Final Cut Pro 6 - Zooming In or Out of the Waveform Display Area

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Zooming In or Out of the Waveform Display Area

Navigating through audio clips in the Viewer is largely the same as navigating through
video clips in the Video tab. There are some additional features, however, that you
should be aware of.

When you navigate through a clip in the Video tab of the Viewer, you only see the
frame at the location of the playhead. Zooming in to this frame enlarges the visual
image, but doesn’t change your position in time. Waveforms in an audio tab work
differently. Since they represent your entire audio clip, you can navigate through a
waveform as you would a clip in the Timeline. As you move through the waveform,
you’ll notice that the playhead in the scrubber bar under the waveform display area
moves in conjunction with the playhead in the waveform area.

The scrubber bar in the Viewer always represents the entire duration of the clip in the
Viewer. The ruler above the waveform display area, on the other hand, is not so
constrained. Using the Zoom control and the Zoom slider at the bottom of the
waveform display area, you can zoom in and out of the waveform display area in the
Viewer. This expands and contracts the audio ruler, allowing you to see more or less
detail in an audio clip’s waveform. While the smallest unit you can see in the video track
of a clip is a single frame, you can see a clip’s audio waveform in increments as small as
1/100th of a frame.

Stereo audio tab

Audio track a1

Audio track a2

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Chapter 17

Audio Editing Basics

295

II

Note: While this section covers how to zoom in the audio tabs of the Viewer, you can
also use these instructions to zoom in and out of waveform displays of sequence clips
in the Timeline.

To zoom in and out of the audio waveform using the Zoom control:

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Click or drag the Zoom control to zoom in or out while keeping the material in the
waveform display area centered.

Clicking to the right of the control zooms out to show more of the duration of your
clip; clicking to the left zooms in to show more detail.

To zoom in and out of the audio waveform using the Zoom slider, do one of
the following:

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Drag the thumb tabs on either side of the Zoom slider to adjust both ends of your view
at the same time.

If the playhead is visible, it stays centered during the zoom. If the playhead is not
visible, the visible area of the Timeline stays centered.

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Hold down the Shift key while you drag one of the thumb tabs from the selected end
of the Zoom slider, while keeping the other thumb tab locked in place.

Zooming in and out of an audio clip’s waveform using menu commands or keyboard
shortcuts keeps the visible area of the waveform display area centered as you zoom.

To zoom in and out of the audio waveform using keyboard shortcuts or
menu commands:

1

Move the playhead to the position in the waveform display area where you want
zooming to be centered.

2

Do one of the following:

 To zoom in: Choose View > Zoom In, or press Command-= (equal sign).

Pressing Command-+ (plus) repeatedly shows more and more detail, down to the
individual frames of your audio clip.

 To zoom out: Choose View > Zoom Out, or press Command-– (minus).

Zooming out reduces the amount of detail and shows more of the audio clip’s
waveform. When the entire clip fits in the waveform display area, zooming out stops.

Zoom control

Zoom slider

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Part II

Rough Editing