Apple Final Cut Express HD User Manual
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Part VI
 Ruler: When you’re looking at the contents of an audio tab in the Viewer, you’ll see
two playheads, both of which are locked together. The normal Viewer playhead is
located in the scrubber bar below the waveform display area, but there’s also a
second playhead within the waveform display area.
The ruler above the waveform display area shows the currently displayed range of
your clip. If you zoom all the way out (press Shift-Z), this ruler shows the clip from its
start point to its end point, and the movement of the Viewer playhead in the
scrubber bar matches that of the playhead in the waveform display area.
The playhead in the waveform display area lets you move around in an audio clip
with more precision, using the waveform itself for reference as you perform edits or
set keyframes for level and pan (down to 1/100th of a frame, if necessary). Clicking
anywhere on the ruler or in the waveform display area moves the playhead to that
frame in your audio clip. You can also drag the playhead to scrub through the clip, or
shuttle through the clip using the shuttle control or the J, K, and L keys. If you hold
down the Shift key while dragging the playhead in the waveform display area, you
can move the playhead in increments of 1/100th of a frame, which lets you trim edits
at a subframe level.
The playhead in the scrubber bar works the same way it does in the Video tab of the
Viewer. The whole length of the scrubber bar represents the entire length of the
audio clip opened in the Viewer, and clicking or dragging the playhead in the
scrubber bar immediately takes you to that part of your clip.
The markers and In and Out points for your clip also appear in the ruler.
 Zoom control: Using this control, you can expand or contract the ruler, decreasing or
increasing the amount of the clip’s waveform that is displayed.
 Zoom slider: This slider lets you zoom in and out of the waveform displayed by
dragging the thumb tabs on either side, which adjusts both thumb tabs and leaves the
visible area of the keyframe graph centered. Pressing the Shift key and dragging one of
the thumb tabs zooms in or out of the waveform, locking the opposite thumb tab and
moving the visible area of the waveform in the direction in which you’re dragging.
More detailed instructions on using these controls and adjusting levels and pan are
described in “