Orcast → Guide
How to edit a multicam podcast
Record every camera and microphone, drop the files into Orcast, and it syncs them by sound and cuts to whoever is speaking — a finished multicam edit, without dragging clips or matching timecode. Here's the workflow, and how to match your recording setup to the right settings.
The workflow, in five steps
Record each camera and mic separately
Roll every camera and record each speaker on their own microphone. The cameras and recorders don't have to start together — Orcast lines them up afterwards.
Drop the shoot folder into Orcast
Open the folder in Orcast. It reads every camera, clean mic, and audio recorder at once — no importing clip by clip.
Orcast syncs everything by sound
Orcast aligns recordings using shared audio and builds the multicam cut. Results depend on the recording: check sync and camera choices before export; adjust them when needed.
Answer two questions — Orcast picks how to cut
Orcast asks how many people are speaking, then either whether everyone had their own microphone or — for a single speaker — where the cut should land. From your answers it works out the way to cut and opens only those settings on the Cut step: there is no method to pick from a list. Then it builds the multicam cut and shows it on a timeline you can fine-tune. The steps in the app are named Scenario → Cut → Edit → Export.
Export the finished edit
Export a finished mp4, or send a layered timeline to Premiere Pro or DaVinci Resolve to polish by hand.
Your recording setup → the right settings
Automatic camera switching works best when Orcast can tell who is talking. That comes from the microphones, so the setup you recorded decides both the way it cuts and the settings. That is exactly what Orcast asks on the «Scenario» step — below is what to answer for your setup.
The classic podcast: each person on their own camera and their own microphone. Orcast hears who is louder and cuts to that person's close-up — automatic camera switching, in the desktop app.
Answer Two or more, then Yes, one each — Orcast takes the By voice path. On that same «Scenario» step, give each camera its clean mic so the switch follows the right person.
Two close-ups plus a wide that sees the whole room. The wide isn't tied to one speaker, so it isn't part of the by-voice switching — Orcast inserts it during long monologues and when people talk over each other.
Answer Two or more and Yes, one each — that gives the By voice path. On «Scenario» set the room camera's framing to Wide, and on the «Cut» step set When one person talks and talks and When they talk over each other to go to it.
A talking head or a piece to camera. There's no one to switch to, so the cut changes on rhythm — landing on the pauses between phrases so nobody is cut mid-word.
Answer One, then where the cut should land: In the pauses, On sentence ends (that one needs the speech recognised) or Strictly on a timer. That is the By phrases path; on the «Cut» step you set how long a shot holds before it changes.
Everyone recorded on a single room mic or a stereo mix. A shared track sounds the same whoever is speaking, so it cannot tell people apart. Orcast therefore takes the By person path: who is talking comes from the recognised speech. It asks once which track that speech should be read from.
Answer Two or more, then One shared by all. Before it builds, press Recognise the speech — «By person» cannot be built without a transcript. Speech recognition runs over the internet only: the audio of the recording you picked goes to a cloud service — never the video. To switch cameras with no recognition at all, record a separate mic per speaker next time.
Want a tighter shot from a camera without a second lens? Add an extra close-up (crop) and drag the frame over the picture — Orcast crops that camera to it, for real, in the edit and the export.
On the Scenario step, press ＋ Extra close-up (crop) on the camera and position the frame.
Recording tips for the best auto-edit
- One microphone per speaker. Separate mics are what let Orcast tell who's talking from the sound alone and switch to the right person. With a single shared mic that takes the recognised speech instead.
- Roll every camera the whole time. Orcast cuts between whatever is rolling; gaps in a camera just mean it isn't available for those moments.
- Don't worry about a clapperboard. Sync is by sound, so as long as the cameras and mics all heard the room, they line up — no slate, no timecode.
- Keep your originals. Orcast reads your files where they are, and your video files are never uploaded. Working out the cut needs an internet connection: technical audio data goes to our server and the edit plan comes back. Speech recognition runs over the internet only: the audio of the recording you picked goes to a cloud service — never the video. The video is never transmitted in either case.
Export options
Take the finished multicam episode as an mp4 to publish straight away, or export a layered timeline as an interchange XML — every camera on its own track, cut where Orcast cut it — so you can refine the edit by hand. Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve open that XML directly. If you have the speech recognised, the subtitles arrive as a separate SRT file next to the recording they were recognised from — Orcast cannot burn them into the picture.
Also see: Multicam editing software that cuts to whoever's talking · How to edit a podcast, step by step · Video podcast editing that does itself
Try it on your next episode
Try Orcast on a short recording of your own. Check sync and camera choices, then review the plans and limits for longer episodes.
Download Orcast Mac (Apple Silicon) or Windows 10/11 · internet and email sign-in required