Curator Tools
Overview
Section titled “Overview”Generate gets you a complete edit in one pass. Curator is how you fix the three or four moments that aren’t right, without throwing away the twenty that are.
Every tool here works on the timeline after Generate Timeline has run, and none of them require a re-generate. The change applies immediately and the rest of the edit is untouched.
Per-clip tools
Section titled “Per-clip tools”Right-click any clip block on the timeline:
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
| ▶ Play Clip | Jumps the preview player to that clip |
| 🎵 Play with the Song (Space) | Plays the clip in place in the edit, with the music. See Play with the song |
| 🔄 Swap Clip | Opens a popover of visually similar alternatives, with thumbnails. Pick one and it takes that slot, locked |
| 🎲 Re-roll This Clip | Skips the picking and drops in the best alternative automatically |
| 📥 Fill from Library… | Selects the slot and takes you to the library search. Find the clip you want, then right-click it and choose 📍 Place in Slot, or drag it onto the slot |
| 🎯 Pick In-Point from Source… | Opens the clip’s video so you can find the exact moment you want. Use This Moment makes that frame the first frame of the slot |
| ⬅ Slip -1 Frame / Slip +1 Frame ➡ | Nudges which part of the source clip is used, one frame at a time, without moving the cut |
| 🔒 Lock Clip (Pin) / 🔓 Unlock Clip | Protects the clip from being replaced by a re-roll, or lets it be re-rolled again |
| 🗑 Discard Clip | Puts the closest other clip in its place, with the same timing, and keeps the discarded one out of this project from then on |
| ✂ Split Here, on the Beat (K), ⇥ Merge with Next Clip (J), ◀ Move End Cut a Beat Earlier ([), Move End Cut a Beat Later (]) ▶ | Edit the cuts themselves. See Cut editing on the beat |
| ✨ Effects and Cut Into This Clip | The clip’s beat effects and the transition into it. See Effects for each clip |
| 🔊 Clip Sound | Whether the clip plays its own sound. See Sound for each clip |
| ▶ Preview with Effects (E) | Renders a few seconds around the clip with all its effects and plays them |
| 📂 Open in Explorer | Opens the folder that holds the clip’s video |
With several clips selected (see Move a run of clips), ✨ Effects, Cut Into This Clip and 🔊 Clip Sound apply to all of them at once.
Swap vs Re-roll
Section titled “Swap vs Re-roll”Both replace one clip. The difference is who chooses:
- Swap shows you the candidates and lets you pick. Use it when you have an opinion about what should be there.
- Re-roll picks for you. Use it when you just know the current clip is wrong.
A clip you choose yourself (swapped in, dragged or placed from the library, moved, or with its in-point set by hand) is locked straight away, so 🔄 RE-ROLL and generating the timeline again keep it. Unlock it if you want it re-rolled. A clip dropped in by 🎲 Re-roll This Clip stays unlocked.
What Slip is for
Section titled “What Slip is for”Slip is the tool people miss. When a clip is right but its timing inside the source is slightly off - you catch the end of a movement instead of the whole thing - slipping shifts the in and out points together while the clip keeps its exact position and length on the timeline. Beat sync is preserved, because the cut hasn’t moved.
Drag and drop
Section titled “Drag and drop”- From the library onto the timeline. Drag a clip from the library onto any slot. It takes that slot’s place, locked, with the same timing, the same as 📍 Place in Slot. The slot under the pointer lights up as you drag, and the timeline scrolls when you hold the clip near either end. Clicking a clip in the library still previews it.
- Swap two clips. Drag a clip on the timeline onto another. The two trade places and each spot keeps its timing, so every cut stays on the beat. Each clip gets a new start point that fits its new spot, and both are locked. If a clip is too short for the other spot, the two stay where they are.
- Move several clips, see Move a run of clips.
- Move a cut: drag the edge between two clips, see Cut editing on the beat.
Undo puts back anything you dragged.
Move a run of clips
Section titled “Move a run of clips”Shift-click to select several clips in a row (or press Shift+←/→), then drag them anywhere on the timeline:
- They move together, the clips in between shift over, and every cut stays on the beat.
- Locked clips stay where they are and the rest flow around them.
- The clips you moved are locked, so Re-roll keeps them.
- If a clip can’t fill its new spot, nothing moves and the console says which one.
A click inside the selection selects just that clip.
