How to Play a Video Alongside a Separate Soundtrack on VLC Media Player

In this tutorial, you will discover the method that seamlessly allows us to open a video file and play a separate soundtrack simultaneously. The idea is to open a video in VLC Media Player. This video might or might not come with an audio but we will ignore it. What we will instead do is—add a different sound or music to the video that’s on playback. To do this, we open a video file and another video or audio file using VLC’s, “Play another media synchronously” feature. Then we will switch the audio from Track 1 (the original one) to Track 2 (the second one we added).

So, as an example, you might have a video that you took of your adventure on the beach. You open this video using VLC for playback. Then you can use a different soundtrack like your favorite song to accompany the video while removing the original media’s sound. This method is only for our viewing pleasure and the changes to the soundtrack are not permanent. We will load a separate soundtrack to go with a video.

On a PC (Windows)

Here are the steps for opening a video with different background audio on VLC Media Player using a Windows PC–

1. Load VLC and select Media > Open Multiple Files [CTRL + SHIFT + O].
2. On the Open Media dialog, under File Selection, click Add and browse to open a video.
3. Tick the ☑ Show more options checkbox at the bottom.
4. Check the ☑ Play another media synchronously checkbox.
5. For Extra media, click Browse and open your second media file.
6. Hit Play.
7. Choose Audio > Audio Track > Track 2 to load up the second audio file that was added to the playback.

On a MacBook (macOS)

Here are the steps for playing a video with alternate background music on VLC Media Player using Apple’s MacBook (macOS)–

1. Open VLC and go to File > Advanced Open File.
   
2. Under Open Source and File, hit Browse and choose the video you want to play.
3. Check the ☑Play another media synchronously option.
4. Click Choose and browse the media (video or audio) for the background music and hit open.
5. Back in the Open Source option, click on Open to begin the playback.
6. On the menu bar, navigate to Audio > Audio Track > Track 2.
   

Now, as the media plays, you will notice the video will be the one that you selected first in the Open Source dialog. Whereas, the audio will be from the media file that was added using the second Choose option for playing another media synchronously. A nice use case for this is to play a song in the background instead of the random noise that may have occurred while capturing your recorded video.