Editing Clips
The Edit view timeline is where you arrange and refine your audio. This chapter covers selecting, moving, trimming, fading, splitting, and the tools and modes that make editing fast — including ripple edit and the cursor tools.
By design: AnalogDAW's editing tools shape and arrange what you actually played — they trim, fade, gain, slip, split, and comp. There is no pitch correction and no timing quantization or time-stretching. If the tuning or the timing isn't right, the fix is another take, not a slider. This keeps the human feel of your recordings intact — see What AnalogDAW is — and what it isn't.
The timeline toolbar
At the top-right of the timeline ruler are the editing controls:
| Control | Icon | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Edit Tool | cursor | Choose the active cursor tool (see below). |
| Ripple Edit | signpost | Toggle ripple mode — edits shuffle the later clips on that track. |
| Snap | lock | Toggle snapping to the musical grid. |
| Follow Playhead | arrow-to-line | Auto-scroll the view to keep the playhead in sight. |
| Zoom − / % / + | magnifiers | Zoom out, reset to 100% (tap the percentage), zoom in. |
The cursor tools
The edit tool changes what clicking and dragging on a clip does. Pick one from the Edit Tool menu:
| Tool | Icon | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Pointer | arrow | The default. Select, move, and trim clips; drag edges for trims and fades. |
| Marquee | dashed box | Drag a selection box across tracks to grab every clip it touches. |
| Range Select | viewfinder | Drag over clips to select a time range inside them without holding Command — then click the range to split the clips at its edges. |
| Pencil | pencil tip | Draw — used for adding automation points on automation lanes. |
| Move | hand | Pan/scroll the timeline by dragging anywhere — even over clips (handy on a trackpad or touch). |
| Slice | scissors | Click a clip to split it at that point. |
| Slip | left/right arrows | Slide the audio inside a clip without moving the clip's position — re-time what you hear within the same window. |
| Gain | up/down arrows | Drag on a clip to change its gain (loudness). |
| Eraser | eraser | Click a clip to delete it. |
On iPad & iPhone, a one-finger drag on a track lane pans the timeline (the natural touch gesture), so the rubber-band selection lives on its own Marquee tool — switch to it when you want to drag a selection box. On macOS, a Pointer drag on empty lane space marquee-selects directly.
Tip: The Pointer handles the vast majority of editing on its own — reach for the specialized tools when you want that behavior to be the default for every click.
Selecting clips
- Click / tap a clip to select it (with the Pointer).
- ⌘-click (macOS) to add/remove clips from a multi-selection.
- Right-click a clip to select it and open its context menu. If the clip is already part of a multi-selection, the selection is preserved for batch actions.
- Marquee-select across tracks:
- macOS — drag on empty lane space with the Pointer, or hold Shift and drag anywhere on the timeline, including over clips.
- iPad / iPhone — switch to the Marquee tool, then drag a box (a plain one-finger drag pans instead). The box sweeps over clips, so you can start it right on top of one.
- Select All —
⌘A. - Clear selection — from a clip's context menu.
Selected clips move, copy, delete, and process together.
Moving and arranging
- Drag a clip along its lane to reposition it in time, or to another track's lane.
- Option-drag a clip to leave the original in place and move a duplicate. When you release the drag, the duplicate becomes the selected clip.
- Command-drag across a clip to make a time-range selection inside the clip. The selection can cross multiple tracks; click the selected range to split the clips at the range start and end.
- Choose the Range Select cursor tool to make the same time-range selection without holding Command.
- To paste onto a different track, copy the clip, select the destination track in the timeline, move the playhead, then press
⌘V. A multi-track clipboard preserves its source lanes starting at the selected destination track, creating additional destination tracks when needed until the track limit is reached. - Right-clicking a track lane and choosing Paste starts the paste from that lane, even when another track is selected.
- On iPad & iPhone, tap to select a clip first, then drag it to move. Dragging an unselected clip pans the timeline instead — so your finger can land anywhere while scrolling without nudging a clip out of place. (On macOS, any clip drags directly.)
- Pan the timeline by dragging an empty lane on touch, by trackpad/mouse scroll, or with the Move tool (which pans even over clips).
- With Snap on, edges snap to the bar/beat grid for tight, musical edits. Turn snap off for free placement.
- Move the playhead a bar at a time with
,/.; jump to the start withReturnor to the end of the last clip with⌥Return. - Step through clips with
←/→(select the previous / next clip on the track), and add to the selection with⇧←/⇧→. - Nudge selected clips with
⌥←/⌥→by the nudge value — a bar, beat, division (1/16 note, the default), tick, sample, 1 ms or 10 ms. Choose it from a clip's context menu (Nudge Value) or with⌃⌥M/B/D/T/S/1/0; it is remembered. Move clips to the playhead with;. - Select tracks with
↑/↓; the timeline scrolls to keep the selected track in view. Page the timeline a screen at a time withHome/End.
Trimming, fades, and gain
With the Pointer tool, hover a clip's edges and corners:
- Trim — drag the left or right edge to shorten or reveal more of the clip. When the pointer is close enough to grab an edge, the edge brightens and the pointer becomes a left-right resize arrow. The round fade handle sits in the middle of each edge, so grab the edge above or below it to trim. While you drag, the part being trimmed away darkens (or the audio being revealed is outlined) and a line marks where the edge will land. A trim stops at the start or end of the recorded audio and never makes a clip vanish. Trimming is non-destructive; the underlying audio is untouched.
