Ah, I knew it was here someplace, but it requires another 3 weeks of study and kind of want to get something going. That button at the bottom of the preview window does nothing. it is "split" only. I don't want to split, I want to cut of dead air at the beginning of a audio track or whatever its called. There is no way to highlight the portion I want to cut either. All I can do is "move" it, which is opposite what I want.

I don't want to try the keyboard shortcut because it might so something I do not want.

I may just have to redo the whole thing, which is fine, that may be lots easier.

I'm just trying to fix this one little thing, then I want to make a few trial videos or whatever they are called to practice merging movies with each other or projects or whatever. I can't speak the language so I need to call things I see in front of me.

@Eric-Elliott

There is no way to highlight the portion I want to cut either.

Of course there is; treat it the same as removing a bit of a video object. Split the audio object at the desired point, then click the bit on the end you don't want and hit Delete, like this:

@Eric-Elliott

Eric, more on trimming (and untrimming!). Apologies for the mumbling!

@Eric-Elliott

There is no way to highlight the portion I want to cut either.

Of course there is; treat it the same as removing a bit of a video object. Split the audio object at the desired point, then click the bit on the end you don't want and hit Delete, like this:

Thank You AAProds. I did not know about the right-click on that button to bring up the additional functions. It is like multi-function knobs, I hate those!

Now I understand why I actually want to split to delete something in this case. That said though, I do not trust my mouse skills to move the audio to where it needs to be (the start in this case) and have it still in sync and ok. Therefore, the easier and maybe less time consuming option in this case is to re-do the audio completely.

Had it been an end piece I wanted to trim or delete, that concern would not be there, but because it is at the start and this is not Audacity, I do not trust it or myself to get it right.

Had it been an end piece I wanted to trim or delete, that concern would not be there, but because it is at the start and this is not Audacity, I do not trust it or myself to get it right.

@Eric-Elliott Do it a 100 times if you need to, there's always the undo button & nothing in the orig file gets written over, you can't even mistakenly export & overwrite a file that's in the project.

@Eric-Elliott

Hi Eric,

Therefore, the easier and maybe less time consuming option in this case is to re-do the audio completely.

Absolutely false! You need to learn how to edit properly - trim as you have been told or simply adjust the start or end of a clip by dragging the end. This is basic editing. What are you going to do with your videos, redo them because you didn't learn how to do a simple trim?

I showed you in one of the videos how to drag the end of a clip in or out (if already trimmed).

You can move the playback marker precisely to a frame by getting close and then using the left and right arrow buttons on your keyboard to move the playback marker in 1 frame increments. Then split or remove the part to the left or the right using the shortcuts that have been mentioned.

John CB

@Eric-Elliott

Hi Eric,

Therefore, the easier and maybe less time consuming option in this case is to re-do the audio completely.

Absolutely false! You need to learn how to edit properly - trim as you have been told or simply adjust the start or end of a clip by dragging the end. This is basic editing. What are you going to do with your videos, redo them because you didn't learn how to do a simple trim?

I showed you in one of the videos how to drag the end of a clip in or out (if already trimmed).

You can move the playback marker precisely to a frame by getting close and then using the left and right arrow buttons on your keyboard to move the playback marker in 1 frame increments. Then split or remove the part to the left or the right using the shortcuts that have been mentioned.

John CB

In this case, it is much easier for me to just re-do the audio. It is not like it is a 20 minute speech or something. Its closer to 2 minutes, if that.

I can drag all day, but I get real messed up doing that. I can't work with frames when I am using a still picture set at any length more than one second, there would be no frames, like in a video would there? I also really don't want or need to go that deep. It is not worth the effort to me. I am not trying to make epic movies or high quality videos or whatever. Just decent will more than do the job.

I don't think there is any such thing as "basic editing" for the layperson. It is only basic to those who have been in the industry or something.

