Home > Multiple Audio tracks and Languages


Sometimes movies come with several audio tracks.

There are usually 4 reasons for this:


Support for several languages

The same audio track comes in English and Norwegian for example.

If Alternate Audio Track is set, only one language is active at a time, which is probably what you want.

Note that by default, when you open the file, QuickTime chooses the language based on your International Language Preferences. (This setting can be changed in System Preferences)

Therefore, even if you select Norwegian and save, the next time you open, English will be selected (unless Norwegian is set as preferred language in your system).


Important: MP4 formats (mp4, iPod m4v) can only be edited natively if there is one audio track. Use Keep only selected Audio Tracks to get rid of other ones.


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Support of several devices (stereo, AC3 Dolby 5:1)

A movie can have several tracks and select based on the playback device.

Make sure the set Alternate Audio Track if you want the system to automatically select the correct one.


Important: MP4 formats (mp4, iPod m4v) can only be edited natively if there is one audio track. Use Keep only selected Audio Tracks to get rid of other ones.


Audio split in channels:

In professionel capture systems, audio is often captured as 2 or 4 mono tracks.


Composite movies:

A movie can have several audio tracks because it's made of several pieces of audio and video. In this case, the Audio menu doesn't let you choose them as Languages.