Showing the Volume Level

Liquid Edition displays the volume level as a thin blue line that runs the length of the clip. When you adjust the audio level, this line moves up and down to reflect these changes.

However, by default, this graphical representation of the volume is not shown, and without this, you might have trouble visualizing exactly what you are doing.

To show volume with the volume level

• Right-click the small speaker at the top of the audio row and select Show Volume (Figure 7.12).
  
  

  Figure 7.12. When you select Show Volume…

  

  
  A small blue line appears near the top of all video and audio clips (Figure 7.13).
  
  

  Figure 7.13. …you can see the blue volume line.

  

  
  

Keyframes

Each time you adjust the audio levels, a number of small blue diamonds appear (Figure 7.14).

Figure 7.14. The small blue diamonds indicate keyframes.

These diamond marks are called keyframes and are part of the magic behind the NLE system.

A keyframe does pretty much what it says on the box: It creates a key point around which certain actions occur.

With audio editing, keyframes are created every time you make an adjustment to the audio levels. In Figure 7.14, you can see that multiple changes have been made, creating multiple blue diamondskeyframesthat control the level of audio.

Once created, these keyframes can be manipulated, moved, or deleted at will, which is the true power of a keyframe. However, the Audio Editor must be open to be able to adjust audio keyframes.

Keyframes are also used extensively in Liquid Edition to control visual effects. You can find more on keyframes and their uses in Chapters 8 and 9.