Avid Tips: Improved Waveform Display by Steven Cohen
	'Waveform' is the computer term for the visual display of sounds. Using waveforms, you can easily find the exact beginning or end of a word, or precisely align a sync line with a cheated replacement. Before we got magnetic sound, editors looked at waveforms all day long - as optical tracks. Now, several generations of technology later, we can use them again, with digital flexibility. Waveform display is much improved in recent versions of the Film Composer (5.2 and later). The display is sharper, more accurate, and it's 'scalable' (meaning you can blow it up vertically). To display waveforms zoom the timeline in a bit (or hit 'focus'), and select the tracks you want to see. Then click on the timeline pop-up menu and select Waveforms / Sample Plot. Waveforms will appear in your timeline, but they will be quite small (i.e. too short). Unless your audio is very loud, they may be nearly invisible. You can now blow them up. Hit Command-Option-L to make the waveforms taller. Each hit enlarges them further. Hit Command-Option-K to make the waveforms smaller again. Note that this is not the same as hitting Command-L, which blows up a track. Using a combination of both commands, and zooming in the timeline, should allow you to create an effective and precise view of your audio. Useful as it is, waveform display slows down the timeline, so you won't want to leave it on all the time. Fortunately, it's easy to save a custom timeline view. Click on the text area under the timeline (it's probably displaying the word 'untitled'). A menu will open allowing you to save the current view. If you save your standard timeline as well, you'll be able to quickly switch between them, using the same menu. Unfortunately, prior to Version 6, waveform enlargment wasn't remembered with a saved timeline. So, if you're using Version 5.5, the system will remember waveform height enlargements only until you shut down. The next time you restart the system and look at waveforms, you'll have to remember to hit Command-Option-L,again. In 6.x, the height is remembered with the saved timeline view.
Steven Cohen is an editor and the author of Avid Media Composer Techniques and Tips Reprinted from The Motion Picture Editors Guild Newsletter Vol. 16, No. 6 - Nov/Dec 1995   Guild Home | Newsletter Home | Top of Page   Copyright © 1996, All Rights Reserved by The Motion Picture Editors Guild, IATSE Local 776