Record Voiceover, Camera, and Screen

Click the record button in the Timeline playback controls, pick Voiceover, Camera, or Screen, and ChatCut captures straight into your project — no separate recording app needed. Recording doesn’t cost credits or require a paid plan; the capture-and-save path only needs your browser’s microphone/camera/screen permissions.

How do I record a voiceover directly onto the Timeline?

Use the split Record control in the playback controls directly below the preview:

1. Move the Timeline playhead to where the voiceover should begin.
2. Click the small chevron on the right side of the microphone-shaped Record control. Under Record, choose Voiceover.
3. In the same menu, open Microphone to choose an input device. Leave 3-second countdown checked if you want preparation time, or click it to turn the countdown off.
4. Click the left, microphone-shaped side of the Record control. ChatCut pauses Timeline playback and starts recording at the playhead.
5. Click the same control again when its tooltip reads Stop recording.

ChatCut saves the take to the project’s media library and automatically places it on the Timeline at the starting playhead position. It prefers the original audio track when there is room, then another available audio track, and creates a new one only when needed.

How do I record a voiceover and review it before adding it?

Use the audio-track menu when you want to listen before deciding what to keep:

1. In the Timeline, right-click the header of the destination audio track — for example, A1 or A2 — and choose Record voiceover.
2. In the Record voiceover dialog, choose the microphone and countdown setting, then click Start recording.
3. During the take, use Pause, Resume, or Stop. After stopping, use Listen back to review it.
4. Choose Add to timeline to place the take on the selected audio track at the playhead, Save to media to keep it only in the project’s media library, or Discard to delete the take.

This dialog is different from the quick Record control: it waits for your decision instead of placing the take on the Timeline immediately.

How do I choose a recording mode?

Click the chevron on the right side of the Record control to open Recording settings. Under Record, choose Voiceover (mic only), Camera (webcam + mic), or Screen. ChatCut remembers the last-used mode. You can change modes whenever recording is idle, but not during a take.

How do I pick my microphone or camera?

1. Click the chevron on the Record control to open Recording settings.
2. Open the Microphone or Camera submenu. Each lists your browser’s available input devices plus a “System default” option.
3. Select a device. ChatCut remembers your choice for next time; if that device later disappears (e.g., unplugged), recording falls back to your system default automatically.

What does the countdown option do?

Recording settings also has a “3-second countdown” toggle, on by default. When enabled, ChatCut counts down 3 seconds before capture actually starts, giving you time to get ready. Turn it off in the same dropdown if you’d rather capture start instantly.

How do I start and stop a take?

1. Click the left side of the Record control to start. The tooltip reads “Record voiceover,” “Record camera,” or “Record screen” depending on the selected mode.
2. For Camera, the first click only arms the recorder — it opens a floating preview and warms your camera and mic (tooltip: “Camera and mic active — click to record”); a second click actually starts recording. Voiceover starts recording on the first click, and Screen goes straight to your browser’s screen-share picker.
3. Starting any recording pauses Timeline playback, so existing track audio doesn’t bleed into your mic; playback does not resume automatically once you stop.
4. Click the button again (tooltip: “Stop recording”) to end the take. For screen recordings, clicking your browser’s own “Stop sharing” bar works the same way — the take still stops and saves.
5. If you deny microphone permission for a voiceover take, ChatCut shows “Microphone permission was denied. Enable it in your browser site settings and try again.” with a Try again button. Denying camera or screen-recording permission just cancels the take with no error message.

Where do my recordings go, and what format are they in?

Every take is saved to the project’s media library and placed automatically on the Timeline at the frame where you hit record — ChatCut reuses the first track that has room and only creates a new track if every existing one is occupied. Recordings are auto-named with a counter per mode, e.g. “Voiceover 001,” “Camera 001,” “Screen 001.” Once saved, ChatCut uploads and transcribes the clip automatically in the background; success is silent, and failures surface as a toast (e.g., “Recording failed to upload.”). The recorder resets to idle right after you stop, so you can start your next take immediately while the previous one finishes uploading.

Output format depends on mode:

• Voiceover: WebM audio using the Opus codec at 128 kbps (falling back to Ogg or MP4 audio if your browser doesn’t support WebM/Opus).
• Camera: MP4 video using H.264 at 3 Mbps with 128 kbps audio (falling back to WebM if your browser doesn’t support MP4). Video is captured at up to 1280x720, 30 fps, 16:9 — capped at 720p30 even if your webcam supports more. Microphone audio is captured with echo cancellation, noise suppression, and automatic gain control enabled, at up to 48 kHz mono.
• Screen: MP4 video using H.264, encoded at roughly 12 Mbps at 1080p (about 44 Mbps at 4K) with a keyframe every 2 seconds. Screen capture requests up to 1920 pixels wide at up to 60 fps from your browser’s picker. System/tab audio is included only if you enable “Share audio” in that picker (encoded as AAC at about 128 kbps) — otherwise the recording is video-only. ChatCut’s own browser tab is excluded from the screen-share picker so you can’t accidentally record a recursive loop of the editor itself.

See also: Editor Layout, Transcript and Captions, and Plans and Credits Overview.