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Create clips

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Create a clip of an exact length

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Select and move clips

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Split and delete clips

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Duplicate clips

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Drop a clip on a track that does not exist yet

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Good to know

  • Everything snaps to the grid. The grid follows the horizontal zoom. Hold ⌥ while dragging to place a clip, note or edge exactly where the pointer is.
  • Return creates a clip at the edit cursor on the selected track. With a range marked it sizes the clip to that range; with the cursor inside a clip, that clip is split at the cursor first.
  • Paste lands at the edit cursor, on the cursor’s track. ⌘C, ⌘X and ⌘V copy, cut and paste clips.
  • With a range marked, ⌘E cuts at both of its edges, on every track the range covers, and ⌫ deletes everything inside it.
  • Double-click a clip to edit what is inside it in Focus Mode. Track heights and zoom: Zoom and Navigate.
  • Every track except a group gets a row, whether or not it holds clips. Groups act as summing buses and appear only in the sidebar (Groups).
  • A double-clicked empty spot keeps you in the arrangement view, with no Focus Mode. On an automation track it makes an empty 4-bar automation clip.
  • With a range marked, Return makes an empty clip that wide on MIDI and automation tracks, and the source trimmed to the range on a sample track.
  • You can also mark a range by dragging across an empty area. ⇧-click an empty spot extends it from the cursor.
  • ⌘-click creates or stamps clips. With no clip selected it creates one (empty MIDI or full-length sample), and a new MIDI clip opens in Focus Mode. With a clip selected, on a compatible track, it stamps a linked duplicate. Drag after the click to set the length.
  • ⇧-click adds a clip to the selection or takes it out. ⌘A selects every clip on the selected track, ⇧⌘A every clip in the project. ⌘→ / ⌘← select the next or previous clip, ⌘↑ / ⌘↓ the clip on the track above or below.
  • A dragged clip moves along its track or onto another track of the same kind. Escape lets go of the selection and hands the arrow keys back to the cursor.
  • A clip is a handle everywhere. Press it anywhere and you drag it. Hold ⌘ and the pointer becomes an arrow: a click sets the cursor and a drag makes a marquee inside the clip. Where that click would snap to a transient or a clip edge, a thin ghost line previews the cursor’s spot; plain grid positions show none.
  • Hover a clip and its grips appear. A pill at each side resizes it; on audio clips wide enough, a grip at each top corner pulls a fade. ⌘ on the trailing pill time-stretches instead (Time Stretching); that is the only pill ⌘ keeps a meaning on. Over the leading pill, as everywhere else on the clip, ⌘ gives way to the cursor.
  • The pills sit a few points inside the clip’s edge, so ⌘-clicking the clip’s exact start or end puts the cursor on that boundary.
  • Without a range, ⌘E cuts every clip under the cursor, on every track. ⇧⌘E cuts the selected clip at every transient (Slices). Join MIDI Clips (⌘J) is the reverse for MIDI clips.
  • ⌘J with a range marked makes one clip per track exactly as long as the range, from the MIDI clips inside it (a track needs at least two there). With clips selected instead, it joins each track’s selection from the first clip to the last, and the gaps between them stay empty; an unselected clip in between breaks the run.
  • Right-click a clip to delete it, or right-click and keep dragging to erase every clip the pointer crosses. ⌘-right-click slices a clip at the pointer instead.
  • ⌘ held before you grab a clip starts a marquee inside it, so for a new track press ⌘ after the drag has started. The between-track targets appear while ⌘ is down, so you can arm and disarm mid-drag.
  • ⌘ also helps when the row under the pointer cannot take the clip: an instrument track under an audio clip, or a sample track already playing a different sample. Held, the clip lands on a fresh track of the right kind below that row. Not held, the drag refuses there and the clip stays where it was.
  • Without ⌘, a drag inside the timeline never creates a track. Dropping on a new track is a single-clip gesture: drag several selected clips and ⌘ does nothing.
  • Samples dragged from the Inspector or files from the Finder get the same between-track targets with no key held.
  • ⌥ releases snapping mid-drag too. Press and release it while you drag. With the arrow keys, ⌥ steps by 1/8 of the grid, so the step gets finer as you zoom in.
  • Drags also snap to clip edges, transient markers and MIDI note starts anywhere in the project, not just on your track. These targets win only within 8 px of the pointer and when closer than the grid line.
  • Markers and note starts need room to be aimed at. They are ignored below roughly 40 px per beat, and a marker closer to its neighbor than the snap window is skipped. Zoom in and they come back.
  • A horizontal clip drag eases onto its snap target instead of jumping, only when the grid moved the clip further than the pointer moved, so a fast drag stays locked to the pointer.
  • Swing moves the grid. A groove shifts the lines clips and notes snap to.
  • Align Clips to Downbeat slides each clip’s audio onto the grid using the Sample Editor’s downbeat. Run it from the Command Palette. Clip positions and lengths stay put; it applies to the selected track and lands as one undo step.
  • While any track is soloed, the others are dimmed. Their clips and waveforms fade back.
The complete grid: Timeline Shortcuts.
Last modified on October 22, 2026