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When you Convert Video and Audio on Mac, like from MP4 to MP3, you don’t really change the video file. Instead, you take out the audio track. This is helpful if you want to turn your collection of music videos into a playlist for an iPod, extract the sound from a video you took at a concert, or use your favorite song as a ringtone for your iPhone.
macOS has built-in media encoding features that let you change a video to an audio file right in the Finder. QuickTime also has a feature like this. The bad thing about it is that you can’t choose what kind of audio file it will make because it always makes an M4A track.
How To Convert Video and Audio on Mac
Convert video to audio using GarageBand
I’m going to be covering three different methods to convert video to audio. The first two are going to be Mac-specific; you won’t need to download any extra apps. The third will require third-party software that you probably already have and can get on Mac and PC for free.
Create an empty GarageBand project
- To open GarageBand, press cmd + spacebar to bring up Spotlight search. Then, type “GarageBand” and press return.
- The first thing you’ll see is a screen asking you to create an Empty Project.
- Go ahead and double-click the Empty Project icon. Once you do that, a new screen will appear.
Trim the audio as needed
- Use two fingers on your trackpad (or the touch-based scrolling on your Apple Mouse) to scroll left to right on the audio track.
- Click on the audio track to select it.
- At the top of the audio track, you’ll see numbers with increments between them, similar to a ruler. When you hover your mouse here, the mouse icon will change to two arrows facing away from each other.
- This area above the track is the timeline. Wherever you click is where the playhead will move. Click anywhere in the timeline and press the play button in the top-left of the screen.
- Once in position, right-click the track and choose Split at Playhead. This will split the track at the point you positioned the playhead.
- Next, right-click the portion of the track you want to get rid of and select Delete. This will remove it from the track altogether.
Export as an audio track
Now that we’ve added the audio from our video file to GarageBand and cut it to our liking, we’re ready to convert video to audio. At this point, all you need to do is export the audio track in the audio format you want.
First, though, we need to make sure that the metronome isn’t playing in the background. I don’t know how many times I’ve exported a track this way by accident, only to find that the metronome is ticking in the background. To turn this off, just tap the metronome button at the top of the screen.
FAQ
Does Mac have a built in audio converter?
In the Music app on your Mac, choose Music > Settings, then click Files. Click Import Settings. In the Import Using pop-up menu, choose the format you want to convert songs to, then click OK to save the settings. Select one or more songs in your library, then choose File > Convert > Create [format] Version.
How do I convert video to MP4 on Mac?
- Launch iMovie, click the File menu and select New Movie from the drop-down menu.
- Click the Import Media button to import the MOV video you want to convert to MP4.
- Once the file’s been imported, click on it, and click the File menu, select Share, then click File.