 'Thank you for watching' message, and a 'Music by...' or 'Images by...' section, listing the creators from your log.
Your timeline should now look something like this, with text clips layered above your video:
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3
Ask the AI Expert
Unsure what makes a good title? Ask our AI design consultant for some tips on making your text clear and professional.
Act as a professional graphic designer. Give me three rules for creating legible text on a video. Keep the response under 60 words. The audience is a 13-year-old. Use a clear and direct tone. NO intro, NO outro, NO deviation from the topic, NO follow-up questions.
Outcome: Your video now has a professional-looking title at the start and an accurate, ethical credits screen at the end.
Building the Soundscape
Visuals tell half the story; audio tells the other half. The soundscape is the combination of all the sounds in your video. We will be creating a multi-track audio project by mixing three layers:
Original Audio: The sound captured when you filmed your clips.
Voiceover: A recorded narration that explains what is happening.
Background Music: A music track that sets the tone and mood.
The Art of the Audio Mix
Simply throwing all these sounds together will result in a chaotic mess. The most important skill in audio post-production is audio mixing. This is the process of adjusting the volume levels of each audio track independently to achieve a clear and balanced final sound.
The Golden Rule of Mixing: The most important sound should be the loudest. In our project, the voiceover carries the key information, so it must be the clearest element. The background music should be turned down significantly so it sits 'under' the voice and doesn't compete for the listener's attention.
In Clipchamp, you can click on any video or audio clip, select the Audio tab in the properties panel, and use the volume slider to adjust its level.
Become the Quiz Master! Write down three really tricky multiple-choice questions based on these notes. Make the wrong answers sound plausible to try and catch out your classmates.
Task 2 The Sound Mix
1
Set the Mood
Find your background music file in the Your media bin.
Drag it down to a new audio track at the very bottom of your timeline.
If the music clip is longer than your video, drag the end of it to trim it so it finishes at the same time as your video clips.
2
Record Your Voice
Have your storyboard or script ready. You need to know what you're going to say!
In the left-hand toolbar, click Record & create, then select Audio.
A new panel will appear. Make sure your microphone is selected, then click the red record button. Speak clearly!
When you're finished, click stop. Save and edit the recording.
Your new voiceover clip will appear in the media bin. Drag it onto a separate audio track, positioning it to sync with the correct video clips.
3
Mix It Up!
Click on your background music clip on the timeline.
In the properties panel on the right, click the Audio tab.
Drag the volume slider down to about 15%.
Now click on your voiceover clip. Make sure its volume is high, around 90-100%.
Play your video. Can you hear the voice clearly over the music? Adjust the music volume until the balance feels right.
You might also need to turn down the volume of your original video clips if they have distracting background noise.
Act as a professional audio engineer. Explain to a KS3 student why the voiceover must be the clearest sound in an educational video. Keep the explanation under 70 words and use a simple analogy. NO intro, NO outro, NO deviation from the topic, NO follow-up questions.
Outcome: A video project with a clear title, accurate credits, and a professionally balanced audio mix where the voiceover is easy to understand.
Hungry for more?
Sound Effects Designer: Sound effects can make a video more engaging. Find a copyright-free sound effect (like a 'whoosh' or a 'click') and add it to your timeline, synchronising it with a visual action on screen.
J-Cuts and L-Cuts: Research what professional editors mean by a 'J-cut' or an 'L-cut'. Try to create one in your edit by letting the audio from one clip overlap into the next.
Audio Ducking: Some advanced editors have a feature called 'audio ducking' which automatically lowers the music volume whenever there is a voiceover. Research how this works and why it saves editors time.
Last modified: June 21st, 2026
