Made for macOS · Apple Silicon
Capture the Unseen

Don't record everything.
Capture the moment.

ClutchCut Shadow is a professional replay buffer for macOS. It runs silently in the background, letting you save the last 600 seconds of any window or screen with a single hotkey.

Download for MacSee how it works

Retroactive "Clutch" Capture

Stop filling your hard drive with hours of raw footage. With Shadow's Replay Buffer, you decide to save *after* the action happens. Whether it's a game-winning play or a sudden bug, just hit the Clutch hotkey to save the last few minutes instantly.

  • Rolling Buffer
    Configure from 30 seconds to 10 minutes of retroactive recording.
  • Smart Stitching
    Seamlessly merges buffer chunks into a single, high-quality MP4 file.
Shadow Clutch mode — floating HUD in Clutch mode over a live recording with the Replay Buffer settings panel showing 3 min buffer length and Save Clutch Clip hotkey
Recording Timer popover with Start and Stop datetimes, HUD showing 'Starts in 4m 10s' countdown

Schedule & Auto-Stop

Set it and forget it. Schedule Shadow to start recording at a specific time, and set a stop time so your session ends cleanly even if you walk away. Perfect for long streams, meetings, or unattended captures.

  • Scheduled Start
    Queue a session to begin at any future time — wake up to a finished recording of last night's keynote or match.
  • Auto-Stop Timer
    Shadow stops itself on the dot, so runaway sessions never eat your disk.

Dual-Track Audio Capture

Don't muddy your system sound and your voice onto one track. Shadow records app audio and your microphone on separate, labeled tracks — ready for independent mixing, ducking, or noise cleanup in post.

  • Split Tracks, One File
    App Audio and Microphone are written to separate tracks inside a single MP4. No sync drift, no post-production re-muxing.
  • Four Audio Modes
    None, App Sound Only, Microphone Only, or Dual-Track — switched from Settings to match any workflow.
Shadow Settings with Audio Source set to App & Microphone, and the resulting recording opened in ClutchCut Video showing two separate audio tracks on the timeline

Free, Fully Featured.

No buffer caps. No resolution limits. No watermarks. Shadow is our gift to the Mac community.

Always Free
ClutchCut Shadow

$0

Every feature, every time. No trial period, no paid tier.

  • ★ Retroactive Clutch capture (30 sec – 10 min rolling buffer)
  • ★ Scheduled start & auto-stop timer
  • ★ Dual-track audio (App + Mic on separate tracks)
  • ★ Capture display, specific app, specific window, or region
  • ★ Global hotkeys (Toggle Recording, Save Clutch Clip)
  • ★ Floating HUD — invisible to the recording itself
  • ★ Native ScreenCaptureKit pipeline (4K, Apple Silicon)
  • ★ Session handoff to ClutchCut Video
  • ★ Auto-updates via Sparkle
Download Shadow — Free

Requires macOS 15.6 or later. Optimized for M1/M2/M3 chips.

How ClutchCut Shadow compares.

Feature-by-feature against the most popular macOS screen recorders, as of April 2026. All trademarks belong to their respective owners.

FeatureClutchCut Shadow
Free		QuickTime
Free		OBS Studio
Free		ScreenFlow
$169		Screen Studio
$89
Native Apple Silicon (ScreenCaptureKit)✓✓~✓✓
Retroactive Replay Buffer★—✓——
Scheduled Start & Auto-Stop★————
Dual-Track Audio (App + Mic separated)✓—✓✓—
System Audio Capture (no extension needed)✓—✓✓✓
Capture: Display / App / Window / Region✓~✓✓✓
Global Hotkeys✓—✓✓✓
Floating HUD (excluded from recording)✓—~~✓
4K Recording✓✓✓✓✓
Handoff to Editor✓——✓~
PriceFreeFreeFree$169$89

★ = signature feature · ✓ = supported · ~ = partial / with setup · — = not available

Private by design.

Shadow is built for capturing sensitive moments — gameplay, meetings, bug repros. Your recording stays on your Mac.

100% on-device
Recording, buffering and encoding happen locally. No cloud uploads, no streaming to our servers.
No account required
Shadow is free with no sign-in. We don't track you between launches.
Signed & notarized
Distributed as an Apple-notarized Developer ID build. Auto-updates via Sparkle with signature verification.
Native ScreenCaptureKit
Built on Apple's own capture API — no kernel extensions, no virtual audio drivers.

Built for people who miss the moment.

Shadow keeps a rolling buffer running so you never have to hit record before something happens.

Gamers & Streamers
Save the highlight, not the hour
Save your clutch play after it happens. Keep the last 10 minutes of gameplay ready-to-clip without eating disk space.
Developers & QA
Catch bugs in the act
Intermittent crash? Let Shadow run. When it finally happens, save the last few minutes and attach it to your ticket.
Educators & Support
Record meetings on a schedule
Schedule a class or customer call to auto-record, then hand the file off to ClutchCut Video for trimming and captions.
The ClutchCut Suite

Capture, edit, master.

Shadow handles capture. Hand the file off to Video for editing, or Audio for voice and music production.

You are here
ClutchCut Shadow
Replay-buffer screen recording. Always free.
Edit →
ClutchCut Video
Professional multi-track NLE with AI auto-masking and captions.
Master →
ClutchCut Audio
Smart DAW with on-device TTS, auto-duck and mastering.
System requirements
  • macOS 15.6 Sequoia or later
  • Apple Silicon (M1 or newer) recommended
  • ~200 MB free disk for the app
  • Disk space for buffers scales with length & resolution