The waveform view is the primary visualization tool for mixing. The waveform view displays the sound wave on a timeline, where the height of the waveform indicates volume or amplitude and the color indicates frequency. The mapping of sound frequency to color is done by mapping low frequencies to red, mid frequencies to green, and high frequencies to blue. This mapping is inspired by the way our eyes perceive visible light - red represents the low end of the light frequency spectrum, blue the high end, and green in the middle. When trying to decode different colors to different musical elements, red regions usually represent bass notes, the blue regions snare or hi-hats, and green regions vocals, guitar, or other melodic instruments.
The waveform view can be navigated using the magnifier and waveform scroll bar, the mousewheel, or the keyboard.
The first method for navigating is to use the magnifier and waveform scrollbar. The magnifier slider can be adjusted to see the waveform at different timescales. Zoomed all the way out, several hours of audio are visible. Zoomed all the way in, only a fraction of a second of audio is visible. To scroll forwards and backwards along the waveform timeline, use the scroll bar located underneath the waveforms.
The easiest way to navigate is by using the mouse wheel. Moving the wheel forward zooms into the waveform, and moving the wheel backward, zooms out again. The zoom will be centered around the position of the mouse pointer.
The last method for navigating the waveform view is to use keyboard shortcuts. Use CTRL-= to zoom in, CTRL-- to zoom out, CTRL-[ to scroll left, and CTRL-] to scroll right. Alternatively, you can use the arrow keys to navigate when the waveform view has focus: up, down, left, right, map to zoom in, zoom out, scroll left, and scroll right, respectively. To capture focus for the waveform view, click the left or right mouse button anywhere in the waveform view.
Some functions operate on a selection of audio, such as looping. To define a selection, click the mouse in the waveform and drag the mouse to highlight the region you are interested in. To clear the selection region, right click anywhere in the waveform.
In order to change the alignment of a track relative to the other tracks, click the track on the thin strip immediately above the waveform and drag it. This is the strip containing the phrase annotations. Dragging the waveform has the effect of seeking the audio, so be careful not to accidentally drag the wrong song!
Snap-to-beat can be enabled to lock operations to the beat grid. When selecting audio, the start and end times of the selection will be rounded to the nearest beat location. When seeking or dragging a waveform, the seek time will be aligned to the grid so that the track stays on beat. Snap-to-beat can be enabled or disabled by toggling the button with the lock icon, located to the left of the waveform, underneath the magnifier, or by selecting Snap to Beat Grid from the View menu.