Reference · Beta
Clip controls
Last updated November 10, 2026
Every recording you add is transcribed on your Mac, so you can find a passage by what was said, read it in Moments and keep it as a clip. A clip is a range linked to the original recording, so nothing is copied until you export.
Transcript, moment, clip
Video work in Grain is built from three things. Once you know how they relate, every control on this page follows.
Transcript
- Made automatically, on your Mac
- Timed to the recording, line by line
- Yours to correct
Moment
- A passage of the transcript
- Listed in recording order, in Moments
- Click it to play from its start
Clip
- A range you add, from a moment or with I and O
- Linked to the original; no media is copied
- Exported as an MP4 with an SRT
The transcript is what makes a recording findable. A moment is where you read and listen. A clip is what you keep. You can go from a search across years of footage straight to a clip, and the recording itself never changes.
Find what was said
Transcription starts by itself once a recording is indexed. There's no button and nothing to upload. It needs macOS 26 and Apple's speech resources, and it pauses and resumes around your work.
Then search what was said, in one source, a collection or All Media. Search finds the passages where your words are said, closest matches first, so a name or a single word you remember is enough. A result plays from the matching moment, with a little context before it, and pauses at the end of the passage. A recording can hold several matching passages, and the results are a selection, not a promise of every occurrence.
How it works and what it needs: automatic transcription.
Read the recording in Moments
Open a recording and Moments shows its transcript in order, beside the player. During a search the matches are highlighted and everything around them stays visible. Search Moments narrows the list to lines with your words.
- All shows transcript and clips together. Clips shows only your clips.
- Show All opens the full reader, for reading an interview top to bottom.
- Previous and next step through every moment, not only the matches.
- Scrub the timeline to look beyond a passage.
When a name or a term is misheard, double-click the moment's words and correct them. Search, captions and exports all use your correction, so fix names before you export.
Keep a passage as a clip
There are two ways to add a clip, and they end in the same place.
From a suggested moment
- Play the moment
- Choose Add Clip
- The clip covers the moment's range
Your own range
- Press I at the start, O at the end
- Choose Add Clip, or press ⌘Return
- Good for reactions and cutaways with no dialogue
Choose Edit Clip, or double-click the clip in Moments, to open the clip editor. Drag the handles or type In and Out timecodes, and the video follows the range. Then choose Update Clip or Cancel. Remove Clip takes a clip away and leaves the recording and its transcript as they were; Undo restores it.
A clip added before transcription reaches its recording picks up its words when transcription finishes, so you never have to wait to start pulling selects.
Hand the clips on
Choose Export Clips… and pick a folder. Each clip becomes an MP4 with an SRT caption file timed to the clip, and Grain Clips.json lists the source file and each clip's range, so an editor, a script or an agent can rebuild the order. One export covers up to 100 clips and 30 minutes of selected media.
A connected agent can search dialogue and read transcripts, then propose selects with timecodes. You add the clips in Grain. Every step, from Add Clip to the export folder, is in add, trim and export clips.
Shortcuts
| Keys | What they do |
|---|---|
| Space | Play and pause |
| , . | Step back or forward one frame |
| I O | Mark the start and end of a range |
| ⌘Return | Add the marked range as a clip |
| Return | While editing a range, go to its In point |
| ← → | While editing a range, step a frame |
| Esc | Cancel a range you're making or editing. Otherwise, leave the video |
Every shortcut in Grain is on one page: keyboard shortcuts.
Good to know
- Transcription needs macOS 26.
- Transcripts and clips live in your Grain library. No sidecar is written, and the recording is never changed.
- Exported captions are timed to the clip. If you trim inside a spoken phrase, check the first and last caption.
- Grain exports the SRT; styling or burning in captions happens in your editor, or an agent can do it with other tools.
- People works on photographs, not video. To find someone in footage, search what they said or describe what's on screen.
For putting clips to work, see review and select dialogue takes and what agentic video editing can do.
Every control, at a glance
- Automatic transcription
- Make spoken material searchable. Every recording is transcribed on your Mac with Apple’s speech processing, timed to the picture, with nothing to start. Transcription needs macOS 26.
- Search spoken dialogue
- Find a useful passage without watching every recording. Search what was said by exact words or keywords, across every recording. Results take you straight to the passages that match.
- Play from the matching moment
- Check a result without scrubbing from the beginning. Choose a passage to audition it in the original recording. Playback includes a little surrounding context and pauses at the passage’s end.
- Moments in recording order
- Read the surrounding dialogue. Moments shows a recording’s timed transcript in order. During a search, matching passages are highlighted and the rest stay visible. Click a moment to play from its start.
- All or Clips
- Switch between the transcript and your clips. In Moments, choose All to see transcript passages and clips in context, or Clips to show only your clips. Show All opens the full reader.
- Scrub the video playback timeline
- Look beyond the matched passage. Click or drag the video timeline to move the playhead within the open recording and review the surrounding footage.
- Add a clip
- Keep a take without duplicating the media. Choose Add Clip on a suggested clip, or press I and O to set your own range, then choose Add Clip. A clip is a range linked to the original recording; no media is copied. Remove Clip keeps the original and its transcript; Undo restores the clip.
- Trim a clip
- Get the range exactly right. Double-click a moment or choose Edit Clip to open the clip editor. Drag the handles or type In and Out timecodes; the video and the In and Out frames follow the range. Choose Update Clip to apply the change, or Cancel to discard it.
- Export video clips and captions
- Prepare source material for an editor or editing agent. Export clips as MP4 files, each with an SRT caption file timed to the clip, ready for your editor or your agent. The original recording stays untouched.