Operation Manual

Chapter 11: Sound effects and music 211
Anatomy of an audio clip
An audio clip icon on the Timeline has several parts.
The boundaries of each clip are denoted by vertical
bars. The actual content of the audio is indicated by a
waveform graph:
Waveform graph excerpt from three neighboring clips.
The appearance of the waveform graph tells you
something about the character of the sound. A quiet
sound has a narrow waveform, close to the centerline
of the clip. A loud sound has a waveform with larger
peaks and troughs, reaching almost to the borders of
the clip. A continuous sound, such as a car engine, has
many pulses packed closely together. A staccato sound
has brief pulses separated by silences where the
waveform is a horizontal line.
Adjustment lines
The blue volume line graphically models the volume
changes you have made to the track and clip. If you
have not adjusted the volume at all, the line runs
straight along the clip at about three-quarters of the clip
height. This is the “zero gain” (0 dB) level, where the
clip’s original volume has been neither increased nor
decreased.
If you raise or lower the volume of the entire track, the
volume line remains horizontal, but is now higher or
lower than the zero-gain base level.