Sync Video and Audio Files in Recut

If you record with a camera and external mic then you probably need to sync them up before you edit. Here's how to sync up your audio and video in Recut.

Get Your Files

First you'll need all of the files for your project ready at hand. For this example I have 2 files: a video I recorded on a Sony a6400 (with its built-in audio) and an audio .wav file that I recorded with Audacity on my Mac.

Import the Files Into Recut

Drag the files into Recut's timeline, or open them by clicking on the big circle with the arrow, or use File > Open.

I suggest adding the video file first, to set the timeline's frame rate, and then adding the audio next.

Sync the Files in Recut

Recut can't yet sync automatically - but that feature is on the roadmap! For now we can just align them by eye, and by ear.

Recut has 2 modes, Segments and Clips. In Segments mode you can click on the silent and audible parts, but you can't move the actual clips around. So click the Segments/Clips button to toggle it into Clips mode, and then drag the files until they line up.

You can also use the < and > keys to nudge the selected clip by a single frame.

Once it looks good, listen back to make sure it sounds good. Drag the playhead to where there's some audio and press Play and listen back. Nudge the clips if you need to until it sounds right.

And that's pretty much it!

Ignore Unused Tracks

Recut can be told to "ignore" the silent parts on audio tracks you don't intend to use, or ones that shouldn't be used for cutting. You can do this by clicking the 🚫 button at the left side of a track.

In the case of a camera + external mic, you'll probably want to Ignore the camera's audio track.

If you're recording a game stream, with lots of audio tracks coming out of OBS or something like that, then you might only want to make cut decisions based on your voice and not on the game audio or background music. If so, you'll want to Ignore those tracks.

Change the ANY/ALL Setting for Interviews

When you have multiple tracks with audio that's not ignored, Recut has to decide what to do when the silence is all combined. Should it cut the places where any one of the tracks is silent? Or should it only cut when they're all silent at the same time?

You can change what it does here by clicking the ANY/ALL button, under the Silence tab, down at the bottom where it says "Cut where ANY/ALL tracks are silent".

This setting probably won't matter much if you're doing talking-head videos with a camera + external mic, but it could be important when you're cutting an interview or a game stream, depending on how you want the cuts to be done.