- Fades — drag the round fade handle on a clip's left or right edge inward to create a fade-in or fade-out. You don't need to select the clip first — grab a handle on any clip or take folder, at any zoom level. Fades smooth the start/end and prevent clicks; crossfade two clips by overlapping their fades.
- Gain — use the Gain tool, or the clip's gain handle, to set the clip's level.
Trim to the playhead from the keyboard: ⌘[ sets the selected clips' start to the playhead and ⌘] sets their end to it. Either can reveal audio that an earlier trim hid, but never more than the file holds.
Other handy clip commands (from the clip's context menu):
- Rename Clip
- Reset Position & Trim — clears all trim and fades (revealing the full source file) and moves the clip to the very start of the timeline (position 0).
- Bounce in Place — select two or more clips on the same track and merge them into a single new audio file of exactly what those clips play: each clip's trim, fades, gain, and crossfades, the active take or comp of a take folder, and files recorded at a different sample rate. This consolidates a chopped-up region into one tidy clip, and it can be undone. (It renders the clips' own audio — it does not print the channel strip's EQ, compression, or inserts.) If you edit those clips while the bounce is rendering, the bounce is cancelled and your edit is kept.
Splitting and joining
- Split at Playhead —
⌘Tcuts the selected clip(s) at the playhead into two. (Or use the Slice tool to click-split anywhere.) - Join Selected Clips —
⌘Jreunites clips back into one. Join works on adjacent clips on the same track that came from the same source file (with no gap between them) — so it's the inverse of Split, rejoining pieces you cut apart. It won't merge unrelated clips or close a gap.
Copy, paste, duplicate, delete
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Cut | ⌘X |
| Copy | ⌘C |
| Paste (at the playhead) | ⌘V |
| Repeat (duplicate right after the selection) | ⌘R |
| Delete | Delete |
Paste drops clips at the current playhead position. ⌘D is New Track with Duplicate Settings — it duplicates the selected track, not clips.
Ripple Edit
Ripple Edit keeps the clips on a track butted together as you edit, instead of leaving gaps or piling up on top of each other.
- Ripple off (default): every edit stays exactly where you make it — deleting leaves a gap, moving can overlap. Good for free-form arranging.
- Ripple on: edits shuffle the later clips on the same track:
- Delete / Cut closes the gap — later clips slide left.
- Paste and Repeat (
⌘R) open room — later clips slide right. - Trim either edge and later clips follow the change in length. Trimming the front keeps the clip's start where it is.
- Move a clip and it snaps against the nearest clip edge: clips reorder but never separate or overlap. Dropping a clip on another track opens room there and closes the hole it left behind.
- Only the track you edit moves. Other tracks are never shifted, so the rest of the arrangement stays in time.
- Nudging (
⌥←/⌥→) never shuffles.
Turn it on with the signpost button in the timeline toolbar. Ripple is ideal for editing spoken word, podcasts, and any arrangement where removing a section should tighten everything that follows.
Note: Watch the ripple indicator before deleting — with ripple on, a delete shifts the rest of the track, which is exactly what you want for tightening, but a surprise if you forgot it was enabled.
Snap and zoom
- Snap locks edits to the bar/beat grid derived from your tempo and meter — toggle it for precise musical edits vs. free placement.
- Zoom in/out with the toolbar buttons,
⌘→/⌘←,⌘+/⌘−, or a pinch gesture (two fingers on a touchscreen, or a trackpad/Magic Mouse pinch); tap the zoom percentage to reset to 100%. A pinch zooms around your pointer or fingers (snapping to the playhead when you pinch at it); the keys and buttons keep the selected clips in view, else the playhead, else the centre of the view. Zoom in for sample-accurate edits, out for the big picture. While a pinch is in progress — a trackpad pinch on a Mac or a two-finger pinch on iPad and iPhone — the timeline is a live preview: clips can't be clicked or dragged, and the timeline doesn't scroll, until you lift your fingers. A pinch can't start while you are dragging a clip. - Zoom to fit with
Z: it frames the selected clips (or, with nothing selected, everything from the start to the last clip). PressZagain to go back to the view you had. ⌘Gtoggles Snap.- Follow Playhead auto-scrolls so the playhead stays visible during playback and recording. It pauses automatically if you scroll the playhead out of view, and resumes the next time you play, record or move the playhead (or press
`). If you turn it off with the toolbar button, it stays off until you turn it back on with the button or`.
Automation
Automation lets a control (like volume or pan) change over time. On the timeline, open a track's automation lane to draw moves:
- Toggle the lane with the "A" button in the track header — it lights purple when the lane is showing.
- Use the Pencil tool (or the Pointer) to add and drag breakpoints that the value glides between.
- Automation has playback modes (Read, Write, Touch, Latch) that decide whether moves are followed or recorded as you adjust the controls live — see Mixing.
The parameters you can automate are volume (fader), mute, pan, each aux send level, native processor parameters, and supported plug-in insert parameters. Long processor lists are grouped by processor family in the Automation menu.
Undo / Redo
Every edit is undoable. Undo is ⌘Z, Redo is ⇧⌘Z; both are also in the main menu (⋯) and clip context menus. Edit fearlessly.
Next: Mixing →