Free beat-synced video editor in a DAW
A full video editor, free, on the beat grid
DonutStudio's video editor is free. Import footage, cut and trim on a beat-synced timeline, grade with scopes and LUTs, retime with frame interpolation, add transitions and text, then export at any resolution without a watermark. A tempo change retimes the edit because every timeline position is stored in beats. Pro adds the score-reactive Media Machine, which drives the picture from the composition.
- NLE tools on the beat grid: import, cut, trim, transitions, fades, text, and JKL shuttle
- Color grading with scopes and LUTs, stabilization, speed ramps, and geometry effects
- All frame interpolation included, up to RIFE motion-interpolated retiming
- Export at any resolution and framerate, H.264 or HEVC, no watermark, commercially usable
- Beat-warp footage to tempo with pitch-preserved audio through Signalsmith
A real video editor, on the beat grid
Every timeline position lives in beats. Change the tempo and cuts, transitions, fades, automation, and text move with the music. The editor also has a media pool with relinking and proxies, JKL shuttle, and a live preview viewport.
Beat-domain timeline
Placement, transitions, fades, automation, text, and export range all live in beats. A BPM change re-times the entire edit. Footage warps onto the grid by detected beat markers or a uniform manual BPM.
Import & warp footage
Bring in any clip and stretch it to tempo: tap-tempo warp from detected markers, or uniform manual-BPM. Audio re-renders pitch-preserved through Signalsmith. Choose how the picture retimes: Nearest, Frame-Blend, or RIFE motion-interpolated Speed-Warp.
Grade, effects, LUTs & transitions
Per-clip color grading with video scopes and stabilization, an effects rack with 9 geometry effects, 3D LUTs, transitions, speed ramps, and styled text overlays, all automatable on beat-locked lanes.
Export equals preview
Deterministic export renders the exact frames you previewed, at any canvas from 720p to 4K, horizontal or vertical. Offline render must equal online render, a standing principle here.
DonutStudio Pro · The Media Machine
Visuals that read the music
Pro adds GLSL shader clips with a built-in code editor and one-click imports from ISF or Shadertoy. Each frame receives a 128-voice note texture with pitch, cents, velocity, age, frequency, JI ratio, and prime-exponent coordinates. It also receives the root path, chord aggregates, and about one bar of lookahead. Multipass and feedback buffers are supported.
Harmonic Strings draws each playing note as a string. Links vibrate at the a:b standing waves of their ratios. Pure just intonation stands still while tempered intervals shimmer, so the picture shows the tuning directly.
The timeline also accepts solid, gradient, image, GPU particle, SDF raymarch, and adjustment clips. HDR bloom runs at the end of the composite. Per-clip Lua or JavaScript can set parameters from JI cents, prime coordinates, notes, and chord state on every frame.
Route music into the picture
The Pro modulation matrix connects a musical source to a visual parameter with depth, curve, and mode controls. Change the music and the routing follows it. Sources can drive effects, transforms, text, and shader inputs.
Music drives image
Kick velocity → kaleidoscope segments. Bass pitch → spiral rotation speed. Lead ADSR → bloom. Root change → scene wipe. Prime-7 energy → shimmer. Wire any musical signal to any visual parameter and it holds in export.
Ratio-native sources
The harmonic ratio itself modulates: integer numerator/denominator as discrete symmetry drivers (3/2 → 3-against-2 geometry), beating rate, Tenney-height consonance. This is math no FFT can recover.
Envelopes & LFOs
Per-track ADSR retriggered by that track's note-ons, plus BPM-synced LFOs. It's the same modulation math as DonutStudio's Sybil-16 synth, written as pure functions of beat time.
Geometric & feedback effects
The visualizer staple kit as ordered passes: kaleidoscope, mirror, tile, warp, displace, and persistent feedback trails. "Spiral shader → kaleidoscope on the result" is a two-liner.
For developers & toolmakers
Shaders, edit decisions, modulation routes, and motion graphics are represented as text. An agent can create them through MCP, inspect the result, and export. The same project remains editable from the normal panels.
Author over MCP
Create generator and shader clips, set effects, wire mod routings, and drive the timeline from a chat prompt. Every feature ships with its tool.
Verify the result
Frame hashes, scopes, viewport info, and deterministic export let an agent confirm what it made, the same verification the humans use.
Skills & free content
Installable agent skills plus a free content tier of house shaders, MIT-licensed ISF packs, LUTs, and mod-matrix presets, all through the in-app content store. The bundled 327-shader Vidvox pack ships in the box. Nothing soft-licensed is baked into the binary.
Bring footage in without leaving DonutStudio
Search openly-licensed footage, pull a clip from a URL, or install video packs from the content store.
Footage browser & URL download
Search and import free, openly-licensed footage from NASA, the Internet Archive, and Wikimedia straight from the footage browser, or paste a URL and pull a clip down via system yt-dlp.
Media pool & shuttle
A media pool with relink and proxies, plus JKL shuttle in the live preview viewport.
In-app content store
Shader packs, LUTs, and video clips also install from the in-app content store, including the bundled 327-shader Vidvox pack.
Bring your music to the screen
The video editor ships with DonutStudio. Pro adds the score-reactive Media Machine, which lets your tuning drive the picture.