Studio & editing

From a recording to Studio

Studio turns your recording into an editable timeline. Cuts, placement and styling change the composition without rewriting the original capture. Keep the project and its sources to continue editing later.

1. 1

   Record a take

   Choose Recorder, select a screen, region or window, and enable the camera and audio you need. Stop and let Beam finish saving the take.

2. 2

   Open a retained project

   Continue in Studio after recording, or reopen a saved Studio or Instant project from the project picker.

3. 3

   Shape the timeline

   Trim the beginning and end, remove unwanted sections and arrange any imported media. Play across each cut to check it.

4. 4

   Polish and export

   Adjust the canvas, zooms, cursor, captions and sound, then export MP4 or WebM.

Find your way around the editor

Use command search to find an action, layer or property. A property result opens its inspector section. Available actions depend on the project and your selection.

Add media or record a voiceover

Open Add beside the timeline to insert content at the playhead. Choose Video directly, or open Elements or Audio. Pasting an image from the clipboard adds it to the composition.

Cut and arrange the take

Screen, camera, audio and generated overlays may be linked, so moving or trimming one can affect its companions. Review linked tracks together. Lock content from the timeline context menu when you want to protect it from edits.

1. 1

   Select the clip

   Select the clip and move the playhead to the edit point.

2. 2

   Trim its edges

   Drag either edge to trim. Drag the clip body to change its timeline position. Keep snapping enabled when you want to align with nearby boundaries.

3. 3

   Split and remove

   Place the playhead inside a compatible clip and use Split, or S by default. Delete the unwanted part, checking whether the chosen deletion mode keeps or closes the gap.

4. 4

   Check the result

   Play across the edit. Reorder visual tracks to change stacking, and use a gap control when you want to close an empty interval.

Select and protect timeline content

• Click clips or drag a selection rectangle. Track headers select their items; modifier-assisted selection can include more tracks.
• Copy, cut and paste at the playhead with Ctrl/Cmd + C, X and V by default, or use the timeline context menu.
• The primary selection opens the inspector. Changes apply across a selection only where the items support that property.
• Caption text and Follow Cursor apply to the selected caption. Crop requires one compatible visual clip.
• Disable content to keep it in the project without rendering it. Unlock protected items before deleting or changing them.

Set the canvas and visual style

Choose 16:9, 9:16, 1:1, 4:5, 3:4, 4:3 or 21:9 in the canvas toolbar. In Canvas, set the background, padding, corners, blur and watermark. Backgrounds can use solid colors, gradients, or library and imported images or videos.

• Select a visual clip to adjust position, size, rotation, mirroring, opacity, rounding, shadow, border and supported frames.
• Crop a compatible clip on the canvas, then confirm. The original source stays unchanged.
• Select text or drawing layers to edit their properties. Text also supports inline editing on the canvas; freehand strokes remain editable.
• Position Blur or Highlight layers over the area you want to obscure or emphasize, then adjust their bounds and appearance.

Add focus and motion

Use 2D or 3D camera zooms to move the composition, or Loupe to magnify one area. Place zooms manually or generate them from captured clicks. Cursor controls style the separate pointer overlay, including its size, color, shadow, click effects and smoothing.

• Use entry and exit transitions on supported clips. Canvas background transitions have separate controls.
• To pause on a frame, place the playhead inside a supported screen, video or webcam clip and choose Hold Segment at Playhead from its context menu. Unlock the clip first; an existing frozen segment cannot receive another hold.
• Real cursor records the system pointer into the source pixels. Styling the separate cursor overlay cannot remove that recorded pointer.

Add captions and adjust the sound

In Captions, choose an available audio source and Whisper model. Download the model once, then generate captions locally. Review the recognized words and timing. Text captions and captured keyboard shortcuts are separate content with separate styling.

• Select a text caption to edit its wording, typography, background, position and highlighting. Keyboard captions show recorded shortcut steps.
• Use Audio to enable or mute sources, adjust volume and normalize supported audio. Select an individual audio clip for its own settings.
• Record through Add → Audio → Voiceover. Its countdown offers Off, 3, 5 or 10 seconds; monitoring project audio is optional. Check the resulting mix before exporting.
• Export transcript (JSON) saves enabled text captions with timeline timestamps. It excludes keyboard captions and does not create an SRT or VTT file.

Inspect the edit

The camera button in the canvas toolbar creates a Screenshot project from the current composed frame. Use it to annotate or export that frame as an image.

Save a look for the next video

Studio saves the composition and presentation after changes settle, so reopening restores the edit. Undo and redo keep up to 50 snapshots in the current editor session; this video history is not restored when you reopen the project.

• Video presets store reusable presentation, cursor, zoom and export defaults. Studio and Instant share them. Screenshot has its own preset library.
• Beam remembers ongoing changes in Default automatically. Named presets show unsaved changes and offer Save; use New, Rename and Delete to manage them.
• Presets reuse a look. Projects keep the actual timeline and source media; keep the project to revise a delivered video.

Default editing shortcuts

Change these bindings in Settings → Keyboard Shortcuts. Finish typing in a field or close a dialog before using an editing shortcut; focused inputs keep their normal text controls.