Moving clips to exact spot you want them to begin?

Hi All! I just started using Final Cut Pro today and really like it so far - I am using FCP to make a music video - the song is already imported as are the video clips - I have about 18 separate clips in total.

My song is 120 BPM and if I look at the song's waveform I can see peaks which correlate to kick drums - this is helpful to have new clips start with & on the beat - only things is I am having a heck of a time making the clips start on the beat.

I am familiar with snapping and the different modes, select, trim, etc - I read up on some other threads taking about frame rates being this issue but what I do not understand is why I cannot manually move a new clip t wherever I want it time wise.

Is this possible or am I wrong? I added a short video to show what I am doing and what is happening.

Thanks for all your help!

Video not showing.

I don't see the attached video.

If you're zoomed way in, you might be seeing the audio waveform but you can only place video on a video frame boundary. When you're zoomed way in, scrubbing in the timeline will show a blue-ish boundary at the frame start.

If this is not what you're describing, maybe you're experiencing the magnetic timeline and clips are snapping. If you press the 'p' key that will put you in Position mode and you can freely move a clip without any magnetic snapping. Press 'a' to return to normal mode.

If you haven't already watched these, they can save you a ton of time getting up to speed with FCP.

Steve at Ripple Training, 60 minute FCP tutorial overview

Izzy Video tutorials. Slightly older so the UI looks different but the concepts are still correct.

In the tutorial video above cutting to the beat starts at 15 minutes.
One trick to consider is if you have the perfect subject clip that's 10 seconds long but needs to fit in a beat space that's 9 second or 12 second long... slow or speed the clip to consume that time space. It'll go unnoticed. Also, if you need a transition and there's not enough 'handles' on the clip to work with, you can either create a still frame and use that for handles or speed ramp the ends of the clips transitioning to gain enough media to work with.
 

Wow - thanks everyone for your replies! Very kind! 

I just reattached the video and hope it works this time! As you can see I am trying to nudge the video a tiny bit to line up with the transient in the audio file which can be seen with its yellowish peak. Snap is off but the video clip does not move totally free, it clicks into place.

Thanks for your help and patience!

How precisely you can place the clip depends on the frame rate you're using. You can only place video in exact frame increments up to a 60th of a second.

Using a micrometer while editing will drive you nuts. Besides, being off a frame or two will go unnoticed. (Still don't see a video or image.)

Thanks for your replies! I have no idea why the video clip - screen recording did not upload - everything was uploaded and no errors occurred - but my question has been answered so thanks everyone for your help!! Very grateful!

TerryB wrote:

I don't see the attached video.

If you're zoomed way in, you might be seeing the audio waveform but you can only place video on a video frame boundary. When you're zoomed way in, scrubbing in the timeline will show a blue-ish boundary at the frame start.

If this is not what you're describing, maybe you're experiencing the magnetic timeline and clips are snapping. If you press the 'p' key that will put you in Position mode and you can freely move a clip without any magnetic snapping. Press 'a' to return to normal mode.

If you haven't already watched these, they can save you a ton of time getting up to speed with FCP.

Steve at Ripple Training, 60 minute FCP tutorial overview

Izzy Video tutorials. Slightly older so the UI looks different but the concepts are still correct.

Thanks for the video, if I face any problem, I will message you.