Audio is edited on the timeline with the same tools as picture, plus a few audio-specific ones - fades, crossfades, and node-based level control. This article covers cutting and shaping sound, the split edits that make dialogue flow, and keeping audio in sync.
Audio clips cut, trim, slip, and slide exactly like video (see Basic editing and Trimming). The waveform makes it easy to find the right frame - cut on a silence between words, or trim to the start of a sound. Snapping and the trim shortcuts work on audio just as they do on picture.
Sometimes you want to edit sound without touching picture - laying in music, replacing a line, or adding an effect. Target only the audio tracks (and lock or untarget the video tracks) so your edit affects sound alone. To deal with a single clip rather than a whole track, Alt+click it: that inverts Clip Link for one click, so the sound comes away from its picture.
A split edit is where the picture cut and the sound cut happen at different times - the foundation of smooth, professional-sounding dialogue.
Create them by trimming the audio and video edges to different points - for example, extend the outgoing clip's sound past its picture for an L-cut. With Clip Link on, Alt+click the cut point on the audio track to trim the sound alone; with Clip Link off a plain click already does that. Either way, Alt gives you the opposite of however the button is set (see Trimming).
Tip: A few well-placed L-cuts make interview and dialogue edits feel far less abrupt - the conversation flows over the picture rather than snapping with it.
When you edit audio separately from its picture, watch the timeline's sync indicators. They warn you when linked picture and sound have drifted out of sync, so an accidental slip is easy to catch and correct (see Selecting and moving material).
Fades have adjustable handles on the timeline for setting their duration directly, and a choice of curve shapes - Exponential Fade, Equal Power, and Linear - so you can shape exactly how the level changes. Right-click a fade handle to choose its curve (or None to remove the fade).
You can shape a track's level directly on the timeline, independently of the mixer's faders, by drawing a level curve with audio nodes:
Ctrl/Cmd+click to build a selection of several; Shift+drag rubber-bands a group of them. Selected nodes move together, and Delete removes them.A segment's start and end points are editable nodes in their own right, so a clip can ramp from silence at its head to full at its tail. Adding a node part-way along a ramp no longer flattens it, and deleting an end point resets it rather than removing it.
Turning Keyframes on does not take the track over: trimming, dragging, selecting clips and adjusting fades all still work, because the level line only owns the band around itself. That means you can leave levels on while you edit.
Note: Levels and fades cannot be edited on a locked track. The level line and its nodes still show, and the fades still play, but nothing can be dragged - which is what lock is for. Keyframes and lock are mutually exclusive: turning Keyframes on unlocks the track, and locking it turns Keyframes off (see Sequences and timelines).
Two helpers make node work faster: Enable Audio Node Snapping (in Timeline settings) snaps nodes to useful positions, and the Next / Previous Audio Node commands jump the playhead between nodes.
Use node levels to even out material before you mix, so the mixer is balancing already-consistent tracks. Whole-track levels, routing, and fader automation are handled in The audio mixer.