Soundtrack Pro

By Paul Grabowicz, Robin Wise, Alexandra Woodruff
Published May 16, 2007 in Audio

Introduction

Soundtrack Pro is an audio editing program designed to work in concert with the Final Cut Pro video editing program.

It can be used for more fine tuning of audio tracks in your video files than is possible in Final Cut Pro.

It also can be used to edit audio files that are not attached to video, such as audio you recorded on a compact flash recorder or a minidisc recorder.

NOTE: This tutorial has been updated for Soundtrack Pro 2, which has some differences from previous versions of Soundtrack Pro.

Comments

1) Ben Bryant, November 21, 2007 at 12:04 p.m. [Link]

I'm an experienced Final Cut Pro editor and am trying to do some, seemingly simple, tasks in Soundtrack Pro. I need to slow down a piano track and can't figure out how to do it. Does this comment board offer tips and advice? if so -- Help!

Thanks, BB

2) Jerry Monti, February 7, 2008 at 3:55 p.m. [Link]

BB,
There are two ways to do this:

To time stretch an audio file:
1 Select the part of the file you want to time stretch (it can be the entire file).
2 Choose Process > Time Stretch.
The Time Stretch sheet appears.
3 In the Time Stretch sheet, choose the format for setting the amount to time stretch the
file from the Format pop-up menu.
4 In the “Length of selection” value slider, do one of the following:
Click the left arrow to shorten the length, or click the right arrow to increase the length.
Click the center of the value slider, then drag the slider that appears left or right to change the length.
Click the value in the value slider, then type a new value.
5 Click OK.

Graphically,
Audio Stretching Tool
You can time stretch all or part of an audio file to change the amount of time it
occupies. When you stretch an audio file, the length of time changes but not the pitch
(letting you fill dialogue, music, or other audio to a specific amount of time). For audio
files with music or other repeating patterns, stretching the file changes the tempo of
the music without changing the key. The range of the Audio Stretching tool is limited
to between 25% to 400% of the length of the original audio.
To graphically time stretch an audio file:

1 Click the Audio Stretching Tool button above the time display.
2 In the waveform display, drag horizontally across the waveform to select the part you
want to time stretch.
3 Move the pointer over the right edge of the selection.
The pointer becomes a Stretch pointer.
4 Drag the right edge of the selection left to shorten the selected area, or drag it right to
lengthen the selected area.
When you shorten a selection of an audio file using the Audio Stretching tool in the
File Editor, the empty part of the selection area is filled with ambient noise if an
ambient noise print exists. If no ambient noise print exists, the empty part of the
selection area is filled with silence. Shortening a selection using the Audio Stretching
tool does not change the length of the audio file.

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