Audio clips

An audio clip is a window onto a recording or an imported file, placed on a track. You move it, shorten it from either end, cut it in two, shape its level with a gain and two fades, and the source file underneath is never changed. Every edit is one undo step, and most of them happen while the song keeps playing.

When to use it

Tidy a take: trim the count-in, fade the breath at the end, split a phrase to move its second half onto the beat. Build an arrangement from recorded or imported parts, duplicate a bar across a section, or mute an alternative take without losing it.

Controls

Tools

Select / move (V) drags clips; Option/Alt-drag duplicates, Command/Control-click adds to the selection, Shift bypasses snap. The Cutter (C) splits a clip where you click, and S splits the selected clips at the cursor. The Pen (P) draws MIDI clips on instrument tracks. Snap follows the grid shown in the ruler; right-click the ruler to show bars and beats or seconds.

Trimming

Drag the outer edge of a clip to trim its start or end; a bar appears on hover and on the selected clip so the handle is easy to find. Trims follow the grid and Shift bypasses it. Dragging back out reveals the hidden audio again.

Gain and fades

The dB label on a clip is its gain: drag up or down, Shift for fine steps, double-click to return to 0 dB, or focus it and use the arrow keys. The handles at the upper corners draw a fade-in and a fade-out; drag to set the length, double-click to remove. The sound follows the handle while you drag, with one undo step on release and Escape to abandon the gesture.

Mute

Right-click a clip and choose Mute; a crossed speaker appears in its corner and the waveform dims. Click the icon or choose Unmute to bring it back. Muting silences the clip before the track’s effects, so a reverb tail can still ring out. With several clips selected the command mutes them all.

The clip menu

The right-click menu, or a long hold on touch, also offers Loop for repeating the clip, Reverse clip, Send to sampler to play the clip from a Sampler or Single Sampler track, Render clip to print it with or without its effects, Duplicate clip and Delete clip. See Clip looping and Clip rendering.

A clip can also be dragged out of the lanes onto a sampler. Once the drag moves, the sampler tracks’ heads light up with “Drop to sample”, and so do the pads, keys and waveform of a sampler open below the sequencer; release on one and the clip is captured as it sounds, with its trims, loop repeats, gain, fades and chosen takes but without the track’s effects, and placed there. Pressing a clip no longer changes the selected track, so you can click a sampler track first, then drag clips straight onto it. While the drag lasts, the track heads end in a New sampler track slot; one clip dropped there makes a Single Sampler, several a Sampler with a key per clip. Beyond the lanes a label beside the pointer says what letting go will do. To call off a drag, let go over the track heads or anywhere outside the sequencer that is not a sampler, press Escape, or bring the clip back to where it started; a clip off the grid finds its old place again, and keeps its time when you drag it straight up or down to another track.

Recorded audio shows a small stacked takes badge once a second recording is available. Hover over a passage to choose another take, or click the badge number to open the comp editor. Full-height dotted stitches show passage boundaries. With the Cutter tool, click the waveform to split the clip or its Stitch target to divide a passage inside it. Comp clips retain their alternatives through trims, splits and duplicates. Render a comp to a new track before looping or reversing its result.

Waveforms

At wide zoom a clip shows its overview; zoom in and the waveform redraws with real detail for the visible part, down to a few samples per pixel, so a click or a bad edit point is visible before you hear it.

Tracks

The track header’s menu, or its … button, has Duplicate track for a complete copy with clips, effects and automation, and Delete track, which moves any child tracks up one level. Both are single undo steps.

Tips

• Overlapping clips on one track crossfade automatically; a muted clip is left out of the crossfade.
• Pinch on the ruler or the timeline to zoom; hold Alt while trimming or selecting a region to work off the grid for one gesture.
• Gain is per clip, so a quiet phrase can come up without touching the fader or writing automation.