Review from the keyboard
Section titled “Review from the keyboard”Click a clip (or press →) to select it, then:
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
| ← / → | Previous / next clip. The timeline scrolls to follow |
| Shift+← / Shift+→ | Select a range of clips |
| Home / End | First / last clip |
| Space | Play the selected clip with the song |
| E | Preview the selected clip with its effects |
| R | Re-roll the selected clip |
| L | Lock or unlock it |
| S | Open Swap for it |
| Delete | Discard it |
| K / J | Split it on a beat / join it with the next clip |
| [ / ] | Move its end cut a beat earlier / later. With Shift, a whole bar |
| Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y | Undo / redo a timeline change |
| Double-click a clip | Search for another clip for that spot |
| Ctrl + mouse wheel | Zoom the timeline |
The keys work in the main window whenever it shows a timeline, except while you’re typing in a text box. Help > Keyboard shortcuts lists them all.
Play with the song
Section titled “Play with the song”- Space (or right-click a clip and choose 🎵 Play with the Song) plays the selected clip in place in the edit, from 2 seconds before it to 2 seconds after, with the music, straight away and without rendering. The player opens above the timeline and leaves the keyboard with Onset Engine, so you can keep moving through the edit with ←/→ while it plays.
- Click the waveform under the timeline to play the edit from that point to the end, with the song. Click again anywhere to jump.
- E (or right-click > ▶ Preview with Effects) renders a few seconds around the selected clip with all its effects, and the cut into it, and plays them straight away. Space, the waveform and ▶ Preview edit show the clips without the style’s effects, so E is the way to see them before the final render.
Space, the waveform and ▶ Preview edit play the clips’ own sound as the video will (see Sound for each clip).
The waveform
Section titled “The waveform”The waveform under the clips is the song your edit plays over, lined up with the clips above it:
- Faint lines are the beats, the same beats your cuts land on. Stronger lines mark the bars.
- Shaded bands are the song’s sections. Louder sections are shaded more strongly, as they get faster cutting, and the intro and outro are named.
- The red line is the drop.
Hover the waveform for a key. With a Song span set, it shows the stretch of the song your edit plays over.
Repeats
Section titled “Repeats”A clip that shows a shot already seen earlier in the edit, or cuts back into the video just shown a moment before (a jump cut), gets a 🔁 and an amber strip. Hover it to see which clip it repeats.
While the edit has repeats, 🔁 Fix N repeats appears in the timeline header. One click re-rolls them all, with clips that aren’t in the edit yet and don’t repeat anything themselves, and Undo puts them back. What each click did shows in the status bar.
A repeat you locked stays as it is, and isn’t in the button’s count. Its 🔁 says so, with how to unlock it (L) if you want it re-rolled too.
Cut editing on the beat
Section titled “Cut editing on the beat”Change where the cuts fall, not just which clips play:
- Split a clip on a beat: K splits the selected clip on the beat nearest its middle, and right-click > ✂ Split Here, on the Beat splits it on the beat nearest where you clicked. The new half gets a fitting clip from your library straight away.
- Join a clip with the next one (J, or ⇥ Merge with Next Clip).
- Move a cut a beat earlier or later: [ and ] move the selected clip’s end cut, and with Shift they move it a whole bar.
- Drag the edge between two clips. The pointer turns into a double arrow over an edge you can drag, and the cut snaps to the nearest beat.
Cuts always land on the song’s beats, the same ones the edit was made on, and every clip stays at least one beat long. Clips you edit are locked, so Re-roll keeps them, and Undo steps back through every change. Zoomed out, a click on a clip only a few pixels wide still selects it.
Effects for each clip
Section titled “Effects for each clip”Right-click a clip and choose ✨ Effects:
- Calm: no beat effects turns off the style’s beat effects for just that clip (the pulses, punches, flashes and glitches), keeping its look. It’s marked 🌙 on the timeline. Styles with no beat effects show it grayed out.
- Auto (the style’s) gives the clip the style’s effects again.
Cut Into This Clip (on every clip after the first) sets the transition into it: Plain cut (marked ▮), White flash (marked ⚡), or Auto (the style’s).
Select several clips to set them all at once. Clips you set are locked, so Re-roll keeps them. Press E to see the result.
Sound for each clip
Section titled “Sound for each clip”Right-click a clip and choose 🔊 Clip Sound:
| Choice | What the clip plays |
|---|---|
| Sound on (🔊) | Its own sound, whatever Mix Original Audio is set to |
| Sound off (🔇) | No sound of its own |
| Auto | Follows Mix Original Audio (the menu says whether it’s on or off) |
When clips play their own sound, the music plays at full level and eases down under them, then back up after, so a single moment can speak while the song carries the rest.
