Recordings and cut marks
A long show is easier to deliver in pieces: one file per match, per act, per speaker. Cut marks let you mark where those pieces begin while you are recording Program, with one key, and cut the recording into them afterwards. You can also mark a finished recording afterwards, while you watch it.
Mark while you record
In Show Settings, Controls, map a key or a Stream Deck button to Add a cut mark to the recording (see keyboard and Stream Deck). An automation rule can run it too.
Press it while Program is recording. A short notice under the toolbar says Cut mark 4 at 01:12:33. With nothing recording, no mark is taken, and the notice says so.
A mark is a place to cut, not a clip: two marks at 0:40:00 and 1:55:00 in a three-hour recording make three pieces:
the start to 0:40, 0:40 to 1:55, and 1:55 to the end. Each mark is saved beside the recording as you take it, in a
file with the same name ending in .cutmarks.json, so a crash loses none. Keep the two files together if you move
the recording.
The Recordings window
Choose Tools ▸ Recordings…. The window lists every Program recording in a folder, marked or not (the Show’s recording folder to start with; Choose Folder… opens any other), and the recording running now, at the top.
Choose a finished recording to play it. Under the picture, the timeline shows the whole recording: its pieces, each mark as a numbered red flag, and the playhead.
- Click or drag on the timeline to move the playhead.
- Drag a mark by its flag (the numbered tab at the top) to move it. Click a flag to go to that mark. A click anywhere below the flags moves the playhead, even right on a mark’s line.
- Add Mark marks the recording where the playhead is.
- Drag the bar under the player to make the picture taller or shorter. The window remembers it.
The recording running now is listed with its marks, and plays once it has stopped.
Keys
While the Recordings window is in front, these keys control the player:
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
| Space | Play or pause |
| J / K / L | Play backwards, pause, play forwards. Press J or L again to go faster |
| ← / → | Back or forward one second |
| ⇧← / ⇧→ | Back or forward one frame |
| M | Add a mark at the playhead |
| I / O | Set the In or the Out at the playhead |
| ⌥I / ⌥O | Clear the In or the Out |
They take priority over your own hotkeys on the same keys while the window is in front: a hotkey on M, for example, does nothing until you click back into the operator window. Every other hotkey works as usual.
Trimming the start and end
To leave out what comes before the show starts or after it ends, set an In and an Out: move the playhead and click Set In or Set Out (or press I or O), or drag the yellow handles along the bottom of the timeline. What is outside them is darkened, and the export leaves it out; a trimmed recording with no marks exports as one file. A mark outside the In and Out cuts nothing. Clear Trim, beside the recording’s length, goes back to the whole recording. The recording file itself is never changed: the In and Out are kept with the marks.
Sound
The player plays through your Mac’s default sound output. If your Show plays to the same output, a recording played during a show could be heard in it, so the player starts muted while you are streaming or recording, and mutes itself when you start. Click the speaker to hear it.
Moving and removing marks
Below the player, each piece is listed with the mark between each. For a mark pressed a little late, drag it on the
timeline, click −1 s or +1 s, or type a time (1:12:30, 72:30 or seconds, with a fraction if you like) and
press Return. A mark stays between the marks either side of it. The trash button removes a mark, after asking; the two
pieces either side of it become one. The recording itself is never changed.
Export the pieces
Choose a finished recording and click Export Pieces…, then the folder the pieces go to. Each piece is its own
file, named after the recording and numbered in order (… 01.mov, … 02.mov), and a name already taken there is
never overwritten. The pieces are copied, not encoded again, so exporting is quick and loses nothing; each starts on
the frame where its mark is. A recording still running can be exported once it stops, and a recording with no marks
and no trim has nothing to export.