Greetings. I am completely new to video editing but I have background in music production. In DAWs like Ableton, BItwig or Logic we have a feature that is usually called "comping" or "takes". It gives us an ability to choose the best parts of vocal or guitar takes and combine them into one "master take" very fast. Basically we can just select different phrases from different tracks and get a flawlessly performed chorus or guitar solo without manual chopping or rearranging individual tracks.

Is there anything like this in video editing software? Like if I shoot a music video 5 times in the same location and then want to combine the best parts of each take into one final video. I plan to use DaVinci Resolve but will gladly consider other options if those programs have that feature

 

In Resolve, there's the Take Selector function, which is made for that scenario. You could also do a Multicam edit, where instead of multiple camera's, you use multiple takes. That'll get you to see multiple takes in one view.

 

Wow, that's great. Although I see that we still have to chop clips using the blade tool (versus just selecting specific areas of each take in DAWs). Basically DAWs allow us to adaptively slice the parts inside the take selector and "raise" the needed part up to master take + they adjust cutting points automatically. Whereas here we have to slice the master clip beforehand and then select takes/angles in each of that parts.

Anyway, I will definitely dig deeper and try both of them to see which one works best. So far I'm having more success with the Multicam mode. I wish I knew about automatic alignment by waveform when I was shooting. I would've clapped at the beginning of each take
Thank you so much!

 

I have one more question. Probably I shouldn't create a separate topic for that

I realized that my PC can't handle more than 2 takes in multicam mode. So I'm going to use multiple projects to go through everything.
But I don't want to transcode every time upon rendering. I discovered a feature that is called "Bypass Re-Encode When Possible" but it doesn't seem to work with my footage from GoPro 11 (MP4, H.265, 4k/120fps/10 bit). Any ideas how to feed the exact video settings to Resolve so that it recognizes the codec and doesn't transcode when doing rendering?

 

The solution is to work with Proxies - lower res files you only use to edit, when rendering the system uses the full resolution file.
Also, H264/5 codecs are very processor heavy, for editing you'd want to transcode your footage to an intra codec
such as Pro Res Proxy or DNxHD. When your edit is finished, transcode back to a playout format such as H264.

I really like Chadwicks' channel, my other go to tutorial channels on Resolve are
https://www.youtube.com/@MrAlexTech
https://www.youtube.com/@JasonYadlovski

 

That is a game changer! Quarter resolution + DNxHR LB as proxy works wonders. I thought I needed a completely new computer, but now I can get away with just an extra SSD.
I still wish "Bypass Re-Encode When Possible" worked as intended. Because even if I choose H.265 and try to Export completely unedited H.265 video from timeline, it still renders frame by frame as if I applied some effects. In youtube tutorials Resolve only renders edited parts and skips the untouched ones (basically copy-pasting those chunks instantly from the source to the exported file). So I guess it might be doing unnecessary compression even by rendering H.265 to H.265

Thank you again for helping out! I will check out those two channels too

 

Generally, in order for "bypass recode" to work, the edited material must;

#1 - be cut's only (no fades, dissolves, slides, or anything that has to be rendered frame by frame, etc..) this goes for audio as well

#2 - the input video spec's being fed to the encoder must match exactly to the video spec's expected at the output. Any ever so slight deviations spec-wise will cause the encoder to do a complete re-code of the input material.

 

In past I used Mpeg Video Wizard, it was the only software that allowed to recode only the changed parts, visible with red bars within a blue bar (encoding passthrough).
However it's pretty old, its gui was not great and it required to disable aero features.

 

#1 - Yeah, that's what I'm trying to do. Just pure videos from GoPro cut with the blade tool - that's it. I even tried it without cutting at all. So the issue is with #2

#2 - I totally get it. But I can't find a way to feed the encoder the exact same settings which my GoPro files possess.
I've exported those to a text file using MediaInfo tool and attached here if anyone wants to take a look.

There's a "H.265 Master" preset in render settings of Resolve and I guess I can just modify that one. But I can't figure out which settings are not the same. It would be helpful if those parameters that don't match were highlighted or something

 

So you mean ditching Resolve and using that program instead, right? I see that the latest version is from 2015 - not that old
But I doubt it has multicam mode so I will only be able to cut and export each file separately.
I may actually end up with it as a last resort. Just doing the rough multicam editing in Resolve as a draft and then making the same cuts file by file in that Video Wizard

 

HEVC and Resolve don't always play well together. Are you using the free Resolve or payed Studio version? I'm reading Free supports up to 60 fps, noticed your GoPro footage is 120 fps.
If on Windows, some older info suggests to buy a 0.99 cents HEVC codec from Microsoft, or set the GoPro to H264, but it can only do FulHD @ 120 fps.

https://forum.blackmagicdesign.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=125483

 

I am using a full version of Resolve and I don't have any problems with footage like the guys in that video or Blackmagic forum. HEVC (H.265) in 120fps is perfectly working and the program lets me export in that format too. The only problem is that it takes H.265 source files and re-encodes those to H.265 again upon export, which I don't think is a good thing for quality. I asked another guy on Youtube and he told me that "Bypass Re-Encoding" is only working properly on a few codecs. And GoPro version of H.265 doesn't seem to be the one of those.

