ClutchCut Audio Help

ClutchCut Audio opens to an empty project. To begin, either import audio (toolbar → Import button or ⌘O), record from your mic (arm a track then hit Record), or generate speech with the TTS button.

• Import Audio / MIDI — accepts WAV, MP3, M4A, AIFF, FLAC, MID, MIDI. MIDI files create a MIDI track automatically.
• Add Track — adds a blank audio track. Arm (R button) to record into it.
• Save / Open projects — projects are saved as .clutchproject JSON bundles. Auto-save runs every 30 seconds.

All edits support unlimited undo/redo (⌘Z / ⌘⇧Z).

• Split clip — position playhead over clip, press S or right-click → Split.
• Trim — drag the left or right edge of a clip to trim. Hold ⌥ for ripple trim.
• Move clip — drag the clip body. Hold ⌘ to disable snap.
• Ripple delete — select clip, press ⌫ for regular delete or toolbar Ripple Delete to close the gap.
• Multi-select — click then Shift-click or drag a selection box. Nudge all selected with , / ..
• Snap to grid — enabled by default. BPM field in toolbar controls beat grid. Disable snap by holding ⌘ while dragging.
• Fade in/out — drag the small triangle handles at the top-left / top-right of a clip.
• Remove Silence — right-click clip → Remove Silence. Set threshold and minimum gap duration.
• Insert Silence — toolbar Media group or right-click → Insert Silence. Optionally ripple all tracks.

Click any track header to open the Mixer Inspector panel on the right.

• Volume / Pan — sliders at the top of the inspector. Volume automation is written to the yellow lane below the track in W/T/L modes.
• 3-Band EQ — low shelf, mid peak, high shelf with gain ± 12 dB and frequency knobs.
• Reverb — wet/dry mix and room size.
• Effects chain — serial Delay and Distortion nodes, add/remove/bypass individually.
• Pitch & Time — non-destructive pitch shift (±24 semitones) and playback rate (0.5×–2×) via AVAudioUnitTimePitch.
• Bus routing — (Pro) send the track output to Bus A, B, or C for shared reverb / compression.
• AUv3 Plugins — (Pro) click Add Effect → AU Browser. Loads third-party Audio Unit v3 plugins with up to 8 parameter sliders.

Auto-Ducking

Toolbar AI Tools → Auto-Duck. Select one or more trigger tracks (e.g. voice-over), set threshold, duck amount, attack/release. Generates volume automation on all non-trigger tracks.

Mastering

Toolbar AI Tools → Mastering. Enable the chain, choose a loudness target (e.g. −16 LUFS for Apple Podcasts), click Analyze Loudness to measure the full mix, then export — the chain applies auto-gain + 3-band EQ + true-peak limiter at −1.0 dB.

Access TTS from the toolbar Media group:

• TTS button — generates a short clip (≤10,000 chars) placed at the playhead. Kokoro runs on-device with 54 voices; no internet needed for English.
• Batch TTS — converts multiple .txt / .md / .pdf files to WAV in the background. Output folder is user-selectable. Progress shown in status bar.

Engine priority

Azure TTS setup

In Settings, enter your Azure Cognitive Services API key and region (e.g. eastus). Azure takes priority over all local engines and supports all 25+ languages with neural voices.

Fix Pronunciation

In the Mixer Inspector → SOURCE TEXT panel, right-click any sentence → Fix Pronunciation. Enter a phonetic spelling and click Regenerate — the app splices in the new audio at frame-level precision.

Transcript Alignment

Import a .srt or .vtt file onto an external podcast track via Mixer Inspector → Import Transcript. For TTS drift correction, use Fix Drift — uses STT binary search to locate and correct misaligned sentences.

Some AI features require external tools installed by the user. All of these apply to the Direct Download build only.

ClutchCut Audio can import session metadata from ClutchCut Video and Shadow via the .clutchmeta format.

• Import via toolbar — Media group → Live Link icon, then select a .clutchmeta file.
• Tracks, clips, beat markers, and timing data are imported with full undo/redo support.
• Export back to Video — Export → writes a mastered audio file plus a .tts.json transcript sidecar for the Video/Shadow transcript pipeline.

After purchasing ClutchCut Audio Pro:

1. You will be redirected to a page showing your CCA-… license key. Copy it (or click the key to copy).
2. Open ClutchCut Audio. Click the ClutchCut wordmark in the toolbar to open the About sheet.
3. Paste the key into the license field and click Activate Key.
4. The app validates the key against our server and unlocks Pro features permanently on that machine.

Your key is tied to your purchase, not to a specific Mac. You can activate it on any Mac you personally own. Contact support@clutchcut.studio if you need to transfer your license.