Creating commentary track

I am wanting to create a commentary track (similar to what you can often find on a DVD or Blu-Ray) for a project I am working on. I am thinking VoiceOver is the best way to record the track, but in playing with various export options it seems that it is always combined with the primary audio track upon export and not treated as a seperate audio track. I know I am missing something — probably something really obvious — but I’m not sure what.

Suggestions/directions to solutions appreciated.

I do this a lot. Turn your primary track down to -28db or so. A proper commentary track should still have the main audio audible, but only slightly. If there are areas where you stop talking in the commentary for more than a couple of seconds it's good to bring the main audio back up to almost (but not quite) full volume until you start talking again. This prevents the viewer from entering into a coma.

A good way to do this is select ALL of your audio EXCEPT THE COMMENTARY TRACK and then press Alt + G to make it a single Compound Clip. That way you can adjust the audio as the program plays. Once you're done exporting the commentary audio you select the audio compound clip and "Break Apart Clip Items" under the CLIP menu and your primary audio remains untouched.

You can assign a separate role to the commentary track and in share settings assign how the roles are handled, do you can combine all the roles except commentary on one track and put commentary on another.

Redifer: Your comment about including the original audio behind the commentary is a good point, one which I hadn't thought of...but now that you've mentioned it, that is how commentaries are. So, thank you for that tip. But 'm not sure I'm on the same page with you on some of this. Are you meaning that I would export two versions of the final video: one with only with the commentary track and a second video file with just the basic audio track, or a single video file that has two separate audio tracks, one being the basic audio and one being the commentary?

Tom: Roles sounds like it could be what I'm looking for in order to end up with the two separate tracks I am looking for. Combining your direction with Redifer's tip about how to create create the commentary with the video audio in the background, I think I can stumble my way through this.

Thanks to both.

I export one video and two versions of the audio track. So for example on a Blu-ray I'd have one .264 video file. Then I'd have a primary .ac3 audio track and a commentary .ac3 audio track. The person watching the Blu-ray clicks on the Play button and that button says "Play SweetVideo.264 and SweetVideo.ac3. But if the person clicks on the Play with Commentary button, the button says to play the SweetVideo.264 with SweetVideo_Commentary.ac3. Very easy to program in Professional Blu-ray authoring tools (not available on the Mac, OF COURSE).

Okay, got it. I think. Are you also using Roles in order to make sure the tracks export separately as Tom mentioned, or do you have another method? Or did I miss the point (always a possibility)?