Besides, right now all work has stopped. I was going to make test videos as you suggested today and work with merging and such, but my mic died right after it requested a firmware update. So a replacement is on the way and will be here Wednesday. I don't do anything with it, so that is disturbing that it would die after an update. They are looking into it at least to figure out what happened.

I'm beginning to believe that I should not even be doing any of this stuff at all. including a YT attempt, given the endless delays and problems. I may be in some big trouble if I continue? I don't know.

@Eric-Elliott

Hi Eric,

The timeline is measured in hours, minutes, seconds and frames - hh:mm:ss:ff. There are no fractions of a second, only frames.

Still images are as long as you want them to be - meaning showing for x seconds or y frames - you decide, not the program. Videos and images are measured in frames. If your project is 30 frames per second and you have what you call a 1 second image on the screen, it is actually 30 frames long. If you drag out the right end towards the right, you are making it show up longer on the timeline - more frames. Put the playback marker at the beginning of a photo. Use the right arrow key. Watch what happens each time that you press it. It moves 1 frame to the right. You still have the same image because it is more than 1 frame long.

I don't think there is any such thing as "basic editing" for the layperson. 

Yes, there is. Put stuff on the timeline, in the order that you want, trim or cut what you want, export. That is basic editing. All video editing programs do this, or should I say, allow you to do this. They don't do it for you.

Forget the mic. You already have many recordings - wave files. In your test project, put some photos on track 1. Drag in an audio clip onto track 2 - at the start. Move the playback marker to the start of the second photo. With your mouse, grab the audio file and move it to the right so that the start lines up with the playback marker. If the magnet is turned on, the beginning of the audio will snap to the beginning of the second photo. Let go. That is basic editing.

Look at the wave form of the audio. Move the playback marker part way along the audio. Select the audio clip. Press Z. This will trim off anything in the audio clip to the left of the playback marker. Drag the audio clip to the left until the left end snaps to the beginning of the second photo. That is basic editing. Nothing happens to the original audio file, only what is shown on the timeline.

Don't like it. Use undo.

Or grab the left end of the trimmed audio clip and drag it a bit the left. You are now untrimming. That is basic editing.

I showed you this in the videos. Watch them again. Practice.

Learn to use the tools!

John CB

I'm not sure I can work in frames with still pics, I have to work in time or it will not make sense to me, but that should be ok to work in time mode for this. If I had video, frames would make more sense to me.
The photos have lengths from about 20 seconds to one minute. The timeline only shows one photo and then blank space until I scroll to the next. I'm guessing if there is a way to put it in frame mode (there is I just need to find it), then maybe it will look different.

The only recordings I have are ones I can actually use, not test ones that can be sacrificed when everything hits the fan from one wrong move. There may be an "undo" feature, but the minute something goes south, I get real lost and don't know what happened so there is a long delay to hitting the "undo" button. As I get more familiar the delay lessens. I will be using the "undo" button a hundred times I'm sure just for one practice I would rather not mess with the stuff I view as good enough because I am going to practice "saving" in it as instructed. Once it is saved, there is no undo.

It would make no sense that nothing happens to the original wav file if you are editing it. What would be the point? Unless you mean that nothing happens until I save it. I also do NOT trust this program to "snap" anything. I need to practice to see if it does. But I will do that later. One thing at a time, first practice putting "movies" together in a project to make it longer or whatever I am trying to do, which I'm not sure of anymore.

I guess I could just use what images I have, which I was planning one, but I'm not sure about the audio unless the program points to where the wav files are stored for me in this case, so I wanted to record a little fresh audio (gibberish, whatever) to practice. I already know where maybe two wav files are because I made a folder and told the program to put them along with everything else there.
I guess I could use those and just make sure to name the test projects as "test projects". I was going to make fresh tests, that is how I work. It is too late where I am though anyway to start on that. So it will have to be next weekend.
 

Again in this case because the bit I want to trim or delete on the one audio track thing (I don't know what to call anything anymore) is at the very beginning, therefore because the built in audio editing program doesn't work and I can't load it into a program I am familiar with, it is far easier for me to just re-do the audio in this case.

