How to Insert only part of a file, like an audio subclip, into Multitrack?

Report · Dec 27, 2017

In other words say I have a one minute long Room Tone file. I just want to insert 10 seconds of it on a track of my choosing. Is there any way to do this, or do I have to insert the whole file on another track, cut, and then move?

Report · Dec 27, 2017

If you open a file in Waveform view, you can place either markers, or marker ranges if you've made a selection, by hitting F8. You can either then right-click on the marker range, and insert just that into your multitrack session, but if you do that, in reality all you've done is placed the whole track with just your selection visible. To place just the section you want is going to involve creating a separate file of it, and probably the easiest way to do this is to make your selection, and select Edit>Copy to new (shift+Alt+C), and place the resulting file into your session. Clearly you will have to save it at some point, but when you go to close the session you'll get an option to do that.

I have to say though that I'd be very reluctant, especially with a file of room tone, to create a separate file of it, especially one that's only a few seconds long. I'd far rather have the option to be able to extend it slightly if I needed to, and if you want or need to use it again, you can use a different bit (or the same bit, I suppose) elsewhere in your session. In terms of resource usage, there's very little, if any, difference between playing a part of a file on your HD compared to a whole one - and all you've really ended up doing is storing part of an asset twice - if you see what I mean.

Report · Dec 28, 2017

Appreciate the answer. But I don't see how you can insert from the marker section into the multitrack session. I see there's an item in the context menu for it, but it doesn't work correctly and if the Multitrack Window isn't active, I can't tell where it'd be inserting. At least it wasn't behaving predictably when I tried. But at least now I know about marker sections! TY.

As for the rest of the answer, I think the complexity of it illustrates the problem. I'm looking for a solution that doesn't involve all that. 'Cos right now it's just as easy to insert a full file onto a blank track, do my edits, and then move the result where I want to. And that's how I have been doing it. But I want to do it with less work, not more. In Premiere, I can do it by simply bringing the file into the source monitor, setting In & Out Points, and then dragging or other methods to put onto the timeline. Seems crazy to me that a dedicated audio toolset from the same vendor shouldn't be just as easy and intuitive.

Report · Dec 28, 2017

briandkatz1 wrote:
As for the rest of the answer, I think the complexity of it illustrates the problem. I'm looking for a solution that doesn't involve all that. 'Cos right now it's just as easy to insert a full file onto a blank track, do my edits, and then move the result where I want to. And that's how I have been doing it. But I want to do it with less work, not more. In Premiere, I can do it by simply bringing the file into the source monitor, setting In & Out Points, and then dragging or other methods to put onto the timeline. Seems crazy to me that a dedicated audio toolset from the same vendor shouldn't be just as easy and intuitive.

I understand what you're saying and I agree with you in principle. You have to bear in mind though that Waveform editing in Audition is, and always has been, destructive - and that's the one thing that Premiere isn't. So as it stands, you couldn't use the Waveform view as a suitable 'preview window', as it simply doesn't function like this; not least because it isn't possible to be in Waveform and Multitrack view at the same time!

I think that one practical problem with it would be screen real-estate. It would have to be a view that people could turn off if they didn't want to use it - many people don't do audio on multiple screens, and wouldn't want any more clutter than they have presently. Premiere majors on pictures, so these get far more real-estate; sound in Premiere is just a badly thought-out addition to its primary purpose. In Audition, it's the other way around - pictures are just an additional nuisance to a soundtrack that probably doesn't need them anyway... (please excuse my prejudice - it is, though, based on being an ex-video editor from when it all happened with tape...)

Another reason that the facility isn't there is that a heck of a lot of audio editors are extremely conservative. Whenever anything gets changed significantly there are always masses of complaints, although these are generally finessed somewhat. What that means is that in this instance, you'd not get complaints about the inclusion of the new feature as such, but, as I mentioned before, how much room it took up. This, and variations of it, have happened so many times in the past that it's little wonder the devs are now very careful about what they change, and how.

So, is it a good idea? Yes.

Would I use it? Almost certainly.

Will it ever happen? Hehe!

Tell you what - I'll put it forward as a development feature request with a link back to this thread, and we'll see.

(now done)

Report · Dec 28, 2017

Just going back a bit into your workflow. When you want to insert the 'room tone' audio are you using it to extend a gap in the master audio file or to use to cover up a bit of the audio that you have already silenced? Depending on how you are using the 'room tone' may offer different solutions.

Also remember that 'Insert into Multitrack' has a completely different meaning to 'Insert' audio into an audio file. The second can only be done in the Waveform view as a destructive action. In these circumstances I would always do this type of editing in the Waveform view just in order to be able to do this type of operation easily and simply. I find it is generally much quicker editing this way. And, since Waveform editing is destructive, I would always work on a copy of the original file.

Report · Jan 01, 2018

Multitrack.

Want to add room tone to a separate track.

I guess subclips in Audition would be a nice addition.

Report · Jan 01, 2018

Thanks Steve. Yes I thought about the workflow/screen real estate issue too. On my latest project, I honestly wasn't sure if I should have done the audio pass in Audition or right in Premiere. There are pro's and con's depeding on the project yer given. I chose Audition in the end. I had issues.. found some bugs... but it worked out.

Report · Jan 01, 2018

See my answer to @ryclark .. was just thinking, if you could create a subclip from waveform view, like you can in Premiere, that would help. That way I could setup say "RoomTone 20secs", "RoomTone 10secs", etc. etc... they'd show in the "Files" panel, and then I could just insert the ones I want.

Report · Jan 02, 2018

Yes you can easily do that although they will get saved out as separate new files. Just select a portion of the room tone the required length in Waveform view. Then in the Files menu use Save Selection As.

