Cut a Montage to the Beat of a Song on the Timeline

A montage feels tight when its cuts fall on the beat. Three things make beat editing a repeatable routine in DepCut: the soundtrack shows its waveform, clip edges snap to the playhead, and one gap command moves only the picture.

Lay down the pieces

1. Create a project and choose an aspect ratio in the Aspect ratio tab of the left panel.
2. Open Media, press Upload and add your clips. Each video lands at the end of the main track.
3. Put the playhead at the start. Upload your song with the same button, and it lands on the soundtrack at the playhead. Or open AI Gen, choose Audio, then Music, pick a chip such as Upbeat in the Sample library, and press the plus on a card.
4. Leave the Split and drop buttons and the Delete key alone on main-track clips from here on. Removing a main-track clip also removes the same stretch of the song and pulls the rest earlier, which moves your beats. The routine below keeps the song fixed.

Read the beats

1. Press Space and listen once through. Tall peaks in the soundtrack's waveform mark the hits.
2. Press Esc to stop and clear the selection.
3. Press Fit in the timeline toolbar to see the whole song, then use the Zoom slider next to it to open up the stretch you are working on.

Cut on the peaks

Work from left to right so every cut you have already set stays on its beat.

1. Click the ruler above the first peak where a shot should end. Press the Left arrow or Right arrow to nudge the playhead one frame at a time.
2. Find the clip that should end on that beat and drag its right edge toward the playhead. The edge snaps to the playhead, and a guide line shows the snap.
3. Pulling an edge in leaves a gap. Right-click the gap on the main track and choose Remove empty space. Only the picture row moves, so the song and every title stay where they are.
4. Pushing an edge out slides the clips after it to the right. A clip can only grow as far as its own footage runs, so pick a longer clip when a beat gap is wide.
5. Move to the next peak and the next clip, and repeat.

Accent the big hit

1. Park the playhead on the strongest peak.
2. Open Effects in the left panel, stay on Moving and drag Flash onto the clip that starts there. A new effect covers the whole clip it lands on.
3. Drag the effect's right edge back until it lasts a fraction of a second.

Finish the ending

1. Click the song, park the playhead where the last clip ends and press Split and drop the right side. A song that outlasts the picture stretches the export.
2. Click the song again, open Fade out in the right panel and drag the slider so it tapers.
3. Press Back to start, then Space, and watch. If a cut feels early or late, press Ctrl+Z or Cmd+Z and drag that edge again.
4. Press Export, choose a preset and press Export video.

Keep the routine

The same four moves handle a song of any length: park, drag, close, repeat. Open DepCut and cut your first beat.