Dalet Flex Cut

Introduction

Dalet Flex Cut is the media editor for Dalet Flex. It is used to produce video, manage the audio output of the video, record voice-overs, and add images (png and jpg). Close captioning and CGs are not supported.

Opening Flex Cut

In Dalet Flex, click the app chooser icon and then, the Cut icon

Flex Cut will open in a new browser tab.

Flex Cut will start in your ClipBin section of its media browser.

The Interface Components

The initial view of Cut consists of a media browser, a preview, the timeline and a sidebar hosting panels for transitions, effects, audio, and the VU meter.

If you double-click a media asset in the media browser, the asset will open in the Trimmer. You can modify the clip in/out points and send both video and audio or either of the two to the timeline.

To close the Trimmer, returning to the media browser, click the "x" icon on the top right of the Trimmer.

On the timeline, you move the playhead by clicking at the desired position or dragging the slider point along.

The timeline indicates segments, active segments, selections, applied effects, and other relevant information, such as play speed and timecode.

Adding Clips to Timeline

Media has to be present in the Flex media browser. You cannot directly upload media into Flex Cut.

From Media browser

Drag and drop an asset from the browser to the timeline, or click its "+" icon.

From Trimmer/Trimmer

Double clicking an asset in the Media browser , or clicking its film icon will open it in Trimmer.

The trimmer will open the original clip.

In order to make a selection:

• click at the desired position on the timeline or
• drag the slider and click the "[", "]" icons to set a new In and Out point of a clip
  • or use the keyboard shortcuts I and O),
• the selected part is indicated by the blue color on the progress bar.

Icon	Function
	back one Frame, go to beginning, Play, go to end, forward one frame
	play clip from In to Out in loop
	set In marker
	set Out marker

Once a selection is made, send its video, audio or both, to the timeline using the dedicated icons or shortcuts:

• AV=Audio and Video;
• V=Video only;
• A=Audio only;
• AV=Send Audio/Video into the active selection in the timeline. To create a selection first, read Making and Using a selection in the timeline.

Beginning a New Project

Indeed, Flex Cut opens an empty timeline and you can dive right into your default project.

To make sure that you have the correct audio tracks layout, or to discard what you have done so far, click the new project icon above the timeline:

If your timeline contains media, you are prompted to save or lose it.

A window will prompt you for the qualities of your new project, and you set the project  audio channels and the VO recording tracks to either mono or stereo layout.

Click OK when done.

Timeline Editing

Editor Modes

The Timeline editor offers two modes: Storyboard and Advanced.

The storyboard mode is used for quick, simple edits. It has on track for both video and audio, and will always snap clips together.

The advanced mode is for complicated projects, allowing track management for multiple video tracks, gaps between clips and other advanced functions.

To switch to the advanced timeline, click the editor icon. 

Navigating the Timeline

The playhead determines the position of the video in the preview window

• click at the desired position on the timeline or
• click at the desired position on the preview's timeline

Icon	Function
	back one Frame, go to beginning, Play, go to end, forward one frame
	play clip from In to Out in loop
	set In marker
	set Out marker
	set the visual ratio. It has no effect on the media rendering process.
	Click RT/TC to switch between real time and time code. Type in a single value and press enter, the playhead will jump to that position. If you type in only or eventually the frame value the playhead will jump automatically.

Making and Using a Selection in the Timeline

Hold the the right mouse button while you drag the mouse where you want a selection to be. The selection area will be light-blue.

Via the contextual menu, selections can be cut, copy/pasted (when positioning the playhead at a different location), deleted or split (which will create a new segment with In and Out points).

Sending Clip from Trimmer into Selection

As mentioned before, you can make a selection and then fill in the clip of the trimmer into that selection.

Splitting a Selection into a Segment

Effects are applied to segments, and not to selections. You can turn an active selection into a segment, by selecting Split range from the contextual menu, given that you made the selection on an active segment.

Making and Using Segements

Segments have their own In and Out point handlers, and carry a blue frame if active. Audio and video will be initially grouped together. 

