Audio mode, Video mode, and the three views

The program is organised as two modes crossed with three views. Knowing which cell you are in answers most of the "where is that control" questions.

The two modes

Audio Mode is Ctrl+Shift+A. Video Mode is Ctrl+Shift+V. Both are in the Media menu with a tick against the current one.

The mode decides what the preview draws and what the properties panel offers. Audio mode gives you a waveform, sample rate, bit depth, channels and loudness. Video mode gives you a picture, dimensions, frame rate, CRF and encoder preset.

It is not a filter on your media bin. It is which set of controls you are working with.

The three views

Clip takes one file and cuts a section out of it using in and out points. This is where most work starts.

Combine takes several pieces and joins them into one file, in an order you control, with optional crossfades at the joins.

Convert takes a file and writes it out in another format, or at another quality, or at another size, without changing what is in it.

All three are in the toolbar and in the Media menu.

The tools

The Tools menu opens seven panels that are not part of the mode and view grid.

  • Composite builds a piece from photographs, clips and music, with transitions and ducking.
  • Captions transcribes speech offline and edits the result.
  • Overlays puts text and cards on a video and generates variants.
  • Effects does silence auto-cut, loop finding, speed changes, freezes and watermarks.
  • Batch runs one operation across many files.
  • Presets edits the saved export settings.
  • Settings.

The order most jobs go in

  1. Open Media and look at what you have in the bin.
  2. Pick the mode that matches what you are working on.
  3. Clip each piece you want, one at a time.
  4. Combine them, or build them into a Composite if photographs and music are involved.
  5. Add captions or overlays.
  6. Convert or export to the format the destination wants.

Doing it in that order means you are only ever converting once, at the end, which is what keeps the quality. Every re-encode costs something. See What is actually inside a video file.