Although an alternative that I sometimes use, when there is a lot of replacement to do to cover gaps or removed noises, is to make a synthesised file of room tone the same length as the audio file that I am editing. I make the synth room tone by generating a Pink noise file of the required length and then using the Frequency Analysis window to compare the real short bit of room tone with an EQ'd version of the synthesised one. Normally I would use the parametric EQ for this purpose.

Report · Jan 02, 2018

Ah. I didn't even know you could do that. That's cool... to a degree, thank you for the info. Of course it would be best if it imported it or gave you the OPTION to import it immediately into the Files panel.

Or did subclips

Report · Jan 02, 2018

It will automatically appear in the Files panel as soon as it is Saved.

Report · Jan 03, 2018

It doesn't for me. Maybe it's a setting.

Report · Feb 04, 2022

Four years later, but I would love to know exactly how you create this room tone. How do you match the EQ using frequency analysis. Is there maybe a resource you could point me to?

Report · Feb 04, 2022

In film, room tone is silence from the location where the scene was shot. It is typically recorded just after photography is completed at the location, with the same equipment as the dialogue audio. It's used to fill the holes between dialogue clips in the mix.

Report · Feb 04, 2022

Thanks, but I wanted to know more about Ryclark talking about creating room tone using pink noise and the parametric equalizer. It's a little beyond my audio experience but I'd love to learn how to do that.

Report · Feb 25, 2021

I know this is an old thread, but it was the only one that came up on a search for this topic. Is there really no way to achieve something like this in Audition? As a Premiere editor, this is driving me crazy!

I would love to be able to simply drag and drop a portion of an audio file into my multitrack sequence without overwriting whatever else comes later on the track (in the case of a very long recording I just need a small portion of)! I'm not sure how Audition decides where to place a clip when I use Insert into Multitrack from the waveform view, but it certainly isn't at the playhead like I'd expect.

Is the expected workflow really to always have an empty track to drag long audio files onto before trimming in the multitrack view and moving onto another track? If there is a better way, someone please enlighten me!

Report · Feb 26, 2021

You can determine the placement of multiple clips in Edit>Preferences>Multitrack clips, but the placement on a track of an individual clip will be at the point you last had the cursor when in Multitrack, and on the highlighted track - so if you leave it somewhere strange, that's where your clip will be placed.

Report · Mar 28, 2021

As a Premiere user as well, I was surprised to find that Audition has nothing like the Source panel from Premiere. I can't believe this use case never came up internally.

If I have a large file, with lots of different sounds on it, I want to be able to pick out exactly what sound I want to drag on to my multitrack, instead of having to drag the whole file on to a muted track, cut out the part that I want, and then drag that onto the right track.

I understand there are workarounds for this, but I'm finding those more tedious than helpful.

And as for the whole screen real estate argument, I feel like that's a non issue. Just go into View settings and disable it.

This is something that I need in Audition or I'll have to start looking into other DAWs.

Report · Mar 28, 2021

If I have a large file, with lots of different sounds on it, I want to be able to pick out exactly what sound I want to drag on to my multitrack, instead of having to drag the whole file on to a muted track, cut out the part that I want, and then drag that onto the right track.
By @Zekester3000

You can do that anyway - it's very simple. Make your selection in the track in Waveform view, use Ctrl+Shift+I and the selection will be inserted into your multitrack session with the positioning constraints I mentioned above. And that is a lot quicker to do than opening Premiere's Source Panel and selecting in and out points, believe me!

Report · Mar 28, 2021

@SteveG_AudioMasters_ wrote:
the placement on a track of an individual clip will be at the point you last had the cursor when in Multitrack, and on the highlighted track - so if you leave it somewhere strange, that's where your clip will be placed. [...]
You can do that anyway - it's very simple. Make your selection in the track in Waveform view, use Ctrl+Shift+I and the selection will be inserted into your multitrack session with the positioning constraints I mentioned above. And that is a lot quicker to do than opening Premiere's Source Panel and selecting in and out points, believe me!

Once I got the hang of moving my cursor to the right position and highlighting the right track before going into Waveform view to insert the selection, I found this to be acceptable. Thank you for pointing that out.

But it doesn't change that I'm blind to my multitrack session as soon as I switch over to the Waveform view. The result of this is that I can't coordinate the precise position of the multitrack playhead with the length of the selection. I am blindly placing the selection onto a track I cannot see. If it's a long selection, longer than I'd accounted for with my playhead position, I may have to go back into Multitrack, move the playhead backwards to create room for the selection, then go back into Waveform view. Each move between interface takes precious, long seconds, especially with complex multitrack edits and dynamically linked video from Premiere. This round-trip workflow is slow and moderately irritating. A panel that behaved like the Source panel in Premiere would save all of this wasted time and let me focus on the edit at hand.

Report · Sep 16, 2021

Agreed. The fact that it's just taken me 20 minutes of scouring YouTube tutorials and forums to find this info suggests that it's not the most intuitive solution!

Report · Apr 19, 2022

I realize your comment here is a year old. I haven't used Audition in a while, but when following this process, my selections are NOT being added into my multitrack session at the point where I last had my cursor. They are being added to the highlighted track, but often 45 seconds, or even 5 minutes in some instances, after the positioning of my cursor. Any advice??

Report · Apr 19, 2022

The first thing to do is to go to Edit>Preferences>Multitrack Clips and make sure that there isn't a check in 'Use embedded timecode when inserting clips into Multitrack'. If you happen to have embedded timecode (this rather depends upon what you made your original recording on) then the start time written into the file header will be used in preference, and this would cause that sort of offset.

Report · Apr 19, 2022

That was my trouble! Thank you so much for responding.

Report · Aug 01, 2023

Thank you. this was really helpfull.