Cursor and Selection Navigation¶
Precise editing is much quicker from the keyboard than with the mouse. Acoustica can move the cursor to musically or acoustically meaningful positions — a transient, a zero crossing, a label — and can extend the selection to the same positions. All the commands below are in the Move Cursor to and Selection sub menus of the Edit menu, and all of them can be reassigned in the Keyboard shortcuts preferences.
Moving the Cursor¶
| Command | Windows | Mac |
|---|---|---|
| Move Cursor to Begin | Home | Home |
| Move Cursor to End | End | End |
| Move Cursor Leftwards / Rightwards | Left / Right | Left / Right |
| Jump Cursor Leftwards / Rightwards | Ctrl + Left / Right | ⌘ + Left / Right |
| Move Cursor to Selection Begin / End | Alt + Left / Right | ⌥ + Left / Right |
| Move Cursor to Next / Previous Label | + / - | + / - |
| Move Cursor to Next Transient | Tab | Tab |
| Move Cursor to Previous Transient | Ctrl + Tab | Ctrl + Tab |
| Move Cursor to the Next Zero Crossing | . | . |
| Move Cursor to the Previous Zero Crossing | , | , |
The plain arrow keys move the cursor by one pixel of the current zoom level, so how far the cursor travels depends on how far you are zoomed in. The jump commands move twenty times as far.
Move Cursor to Begin also responds to the Return key, and the label commands also respond to the plus and minus keys on the numeric keypad.
Transients¶
Move Cursor to Next Transient and Move Cursor to Previous Transient find the next sharp attack in the audio — a drum hit, a consonant, the start of a note. This is the fastest way to place the cursor exactly at the start of an event before splitting or trimming it.
Zero crossings¶
Move Cursor to the Next Zero Crossing and Move Cursor to the Previous Zero Crossing place the cursor where the waveform crosses zero. Cutting at a zero crossing avoids the discontinuity that causes a click (see Avoiding Clicks when Editing).
Adjusting the Selection¶
Every movement above has a counterpart that extends the selection instead of moving the cursor. They use the same keys with Shift added:
| Command | Windows | Mac |
|---|---|---|
| Adjust Selection Leftwards / Rightwards | Shift + Left / Right | Shift + Left / Right |
| Jump Adjust Selection Leftwards / Rightwards | Ctrl + Shift + Left / Right | ⌘ + Shift + Left / Right |
| Adjust Selection to Beginning / End | Shift + Home / End | Shift + Home / End |
| Adjust the selection to Next Transient | Shift + Tab | Shift + Tab |
| Adjust the selection to Previous Transient | Ctrl + Shift + Tab | Ctrl + Shift + Tab |
| Set Selection Begin to Cursor | Ctrl + Home | ⌘ + Home |
| Set Selection End to Cursor | Ctrl + End | ⌘ + End |
Set Selection Begin to Cursor and Set Selection End to Cursor are the keyboard equivalent of dragging one edge of the selection: position the cursor where you want the new boundary, then move that boundary to it without disturbing the other one.
Other Selection Commands¶
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Invert Selection (Edit > Selection, Ctrl/⌘ + Shift + Alt/⌥ + I)
Selects everything that is currently not selected and deselects everything that is. In the spectral editing mode this inverts the time-frequency geometry as well, which is a quick way to process everything except an isolated sound.
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Select View (Edit > Selection)
Selects exactly the time range that is currently visible in the clip editor.
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Select Previous and Select Next (Edit > Selection)
Steps backwards and forwards through your selection history. Useful when you have lost a carefully made spectral selection with an accidental click.
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Expand to Zero Crossings (Edit > Selection, Ctrl/⌘ + E)
Expands the selection outwards to the nearest zero crossing at each end. See Avoiding Clicks when Editing.
Creating a Clip from the Selection¶
Create Clip from Selection in the Edit menu (Alt/⌥ + S) opens the selected time range in a clip editor window of its own. The new clip is independent of the source recording, which makes it a convenient way to work on a difficult passage in isolation — zoomed in, with its own edit history — before copying the result back.