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BEATFORGE
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    Finding your way around

    Projects, the six workspaces, the status bar, the session log, undo and the command palette.

    Projects

    BEATFORGE opens on the project launcher: NEW PROJECT, OPEN PROJECT, and a list of RECENT PROJECTS. A new project is saved straight away, so it has a home for its proxies and autosaves before anything is imported.

    • CtrlS saves, CtrlShiftS saves a copy under a new name, and CtrlO opens another project.
    • Unsaved work shows as a dot after the project name, and BEATFORGE asks before closing it.
    • Every five minutes, unsaved changes are also written to an autosave file next to the project.

    The six workspaces

    The tabs along the top follow a project from footage to delivery. Each one has a keyboard shortcut.

    Tab Shortcut What it is for
    MEDIA Ctrl1 Import the shoot and set up each source.
    SYNC Ctrl2 Line every take up against the reference audio.
    GRID Ctrl3 Tempo, bars, sections, builds and drops.
    EDIT Ctrl4 Generate the cut, refine it, review moments.
    AUDIO Ctrl5 Mix and monitor the sound.
    DELIVER Ctrl6 Export to Premiere Pro or DaVinci Resolve.

    A workspace whose step has not been reached yet is shown dimmed, but still opens. It says what it is for, what is missing, and offers the button that fixes it.

    When an earlier step changes, later work says so instead of quietly disagreeing. Re-sync a camera or re-analyse the set, and the cut shows CUT IS STALE until you regenerate it.

    The status bar

    The strip along the bottom of the window is always there:

    • The stage: IMPORTED, SYNCED, ANALYSED and so on, or what is running now.
    • The last message. Click it to open the session log.
    • UNDO: what CtrlZ will take back next.
    • LOG: a count of failures this session, in red when there are any.
    • The sync progress, while a sync is running. Click it to bring the sync dashboard back.

    Undo everything

    CtrlZ undoes and CtrlY or CtrlShiftZ redoes, on every workspace. History covers every change you make: a nudged sync offset, a moved marker, a camera role, a regenerated cut, even a whole re-sync. A run of small nudges on one control counts as one step.

    Audio faders and the cut’s pacing dials are left where they are by undo. They are changed while listening, and an undo that also moved a fader would be a second edit nobody asked for.

    The session log

    CtrlShiftL opens a record of everything that happened this session, newest first. Errors say which file they were about, with REVEAL to show it in Explorer or Finder, and COPY puts the whole log on the clipboard. Notifications also appear briefly in the lower right. Errors stay there until you close them.

    Find any command

    • CtrlK opens the command palette. Type part of a command’s name and press Enter . A command that belongs to another workspace takes you there first.
    • ? shows every keyboard shortcut. Keys that belong to another workspace are dimmed. See Keyboard shortcuts.

    Reduce motion

    Choose Reduce motion in the command palette, or press CtrlShiftM , to make every transition in the interface instant. The choice is remembered.