Start a project
Clips works the same on Mac and Windows. Where this page says ⌘, use Ctrl on Windows.
The app has four steps, as tabs along the top: Song, Clips, Design and Export. Continue, on the right, takes you to the next one.
Click New project. Each song gets its own project, and your projects stay on the first screen as cards, with Open and Show in Finder on each.
Add your song
Drop the song file onto Drop your song, or click Choose file. Clips finds the tempo and the parts of the song by itself, and colors each part. If the tempo is off, click Tempo and type the right BPM.
Add the lyrics
Paste your lyrics into Paste or drop your lyrics. Clips syncs them to the vocal word by word, on your computer. When it’s done, it shows how many lines are worth a look. Click that to open Lyrics check, play each line, and tap when you hear the word. Space plays, and ⌘Z steps back.
Name, split and join the parts
Each part of the song has its own color and name next to the lyrics. Click a name to rename it. To split a part, put the cursor where it should break and choose Split here, or press ⌘B. To join two parts, choose Merge with above. Parts always start on a bar line.
Add your footage
Drop your files onto Drop videos or photos, or click Choose files. Clips takes MP4, MOV, JPG and PNG, and videos up to 1 GB. A photo gets a slow push-in so it still moves. If you have no footage, Free footage opens Pexels, where you can download videos for free.
Every backdrop you add gets its own set of videos when you export, so two backdrops give you two versions of every part to test.
Trim the clips
In the Clips tab, the whole song runs across the top in the part colors. Drag a dashed line to move where a clip starts or ends. The tick on each row decides whether that clip goes into the export, and M switches it.
Split and join clips on the waveform
Right-click the waveform where you want a new clip to start and choose Split here, or press ⌘B. It splits on the beat you clicked, so it works anywhere, even in an intro with no lyrics. Splitting from the lyrics in the Song tab does the same, but starts the new part right where a line begins.
To join two clips again, right-click and choose Merge with, followed by the part before or after, like Merge with Pre. To merge several at once, Shift-click them and press ⌘G. The same menu has Duplicate (⌘D) and Rename.
Find the catchiest snippets
Click Find snippets and Clips picks short catchy moments, 5 to 9 seconds long, and adds them as extra clips. Short snippets often make the best hooks for ads. It needs synced lyrics first; Find new snippets gives you another set.
Pick a layout
In Design, open a family (Bold, Serif, Gothic, Clean, Ornate or Script) and pick one of its layouts. There are 22 in all. The player shows the selected clip with everything applied, so you see the result as you go, and the thumbnails switch between your backdrops.
Set the text
There are three rows of text. Lyrics shows the words as a whole Line or one Word at a time. Text 1 sits at the top and Text 2 at the bottom, for things like the song title or Out now. Each row has its own size, font and style.
Safe zone keeps the text clear of the buttons on Reels, ads or Stories. Pick the place you’ll post.
Change the text color
Under the layouts, Text color sets the color of all the text: Yellow, Red, Lime, Pink, White, Black, or Custom for any color you like. Text shadow puts a soft shadow behind the words so they stay readable on bright footage. It’s on unless you turn it off.
Grade the colors
Open Colors to change how the footage looks. Pick a preset. There are 66 in seven families, from Warm and Vivid to Night and Mono, and Strength sets how much of it you get. Some presets add film grain, with its own Texture control.
Under the presets, Exposure, Contrast, Saturation, Warmth and Tint fine-tune the picture, on top of any preset. Auto picks a grade for you, and the ··· menu can reset it or copy it to another backdrop. The grade belongs to the backdrop, so every clip with that footage gets it.
Add an effect
Open Effects and pick one of 11 effects, like Paper, Glow, Tape, Heatwave or Bitmap. Most have several styles inside, 54 in all. Strength goes from a hint at 1 to the most extreme version at 5, and some styles let you pick their colors.
Sync the effect to the beat
With Sync effect with music on, the effect hits on every beat of the song and fades before the next one, so the picture pulses with the music. It follows the tempo Clips found for your song, and a small dot next to the switch blinks with the beat. The control next to it sets how hard each hit is.
It’s on by default. A few effects that don’t move, like Paper, don’t have it.
Put the effect on the text too
Apply effect to text decides whether the effect covers your words as well. On, the lyrics and both text lines take on the effect’s texture, colors and distortion, so everything looks like one picture. Off, the text stays clean and easy to read on top. It’s on by default.
Export every clip at once
In Export, choose Vertical (1080 × 1920) or Square (1080 × 1080), and pick a folder with Save to. Export N videos makes every part that’s on, plus the snippets you ticked, on every backdrop, in one go. The files are named by part, song and backdrop, like Chorus – Bad to You – katana.mp4, so you can tell them apart when you upload them.
Export stills saves a picture of each clip as well.
Unlock the full version
It needs macOS 14 or later, or Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit). The free version has no time limit; its exports carry a small Clips tag.
Click Unlock Clips, or the Clips tag on a video. It’s $99 once, for up to 3 computers, Mac and Windows together. Click Buy to pay, or Enter license key if you already have one. After you unlock, Export again without the tag remakes your videos without the Clips tag.
What changed in each version is on the Clips changes page.
Still stuck? Email kai@plastic.audio and I’ll help.