So I almost accepted the fact the re-encoding is inevitable. Now the question is - what settings should I use so that re-encoding does as little harm as possible? I see "Uncompressed" option in Quicktime and AVI formats. But that would probably be an overkill in terms of file size

 

I have used VideoReDo for cuts only stuff (recorded TV shows mostly where you're simply cutting up already encoded source material) - they're up to version 6 now or something. It's just a simple cuts-only app that will not re-code if the input specs match the output. I usually input H.264 captured video in a .TS format (transport stream container) and output the same (edited) H.264 video to a .MKV container without re-coding.

It might be that the raw GoPro video has some sort of non-standard spec that the encoder of your app cannot duplicate or doesn't understand.

 

Thanks. I'll give it a shot. Interesting that smaller indie programs can do such obvious things and popular "giants" have a hard time with it

Yeah. I didn't expect to hit this kind of roadblocks with GoPro footage. I thought it's the most popular action camera in the world and all apps should support it without re-encoding. Coming from audio world it feels quite weird. Like if I'm importing a loseless file to my DAW and the only way to export it after chopping is MP3. I'm exaggerating of course, but you've got the point

 

Yeahp... Format formats formats. We're all drowning in them. It might be worth a shot maybe setting your GoPro to output to a H.264 format and see if Resolve has a better time with it? As plain-jane H.264 as you can get.

There's also the MediaInfo app that if you run it against the GoPro video files (H.264 or HEVC both) it will tell you what actual video specs you're getting from the GoPro. You can then stare and compare to what Resolve is expecting.

 

You beat me on time!
I use it to find bitrates of video courses/tutorials that have useless 1000+Mb rate for mostly static images!
I shrinked all to 500kb leaving original resolution, nothing changed in clarity of information, and the compare feature in VidCoder for completed clips helps tremendously.
BTW MediaInfo works also for recursive folders from context menu.

I used it too to cut/merge clips from extracted DVDs, but now I mostly use LosslesCut.

 

Yes, I actually used Mediainfo to generate the txt file I've posted few messages above. I'll attach it again just in case. If only Resolve was able to somehow import and recognize it as a preset... Dreams...

As for H.264 - GoPro 11 doesn't let me choose it anymore. And I've already captured a lot using H.265 anyway, so doing it again is not an option

Maybe I'm overthinking and re-encoding won't be that bad. I discovered that "Main10" encoding profile will keep 10 bit color. And I've set constant bitrate slightly higher than the source (just in case)

Although there are some Resolve parameters I don't quite understand (that are not specified in Mediainfo file)
1. "Encoder". I've got "Auto", "NVIDIA" and "Native". Seems like "NVIDIA" is the way to go, right?
2. "Key Frames" - should I choose "Automatic" and leave "Frame reordering" enabled? Or do I need to set a specific value?
3. "Rate Control". I guess I should leave it as "Constant". But there's also a "Constant QP" - is it better or worse?
4. "AQ Strength" - default is set to 8 in Resolve. But I have no idea if it's good or bad for the footage I have
5. "Enable non-reference P-frame" + "Enable weighted predictiion". Again, no idea if I need to tick the checkboxes or not

And there's a bunch of stuff in "Advanced settings" that I'm not touching (in the screenshot). But maybe I should?

 

When I'm exporting with those settings and comparing two Mediainfo files (source and rendered), I get this:

- Codec ID changes from "mp41 (mp41)" to "isom (isom/iso2/mp41)"
- A new parameter appears in rendered file: "Scan type: Progressive". That was not present at all in the original one

Everything else seems to stay pretty much the same

 

Like I said before, H264/5, and other codecs like AVCHD are playout (& capturing) codecs. Not meant to edit with.
To understand why, read this page:
https://www.richardlackey.com/avc-hevc-transcode-davinci-resolve/
(seems a bit malformed, you'd want to scroll down, read under: "AVC / H.264 / HEVC and DaVinci Resolve | Why You Need to Transcode")

This is the main reason why Resolve and HEVC don't play well. In stead, Pro Res & DNxHD codecs really do. The downside is: they produce huge files, but nowadays disk space isn't that expensive anymore. Plus, it takes a while to transcode, but you'll re-gain that time when editing!
When trancoding to these formats, you don't need to bother about keyframes, p, i, frame ordering & all that stuff.
There are just a couple of flavors for these codecs. The higher the bitrate, the bigger the file, and the highest number preserves all colordata, but I suppose GoPro camera's don't need to be treated like Arri Alexa or Red Ranger camera systems..

 

Very useful article. Thank you! Initially I thought you were talking about using Pro Res or DNxHD only with proxies, but now you make it clear that you would actually use those for rendering a final product

The article says: "4K - Avid DNxHR HQX – for source media of 8 or 10-bit color depth, 4:2:2 or 4:2:0". That's what I have
I tried it on a 133 Mb source and it renders as a 3.8 Gb file. So my 3 Gb source will end up being around 86 Gb
It upscales from 120 Mb/s to 3492 Mb/s.
Technically Youtube will accept 86 Gb file. But seems like an overkill to me. So I don't mind learning the correct settings for the Key Frames, p, i, AQ and everything I've mentioned above for H.265

And I also stumbled upon this: https://prnt.sc/rjRSCkD1yvfc
So no matter the codec, youtube will transcode everything to VP9 in the end...