Thankyou for your reply Huntercr, but I am editing little "video remixes" on the fly and so i need to copy a noise and then paste it at playhead. Whenever i try to do this it pastes miles down the timeline. I suppose I should be using different software for audio cutting but I know even less about Garageband.
Ah, yes. Hmmm... Don't fret ( pun intended ) , Garage band to the rescue.
Now this won't get you everything I think you're looking for here, but it will help.
Of course the app you really want to use here is Final Cut Express with Soundtrack Pro, It is set up to do exactly what you want, but that's $$ and Soundtrack Pro doesn't even come with FCE anymore so that's a moot point I guess.
Anyway... garage band.
Once you have your video editing done where you like it in iMovie, save it.
and the open up garage band. Start a new project and pick the music tempo etc ( doesn't matter if you're just doing sound effects per se )
Then go to the Menu called "Track" -> Show Movie track. You can then select from the movie tab on the right, your iMovie movie and drag it into that track.
Then you can laydown all your special effects, music etc and even compose on the fly if you have a midi instrument When you've got it like you want it, save it, and then do Share->Export Movie to Disk...->Full quality ( or expert settings or whathave you )
You will have to pre prep all your little effects clips, though, so I think that's the par that won't work for you the greatest,
What you can do is create a new track that you call your "working" effects track, and drag in the audio you're taking the clip from, and then trim it to what you want and then leave it there on the working track until you need to grab it and copy it somewhere. You can even mute the clip of when not in use . Does that make sense? It's kind of like a holding bin.
You can also add your effects to the loop library so they'll always be there if you want to .
Hope this helps!
Thanks in advance