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Edit audio clips in the Source Monitor

Learn to work with audio and video clips in Premiere Pro. View audio waveforms, scrub audio waveforms, and zoom in and out on audio waveforms using the Source Monitor.

View audio waveforms

You can automatically view the audio waveforms for clips containing single or multiple audio channels when opening them in the Source Monitor.

To customize the style of the audio track, select Timeline Display Settings, the wrench tool  on the Timeline panel. To display audio as waveforms in the Timeline, choose Show Audio Waveform.

Select Show audio in waveform to display audio as waveform
Show audio in waveform to display audio as a waveform.

Scrub audio waveform

Scrubbing is an efficient way to navigate an audio clip by dragging the playhead across a segment of the audio waveform.

To open a clip in the Source Monitor, double-click the clip in the Timeline panel. The playhead appears when you select the audio clip. Select across the clip, forward or backward, to move along or scrub the clip.

To remove scrubbing, go to Premiere Pro > Preferences (Windows) > Audio or Premiere Pro > Settings (macOS) > Audio and deselect Play audio while scrubbing to remove scrubbing.

The audio Preferences dialog is open and the option Play audio while scrubbing is highlighted.
Select or deselect Play audio while scrubbing to adjust your Audio Preferences.

Zoom in or out on an audio waveform in the Source Monitor

To more clearly locate the positions of markers, In  or Out  points, you may zoom in on an audio waveform in the Source Monitor.

  1. Double-click on an audio clip in the Project or Timeline panel to open the audio waveform in the Source Monitor.

  2. Drag either end of the zoom scrolling bar under the time bar in the Source Monitor to zoom in horizontally.

    The waveform of all channels and the time bar will expand or contract horizontally.

  3. To zoom in vertically, do one of the following:

    • Drag either end of the vertical zoom bar to zoom in on a single channel. It's next to the dB ruler on the right-side of the Source Monitor.
    • Shift-drag either end of the vertical zoom bar to zoom in on all channels simultaneously.

    The waveform of all channels and the dB ruler expands or contracts vertically.

    Return to default vertical zoom level

    After returning to the default zoom level, double-click the vertical zoom bar. It allows you to return to the previous zoom level.

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