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Targeting tracks

A sequence may contain several video and audio tracks. When you add a clip to a sequence, you need to specify which track or tracks it should occupy. You can target one or more tracks, of both the audio and video varieties. The way you specify target tracks depends on the editing method you use.

  • When you drag a clip to add it to a sequence, you target the track by dropping the clip into the track. If you are inserting the clip, pressing Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS) as you drag, triangles show which tracks will have content shifted.

    Targeting a track while dragging a clip to a sequence

  • When you add clips to a sequence using the Source Monitor controls (or keyboard shortcuts), you must specify target tracks in advance. You can target more than one video track or more than one audio track at a time. Also, you can choose to target a video track only or an audio track only. Click the track(s) you want to target in the track header area of a Timeline panel. The track header area for a targeted track appears highlighted.
    You can also assign keyboard shortcuts to some track targeting commands.
    Highlighted track header of targeted video and audio tracks

  • You can map the tracks of a clip in the Source Monitor to one or more tracks of a sequence by dragging the source track indicator representing each of the source clip’s tracks into one or more selected tracks of the sequence. Audio source track indicators can be placed only in audio tracks matching the source clip’s channel configuration. For example, the audio track indicator for a stereo clip can be placed only in a stereo track in a sequence.

If you overlay a clip, only the clips in targeted tracks are affected, whether you drag the clip or use a Source Monitor’s Overlay button.

If you insert a clip, the clip goes into the targeted tracks, and clips in any unlocked tracks where the source clip lands shift to accommodate the insertion. You can specify other tracks to also shift by enabling Sync Lock on them.

To insert a clip and not shift clips in other tracks, Ctrl‑Alt‑drag (Windows) or Command-Option-drag (Mac OS) the clip into the track.

You can drag video clips to any video track; however, you can drag audio clips only to a compatible audio track. Audio clips can’t be added to the master audio track or submix tracks, and they can be placed only on audio tracks of the matching channel type: mono, stereo, or 5.1 (see About audio tracks in a sequence).

Clips with linked video and audio can be dragged to either a video or an audio track, but the clip’s video and audio components appear separately, in the appropriate corresponding tracks.

Note: You can drag a clip to any unlocked, compatible track in a sequence, no matter which tracks are currently targeted. You can’t target a locked track. Locking a target track deselects it as the target.