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Work with tracks



The video and audio tracks in a Timeline panel are where you arrange clips, edit them, and add special effects. You can add or remove tracks as needed, rename them, and determine which can be affected by a procedure.

Add tracks

New video tracks appear above existing video tracks, and new audio tracks appear below existing audio tracks. Deleting a track removes all clips in the track but does not affect source clips listed in the Project panel.

Note: You can add any number of tracks, limited only by your system’s resources.
  1. With a Timeline panel active, choose Sequence > Add Tracks.
  2. In the Add Tracks dialog box, do any of the following:

    • To add tracks, type, or drag the hot text to, the number of tracks you want to add in the Add field for video, audio, and audio submix tracks.

    • To specify the placement of added tracks, choose an option from the Placement menu for each type of track added.

    • To specify the type of audio or submix track you want to add, choose an option from the Track Type menu for audio and audio submix tracks. (For more about audio channel types, see About audio tracks in a sequence.)

  3. Click OK.
    Note: An audio track can accept only audio clips that use the matching channel type—mono, stereo, or 5.1. If you’re not sure what kind of audio your clips use, select the clip in the Project panel and read its information in the preview area.
    You can add a track as you add a clip to the sequence. See Add a track while adding a clip.

Delete tracks

You can delete one or more tracks at a time, whether video or audio.

  1. With a Timeline panel active, choose Sequence > Delete Tracks.
  2. In the Delete Tracks dialog box, check the box for each type of track you want to delete.
  3. For each checked item, specify which tracks you want to delete in its pop‑up menu.

Rename a track

  1. Right-click (Windows) or Ctrl-click (Mac OS) the track's name and choose Rename.
  2. Type a new name for the track, and press Enter (Windows) or Return (Mac OS).

Specify the tracks to change with Sync Lock

You can determine which tracks will be affected when your perform an insert, ripple delete, or ripple trim operation by enabling Sync Lock on those tracks. Tracks which have a clip that is part of the operation will always shift regardless of their sync-lock state, but the other tracks will shift their clip content only if their sync lock is enabled. With an insert edit, for example, if you want all the clips to the right of the edit on Video 1 and Audio 1 to shift to the right while leaving all the clips on Audio 2 in place, enable Sync Lock on Video 1 and Audio 1.

 Do one of the following:

  • To enable Sync Lock for selected tracks, click the Toggle Sync Lock box at the head of each video and audio track you want to be affected by the edit.

  • To enable Sync Lock for all tracks of a particular type, video or audio, Shift-click the Toggle Sync Lock box at the head of any track of that type.

The Sync Lock icon  will appear in the box, and Sync Lock will be enabled for those tracks.

Note: To disable Sync Lock on one or more tracks, click, or Shift-click for all tracks of a type, the Toggle Sync Lock box again so that it contains no Sync Lock icon.

Prevent changes with Track Lock

Locking an entire track is useful for preventing changes to any clips on that track while you work on other parts of the sequence. In a Timeline panel, a pattern of slashes appears over a locked track. Although clips in a locked track cannot be modified in any way, they are included when you preview or export the sequence. If you want to lock both a video track and a track with corresponding audio, lock each track separately. When you lock a target track, it is no longer the target; source clips cannot be added to the track until you unlock it and target it again.

You can lock a track to prevent it from shifting when you perform insert edits.
 Click in the Toggle Track Lock box to display the Lock icon  next to the track name.
An unlocked track (top) and locked track (bottom)

Exclude tracks in a sequence

You can exclude any track from previews and export. Clips in excluded video tracks do not appear in the Program Monitor. Clips in excluded audio tracks are not output to the Audio Mixer or to the speakers.

 Click to hide the Eye icon  (for video) or the Speaker icon  (for audio) at the left edge of the track. (Each icon is a toggle switch. Click its box again to display the icon and include the track.)
Note: To exclude all video or all audio tracks, Shift‑click to hide the Eye icon  (for video) or the Speaker icon  (for audio). This excludes all tracks of the same type. (Each icon is a toggle switch. Shift‑click its box again to display all the icons and include the tracks.)