This is my first time cutting up AMA files and am finding that each time I try cutting a piece out of the timeline, it cuts it out, but then choaks for about 4 seconds and in that time I can't do anything. I'm assuming this isn't normal is it? When I skim along the timeline, it's very smooth, it's just the pause that happens everytime I try cutting a piece out.

The files that I linked are AVI files that I captured with another program. They are captures of old dv tapes and I captured with another program because I have a lots and lots of timecode breaks on those tapes and Avid stops capture every time it sees one. (And I've tried many things to capture with avid and to no avail so I'm moving on to capture with another program.)

Thanks for any help!

AMA requires a lot of power, depending on the codec of the linked files, not all computers and/or file formats are suitable for editing, transcoding first may be unavoidable. Did You consider capturing Your footage disabling the TC track in the capture tool?

Don't try editing in AMA, it is sluggish and painful.  AMA link to your media then transcode or consolidate your media onto a local fast drive for editing speed.  There's lots of workflows online for this method.  Google is your friend.