Again, what is basic to you with decades of experience is completely foreign to me and complicated, I don't even speak the language.

@Eric-Elliott

Hi Eric.

All video and most audio editors use what is called 'non linear editing'.

Meaning what you see on the timeline is a representation of the file. A note like in a notepad. When you add any file to a project you are saying to your notebook 'place this audio file here at this time and for such an amount of time. Start so many seconds into the file at this point and end here'.

The original file is never touched.

This is why we refer to anything on the timeline as an object. A video object. An audio object, A text object. A photo object. etc.

So if you edit a video file or audio file by say cutting it, you are only making a note for where it should begin or end on the timeline ready for the next file to take over if that is what you want. If you grabbed the end or start of such a cut / trimmed file and dragged the end of it to the left or right, what you cut away would re-appear and work again.

No file is ever damaged or altered and why the original files can never be deleted from your drives or all the program has is a set of instructions with no files to work from. If you go to the folder using Windows Explorer to where you keep the file and play it with a video player or audio player you will find the file is complete.

Ray.

@Eric-Elliott

Hi Eric,

I'm not sure I can work in frames with still pics, I have to work in time or it will not make sense to me

Read what I wrote. Put a photo on the timeline at the very beginning. Put the playback marker at the beginning of the photo object. Look at the time counter at the top left of the preview window. It shows 00:00:00:00. Press the right arrow key on your keyboard once. The counter will change to 00:00:00:01. This means that the playback marker has moved 1 frame. Press the arrow key again. You get 00:00:00:02 and so on. If you project is 30 frames per second or 29.97, keep pressing the right arrow key until the counter shows 00:00:00:29. Press once more and you get 00:00:01:00. This is 1 second. Press again and you get 00:00:01:01 which is 1 second plus 1 frame. And so on.

There is no "frame mode."

A video is just a file made of individual images - frames. If you put a video clip on the timeline and do as above, you get exactly the same thing.

The timeline only shows one photo and then blank space until I scroll to the next.

Then you do not understand what you are supposed to be doing. Watch my tutorials on Getting started and Basic editing. You should have no gaps of images/videos on the timeline - NO GAPS. You photo duration has to be increased to close up the gap. Grab the right side of the first photo and drag it towards the next photo to fill in the gap. We have already shown how to do this more than once. Do what we tell you. You are not going to break anything.

It would make no sense that nothing happens to the original wav file if you are editing it. What would be the point? Unless you mean that nothing happens until I save it.

Wrong. You are editing in the program; you are not editing the original file. As all of us have told you over and over, your file does not get modified. The video editor is a non-destructive. You do what you want in the program. Then you export to get the final result.

I also do NOT trust this program to "snap" anything.

If the magnet is on, snap is on. Try it like you have been told. Object edges snap to object edges or they snap to the playback marker. The program does not snap by itself, you have to drag an object.

Again in this case because the bit I want to trim or delete on the one audio track thing (I don't know what to call anything anymore) is at the very beginning, therefore because the built in audio editing program doesn't work and I can't load it into a program 

We have shown you several ways to trim an object, whether its a video object, audio object, or image (photo) object, the process is the same. Try it. Don't say that it's hard - it isn't.

Why do you say that "the built in audio editing program doesn't work?" You don't need an audio editing program to trim an audio object. The built-in audio "cleaning" editor is for effects, not trimming. Trimming is basic editing - BASIC EDITING. We tell you this, but you won't even try what we show you. Do what we show and tell you.

The only place that is dangerous is the Import screen. Everything there is what is on your hard drive. Never delete anything from that window as it will delete the selected file or folder - it is Windows Explorer. Deleting an object from the timeline is not the same thing. It only affects the timeline, not the original file.

