"Track layers" for audio?

Erk wrote on 9/18/2004, 7:10 PM
Every so often I mess up my timeline by not paying attention to the ripple mode, and get overlapping video and audio clips. R-clicking a video track header and choosing "Expand track layers" helps clean things up quickly.

But I'm wondering if something similiar is available for audio tracks, and if not, do folks think this would be handy as well? It can be very difficult otherwise to find smaller clips overlapping and hidden by longer audio clips.

Greg

Comments

Spot|DSE wrote on 9/18/2004, 8:32 PM
Nothing available for audio tracks, simply because that';s not part of the way that audio works. Vegas only has the Expand option because many NLE systems/most NLE systems have an A and B roll track, and transitions are inserted. using it might help you clean up issues, but it's not really relevant to what you are asking for audio. Audio is meant to be layered, and because it's not visual, doesn't require opacity changes to let the 'next layer' to be heard. Transitions don't occur in the same manner, since audio can only be faded in or out, therefore (personally) I see no benefit. Using zoom in/out is a more effective and more 'common' method of seeing overlaps.
Erk wrote on 9/18/2004, 8:51 PM
Spot,

I appreciate the response, and I think I understand what you're saying, but I still think it would be nice if there was some visual indication if an audio clip is completely overlapped by another on the same track. And as others have noted, after one messes up the timeline with rippling (not blaming Vegas here, clearly operator failure), one can be left with extremely small, nearly single-frame clips effectively hidden under other clips (some theorize this is a cause of the notorious flash-frame problem).

Yes, you can zoom way in and see them, but you've got to know where to look. If you can hear the problem, you know where to look, but some relatively quiet passages might go undetected.

Greg
farss wrote on 9/18/2004, 9:15 PM
Erk,
This isn't a small problem and I wouldn't write it off to user error. When you combine Ripple Edit with the way Vegas looses A/V grouping you can quickly end up with a big mess on your hands or worse yet a very minor mess that'll go unnoticed by you but not the client (and yes it's happened to me, as always a rush job for little money).
The flash frame thing, OK, they cannot repo it so fair enough they cannot fix it. But the track grouping and ripple edit problems have been there all along and I cannot see why it hasn't been addressed.

Bob.