Combine or merge multiple video and audio files in one clip

[AlexRVillalobos]

My functionality suggestion is that there is the possibility of combining several recordings (of camera, screen and screen region) in a single rendered video; also including the recorded audio.

Something like a rendering of videos and audios in a single video clip with sound.

There could be some templates, mosaic type, to easily locate the videos. It would be great if the community could contribute mosaic structures and enrich the collection of templates. Even adding some background or shading.

Thank you for listening to this crazy idea.

[wesbos]

I'd like to see the option of combining the audio with one of the video stream - usually I like to have my camera + mic audio as one

[martinlexow]

Just so I can better understand the use case: Would it make a substantial difference for you to be able to merge the individual files manually in an additional step after recording, or is it important that the recordings are combined directly into a single file?

[djpowers]

I found this issue via this Reddit thread, which I also agree with (and see you replied to).

I'd love to see this feature as well though. I could imagine less technical users loving the handy features and approachable interface of the app, but being confused when they don't end up with a single ready-to-share output file after recording.

To your question, I personally don't have much of a preference in terms of whether the compositing process is an additional step. Perhaps it could be a prompt once a recording is completed, or a "Merge Media" button when viewing in the Recordings Organizer. This could then let the user position a chosen camera feed in a specified corner, and maybe choose whether or not they want to discard the source files.

[pthieu]

@martinlexow my use case would be to combine a selected audio+video source directly into one file. I'd like to go from recording directly to editing as fast as possible. The additional merge step could mean extra wait time.

[sgarcia-dev]

@martinlexow I totally get where everyone’s coming from. It’s surprising there aren’t any simple Mac apps that can record both system and mic audio at the same time and save it as a single audio file. (I actually came from another Reddit thread) That’s such a handy feature for recording meetings, especially with AI transcription and summarization becoming so popular (it even got a shoutout in the M4 Mac keynote!). The only "alternative" seems to be the complex rabbit hole that is Blackhole and Loopback and using Quicktime, but both are super cumbersome and overkill for this use.

Would it help you a lot if you could merge the individual files manually after recording, or do you need the recordings to be combined into one file right away?

I could handle the extra step, but it’d be awesome if there was a global setting like [ ] output individual audio files that’s off by default. I bet most users don’t expect multiple audio files. This way, those who do want separate files can still get them!

If you absolutely want to offer it as an additional step, Cleanshot X does it in a pretty amazing UI that lets you individually modify microphone/system audio for balance. But honestly I understand this is probably a big ask and I merely mention it for inspiration in a future release (maybe even a paid feature).

Looking forward to when audio merging is added! It's the only killer feature I'm waiting to use this for meetings recording since merging audio files seems like too much of a hassle for me.

[martinlexow]

I’ve started implementing the merge function as promised — here’s a first preview! The new feature is located in the Recordings Organizer: it allows one video and one audio track to be merged. When possible, the tracks are synced automatically. This already works.

The challenge with PolyCapture is that, in theory, an unlimited number of video and audio sources can be recorded — I could also automate the process, but, for example, how should users control which three videos to merge with five audio recordings?

[sgarcia-dev]

That looks really solid for a preview @martinlexow. Thanks for working on this.

The challenge with PolyCapture is that, in theory, an unlimited number of video and audio sources can be recorded — I could also automate the process, but, for example, how should users control which three videos to merge with five audio recordings?

That sounds like a tough challenge. Maybe you could break this feature down into smaller milestones? They could even be different app releases:

• Merging one audio and one video source into a single file • Merging multiple audio sources with one video into a single file • Merging multiple video sources with multiple audio sources into one file

It seems like you’ve already nailed the first one, especially if you make users pick just one audio and one video source for now. Merging multiple audio sources seems like a straightforward next step since there aren’t too many factors involved, aside from maybe adjusting individual track volumes.

Merging multiple audio sources could get tricky, but we could start with a simple UI that lets users add as many video sources as they want to the "merge queue." They could also choose the "shape" and "position" of each video source. This way, users can customize the overlay order, size, and shape of each video stream however they like. If that’s too complicated, we could offer a few simple presets, like:

• 2-way presets: fullscreen + small floating (great for screen recording + webcam), 2-way split vertical + horizontal • 3-way presets: fullscreen + small floating right + small floating left, 3-way split vertical + horizontal • 4-way presets: etc...

Sure, this would limit users to those templates and only let them pick the template and switch the video source order, but that seems like a fair trade-off for what should be an easy-to-use app.

edit: reading my comment, my first idea for handling merging multiple video sources seems needlessly complex for you to implement haha. I think I'd just offer presets for 2-4 video files and call it a day. Which would be fair since most screen recording apps do that too (at most they offer you to increase the size of a single video relative to its preset, like how big your floating camera source is, etc).