This was the conventional wisdom for audio up to 1996. Today the trend seems to be exposing the user to the EDL and future interfaces may reflect that.
The editing functions have been optimized for precise, rapid editing of large files. None of the changes you make ever touches a source file.
The editing functions on Broadcast 2000 are split between the Edit menu, buttonbar, and the timeline. You'll eventually do most of your editing using keyboard shortcuts.
SELECTING REGIONS
The shift key extends whatever end of the selection you're
closest to.
Double clicking selects the entire range of the edit your
pointer is over.
When working with video, you should always activate Settings->align
cursor on frames unless you're only editing the audio tracks.
If you have silence before a scene, you can drag the out point in the
region of silence to move the scene around.
Because when you edit, you really change numbers in an EDL, Broadcast
2000 is able to mark the boundaries between different edits. Clicking
on an in/out point positions the cursor exactly on the edit boundary.
Dragging edit handles either shrinks or extends the boundary of an
edit.
When you drag the starting and ending point on one track of a freshly
loaded stereo file, it adjusts both tracks. If you do the same thing
after appending a second file of different length to the current
project, you'll still only affect one file. Broadcast 2000
automatically decides which tracks are affected by an edit handle by
which edit handles are lined up on the same sample or frame.
You can force tracks to be ignored by deselecting record toggles on the
patchbay.
Double clicking between two edit points selects the entire
region between those points.
Drag all following edits repositions every edit after the cursor.
Drag only one edit repositions only the boundary selected. All
the other edits stay in place.
Drag source only locks all the edit boundaries and repositions
the source material instead.
Double clicking on the timebar between two labels selects the
entire region between the two labels.
The seek buttons: seek to the next or
previous label. Shift extends the region to the label you click
on.
Edit->Clear labels clears all the labels in the selected
region.
Settings->Labels follow edits determines whether cuts and pastes
also cut and paste labels.
In it's simplest
role, the play button determines whether you hear a track or not but
fundamentally it also determines whether CPU time is devoted to
rendering that track. You should disable playback on any tracks which
don't contain footage you want to see.
The record button determines whether the track is affected by editing.
The A button determines whether the automation for a track is on
or off. The D button determines if a track is drawn or left
blank on the timeline. You'll use the D button a lot for large video
projects on slow computers. Clicking on the title allows you to enter
a new title.
Go to Audio->add track or Video->add track to add a
track.
Delete all the recordable tracks using Settings->delete tracks.
Move the recordable tracks around using Settings->move tracks up
or Settings->move tracks down.
You could just type a D to delete the last track on the timeline.
There is theoretically no limit to the number of tracks available, but
if you run out of memory you'll have to give up.
You know how to highlight regions of text in a text editor. The second
problem is determining which tracks inside your highlighted section are
affected. The record button to the left of each track protects the
track from any operations you may do on it. Only when it is
highlighted is the track affected by editing operations.
CUT AND PASTE
The cut, copy, paste, and clear functions do what you'd expect
them to do, with X, V, C, and backspace doing the equivalent
actions. Only tracks with a highlighted record patch are affected.
SHIFTING REGIONS HORIZONTALLY ON THE TIMELINE
In Broadcast 2000 horizontal positioning of tracks is accomplished by
pasting and deleting data before the region you want to shift. First
disable recording on all but the tracks you want to shift. To shift
the tracks right, select a region of the duration you want to shift by
and select edit->paste silence. To shift the tracks left select
a region of the duration you want to shift by and select
edit->clear
IN/OUT POINTS
Go to View->Show Edits and make sure it's checked.
You should see in/out points on the tracks.
THE 3 EDITING MODES OF IN/OUT POINTS
In Preferences->interface 3 behaviors for the in/out points were
bound to the mouse buttons. The three editing modes cause different
things to happen when you drag an edit and by default were assigned by
their invasiveness.
LABELS
While editing, you're going to want to mark specific points on the
timeline which you can precisely align selections to or seek to. The
lbl button or the L key toggles a label on or off at the
cursor position. If you selected a region, it toggles labels at both
ends of the selection. Usually you'll scrub through a region and hit
lbl at some cue point. Alternatively, you'll zoom to single
sample level and label a starting point for a cut.
THE PATCHBAY
Before every track is a patch with buttons
clearly delineated to indicate their functions.
TRACK MANIPULATIONS
Broadcast 2000 has features for shuffling the hundreds of tracks you're
likely to encounter in your post production career.