Displaying clips

Clips are displayed as rectangles in the Clips pane. Their position and length show you at a glance their starting times and lengths. You can control four aspects of their appearance:

Color. By default, each track’s clips are drawn in a different color. The clip colors restart at the tenth track. You can customize the default colors of clips in Edit > Preferences > Customization - Color, or change the color of any individual clip in the Clip Properties Inspector.

Note: In audio clips, the waveform changes color, unless no clip contents are displayed. In MIDI clips, the clip background changes color.

Name. You can also assign each clip a descriptive name, which is displayed in the upper-left corner of the clip.

Contents. At your option, clips can be displayed with a graphical representation of the events in the clip. The effect is slightly different for MIDI and audio information.

A. A MIDI clip shows each event; by looking at the clips, you can “see” the notes that are being played B. An audio clip shows the actual waveform C. Controller or automation data are also displayed

To inspect the clip contents more closely, use the zoom tools to increase the size in which clips are displayed. Note that displaying the contents of each clip makes your computer work a little harder. As a result, if your computer has an older, slower CPU you may want to turn off the display of clip contents.

Figure 146. Zoom controls.

A. Zoom Clips pane out vertically B. Vertical Zoom fader for Clips pane C. Zoom Clips pane in vertically D. Zoom Bus pane out vertically E. Vertical Zoom fader for Bus pane F. Zoom Bus pane in vertically G. Zoom in horizontally H. Horizontal zoom fader I. Zoom out horizontally

Clip header indicators

Audio and MIDI clips show various information at the top of each clip. A standard clip shows only the clip name, while clips that have been modified in various ways show additional information.

Figure 147. Clip header indicators.

A. Clip group number B. Clip name C. Indicators (FX, AudioSnap, Follow Project Tempo, Stretch, V-Vocal, MIDI editor) D. Clip data (audio waveform or MIDI data)

 

Note: Clip headers automatically disappear if the track height is less than 36 pixels.

The following table describes the various clip header indicators.

 

Table 8. Clip header indicators  

Audio clip	MIDI clip	Description
		The clip is a standard audio or MIDI clip.
		The clip is assigned to a clip group. The number identifies the group. For details, see Clip selection groups.
		The clip contains at least one clip effect. For details, see To insert an effect on a clip.
	n/a	The clip has AudioSnap enabled, which gives you flexible rhythmic and tempo control over audio transients. For details, see AudioSnap.
	n/a	The clip is a Region FX clip, which lets you perform pitch correction on notes and phrases, edit formants, and add vibrato to monophonic sounds. For details, see Using Region FX.
	n/a	The clip has been stretched from its original duration by the displayed percentage value. For details, see Slip-stretching audio.
	n/a	The clip follows the global project tempo. For details, see To sync an audio clip to the project tempo and AudioSnap section.
n/a		Double-click the clip to open the Piano Roll view. For details, see The Piano Roll view.
n/a		Double-click the clip to open the Step Sequencer view. For details, see Step Sequencer view.
n/a		Double-click the clip to open the Staff view. For details, see The Staff view.
n/a		Double-click the clip to open the Event List view. For details, see The Event List view.

To hide clip headers and maximize clip waveform display

To globally hide the clip headers, click the Track view View menu, point to Display, and select Maximize Waveform Height. When this options is enabled, the waveform display spans the full height of clips.

 

Note: When Maximize Waveform Height is enabled, the top half of the clip is used for dragging it around instead of the header. The bottom half is used for time selection and for adjusting clip gain (while pressing the CTRL key).

To zoom horizontally

Do one of the following:

Click the horizontal zoom buttons to zoom in or out by a fixed percentage each time you click.

Drag the horizontal zoom fader to zoom in or out by the amount you drag.

Hold down the CTRL key and press the right arrow key (to zoom in) or the LEFT ARROW key (to zoom out).

Point the mouse pointer at the top half of the Clips pane or Piano Roll view Time Ruler (the mouse pointer should look like this: ), then drag up/down.

To zoom vertically

Do one of the following:

Click the vertical zoom buttons to zoom in or out by a fixed percentage each time you click.

Drag the vertical zoom fader to zoom in or out by the amount you drag.

Hold down the CTRL key and press the UP ARROW key (to zoom out) or the DOWN ARROW key (to zoom in).

Point the mouse pointer at the top half of the Clips pane or Piano Roll view Time Ruler (the mouse pointer should look like this: ), then click with the right mouse button and drag up/down.

To zoom into a selected area

Use the Zoom tool to drag-select an area of a clip or clips that you want to zoom to. To activate the Zoom tool, hold down the Z key. When you release the mouse, the area you selected expands to fill the Clips pane window.

Zoom command keyboard shortcuts:

To do this	Use this shortcut
Zoom in vertically	CTRL+DOWN ARROW
Zoom in horizontally	CTRL+RIGHT ARROW
Zoom out vertically	CTRL+UP ARROW
Zoom out horizontally	CTRL+LEFT ARROW
Undo Zoom	ALT+Z
Redo Zoom	ALT+SHIFT+Z
Turn On Zoom tool (use the Zoom tool to select the area to zoom to)	Hold down Z
Fit project to window	SHIFT+F
Fit project horizontally	CTRL+ALT+F
Fit tracks and buses to window	F
Full Screen mode	F11

To zoom using the mouse wheel (Fast Zoom)

Hold down the ALT key and roll the mouse wheel forward to zoom in, backward to zoom out.

Hold down ALT+SHIFT to intensify mouse wheel zoom effect.

Hold down ALT+CTRL to adjust track scale (Track View Clips Pane only)

To select Fast Zoom options

1.	Click the Track view Options menu and choose Mouse Wheel Zoom Options.

2.	Select the intensity of the Zoom effect in Zoom Factor by using the spinners or manually entering a value.

3.	Select the vertical and horizontal Zoom focus.

4.	Check or uncheck Simultaneous Vertical and Horizontal Zoom.

The default is for Simultaneous Vertical and Horizontal Zoom to be checked. If you uncheck it, Fast Zoom exhibits the following behaviors.

ALT+Mouse Wheel zooms vertically

ALT+SHIFT+Mouse Wheel zooms faster vertically

CTRL+ALT+Mouse Wheel zooms horizontally

CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+Mouse Wheel zooms faster horizontally

5.

Click OK.

To display clip names and contents

1.	Click the Track view View menu, point to Display and choose Display Clip Names to show clip names, or leave it unchecked to hide clip names.

2.	Click the Track view View menu, point to Display and choose Display Clip Contents to show clip contents, or leave it unchecked to hide clip content.

Sonar modifies the clips pane to show the information you want.

To change clip names

1.	Select the clips you want to rename.

2.	Open the Clip Properties Inspector and show the Properties section.

Figure 148. The Clip Properties Inspector.

3.	Click the Clip Name field, type a name for the selected clips, then press ENTER

Sonar renames the selected clips.

You can also rename a single clip by right-clicking the clip and selecting Rename Clip on the context menu.

 

Tip: To copy track names to clips in corresponding tracks, select the clips you want to rename, then click the Track view Tracks menu and select Copy Track Name(s) to Clip Name(s).

To change clip colors

1.	Select the clips whose color you want to change.

2.	Open the Clip Properties Inspector and show the Properties section.

Figure 149. The Clip Properties Inspector.

3.	Choose a color as follows:

To do this	Do this
Use the default color	Select the Use Track Colors check box.
Use a custom color	Click the Foreground or Background field and pick a color.

Sonar changes the color of the selected clips.