Displaying Audio Waveforms

When working in Sequences or News sequences, the Sequence Timeline allows you to display audio waveform data for each segment that you add to your sequence. Audio waveforms display a sample plot of the entire amplitude of the track. This is the same as the sample voltage values seen on an analog oscilloscope waveform.

The following illustration provides an example of the waveform data.

MediaCentral Cloud UX displays waveforms for up to 8 tracks of audio in a Sequence, and for up to 5 tracks in a News sequence. If you are viewing a sequence that was created in Media Composer with nine or more audio tracks, the Asset Editor displays data for the first 8 tracks only. Unlike Media Composer, you cannot display a waveform for a single track only. If your sequence includes audio dissolves as shown in this illustration, the dissolve is not factored into the displayed waveform. Audio gain does not affect the height of the waveform.

Waveform data is drawn on-screen, starting at the center position of the blue position indicator and extending outward — left and right. If you move the position indicator to a different point in the timeline as the waveforms are being drawn, the waveform data starts drawing at the new position. The waveforms drawn at the previous position remain on screen.

If you hide the waveform data and then re-enable the Show Audio Waveforms button, all prior waveform data is displayed immediately without the redraw. If you load a new sequence and come back to a previous sequence, the waveform data must be recreated and redrawn on screen.

n Audio waveforms are not supported when editing a draft sequence. Waveforms are not supported in shotlists due to the simplified view of the audio track in that sequence type.

n If you start playback of the sequence while the waveforms are being drawn, the drawing process pauses until you stop playback. At that point, the waveform drawing process continues.

To display audio waveforms:

  1. Load a Sequence or a News sequence with at least one audio track into the Asset Editor.

  2. (optional) Click the menu at the far right of the Sequence Timeline tool bar and select the Hide Clip Text option.

    This feature removes the clip name text from each segment which makes the waveform data easier to view.

    For more information, see The Sequence Timeline Area.

  3. (optional) Move the blue position indicator bar to the point in the sequence where you want to start drawing waveforms.

    If you leave the position indicator on the first frame of the sequence, waveform data is drawn to the right f the bar.

  4. Click the Show Audio Waveforms button in the Sequence Timeline tool bar.

    Waveform data is drawn over the sequence's audio tracks. Waveforms remain enabled throughout your user session, or until you click it again to hide the waveform data.

  5. (optional) Adjust the zoom level to see more detailed waveform information.

To hide the audio waveform data:

  1. Click the Hide Audio Waveforms button.

  2. (optional) Click the menu at the far right of the Sequence Timeline tool bar and select the Show Clip Text option to redisplay the clip text.

Waveform Scaling

You can increase the size of the waveform data to essentially "zoom-in" for increased detail. You can scale the waveform data in six different levels. The following example illustration show the same asset at 1x scale and again at 4x scale.

To scale the size of the waveforms using the Sequence Timeline menu:

  1. (optional) Click the menu at the far right of the Sequence Timeline tool bar and select the Waveform Scaling option.

  2. Select a scaling option (1x, 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x, 6x).

    The system defaults to 1x scale. When you select a different option, the menu select updates and the waveform scales in the Sequence Timeline to match your selection.

To increase or decrease scaling using keyboard commands:

  1. Click anywhere in the Sequence Timeline area to ensure that it is the area of focus.

  2. Do one of the following:

    • Press Ctrl+Alt+L (Windows) or Ctrl+Option+L (macOS) to increase the scaling.

    • Press Ctrl+Alt+K (Windows) or Ctrl+Option+K (macOS) to decrease the scaling.

    After you increase to 6x scale or decrease to 1x scale, the system stops scaling (no loop back to minimum or maximum scaling).