Timeline Shortcuts

Keyboard and mouse shortcuts for working in the Timeline — moving the cursor, selecting and editing clips, and arranging them.

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Arrow key navigation

Arrow keys are the foundation of keyboard navigation. Their behavior changes based on modifier keys.

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Horizontal (←/→)

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Vertical (↑/↓)

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Cursor movement (keyboard)

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Clip selection (keyboard)

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Clip selection (mouse)

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Moving clips

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Timestretch

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Clipboard operations

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Splitting

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Quantize

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Marquee selection

The marquee allows you to select a time range across tracks.

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Creating a marquee

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Extending a marquee (keyboard)

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Bar selection

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Creating & deleting clips

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Zoom

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Keyboard

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Zoom presets

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Mouse zoom

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Mouse interaction on clips

A clip is a hand. Press it anywhere and you drag it — there is no invisible boundary inside the clip to find, and so none to misclick. Hold ⌘ and the pointer becomes an arrow: now a click sets the timeline cursor and a drag makes a marquee, anywhere on the clip. Hover a clip and its grips appear. A pill at each side resizes it, and — on audio clips wide enough — a small grip at each top corner pulls a fade. Nothing about a click changes on hover; the chrome only shows you where the grips are. The pills sit a few points inside the clip’s edge, which leaves the clip’s actual start and end free. That is the point: ⌘-clicking the boundary itself is the only way to put the timeline cursor exactly on it. You can retune the chrome in the theme editor (Clips ▸ Hover handle opacity / Hover handle shade); an opacity of 0 hides it without moving a single hit zone. Focus mode inverts this, along a drawn line. Every clip on the focused track carries a header — a ledge at its top, about a compact clip tall, with a shadow falling from its lower edge onto the content sliding beneath it. Press the header to drag the clip (everything a bare press does in the arrangement); press anywhere below it to edit — set the cursor, start a marquee, work the piano roll or the automation curve — no ⌘ needed. Focus mode is the view you enter in order to work inside a clip, so the precision click is the default there and moving is what the header is for. The header’s height and its shadow are theme values (Clips ▸ Focus header …). The ghost cursor appears whenever you are in cursor mode over a clip — that is, while ⌘ is held. Right-click follows the same rule: a bare right-click deletes the clip, ⌘+right-click slices it. In focus mode, right-clicking below a header slices without ⌘ — and never deletes. Resize lives on the pills, not on the clip’s edge. Hold ⌘ on the trailing pill to timestretch instead. ⌘ over the leading pill yields to the cursor — ⌘ means “get out of the way”, everywhere except that one grip.

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Track actions

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Clip Gain & Normalize

Number keys set the gain of selected audio clips relative to each clip’s own peak level. 0 normalizes the selection — every clip is boosted so its loudest sample reaches 0 dBFS. 1–9 scale that normalized peak down in 10 % steps, so two clips of different original loudness end up at matching levels. The key left of 1 (^ on German / ISO layouts, ` on US / ANSI layouts) toggles clips between muted and unmuted. Mute is stored as a separate flag on the clip — toggling it never touches the gain value, so unmuting restores the previous level. These keys are handled via direct key events rather than the command system, so they cannot be reassigned through the Command Palette. Number-key gain changes do not propagate to linked clip siblings — the selection you addressed is exactly the selection that changes. Use the Inspector gain slider if you want linked propagation.

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Track Clip Mode & Ceiling

These drive the selected track’s built-in clipper/limiter — the same controls as the Inspector’s Clip section — straight from the keyboard. They sit on the number row and the two keys right of 0, all held with Control (⌃): the same physical keys as bare clip gain, one modifier up. Because they need only a selected track (not a selected clip), the two layers never clash.

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Clip Mode

Hold ⌃ and tap a key on the number row to pick the clipping curve directly. The key left of 1 (^ on German / ISO layouts, ` on US / ANSI layouts) sets None (clipper off); 1–0 walk the ten curves in order — the same key positions as the bare row’s ` mute, 1–9, 0.

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Ceiling

The two keys right of 0 set the clip ceiling — ⌃= raises, ⌃- lowers, the same louder/quieter direction as the bare volume keys. Add ⌥ for fine steps.

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Inspector controls

The Inspector panel shows mix controls for the selected track.

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Reset to default

Default Values:

• Volume: 0 dB (unity gain)
• Pan: Center
• Mid/Side: 1.0 (unity)