Orcast → Guide
How to auto-edit a multicam podcast on Mac
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
It aligns all the tracks by their audio waveform, frame-accurate, with no clapperboard and no timecode. Different devices and start times are fine.
Choose how to cut, and build
Pick by voice so the camera follows whoever is speaking, or by phrases for a single presenter. Orcast builds the multicam cut and shows it on a timeline you can fine-tune.
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 the settings you pick.
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, on a native Mac app.
Choose By voice. Assign each clean mic to its camera 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 loudness race — Orcast inserts it during long monologues and when people talk over each other.
Choose By voice, mark the room camera as the wide shot, and set when one person talks and talks and when they talk over each other to cut 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.
Choose By phrases, and set how long a shot holds before it changes.
Everyone recorded on a single room mic or a stereo mix. A shared mic is loud whenever anyone speaks, so it can't tell people apart — Orcast recognises this and treats that source as the wide shot instead of letting it break the switch.
Choose By voice. For clean per-person switching, record a separate mic per speaker next time.
Want a tighter shot from a camera without a second lens? Add a zoom angle and drag the frame over the picture — Orcast crops that camera to it, for real, in the edit and the export.
On the setup step, press ＋ zoom angle 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 and switch to the right person. A single shared mic can't do that.
- 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 never uploads the video — only a tiny audio fingerprint is used to work out the cut. Turn on subtitles and only the audio is sent (to AssemblyAI).
Export options
Take the finished multicam episode as an mp4 to publish straight away, or export a layered timeline for Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve — every camera on its own track, cut where Orcast cut it — so you can refine the edit by hand. You can also add a speech transcript and subtitles for short clips.
Try it on your next episode
Orcast is free to download, and the first 5 minutes of any edit are unlimited.
Download for Mac Requires macOS (Apple Silicon) · needs internet + a free email sign-in · no card