Premiere Elements 2 for Windows: Visual QuickStart Guide

Opening Audio Clips

The source view works the same for audio

clips as for movie clips—except that instead

of showing the current frame of video, it

depicts the audio as a waveform—a kind of

graph of the audio’s power over time. Mono-

phonic tracks appear as a single waveform;

stereophonic tracks appear as two wave-

forms (Figures 5.5 and 5.6). Often, you

can identify particular sounds by examin-

ing the audio waveform. Powerful beats in

a song are depicted as spikes in the wave-

form; silence or pauses between lines of

dialogue result in flat horizontal lines in

the waveform.

Figure 5.6 …whereas stereophonic clips appear as a

dual waveform.

Figure 5.5 In the Monitor panel, monophonic audio

clips appear as a single waveform…

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Opening Audio Clips

Figure 5.7 In addition to a waveform, the clip view

shows other information for audio clips differently

than it does for video.

icoClip marker n

Current time indicator

Out point icon

In point icon

Because the waveform depicts audio over a

span of time (as opposed to a single video

frame), the source view can display other

information as well. A vertical line indicates

the current time—the position of the play-

back head, if you will. In addition, icons for

clip markers and In and Out points appear

at the top of the source view, with vertical

lines extending from them to help you see

their positions in terms of the waveform.

Furthermore, the area between the current

In and Out points is shaded lighter so you

can see your selection as well as hear it

(Figure 5.7). (See the section “Setting In

and Out Points,” later in this chapter.)

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Editing Clips into a Sequence

Opening Audio Clips

To view the audio waveform of an

audio/video clip:

1.

Open a clip containing video and audio in

the Monitor panel’s Clip view.

2.

Click the Toggle Source Tracks button

until the Take Audio icon appears

(Figure 5.8).

The audio waveform linked to the video

file appears in the image area of the

source view (Figure 5.9).

✔ Tip

■

If you add a clip to the Timeline panel

with the Take Audio icon selected, only

the clip’s audio track is added to the

sequence. To add both tracks, make sure

the Take Both icon is selected before

adding the clip.

Tracks

Video and audio are often described as

discrete tracks of information due to the

way they’re physically stored on tradi-

tional media, such as magnetic tape.

Digital files don’t encode video and audio

the same way tape does, of course.

Nevertheless, it’s helpful to think of video

and audio as occupying tracks that you

can manipulate separately.

Figure 5.9 …to the Take Audio icon allows you to see

the waveform of a linked clip’s (a clip containing video

and audio) audio track.

Figure 5.8 Clicking the Toggle Source Tracks button…

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Opening Audio Clips