Launch Mixcraft and select the top option (Record Yourself or Your Band) from the New Project screen. You will probably only need one Audio track, so delete the others. Add two Virtual Instrument tracks by selecting Track > Add Track > Virtual Instrument Track (or use the shortcut key combination Ctrl+E). Save your file and remember to keep saving every few minutes as you work.

Select Video > Add a Video File and locate the video entitled Video for Marathon of Fright. It will take a few moments for Mixcraft to import the video and create thumbnails in the Video track; please be patient.

After the movie has completely loaded, click Show Video Window in the track’s name bar. Press Play and watch the video. You can hide the video window whenever you need to free up screen real estate during this project. You will notice that the Show Video Window button reads Hide Video Window when the video window is open. You can also resize the video window at any time by dragging its corners with the mouse.

Think of the type of music that might go well with the video. Horror movie soundtracks are full of spooky sounds and low, slow notes that gradually get faster as tension builds. (Think of the theme from Jaws, for example.) Click the Piano icon in the name bar of one of the Instrument tracks, select the second option in the left pane, <VSTi Instruments>, and select Alien 303 Bass Synthesizer. The window will open to show the Alien 303 listed in the virtual instrument details section. Play some notes on your MIDI keyboard, and you should be able to hear the Alien 303 through your headphones.

Try some of the presets or press Edit beside the listed presets, and you will see the controls for the Alien 303 itself. You may need to move or resize the video window to see the Alien 303. Choose a sound you can work with and tweak some of the knobs to shape your own sound.

Press Play and compose/improvise some low, slow sounds on your MIDI keyboard as you watch the video. Speed up your music as the movie progresses. When you are ready to record, arm the track, press Rewind to Beginning and then Record, and perform your composition/improvisation along with the video. Listen back to your track. If you are satisfied with your recording, disarm the track. If you need to rerecord, press Ctrl+Z and Rewind to Beginning and Record again.

Click the Piano icon in the second Instrument track and select Impulse from the <VSTi Instruments> category. Try some presets by playing your MIDI keyboard or use the Edit button to bring up the Impulse interface. Try playing several notes together to see what happens in Impulse. Press Play and compose/ improvise some note clusters and chords on your MIDI keyboard as you watch the video. You should be able to hear the previously recorded sounds of the Alien 303 in your headphones as you play your MIDI keyboard through Impulse.

When you are ready to record, arm the track, press Rewind to Beginning and then Record, and perform your composition/improvisation along with the video. Listen back to your track. If you are satisfied with your recording, disarm the track. If you need to rerecord, press Ctrl+Z and Rewind to Beginning and Record again.

If you wish to add more Instrument tracks to your soundtrack, you can. You could try the MinimogueVA or the VB3 Organ from the <VSTi Instruments> category. If you play an acoustic instrument or an electric guitar, you could also record yourself by creating an Audio track and playing through a microphone or with a cable connected directly to your audio interface from your guitar. Make sure that the correct channel is selected for your input and that your recording levels are good. Try to make your instrument sound really weird as you improvise or compose some music to add to your soundtrack.

Listen to your work so far. Add some reverb and other effects in the FX chain for each of your instruments. Automate some volume changes by using the automation lanes and experiment with automating some panning settings. You can add a lot of atmosphere to your soundtrack by making your sounds move between the left and right channels.

Using notepaper and a pen or pencil, write a short narration for the movie trailer for The Marathon of Fright. You can use some of the passages that you read on the screen during the trailer and add some of your own. Be concise: This is a short trailer, and it is better to leave gaps in the narration than to have too much material you need to squeeze in.

Record your narration on an Audio track using your microphone and audio interface. It is wiser (though slower) to record the script in short sections than to do so in one long take. Remember to use Ctrl+I to trim the silence of each clip. After the script is recorded, you can move the sections into the correct place on the timeline. The thumbnails on the Video track will help you place your narration clips in the correct place.

Add a compressor to your recorded Audio track to smooth out your voice. Add some reverb and EQ to make your voice sound big and spooky.

Use the Mixer tab to mix your movie soundtrack together. While you mix, you should probably hide the video window so you can concentrate on listening to how the sounds balance together. Make sure the voice is heard at all times and be prepared to cut the sounds of the instruments so that the listener can hear the narration clearly. Have a friend listen to make sure the voice is audible throughout the soundtrack.

Mix down your movie by selecting File > Mix Down To > AVI. You will now be able to watch the completed video on your computer using Windows Media Player or QuickTime. It would be fun to project the movie from the computer to a big screen using an LCD projector and play the soundtrack through the classroom speakers. Remember to turn out the lights for the full horror movie experience!

Launch Mixcraft and select the top option (Record Yourself or Your Band) from the New Project screen. You will need many Audio tracks for this project, so do not delete the tracks Mixcraft gives you. Select Video > Add a Video File and locate the video entitled Video for Spiderman. After the movie has completely loaded, click Show Video Window in the track’s name bar. Press Play and watch the video. Save your file and remember to keep saving every few minutes as you work.

