Ways to view audio clips in Final Cut Pro for Mac

You can expand the audio portion of clips in Final Cut Pro to view and edit audio components.

In Final Cut Pro, do one of the following:

• Select the clip in the timeline, then choose Clip > Expand Audio Components (or press Control-Option-S).

• Double-click the audio portion of the clip in the timeline while holding down the Option key.

  

In Final Cut Pro, do one of the following:

• Select either the clip or one of its audio components in the timeline, then choose Clip > Collapse Audio Components (or press Control-Option-S).

• Double-click any of the audio components in the timeline while holding down the Option key.

You can view audio and video separately in the same clip in the timeline by expanding clips that have both audio and video. This can be useful if you need to zoom in to the audio portion to make edits or to create a split edit.

If you create a split edit so that audio portions overlap, you won’t clearly see the overlapped waveforms unless you choose to show expanded audio for split clips. For more information about split clips and split edits, see Create split edits in Final Cut Pro for Mac.

In Final Cut Pro, do one of the following:

• Expand a single clip: Double-click the clip’s audio waveform.

• Expand a clip or clips you’ve selected in the timeline: Choose Clip > Expand Audio (or press Control-S).

When you show expanded audio, the audio and video portions of the clip remain attached to each other. To create a separate connected audio clip, detach the audio. You can also use the precision editor to see a detached view of the video and audio portions of the clip.

You can collapse the expanded audio/video view for a single clip or multiple clips.

In Final Cut Pro, do one of the following:

• Collapse a single clip: Double-click the clip’s audio waveform.

• Collapse a clip or clips you’ve selected in the timeline: Choose Clip > Collapse Audio (or press Control-S).

By default, Final Cut Pro imports audio and video from the same source into one clip. You can easily detach the audio from a video clip so that you can edit the audio clip separately in the timeline.

• In Final Cut Pro, select the clip in the timeline, then choose Clip > Detach Audio.

A new audio clip appears as a connected clip beneath the video clip.

To reattach an audio clip to its original video clip, you need to create a compound clip.

A reference waveform shows the maximum visual resolution possible for the actual audio waveform. By factoring out loudness changes, reference waveforms let you see the details of the sound more clearly.

1. Choose Final Cut Pro > Settings, then click Editing.

2. Select the “Show reference waveforms” checkbox.

   

When the actual waveform changes shape (for example, when it’s diminished because a clip’s volume level is low), its full reference waveform is still visible for easy reference when editing.