John CB

John,

If there is no way to see frames, that makes it extremely hard to work like that. I can't keep trying to convert thing in my head and keep everything else straight. I can't even see the numbers on the timeline well. I go by when I right click on the picture in this case and increase or decrease the time in there. I wonder if I can make the timeline itself just a little bigger? Maybe there is something in settings?

I see my description of what I see on the screen is severely lacking, so here is a screen shot. It shows what I mean when I say the time line only shows one photo and then the blank space. It has everything to do with the length of time it shows.

As for the "Snap" function - That is one of the things I was going to practice yesterday.

As for trimming, that is for working on later when I am more advanced or at least start making lengthy videos like when I go to film my vinyl records or custodial demos, whenever that is. I'm not going to worry much about a 2 minute or less clip. If I can do it, great, if not, who cares?

Again, I am not making feature length films or anything even remotely close. I'm not looking for success on YT or whatever. If I was, then I would not even bother. Let others worry about that for their own stuff.

I also am starting to understand about the difference between what I do in Movie Studio vs what happens to files on my hard drive as in they remain intact. CubeAce also helped explain it.

@Eric-Elliott

Hi.

To get your timeline view as you want it to look.

Ray.

@CubeAce

Ray, that doesn't work on still images. You only get the first frame on the left end.

@Eric-Elliott

Hi Eric.

Please remember you are never really shown individual frames in the timeline. It is like a sketch book giving graphical representations of what is on the timeline. Make the view larger and you are shown more frame changes but never really individual frames. Just roughly what is in that area of the timeline.

I also notice you have not activated your jog / scroll wheel or play through speed adjusting controls on your timeline's monitor.

You may find those options useful. Especially the jog / scroll wheel which will show how many frames you have moved the cursor forwards / backwards.

Ray.

@Eric-Elliott

 I wonder if I can make the timeline itself just a little bigger? Maybe there is something in settings?

I agree, the 20-something nerds with good eyes don't have a problem but us oldies have to peer at the screen closely to see anything.

One thing you can try which will increase the font size of the timeline numbers is to increase the scale of your Windows display setting. Go to: Windows Settings>System>Display and choose the next highest Scale. If it's currently on 100%, change it to 125%. That will increase the size of the program text eg timeline numbers and easier to read.

@Eric-Elliott

I say the time line only shows one photo and then the blank space. It has everything to do with the length of time it shows.

Still images only display the very start of the object, since every following "frame" is exactly the same. The critical issue, the "yellow blank space", isn't blank at all; it's the continuation of your image. The length of your image is shown by the yellow, which is the image "object". In your screenshot, it goes almost to 25sec, and is butted up nicely against the next image, "Diane Ackenstone.JPG". There is no blank space; drag the Play marker along the timeline in the yellow area and you will see the image being displayed.

Images can also be any length you like; you can change it by right-clicking as you are doing, but it is much easier to simply drag the end (either end) so that it fits the soundtrack. You can shorten or lengthen either image so the combination matches the length of your audio object. Example:

As a general rule, I always try to match the video or still images to the soundtrack, not the other way round.

@Eric-Elliott

 I wonder if I can make the timeline itself just a little bigger? Maybe there is something in settings?

I agree, the 20-something nerds with good eyes don't have a problem but us oldies have to peer at the screen closely to see anything.

One thing you can try which will increase the font size of the timeline numbers is to increase the scale of your Windows display setting. Go to: Windows Settings>System>Display and choose the next highest Scale. If it's currently on 100%, change it to 125%. That will increase the size of the program text eg timeline numbers and easier to read.

@AAProds Hi, that doesn't work for me

@Gid

Did you close and re-open Magix, as per the yellow note? I have to do that here to get Magix to change text size.

@AAProds 😁 No 🤦‍♂️😂 They should write that in bright coloured letters so it stands out,😏😁

It works now, that's full screen.

@Gid

At last! I can see your screen clearly! That's great, leave it like that! 😀😀👍👍

@AAProds I might consider this at 200% if I'm going to screen capture, this is full screen so I'm not peering at reduced UI, It should look better to you.