Try to work out what the story of the video is. You will be able to add sound effects, narration/voice, and music to it, but you will need to plan a story. If there is a section of the movie you cannot use in your story, you can edit it out very easily in Mixcraft. Decide on a place where you want to make a cut. You will need to split the track twice, at each end of your cut. It is best to leave a couple of seconds on either side of the region you want to cut so you have room to cross-fade the video.

Right-click on the Video track’s name bar at each point where you want to make a cut and select Split from the drop-down menu (or left-click on the cut point and use the shortcut key combination Ctrl+T). Select the clip you wish to remove and delete it. Then drag the later region onto the first region until they overlap. You will see that Mixcraft automatically creates a cross-fade for you. Watch the segment of the video where you made the cut and observe how smoothly Mixcraft makes this happen.

Using notepaper and a pen or pencil, write down the plan for your story and note the times in the script where you might like to include some narration/ voices and sound effects. There are many opportunities in this video for adding sounds.

Open the Library tab at the bottom of the Mixcraft window and change the category to Sound Effect. You will see that there are more than 1,300 sound effects you can add to your movie. It is probably easiest to browse through them if you undock the Library first—you will see the Undock button at the top right of the Library Browser. Now you will be able to move and resize the Library window.

Scroll down the window and listen to some effects. As you hear effects you can use for your movie, drag them from the Library Browser into the Sequencer window. Don’t worry about lining them up with the movie yet—you can do that after you have found several good sound effects. Drag each effect into a new track. If you need to add more Audio tracks, use Track > Add Track > Audio Track or the shortcut key combination Ctrl+G.

Close the Library Browser. Using the times you noted on your notepaper, line up the sound effects to the correct point in the movie. Using the FX button on the track name, add some audio effects to each track. You’ll find that you can create some very cool results if you experiment. For example, if you have the Laser effect on a track, add in the Classic Flanger using the Bucket on Head preset and the Classic Reverb using the Grand Hall preset. Listen to the result—it’s even more laser-like than the original effect.

Take time to experiment with every sound effect on every track. Automate volume and panning effects using the automation lanes in the Sequencer. Your soundtrack will be very effective if busses, trains, robots, and other sounds move across the speakers from side to side. You will get great results if you are patient and creative.

Check the level of every track so that it does not peak into the red zone. As you apply digital effects to each track, you will begin to tax the computer processor, because all digital effects are processed in real time, and the computer also has to process the video in real time. To help the computer do its job well (and not crash), you should freeze each sound effect track as you finish editing it. Use Track > Freeze Track or the shortcut key combination Ctrl+F to render the effect onto the track. You will hear the computer play the track and process it. Now that you’ve done this, the computer does not need to apply the track in real time, and it can save processor speed for other tasks. You can always unfreeze a track if you need to edit it later by using Track > Unfreeze Track or the shortcut key combination Ctrl+F. It is not possible to freeze the Video track.

Using your microphone and audio interface, record your narration/voices on a new Audio track. Remember to check the input source and recording level before you begin recording. It is wiser (though slower) to record the narration/ voices in short sections than to do so in one long take. Remember to use Ctrl+I to trim the silence of each clip.

After the script is recorded, you can move the sections into the correct place on the timeline. The thumbnails on the Video track will help you line them up properly. You can place the sections of the narration/voices on separate Audio tracks. Use FX on the individual tracks if you want to make your voice(s) sound different.

Add some music to the beginning of the movie. You can use loops from the loop library, record sounds using Mixcraft’s synthesizers (MinimogueVA, Impulse, Alien303), or record audio that you perform yourself. Think of the sort of music that you hear in Spider-Man, Batman, or Superman movies. Listen to some of the soundtracks of these movies by downloading them from iTunes or searching for “Spider-Man soundtrack,” “Batman soundtrack,” or “Superman soundtrack” at www.youtube.com. Danny Elfman (the composer of the Spider-Man and Batman movies) and John Williams (the composer of the Superman movies) write music that is highly exciting, dramatic, and colorful. The Marvel comics that first contained these action heroes had these same traits, so the composers reflected that in their music.

Close the Video window and listen to your soundtrack with the Mixer window open. While you mix sounds for a video, it is a good practice to hide the Video window so you can concentrate on listening to how the sounds balance together. Make sure that levels are not peaking into the red and that the narration/voices can be heard at all times. Be prepared to cut the sounds of the music and effects so that the listener can hear the narration/voices clearly. You may need to unfreeze some tracks to adjust them. Remember to freeze them again after you have made adjustments. Have a friend listen to double-check that your mix is good.

Mix down your movie by selecting File > Mix Down To > AVI. You will now be able to watch the completed video on your computer using Windows Media Player or QuickTime. It would be fun to project the movie from the computer to a big screen using an LCD projector and play the soundtrack through the classroom speakers. Maybe your teacher will allow you to have a movie party where you can bring popcorn and dress up as characters from Marvel comics!