Audio editing

Audio clips are edited right in the arrangement or in the docked audio editor. Every edit is non-destructive: the recorded file never changes, and every drag, split, move and delete is one undo step.

Open the audio editor#

• Select an audio clip and press Enter, or double-click it. (On a track with an ARA plugin such as Melodyne, a double-click opens the plugin instead; see Melodyne and ARA.)
• Or click the audio editor button next to the input button on an audio track's header. It opens the selected clip, or the clip under the playhead.

The audio editor opens docked under the arrangement, where the piano roll opens. Press Enter or Esc to close it.

The editor shows the left and right channels separately, with a dB scale.

Zoom and move around#

• W and E zoom out and in, as in the arrangement. Ctrl+wheel zooms around the pointer.
• Shift+W and Shift+E, or Alt+wheel, make the waveform taller or flatter.
• Click the ruler or the waveform to move the playhead.
• Drag the divider between the arrangement and the editor to give either more room. Double-click it for half and half. The size is remembered.

Trim, move and split#

In the arrangement and in the audio editor:

• Trim: drag a clip's left or right edge (in the arrangement, below the fade squares). Trims snap to the grid while the magnet is on. Drag the edge back out to undo a trim.
• Move: in the audio editor, drag the clip's body to move it in time. In the arrangement, drag the clip.
• Split: Ctrl+E splits at the playhead, or right-click for Split here and Split at playhead.
• Delete: press Delete, or right-click for Delete clip.

Set clip gain#

In the audio editor, drag the bar at the top centre of the clip up or down to set its gain, from silence to +12 dB. Double-click it to return to 0 dB.

To bring a clip's peak to -0.1 dB, use Normalize in the edit menu (hold Q).

Fade in and fade out#

1. Hover over an audio clip. Small squares appear at its top-left and top-right corners.
2. Drag the left square inward for a fade-in, or the right square inward for a fade-out.
3. To curve the fade, drag the round handle in the middle of the fade line up or down. It snaps straight near the middle. Double-click the handle to make the fade straight again.

Fades work the same in the arrangement and in the audio editor. When you split a clip, the left part keeps the fade-in and the right part the fade-out.

Crossfade two clips#

Drag a clip over the end (or the start) of another clip on the same track. They crossfade across the overlap with an equal-power curve, and the overlap shows the two curves. Move or trim either clip to make the crossfade longer or shorter.

Process a clip from the edit menu#

Select a clip, hold Q and point at a slice:

• Reverse plays the clip backwards.
• Normalize sets the clip gain so its peak sits at -0.1 dB.
• Pitch shift moves it in semitones and cents, keeping the formants if you ask it to.
• Fit to bars stretches it to the nearest whole number of bars with warp markers, keeping its pitch. Handy for a loop that is slightly off the session tempo.
• Invert polarity flips the waveform.

Each is one undo step.

Warp audio onto the grid#

The audio editor's Warp tool lets you move parts of a recording in time without changing its pitch.

1. Choose the Warp tool in the audio editor.
2. Click in the audio to set a warp marker.
3. Drag a point in the audio: the stretch between the marker to its left and that point is squeezed or stretched so the point lands on the grid. What follows moves along with it.

The pitch stays as it was. The stretched audio is rendered in the background.

Normally, audio keeps its time when you change the tempo. To make a clip stretch with tempo changes instead, so it keeps its bars, right-click it and tick Follows tempo (the audio editor has the same switch).

Glue audio clips#

With the Glue tool (key 3), click a clip to join it with the next one on its track. Parts of a split clip rejoin. Other clips are rendered as they sound into a new recording, while the original files stay on disk. See Glue.

Edit in Melodyne and other ARA plugins#

Blazar Core hosts ARA 2 plugins such as Melodyne. Load one into an insert of an audio track and it plays that track's clips itself: there is no transfer pass.

• Open it on a clip: double-click the clip, or right-click it and choose Edit in followed by the plugin's name (Edit in Melodyne, for example). Selecting another clip moves the open plugin window to that clip.
• Your edits follow: moving, cutting, trimming and deleting clips reach the plugin, and so does undo. Clip gain and fades still apply.
• Saved with the session: the plugin's edits are saved with the session. Recordings are recognised by their audio, so your edits survive saving, moving the project and opening it again.
• Around the plugin: live input you listen to passes around it, and bypassing the plugin plays the original clips. The plugin's own play and loop controls drive Blazar Core's transport.

The insert's name turns teal while an ARA plugin plays the track. Only the first ARA plugin on a track plays its clips.