A Deceptively POWERFUL Button YOU MUST KNOW - DaVinci Resolve Auto Select
Copy & Paste Clip to new Track
Most people think of this Auto Select Control as the copy and paste selection button because it does do that. If you option-click it, alt on a pc, it will paste any clips in your clipboard onto that specific track. This tip alone is helpful, but what is this auto-track selector?
What is Auto Select?
The Auto Select button tells Resolve, Hey! Pay attention to me if it's on and bright OR don't pay attention to me if it's turned off and dimmed out. But the reason this is so powerful is that it gives you a way to isolate your focus to a specific audio or video track without touching a mouse, and it can all be keyboard-driven with the F1 to F9 function keys. So if you ever edit a timeline with stacked clips on top of each other, this is something worth mastering.
Insert Paste a Marked Range
Cut and Insert Paste with in and out marks is a great way to move an entire section of your timeline without manually selecting a bunch of little clips.
First, pay attention to the auto-track selector button.
I want to ignore the music track and leave it in place, so I turn off the A4 auto select.
Mark the in and out points with "I and O" that you want to move - you'll see A4 is dark.
It's only the highlighted area that we are going to cut out to the clipboard
Ripple Cut with (command shift X)
Now move the playhead with either JKL to navigate to the new location for that section or
Bonus Tip tip time - Middle mouse button click to pan around in the timeline, great for super long timelines.
And Insert Paste (command shift V)
Auto-select pays attention to the lowest track with auto-select turned on, so another quick in and out marking tip is to use it to determine the duration of a title graphic.
Just make sure the lowest track with auto select turned on is the title track layer,
Mark the clip with X to automatically put in and out points on that clip
and you can see the title duration up in the viewer.
The one big exception to this auto-select behavior is if you manually selected and highlighted a clip. If you manually select a clip, the manual selection gets priority over the little auto-track selector in the track header.
Cutting to the Music Beat
The last example showed that you could ignore a track to cut and paste, but what if we wanted to ignore a music track to edit to the beat, so we don't chop up the music? If sparingly used, cutting to the beat can pull an audience back in, and Auto Select is perfect for that.
Just disable the auto-track selector on the audio track with the music.
Cut with command B or even better,
Ripple trim clips to the playhead with shift left and right brackets.
The music track doesn't get cut at all, but you can still change the music volume level and work on it because it's not using the lock track button. In fact, I rarely ever use the lock track button because this auto select does what lock does and so much more.
Select Clip
Auto Select also helps you select individual clips stacked up high without touching a mouse.
Disable Auto Select on tracks BELOW what you want to select.
Hit Shift V while the playhead is over the top of the clip.
Now you can manipulate the selected clip however you need to, using the period or comma keys to nudge it left or right a little.
Select Edit Point
The two main reasons I select edit points are to either Trim them (make a clip longer or shorter) or to add a transition. Auto Select is significant here because I can blaze through my entire timeline, one track at a time.
And again, the lowest track that has auto-select turned on gets the selection.
Hit V to select an edit point, and it gets the green highlight.
And use up and down arrows to move through the timeline adding transitions with command T.
Or even do a quick trim with command J or L.
Quick trimming is even faster than dynamic trimming.
Just rest your left thumb on the command key while rolling the edit with JKL. I love this software!
My word of caution when you trim and have auto select disabled, you have essentially disabled the sync relationship to the rest of the timeline tracks. In Avid or Premiere, this is like turning off sync locks, basically taking the training wheels off your timeline. And like the amazing editing spiderman said - auto select gives you great power, but also great responsibility to maintain sync. So I'll turn Auto Select switches back on to maintain sync relationships after I'm done doing what I'm doing. Option F9 and Option Command F9 are great shortcuts to toggle them all back on.
Match Frame
The two main reasons I use Match Frame are to either find more footage from the same video or audio file, like maybe an alternate take, or if you need to pull original audio back down to the timeline.
Sometimes offline editors work with a stereo mix track from set instead of the isolated microphones for ease of use. But before the video is professionally mixed, you'll want the individual microphone tracks pulled back onto the timeline.
Match Frame obeys the lowest turned on auto select track and will call up the exact timeline frame the playhead is parked on up in the source monitor with the source clip that it came frame. It matches the timeline to the source. The shortcut key is F for Match Frame.
You can then overwrite edit only the audio back down to the timeline and work with all the isolated tracks for mixing. When you do a 3-point overwrite edit, the big thing to note is to pay attention to the Destination Control instead of the Auto Select Control.
Essentially, if clips have come from the source monitor, the monitor on the left side, use the orange highlighted destination controls. Otherwise, Auto Select is your friend, and here's the complete list of operations that auto select affects:
Cut, Copy, Delete with Marked In Out Ranges
Paste
Paste Insert (careful of losing sync)
Deleting Gaps
Finding Gaps
Mark Clip with In and Out
Selecting Edit Points
Selecting Clips
Selection Follows Playhead (uses the highest clip)
Match Frame
Ripple Trimming
Insert and Ripple Overwrite Edit (careful of losing sync)
