Clips

Clips

The blocks of audio that live on tracks, and everything editing does to them.

A clip is a block of audio on a track. Recording creates one, importing a file creates one, and nearly every edit acts on one. A clip has a header along the top carrying its name, and a body showing the audio as a waveform: the taller the shape, the louder that moment.

A clip at rest on its track: the name in the header, the waveform in the body

The clip menu

The ⋯ button at the right of the header opens the clip menu, which is also available by right-clicking the clip. It holds the clip’s own commands:

  • Rename clip and Clip color, which can follow the track’s colour or be set to one of its own.
  • The clipboard and editing commands: Cut, Copy, Duplicate, Delete, and their variants.
  • Split, and Split at silences, which cuts the clip wherever it finds silence.
  • Stretch with tempo changes, and the pitch and speed dialog with its reset and render commands.
The clip menu open from the header's ⋯ button

Handles

Selecting a clip reveals two pairs of handles at its edges. The top pair trim; the lower pair, marked with a clock, change the clip’s speed. Both are covered in Trim and stretch.

Clips are non-destructive

Trimming hides audio rather than deleting it: the trimmed part is kept past the clip’s edge, and dragging the edge back out restores it. A clip whose speed has been changed shows a badge in its top corner with the current percentage.

Display

A clip’s body follows the track’s view: a waveform normally, or a spectrogram when the track is in spectral view.

Working with clips

  • Selecting and moving: picking clips and time ranges, and dragging clips between tracks.
  • Trim and stretch: the two pairs of handles, and what each does.
  • Split: cutting one clip into two.
  • Clip gain: the volume curve drawn on the clip itself.
  • Grouping: grouped clips select, move and edit as one.

For a guided walk through the same ground, see Basic audio editing.

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