Looking for someone who uses Final Cut Express

I'm just starting with Final Cut Express. So far, the biggest problem I solved was getting no sound in the canvas window. I didn't want to render yet, but I finally decided I would have to, regardless of the long waiting time. By accident, I discovered the Sequence -> Render -> Selection is the way to go. It appeared that the video and audio would both have to be rendered, which would be a long wait. But only the sound was rendered and it was superfast. That was very helpful and I was able to predict the expected result before exporting (exporting takes forever, and really should be needed only once).