CutZal
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    • Layout, B-roll and sound effects

    Once the cuts are settled, you dress up the picture. Everything on this page shows up in the preview right away and is combined the same way when you export. You can undo each step.

    Layout

    If you imported a screen recording and a camera video together, you can decide how the two sit in one frame. With only one video source there's nothing to arrange, so this feature is off.

    Pick one of four layouts.

    • Cam PIP: the screen recording fills the frame and the camera floats small in a corner. It starts in the bottom right.
    • Split: the screen recording on the left and the camera on the right, side by side.
    • Full cam: only the camera fills the frame. Use it for parts where you talk to the camera.
    • Full screen: shows only the screen recording.

    Here's how to change it.

    1. Pick the part to change. If you select a timeline block or a transcript line, the change applies only there. If nothing is selected, it applies to the whole video.
    2. Open the layout field in the Properties tab. Click the camera or the screen in the viewer, or choose Change layout from the right-click menu of a final timeline block. Layout in the timeline toolbar opens the same field.
    3. Click the layout you want.

    When the camera floats as a small picture (Cam PIP), you can drag it around in the viewer. Drop it near a corner, the middle of an edge or the center of the frame and it snaps into place. Click the camera to select it, then press the arrow keys to move it 1% at a time (5% with ⇧), and = or - to make it bigger or smaller. Drag it roughly into place, then finish with the keyboard.

    In the Properties tab you can also set the camera's Position, Size, Corner radius, Aspect ratio and Flip horizontal, and the screen recording's Scale, Padding and Wallpaper. Whatever the layout, sound always comes from the main audio (a separately recorded mic or the main video's sound).

    If the camera box crops the video and your face sits off to one side, drag Horizontal or Vertical under Visible part in the Properties tab to move the picture inside the box. The picture moves the way you drag, as you see it, even with Flip horizontal on. Center puts it back in the middle. Preview and export match.

    Vertical screen recordings in a landscape video

    A video has one frame size from start to finish. Within it, you can mix a vertical screen recording (from a monitor turned upright) with a landscape camera without cropping either.

    • When a source's orientation differs from the video's, Full screen and Full cam show the whole source and fill the rest with the wallpaper (black if there's none). When the orientations match, they fill the frame as usual.
    • With a vertical screen recording in a landscape video, Split puts the camera on the left and the vertical screen on the right, side by side and fitted to the height.
    • The frame size starts out matching the screen recording. If you recorded on a vertical monitor and the video came out vertical, say something like "make the video landscape" in chat, or change it to landscape 1920×1080 with a canvas edit in cutzal apply. Layouts that the change would crop switch to showing the whole source, and a single undo brings back both the frame size and the layouts.

    B-roll: images and video clips

    You can lay images or videos (B-roll) that support what you're saying over the talking shots.

    1. In the Media tab, under B-roll, click Import to add files. You can also drag files straight onto the media panel or a timeline track.
    2. Drag the added B-roll onto a timeline track, or select it and click Place at playhead.
    3. A video starts at its own length and an image at 3 seconds. If you select a range on the timeline first, it's placed at that length.

    You can add videos (mp4, mov, m4v, mkv, webm) and still images (png, jpg, webp). Convert animated images to video before adding them.

    Timeline tracks follow Premiere: video tracks (V1, V2…) on top and audio tracks (A1, A2…) below. Higher video tracks appear in front. The tracks you imported first, such as the screen recording, camera and mic, have a link mark next to their number and follow the main cuts. Add B-roll tracks with Add track.

    Every track header has the same buttons. Lock a track with the padlock and its placement can't change. Locking a main track also blocks the main cuts. The eye button hides a video track, and a hidden track is left out of the export too. Audio tracks have a speaker (mute) and a headphones (solo) button. With solo on, you hear only that track, and mute takes priority over solo. Both carry over to the export, so if you export with A1 (voice) off, the export window warns you there's no speech. Hiding the screen recording leaves B-roll placed in the screen area where it is. Double-click a track name to rename it, and open a main track's source settings with Show properties in its right-click menu.

    Move B-roll tracks by dragging the header where you want them, or one step at a time with ⌥↑ and ⌥↓ or the right-click menu. Put one between the screen recording and the camera to keep the camera above the B-roll. Add track above in the right-click menu makes a new track right above that one. You can't reorder the main tracks among themselves (the camera always sits above the screen recording).

    Motion graphics share one motion track when they don't overlap in time, and a new track such as "Motion 2" appears only when they overlap. When they overlap, the one placed later shows on top. If the tracks have already piled up, choose Tidy motion tracks in a track header's right-click menu. The picture stays the same, the motion graphics that don't overlap move down onto fewer tracks, and ⌘Z undoes it in one step.

    Drag a placed clip to move it, and drag either end to change its length. , and . move it one frame at a time, just like cut boundaries.

    Double-click a clip to open Edit clip placement.

    • Placement: choose whether it shows only where the screen recording is (Screen area) or covers the whole frame (Full screen).
    • When the clip ends: Return to the screen below or Hold the last frame.
    • Time basis: with Follow the source speech, it stays with those words even when you change earlier cuts. With Fixed to the final position, it is placed by time in the final video. Cutting an earlier part pulls it back by the length you cut, and restoring cut speech pushes it later by the length you restore. A clip that covers the whole video shrinks and grows with it. If you restore speech inside a clip, images and text continue through it, while a video clip splits there and leaves the restored part empty.

    B-roll audio isn't used. B-roll always goes on without sound.

    Sound effects

    Sound effects go on the project's audio tracks and are mixed into the final video.

    1. In Manage tracks, click Audio track to make a track for sound effects.
    2. In the Media tab's Sound effect library, drag a sound effect onto the track or click Place at playhead. To add your own file straight to the project, click Sound effects.
    3. The starting volume is set automatically a little below your voice. Change a selected sound effect's Volume in the Properties tab, and mute the whole track with M.

    Sound effects move with the cuts. If the spot where a sound effect starts is cut, that sound effect drops out of the final video too. If the mix is too loud, you get a warning after the export finishes.

    Sound effect library

    The library is the CutZal/Sound Effects folder in your Music folder (CutZal Beta/Sound Effects for CutZal Beta). All your projects share it.

    • Add: adds your own audio file (30 seconds or shorter) to the library. It trims leading silence and evens out the volume before saving.
    • Create: write a description and create a sound effect with AI.
    • Open library folder: opens the folder in Finder.

    You can't add background music yet. Sound effects are limited to 30 seconds or shorter.

    Create sound effects with AI

    In the Create sound effects window, fill in Name, Description and Length (s). Describing the sound in English gives better results. The length can be anywhere from 0.5 to 22 seconds. If you don't know what to make, Fill with the starter palette fills in a set of commonly used sound effects.

    Creating costs money or credits, so each time you open the window it asks you to agree to the sound effect terms, and it only starts when you click the create button.

    • If you're signed in, it comes out of your CutZal sound effect credits (seconds left this month). If creation fails or the result is nearly silent, you get them back.
    • If you added a developer ElevenLabs key, it uses that key and doesn't use CutZal credits. You add the key the same way as in Transcription options.

    You can use the sound effects you create in your videos. You can't sell or distribute the sound effect files on their own.

    System audio and noise removal

    • System audio: if you recorded your computer's sound separately along with the screen recording, put system audio in the file name and import it together with the mic file. It's mixed into the final video below your voice, and you adjust it with Mix into the final video and System audio volume in the Properties tab.
    • Background noise removal: in the mic source's Properties, turn on Remove background noise and set the Strength. It runs on this Mac, so it costs nothing. Transcription and cut decisions use the original sound, and the export uses the processed sound.