- Import an audio file, such as a song, into After Effects. This can be accomplished by choosing clicking the File Menu, followed by "Import." Choose the audio file on your hard drive and click "OK." High quality WAV or AIFF files will sound best, and offer the greatest levels of compatibility with your software. Do not use MP3 or AAC files in After Effects. They may sound fine while you're working with your project, but the sound will become distorted after rendering. Drag your freshly imported audio clip down to the timeline. After you import the clip, it will show up in the projects list on the left side of your screen. From here, you can place it into a bin for organization purposes. After dragging it to the timeline, it will show up within the sequence below your video clips.
Learn the basic features of the audio interface in After Effects. You can mute a track by clicking the checkbox to the left of an audio track under the speaker icon. A box without a speaker icon will indicate a muted track. You can also choose to have After Effects display the waveform of a selected track by pressing the "L" key on your keyboard twice. This will be extremely useful when you edit your audio tracks. - Place markers over your audio track. You can place a single marker by pressing the asterisk (*) key on your keyboard. A marker is useful for a variety of reasons. For example, if you were creating a music video and wanted to include visual edits that followed the rhythm of the music, you could simply play your audio track and insert a marker anywhere you might want to place an edit later.
Create a simple audio edit. This can be done by marking the in-point and out-point of your edit, selecting the out-point, and pressing "Control-D." Your audio file will now occupy two separate tracks, with the portion of the clip following the out-point on the upper track. Drag the upper track to the left, matching the out-point with the in-point. This will effectively remove the area between your edit points. This technique can be very useful for shortening songs or editing interviews.