Tracks
Video, audio, text, subtitles and graphics tracks, the active track, magnetic and free, the track panel, lock, hide, mute and solo, level and opacity, ducking and order.
A track is a row of the timeline. There are four kinds, each holding one kind of thing, and every track has a name of its own. This page covers what each kind holds, how a track behaves, and the switches in its header and its panel.
Kinds
| Kind | Holds | Header shows |
|---|---|---|
| Video | Video, photos, placeholders | Magnetic, eye, mute, solo |
| Audio | Music, sound, voiceovers, placeholders | Magnetic, mute, solo |
| Text | On-screen texts | Magnetic, eye |
| Subtitles | Caption bars, made by an agent from the words in analysed footage | Eye |
| Graphics | Generated graphics: small animated scenes (designed captions, takeovers, titles) an agent wrote, which the app draws over the footage on every frame | Eye |
| Adjustment Layer | Filter clips: each colours the video and graphics tracks below it for as long as it lasts (a stretch in black and white, say). Captions and text keep their colour | Eye |
A new video starts with Video 1, which is magnetic, and Audio 1, which ducks. The topmost visible video track wins at each moment; black shows where no track has picture. The piece is as long as its longest video track. Audio and text never lengthen the picture.
The Add Track button under the track headers offers Add Video Track, Add Audio Track, Add Text Track and Add Adjustment Layer; Add Filter (⇧⌘F) makes an adjustment layer when there is none. See Filters. Subtitles tracks come from an agent; see Captions. So do graphics tracks: each clip on one is a graphic the agent rendered, kept whole in the video's graphics folder. You can move, trim, scale and delete one like any clip, and its panel shows what it says, what happens in it, the footage it follows and every picture or frame of footage its page shows, with a way to that file; a graphic that follows a line of footage moves with that line when you re-cut. What a graphic shows is changed by asking the agent. The timeline plays a small render of each graphic; an export draws the page again at the export's size, and the pictures in it from their files. A graphics track has no sound, is never magnetic and takes no files dropped on it. The video's files tell tracks apart by name, so a name already taken is refused.
The active track
Click a header, or empty space in its row, to make a track active. Split, Paste, Import… and Add Placeholder act on the active track when nothing is selected.
Magnetic and free
On a magnetic track clips stay packed edge to edge. Trims ripple, deletes close gaps, and dragging a clip reorders it. On a free track a clip sits where you put it and gaps stay. Video 1 starts magnetic; other tracks start free. Text tracks can be magnetic too. Turning magnetic off keeps clips where they are.
The track panel
Click a track's name in its header to open its panel on the right. Close it with the X or Esc. Type in the name field to rename the track.
For a video or audio track:
| Section | Controls |
|---|---|
| Track | Locked, Magnetic, Visible and Opacity (video), Duck under other audio (audio) |
| Sound | Muted, Solo, Level from 0% to 150% |
| Contents | Clips, Ends at, Position |
| Arrange | Up, Down, Video above, Audio below, Delete Track |
| Note | A note for you and for the agent |
Text and subtitles tracks have their own panels. See Text and Captions.
The header's right-click menu carries the same switches: Rename…, Visible, Duck under other audio, Add Placeholder, Add Text, Locked, Move Up, Move Down, Add Video Track Above, Add Audio Track Below and Delete Track.
Lock
A locked track refuses every edit: moves, trims, splits, deletes, drops, clip levels and framing, deleting the track, and on a subtitles track the bars, style and position. Mute, solo and the track's own level still work. Lock the active track with ⌥⌘L, the Locked switch in the panel or the header menu. A locked header shows a lock button; click it to unlock. An agent's commit that changes a locked track is refused too.
Hide
The eye on a video, text, subtitles or graphics track hides it from the preview and the export. A hidden video track's sound still plays; mute it for silence. A hidden video track does not count toward the length of the piece. Hidden tracks dim in the timeline. Audio tracks cannot be hidden, only muted.
Mute and solo
The speaker button mutes a track. The headphones button solos it: while any track is soloed, only soloed tracks are heard.
Level and opacity
Each track has a level from 0% to 150% that applies on top of its clips' levels. Video tracks also have an opacity; below 100% the tracks beneath show through. Placeholders take their track's opacity. When either is not 100% the header shows a small percentage badge; change the value in the panel.
Ducking
An audio track with Duck under other audio on is lowered while a non-ducking audio track plays, with a short ramp either side. Audio 1 ducks by default and voiceover tracks do not, so music drops under a take without any keyframes. See Voiceover and music.
Order
Earlier video tracks composite above later ones. Move a track with Up and Down in the panel or the header menu. Video above and Audio below add a track next to this one. Delete Track removes the track and everything on it; a subtitles track with bars asks first.