Editing Clips

For detailed work on a single clip, Silverdaw has the Clip Editor. Double-click a clip, or right-click it and choose Open in Editor, to open it. Everything here is non-destructive — your original file is never changed, and you can preview changes as you make them.

Many of these actions are also available directly from a clip's right-click menu on the timeline.

The editor works on a draft: your changes are previewed as you make them but aren't applied until you click Save. Cancel (or Esc) discards them. When you edit a clip that's saved to the Library — or any of its copies on the timeline — saving updates every linked copy together, so they stay in step.

Screenshot placeholder — replace with: the Clip Editor open on a clip, showing the large waveform, the playback controls, and the panels/tools for Warp, Pitch, and Slice.

Getting around the editor

• Play with the transport buttons or the Space bar, and click the waveform to move the playhead.
• Zoom with the mouse wheel or + / - / 0, so you can work right down to the sample.
• Select a range by dragging across the waveform, then drag the handles at its edges to fine-tune it. Turn on Loop (L) to play the selection round and round.
• Source / Clip switches the view between the whole source file and just the part your clip uses — handy when you want to pull a clip's edges out beyond where they currently sit. It only changes what you see; it doesn't change the clip.
• Trim narrows the view to your current selection as a preview, without changing the project.

When you open the editor on an imported file (rather than a clip), the footer offers Save Selection to Library, which turns the range you've selected into a new saved clip you can reuse — the same saved clips that appear in the Library.

Matching tempo (Warp)

A clip can automatically match the project tempo so it plays in time with everything else, without changing the source file. Turn on Warp (right-click a clip and choose Warp, or use the Clip Editor) to set this up. You can either Follow project BPM so the clip tracks the project tempo, or Pin to a specific BPM. If Silverdaw's detected tempo is off, you can enter the BPM by hand and slide the beat grid across the waveform until it lines up with the audio.

Warp offers three modes for how the stretch is done. As a rough guide:

• Rhythmic — best for drums and percussive loops.
• Tonal — best for melodic parts and vocals.
• Complex — best for full songs and busy, layered material.

Shifting pitch

Clips can be pitch-shifted independently of their tempo — raise or lower a clip without speeding it up or slowing it down. Right-click a clip and choose Pitch, or open the Clip Editor, to change it. Adjust it in Semitones and Cents for fine tuning, or use the Key presets — computed from the clip's detected key — to jump straight to a musical key. This is ideal for getting two tracks into the same key for a mashup.

Slicing a clip into loops

Slicing chops a clip into smaller pieces you can rearrange and rebuild with. There are two ways in:

• Quick: Chop to Grid. Right-click a clip and choose Chop to Grid, then pick a size — 1 bar, 1/2 bar, 1/4, 1/8, or 1/16. Silverdaw cuts the clip into equal, beat-aligned slices.
• Hands-on: Slice mode. Open the Clip Editor's Slice mode for finer control, slicing on a bar or beat grid (from a whole bar down to 1/32) or by placing markers by hand.

Once you've made your slices you can:

• Slice to timeline — lay the slices back onto the timeline as separate clips to rearrange.
• Slice to samples — save each slice as its own sample in the Library to reuse and rebuild.

Slicing is non-destructive — the source file is untouched.

Shaping a clip's volume

In the Clip Editor you can draw a volume envelope right on the clip's waveform to swell, duck, fade in, or fade out. Turn on the Volume tool, then click to add points and drag them to shape the line. With a range selected, the Silence and Full buttons (S / F) instantly drop that part to silence or push it to full volume with hard edges. The shaping applies to both playback and export.

Reversing a clip

Play any clip back-to-front. Toggle Reverse from the clip's right-click menu or in the Clip Editor, with a live preview. It's non-destructive, so the source file is never altered.

Turntable effects: Brake and Backspin

Add a classic DJ move to the end of a clip, from the right-click menu or the Clip Editor toolbar (both with live preview):

• Brake — a vinyl record-stop that slows the clip to a halt.
• Backspin — a reverse rewind, like pulling the record back.

A clip can have one of these at a time. Reverse, Brake, and Backspin are mutually exclusive — turn one on and the others stay visible but disabled until you switch it off. They apply to every linked copy of the clip, work on tempo-matched clips, and carry through to your exported mix. You can tune how long they take and how they feel in Preferences ▸ Effects.