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Robb_Boyd
Participant
January 29, 2014
Answered

All editing items greyed out?

  • January 29, 2014
  • 2 replies
  • 102677 views

I am running Audition CC 6 on a 2013 MacBook Pro.  I have re-installed and made sure I am fully updated...but I can't do the most basic of things...like edit a .wav file.   What silly thing am I doing wrong?  No razor tool selection or any manipulation of the files I bring in...  I have double checked that read/write permissions are set correctly...the files play in Audition just fine. Any ideas?

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer SteveG_AudioMasters_

SteveG,

I am able to go to effects and apply something.  There is no obvious 'select all' happening (where it goes white) unless I actually apply the effect. Not sure if that helps you understand?  I inserted a quick screencast clip in a another response below that shows what I am seeing in the edit menu.  I appreciate your time. I am still convinced there is something really stupid I am doing. I am a producer/writer and I don't touch the program enough (full disclosure)


You can't select clips, because these are only used in Multitrack view. You can't 'split' a file because then it would become two files, and you wouldn't be able to see both of them at once in a single file viewer. There are ways to do this of course - if you want to split a file in two, then you highlight the part you want to split off, copy it and paste this into a new file. To make this easier, you get a choice of several clipboards you can use, and you can store different things in each simultaneously.

Clips work in a different way. They are used in multitrack and when you create one and spilt it, you aren't actually 'splitting' the file at all - just the playback of it; it's still one file. That's the essential difference between the screens; multitrack is non-destructive - if you actually want to make permanent changes to a file, you have to do that destructively, and only one file at a time. A file can be a whole clip, or it can be sectioned (split) and used as many times simultaneously in a multitrack session as you want. When you do this, all you are actually doing is starting its playback in several places, and not actually altering the file at all.

2 replies

mweigel62418388
mweigel62418388
Participant
February 9, 2018

Just replying to a conversation from four years ago... it would be nice to be able to split a clip in Waveform view - I'm working with editing voice-over recordings for online classes, so I don't even use the Multitrack editor. I recently switched from using Audacity to using Audition.  In Audacity I was always looking at a multi-track view but I'd just mute everything except the track I needed to edit.  It helped to be able to split the track because I might have several takes of a specific sentence within a track, so if I zoom out (or change the view in any way), I'd have no way to visually distinguish which portion I need to delete.  I guess I'll see if using markers helps with this, but I miss that particular functionality that I had with Audacity, i.e., being able to split a clip so I knew exactly how far back or forward to cut.

SteveG_AudioMasters_
Community Expert
SteveG_AudioMasters_Community Expert
Community Expert
February 9, 2018

karenw62418388  wrote

Just replying to a conversation from four years ago... it would be nice to be able to split a clip in Waveform view - I'm working with editing voice-over recordings for online classes, so I don't even use the Multitrack editor.

Maybe you should!

It's perfectly possible to split a file in waveform view, but you end up with an additional file each time you do it, and this can become pretty cumbersome really quickly. Working in Multitrack gives you far more flexibility without needing all these extra files, and there aren't any particular limitations to working like this at all. Wanna use bits of the same file nine times over, and in the wrong order? No problem!

The way that Audition is 'intended' to be used in this context (although it's not obligatory) is that you mark up a file in waveform view in marker ranges (not points), and label each range in the marker list, so that you know what the content of each one is. You can then, by right-clicking on any item in the list, get the option to insert just that range into a multitrack session as a clip. At least, that's what it looks like. What you've actually imported is nothing more than some pointers that tell the system to play just that bit of the file, where you've indicated - so you can slide it around when it's imported to wherever you like in the session. Also, because it's only playing information rather than the file itself, it can be trimmed once it's in there. The whole process makes it miles easier to assemble pretty much anything. I use it for classical music in just the same way (except that I don't butt things up, I crossfade them), and it works a treat. Once you've got used to it, you'll wonder why you ever did it any other way!

    SteveG_AudioMasters_
    Community Expert
    SteveG_AudioMasters_Community Expert
    Community Expert
    January 29, 2014

    Have you got a multitrack session going? You don't get editing options unless you double-click on a file and open it in Waveform view. The difference is that Multitrack is basically a non-destructive playback system, and the only destructive work you can do is in Waveform view - hence the greyed-out controls unless you're in it.

      R
      Robb_BoydAuthor
      Participant
      January 30, 2014

      Thank you Steve.   No multi-track.  I am opening files in the waveform view.  I have attached a screenshot as reference in case there is something there that jumps out at you (or others) on what I am doing wrong. 

       

      SteveG_AudioMasters_
      Community Expert
      SteveG_AudioMasters_Community Expert
      Community Expert
      January 30, 2014

      There's nothing obvious. What should happen if you go to Effects and one of the submenus is that the effect window should open up, and the entire track get selected. If you pre-select a part of the track and then open an effect, then it will apply just to the selection you made. Doesn't this happen?

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