User guide

Chapter 12 Getting to Know Regions 303
Editing the Audio Region Anchor
The anchor is the temporal reference point of an audio region. When you move an
audio region, it’s not the start point that is displayed in the help tag (as with MIDI
regions)—it’s the anchor point.
In many cases, the anchor should be placed on the amplitude peaks, rather than at the
start of the sound’s attack phase. A good example would be recordings of brass
instruments, which may take some time to build to a peak. Moving the anchor to these
peaks forces the region to snap to the grid of your arrangement, using the anchor as
the pivot point. The flexible zoom settings allow you to be as precise as needed, going
right down to the level of single bits, at the highest magnification factor.
As another example, to guarantee perfect synchronization between a one-bar drum
loop and MIDI regions, the anchor must be assigned to a well-defined musical point. If
the loop begins with a significant level peak (say a kick drum beat), set the anchor to
the point where the volume of that beat is at its precise peak.
Whenever you record audio or add an audio file, the anchor and region start points are
always at the beginning of the audio file. Moving the region start point also moves the
anchor, as the anchor can not precede the region’s start position.
You can edit the anchor of a region in the Audio Bin window and Sample Editor. The
anchor is represented by a black indicator (orange in the Sample Editor) below the
region waveform.
To move the anchor in the Sample Editor or Audio Bin window:
m Grab the small indicator below the region, then move the anchor to the desired
position.
Any changes to the anchor point will change the relative position of the audio region
in the project. Given that the start point of a region is the default position for the
anchor, you must also take care when changing the region start point.
AnchorAnchor