While some popular editing software can perform most of these operations just fine, they have a steep learning curve and aren’t easy to use. Here’s where TimeBolt comes in. It’s a powerful audio/video editor that makes it extremely easy to perform almost all of these challenging tasks, even if you have no prior experience with editing. Keep on reading as we check out TimeBolt in detail and list down the ways in which it can help you create better content.
What Is TimeBolt?
TimeBolt is an audio-video editor for Mac and Windows. It’s not to be confused with full-fledged video editing software (or even online video editors), which usually packs a gamut of features and supports a wide range of operations. Instead, it’s more like a special-purpose editing software with a feature set targeted toward helping you perform specific editing operations. With TimeBolt, the idea is to make it easy to remove silence, cut undesired scenes/audio sections, add jump cuts, speed up scenes, and apply transitions to an audio/video clip without extensive editing knowledge. That way, you won’t have to spend hours figuring out how to perform those tasks with full-fledged editors and can instead focus on content ideation and creation. Additionally, since TimeBolt assists you with only certain editing operations, it also lets you carry over those changes to the other editing software using an XML file so you can continue editing your clip in those programs.
What Features Does TimeBolt Offer?
Being an editor that’s specific to certain audio/video manipulations, TimeBolt offers a bunch of features that allow you to:
Automatically remove silences and dead air from clips Add jump cuts to clips in seconds Preview and finetune clips as per requirements Add enhancements like transitions, background audio, etc. to make your clips stand out Include single or multiple tracks in your clips Manually remove silences by setting a threshold Fast-forward silences rather than cutting them to preserve the essence of your clip Export in multiple formats to edit the clip further in Premiere, Final Cut Pro, or Resolve
What Can You Do With TimeBolt?
TimeBolt can simplify many of your editing operations and make it easier for you to focus on creating content rather than spending hours editing your audio/video clips or learning new software to edit them. Below is a list of all the operations you can perform using TimeBolt. In addition, we’ve included instructions for performing these operations in each section to simplify navigating TimeBolt.
I. Remove Silence From a Clip
Being able to automatically identify and remove silences from an audio/video clip is the biggest highlight of TimeBolt. And the best part about this feature is that the software automatically detects silences in your clips as soon as you add an audio/video clip to it. To detect and remove silence from your clips, launch TimeBolt and click on the SELECT VIDEO / AUDIO FILE button on its home screen.
Navigate to the folder that contains the audio/video clip you want to edit and add it to TimeBolt. Please wait for a few seconds to let the program auto-detect silences in your clip and remove them. Scroll down, and there you’ll see a message that reads something like “The Output File is shorter by 3s“, indicating the seconds chopped off the clip.
By default, TimeBolt is set to remove silences longer than 0.5 seconds and ignore detections shorter than 0.75 seconds. But if you want, you can change this by tapping on the appropriate field under either option and changing their existing values. Similarly, you can also filter silence based on sound levels. For this, tap on the text field under Filter Below Sound Level In dB and replace the value with your desired sound level. Once you’re satisfied with the silence detection options, click the UPDATE SILENCE DETECTION button to apply your new values to the timeline.
II. Fast Forward Silences
Similar to removing silences, TimeBolt also lets you fast-forward silences in your audio/video clips. This can be useful when you have audio segments in a clip that can’t be removed but can fast-forward instead to preserve the essence of the clip. For this, first, check off the checkbox beside FastForward Silences to enable fast-forwarding.
Next, click on the text field below FastForward silences longer than, and add a silence threshold (in seconds) beyond which TimeBolt should fast-forward silences in your clip. Fast-forwarded segments are displayed in orange color in the timeline.
III. Add a Jump Cut
Jump cuts allow you to break a sequential shot into segments to give an impression of jumping forward in time. It’s a common technique used by many creators to depict shots with the passage of time or just to add special effects. To add a jump cut in a video clip, first, add it to TimeBolt and let the software auto-detect and remove silences. Next, scroll down to the timeline section, and here you’ll see the waveform for your entire clip. Hit the play button to start the video playback. Now, once you’re at the point in the timeline where you want to add the first split for your jump cut, tap the play button again and click the Create Split button below the timeline.
Click the play button to resume playback, and press it again once you’re at the second split position. Again, tap the Create Split button. Once you’ve created the splits for your jump cut, tap on that section in the timeline to jump it off. When it’s selected, it will appear in red. Next, click the play button to view the clip with the jump cut.
IV. Add a Transition
Besides removing and fast-forwarding silences, TimeBolt also allows you to apply transitions to your video clip to give it a visual flair. If you’re a vlogger or create video tutorials, this feature can help you join multiple shots together such that the output appears as a single cohesive clip. For this, tick Apply Transitions checkbox under Rendering Enhancements to enable the transition option.
Next, click the dropdown button under Transition and select a transition from the menu. Finally, add a transition duration (in seconds) under the Transition Duration text field.
V. Add a Looping Background Music
Being able to add a relevant song as looping background music is another useful TimeBolt feature that can elevate a clip’s appearance and make it more engaging. To add a song as a looping background in your clip, tap on Select Audio File under Rendering Enhancements and select the audio file you want to use as the background music.
Click on the dropdown button below Background Music Volume to set the volume level for the background music in the clip.
VI. Render the Edited Clip
Once you’ve finished editing the clip in TimeBolt, you can render it and save it to your computer locally. For doing this, first, click on Change output file path to select the destination folder for saving the rendered file, and then click on the ADD TO RENDER QUEUE button to add the file to the rendering queue.
After it’s added, hit the START RENDERING button on the bottom right to begin rendering. Your edits will affect how long it takes to render the clip.
VII. Export the Edited Clip
TimeBolt offers multiple export options: video clips, EDL, ESCPROJ, FCPXML, and XML. So after you’ve finished editing the clip, you can click on a format under Export Options—depending on which editing software you want to use the clip with next—to export the file in that format.
Other TimeBolt Options
Besides, TimeBolt also includes a bunch of settings that affect your audio/video clips. You can find these under Settings by clicking on the gear icon on the TimeBolt home screen.
To enable any of the settings, tick the checkbox beside it and hit the RESTART APP button to apply your changes.
TimeBolt Plans
TimeBolt is available for both Mac and Windows. It offers two plans: Basic and Paid. The Basic plan only allows video editing and reserves most of the TimeBolt features. Plus, you get a watermark on your video clip when you edit it using the free plan. On the other hand, the Paid plan offers access to all features and works with both audio and video files. It can be purchased for a one-time fee of $247. Or, you can subscribe at $17 per month or $97 per year. Get TimeBolt
Remove Silences and Add Jump Cuts to Your Clips Effortlessly
If you’re a content creator—podcaster, vlogger, educator, etc.—you’ll often need to edit your audio/video files to remove silences or filler words, cut unneeded segments, or add jump cuts to them to make them appealing and more engaging. As such, a good timeline editor is a must-have software on your Mac or Windows PC. And, in our opinion, TimeBolt is probably the best value-for-money option among the lot as it can help you accomplish all of these tasks quickly and easily, without requiring you to have much know-how in editing audio/video clips.
