Friday afternoon, and a two-minute product clip is due on Monday. The footage is on the laptop, the background track still needs a louder chorus and a softer pad, and the title card hasn't been made. Usually that means two apps, one for the picture and one for the sound, and possibly a subscription for each. osFoundry has both kinds of editor in the same window: the Video Editor and the Sound Editor.
Two editors, one for picture and one for sound
osFoundry is a desktop app that brings chat, agents, files and creative tools together. In the sidebar, next to the Photo Editor and the Vector Editor, you'll find two editors for work that happens over time. The Video Editor is a multi-track timeline for cutting footage you already have: trim, split, move clips, grade color, add titles and export. The Sound Editor records, edits and mixes audio across tracks, with effects and a MIDI editor for instrument parts. Both can also be started from Canvas in the New Canvas project dialog, under Editors. If you have used a desktop video editor with a source and program monitor, or a recording app with an edit window and a mixer, both layouts will look familiar. They are not the same as osFoundry's Video Generator. The generator makes new footage from a prompt. These two editors work on clips and recordings you already have, by hand.
A look at the Video Editor
This is the Video Editor with its demo project open (example footage):
- The workspace tabs at the top left: Import, Edit and Export. Edit is where you cut, and Export holds the render settings.
- The monitors. Source on the left shows a clip before it goes on the timeline. Program in the middle plays the edited sequence, with markers, in and out points and the playhead time.
- The panels on the right: Properties, Essential Graphics and Text. Select a clip and its position, scale, rotation, opacity and crop show up here.
- The Project panel at the bottom left, with the Media Browser, Libraries, Info and Effects tabs. Footage, audio, graphics and sequences are kept in folders.
- The timeline, with video tracks V1 and V2 and audio tracks A1 and A2, a tool column beside it, and a loudness meter on the right showing momentary, short-term and integrated LUFS and true peak.
Use case: cutting a short video and getting it out
Lena makes short travel videos. Her project already has six clips on V1, a B-roll shot on V2 and a music bed on A2.
She picks the razor tool from the tool column and clicks a clip at the moment she wants to cut. The clip splits under the playhead, and Shift-click splits it on every track at once. She selects the part she doesn't want and uses ripple delete (Shift+Delete), which removes it and closes the gap so nothing after it is left floating.
Then color. In the Effects tab, Lumetri Presets has groups such as Cinematic, Film Emulation, Monochrome and Technical. She drags Golden Dusk from Cinematic onto the desert clip, and the whole shot warms up. The clip's Transform and Crop values stay editable in Properties.
For the title she picks the Type tool, clicks on the program monitor and types NIGHT DRIVE. The text becomes a graphic with its own layer, position, scale and opacity in the Properties panel, and a Pin To option for responsive placement.
Finally the Export workspace. The preset is Match Source with H.264, and the screen lists everything that will be written: frame size and rate, field order, profile and level, bitrate encoding, and audio as AAC at 48000 Hz stereo. A summary on the right shows the output path, the format line and an estimated file size. Export starts the render, and Send to Queue lines up several exports to run one after another.
A look at the Sound Editor
The Sound Editor opens on a demo session, Midnight Groove, at 48000 Hz and 24-bit (example session):
- The top bar holds the edit modes (Shuffle, Spot, Slip, Grid), the edit tools, a counter with start, end and length, the grid size (here 1/16 note) and the transport with loop, stop, play and record.
- The rulers show bars and beats, minutes and seconds, tempo (104), meter (4/4) and markers (Intro, Verse, Chorus).
- Each track row has record arm, input monitoring, solo and mute buttons, a view selector (waveform for audio, notes for instrument tracks) and automation read.
- Tracks and Groups is on the left, Clips is on the right, and at the bottom there are tabs for the MIDI Editor, Memory Locations and Undo History.
Use case: recording and fixing a part
Tom records a podcast intro and a short bass line for it at home. He adds a track with the + button in Tracks and Groups, arms it with the record button on the track, sets a Count Off of two bars so he has time to get ready, and presses record in the transport.
For the instrument parts he uses the MIDI Editor at the bottom of the window. It shows the selected track's notes on a piano roll (here Keys, 180 notes) with a velocity lane underneath. The pencil adds notes, dragging moves them, and arrows and Delete do the rest. A few buttons fix common problems: Quantize snaps notes to the grid, Vel +10 and Vel −10 change velocity on the selection, and Legato stretches each note to meet the next.
Use case: mixing and bouncing the track
When the parts are in, Tom opens the Mix window from Window › Mix. Each track is a channel strip with five insert slots and five sends, input and output, group, pan, record and input buttons, solo and mute, and a fader with a meter. In the demo, the kick runs through EQ7 and Comp, the bass through Comp and Satur, the pad through Chorus, and the Verb aux uses Plate. Several tracks send to Verb, so they share one reverb instead of each having its own. The master strip has Max on it.
For effects that change the audio itself rather than processing it live, the AudioSuite menu has EQ, Dynamics, Pitch Shift, Reverb, Delay, Modulation, Harmonic and Other. It processes the selected clips offline, which is useful for a one-off fix such as pitch shifting a single phrase.
When the mix is done, File › Bounce Mix writes the whole session to an audio file. The same menu also has Import, Export, Save Session and Save As Template, so his settings for the next episode are ready to go.
Using the two together, and with the rest of osFoundry
The two editors hand work to each other in a simple way. Bounce the mix in the Sound Editor, import the file into the Video Editor's Project panel, and drop it onto an audio track under the picture. For still images in a video, such as a thumbnail or a lower third, the Photo Editor handles layered work and the Vector Editor makes logos that stay sharp. Motion graphics with keyframes belong in the Effect Editor. When you need footage you don't have, the Video Generator makes new clips from a prompt, and you can then cut them here. Save and export through each editor's own File menu and Export controls.
Questions people ask first
Do these editors run on my computer?
Yes. Both run inside the osFoundry desktop app and edit the files on your machine. osFoundry is free to use on your own device.
What can the Video Editor export?
The Export workspace writes H.264 with AAC audio using a Match Source preset, and shows frame size, frame rate, bitrate and an estimated file size before you start. Send to Queue lines up several exports.
Can I record into the Sound Editor, or only edit?
Both. Arm a track, set a count-off if you want one, and press record in the transport. Instrument tracks are edited as notes in the MIDI Editor.
Is the Video Editor the same as the Video Generator?
No. The Video Generator creates new clips from a prompt. The Video Editor is for cutting, grading, titling and exporting footage you already have.
The desktop app is free to download at osfoundry.io/download.
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