How Kurgu Tools works
Kurgu Tools makes software for videographers and editors who film events with several cameras. Every app does the slow, exact work for you and hands Premiere Pro or DaVinci Resolve a timeline you can finish.
Your files stay with you
Everything runs on your own computer, with your original files. Nothing is uploaded and nothing is re-encoded.
Tested at real events
Every Kurgu Tools app is tested by 15 professionals who film and edit multi-camera events every week, in real working conditions.
You stay in control
Whatever an app is not completely sure about is marked, with the reason, so you check a few spots instead of the whole event.
SwitchCut: how it syncs
SwitchCut does not rely on one method. It reads every clue a file carries and combines them, so each clip is placed by the most exact one available.
1. Timecode
When a camera or recorder writes timecode, SwitchCut reads it and places the files frame-accurately. It also notices timecode it should not trust - Rec Run, timecode that restarts at 00:00:00:00 with every file (as on the YoloBox), or two cameras sharing the same values - and then uses the next clue instead.
2. Each camera's clock
Every file knows when it was recorded. SwitchCut learns how far each camera's clock is off, and uses it to know where a clip belongs.
3. Sound
The sound of every recording is compared with every other recording that overlaps it. This places clips to a fraction of a frame and finds dropouts, clock drift and repeated music along the way.
4. Picture - even without sound
Clips without usable sound are placed by their picture. A drone shot is found frame by frame in the switcher's own recordings; other silent clips are matched by lighting changes. So SwitchCut syncs footage that has no sound at all.
Timecode SwitchCut reads
| Timecode | Where it is | Typical sources |
|---|---|---|
| Camera timecode | Written into the video file (MOV / MP4 timecode track or tag). | Most cameras that record timecode - set it to Free Run / Time of Day for syncing. |
| Broadcast WAV timecode | BWF time reference and iXML in the audio file. | Zoom F and H series, Tascam, Sound Devices, Deity and other field recorders. |
| LTC (timecode as sound) | SMPTE timecode recorded on any audio channel. | Tentacle Sync and other timecode generators, or a recorder's LTC output. |
| MIDI timecode (MTC) | Quarter-frame and full-frame MIDI messages. | Music and live-sound setups. |
| VITC | Timecode in the top lines of digitised SD / analog video. | Older tape footage. |
| Burnt-in timecode | Timecode printed in the picture. | Coming later. |
Everything synced by timecode is still checked against the sound, so a wrongly set timecode does not slip through.
What SwitchCut works with
Switchers
YoloBox Extreme (its own edit and input recordings) and ATEM Mini Extreme ISO (the DaVinci project it records). In SwitchCut Beta: any switcher that records its Program output.
Cameras and recorders
Any camera, audio recorder or drone - MOV, MP4, MXF, WAV and other common formats, also when one device's files are spread over several folders or cards.
Editors
Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve. The timeline opens with one track per camera, in each camera's colour.
Step by step: the SwitchCut guide →
More Kurgu Tools apps are on the way.