- A selected run of clips takes the choice all at once.
- Clips you set are locked, so Re-roll keeps them.
- The choice travels with the clip when you swap or move it.
- Space, clicking the waveform and ▶ Preview edit play the clips’ sound as the video will, and the 📦 Premiere / Resolve export switches each clip’s sound on the same way.
Song span
Section titled “Song span”✂ Song span in the timeline header chooses where in the song your video starts and ends. It shows the whole song with its bars, sections and drop:
- Drag the start and end handles. They snap to bar lines.
- Click anywhere else on the song to hear it from there.
- Apply makes the timeline for that stretch, keeping the clips you locked that are still inside it. Whole song puts the handles back at the start and end of the song.
With a span set, the button reads ✂ Song span •.
- Length counts from your chosen start. Whichever you set last, the end handle or a Length, decides where the video ends.
- Build to the drop and Step up to the drop build across your span.
- The waveform under the timeline shows the stretch of the song your edit plays over.
A song span is for one song: with several songs or rounds in Audio Input, the edit uses the whole songs.
Whole-timeline tools
Section titled “Whole-timeline tools”In the timeline header:
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| 🔄 RE-ROLL | Re-picks every clip that isn’t locked. A confirmation tells you how many will change and how many locked clips are being kept |
| 🔁 Fix N repeats | Re-rolls every clip marked 🔁 that isn’t locked. Shown only while the edit has repeats. See Repeats |
| ✂ Song span | Chooses where in the song the video starts and ends. See Song span |
| 🔒 Lock All / 🔓 Unlock All | Lock or unlock every clip at once |
| Undo / Redo | Step back through your timeline edits (swaps, drags and moves, discards, places, re-rolls, Fix repeats, slips, locks, fills, cut edits, effects and clip sound) and forward again. Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Y, and Edit > Undo timeline change and Redo timeline change, do the same |
| ▶ Preview edit | Makes a draft of the timeline as it is now, with your swaps and edits, and plays it. Nothing is picked again. On the Demo it is the first minute with every effect; only the parts you changed are rendered again |
| 📦 Premiere / Resolve | Exports the timeline, with the song, for Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve or Kdenlive (Studio; shown with a 🔒 on the Demo and Core). See Finish the edit in another editor |
| 📂 LOAD DJ SESSION | Shows a saved DJ session on the timeline, with 🎬 Render this session to make it a video |
| 🚫 BLOCKED | Review and restore clips you’ve blocked: ones blocked in the library and ones discarded from this project |
Esc closes any dialog, the same as its ×.
Finish the edit in another editor
Section titled “Finish the edit in another editor”📦 Premiere / Resolve (Studio) saves the timeline in your project’s folder, and opens the folder. It saves two files:
| Editor | File | How to open it |
|---|---|---|
| Premiere Pro | project.xml | File > Import, choose project.xml. It opens as a new sequence |
| DaVinci Resolve | project.xml | File > Import > Timeline, choose project.xml |
| Kdenlive 25.04 or later, and other editors that open OpenTimelineIO | project.otio | Kdenlive: in the File menu, OpenTimelineIO import |
The timeline has:
- Your clips on the first video track, cut exactly where Onset Engine cuts them. Each clip links to its original video, so you can trim it longer or shorter in your editor.
- The song on the first audio track, from the same point in the song as your video. A playlist or rounds come in as one mixed track.
- Each clip’s own sound on the second audio track (in
project.xml), switched on for the clips that play their sound in your video (with Mix Original Audio on, or 🔊 Clip Sound set to Sound on) and off for the rest. Turn clips on where you want their sound.project.otiohas the clips and the song only. - Markers where each round and break starts, when the edit has rounds.
Effects, transitions, the title card and the intro and outro stay in Onset Engine: render the video for those.
Editors find the videos where they are on your computer. If you move or rename them after exporting, your editor shows them as offline, and you can point it to the new location.
The lock-and-re-roll workflow
Section titled “The lock-and-re-roll workflow”This is the loop that makes Curator worth using:
- Generate a timeline.
- Watch it through (→ and Space step through it clip by clip, with the song), and lock every clip that works (L).
- Hit 🔄 RE-ROLL. Only the unlocked slots change.
- Repeat.
Each pass keeps everything you’ve approved and re-rolls the rest, so the edit converges instead of shuffling. Clips you lock, swap in or edit go back on the very same beat, and the clips around them stay on the music. It’s much faster than regenerating and hoping for a better overall draw - and much faster than swapping every weak clip by hand.