Content sent from Trimmer or from the Media browser will be segments in the timeline. Splitting an active segment via a selection in two segments is also possible.

Grouping/Ungrouping

You can use the control key, while you click several segments, to group/ungroup them, via the contextual menu. 

Transitions

Use the right hand side Transition button to open the transition menu, then drag and drop a transition on a cut between two segments.

Drag the edges of the transition to edit its duration, or right-click on it and modify transition to set an exact numerical value.

Effects

Use the fx  button on the right of the GUI to open the effects panel. Select a clip on the timeline, enable that effect on the clip using the  Enable  slider and use the effects handles to adjust the effect parameters for that clip.

Effects can be applied to one video segment only (and not to grouped video segments).

Some effects can be controlled directly from the  Preview panel. Mark the effect type, double-click the preview window. Applicable handlers will appear, use those to make modifications. The sliders/values in the effect pane will update accordingly.

To disable an effect, switch its slider to "off". If you switch it later back on, the effekt settings will be enabled as you originally set them.

To change the effect values on a segment, click its fx-icon. The effect panel with the relevant settings will activate, ready to be changed.

Timeline Edting Icons

Icon	Function
	new project
	add video or audio track
	snap mode. When active (always in simple timeline)  a segment will snap to its neighbour when released or when added to the timeline, in a certain distance.
	undo/redo
	cut clip
	delete active segment(s)
	non-ripple/ripple mode: when this icon is active, all inserted media will push and not overwrite (non-ripple) the underlying existing content.
	Simple/advanced timeline switch

Timeline Tracks and Icons

In the advanced timeline you can have up to four video tracks and up to eight audio tracks plus one voice over track.

Icon	Function
	Video and Audio track in simple timeline
	Video track in advanced timeline
	Audio track in advanced timeline
	Voice over track
	active voice recording
	show/hide video
	Audio stereo/left/right
	mute/unmute

The height of of a track can be changed by pulling the lower seperator line up or down, actually slightly above it, when the icon changes into the up/down arrow.

Audio

Audio in Flex Cut appears on the timeline tracks as mono or stereo waveforms, depending on the project layout.

You can edit the volume envelope to create gradual changed in the audio level of a clip.

This is how you create Fade Ins and Fade Outs or restore default settings. Right-click on a spot on the envelope line to open the context menu.

You can add point by holding the command key (Mac) or the ALt key (Windows) while clicking at the desired point on the line. Then you can move the point up and down.

By only clicking/holding the line you can move it up/down in its entirety.

Audio levels can also be controlled in the same manner as effects.

Select a Clip on the Storyboard timeline, or an audio clip on the Advanced timeline. Note that both audio tracks and VO track contain audio.

Click on the Audio button on the left-hand side. This will open the Audio effects menu.

VoiceOver Recording (VO)

Record Voiceover audio in both Storyboard and Advanced modes use the dedicated VO track at the bottom of the timeline.

Position the playhead where you would like to begin a recording (or move the segment later). Click the microphone icon of the voice over track.

On first use, or after the web browser's cache has been emptied, you have to allow the use of the microphone. Once this is done and in the future, the recording will start immediately.

While recording, the icon is red and you can see the VO waveform as it is created on the timeline during the recording.

Mono or stereo VO is determined by the project setting. For a stereo channel you can set the left or right channel clicking the sound channel icon stste:

Clicking the red microphone icon again, or the stop button of the preview window, will end the recording.

Save

Use the Save and Export buttons to save a project as an EDL or to render it as a video file.

Save will save an EDL, this is useful when working on an ongoing project.

Export will render the timeline as a new media file. 

Currently there is no option to export (render) directly from flex Cut. User can only save an edit asset (project) and then run "conform" from flex platform to render it as video asset.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Flex Cut has a variety of keyboard shortcuts, for a quick and efficient editing experience.

General / Preview / Selection

Trimmer

Timeline (Storyboard / Advanced)