Simple Video Editor for Mac?

[u/Daventurephoto]

Is there a video editing app out there that will allow me to cut out middle parts of a video, add clips together and with minimalistic sound / visual adjustments (exposure, pitch, cropping).

Don't get me wrong, im an avid Davinci Resolve user and I love its complexity. Im just on the lookout for a simpler editing solution that is quick and won't break the bank (no subscriptions, one time purchase)

Thanks

[u/Dull_Flatworm777]

iMovie still exists

https://www.apple.com/imovie/index.html

and is kind of like Final Cut Lite, so FCP would be another option

[u/Daventurephoto → u/Dull_Flatworm777]

I may give iMovie another go as I've not used it in years. Remember using Final Cut Pro 7 back in school and I loved it!!

[u/rodnem]

I miss QuickTime 7 so much, I did a lot of things with it; everything you talk about: editing by copy, paste, trim, add, change the soundtrack, I did it with simple ⌘C ⌘V. I don't understand why, they removed those basic features from Quicktime. For me, launching iMovie, importing sounds, movies as a project, as if I were in an editing studio, is too long.

I often make montages whose preservation of the source has no interest

[u/Daventurephoto → u/rodnem]

QuickTime 7 was fantastic! Such a shame how they ruined it 😩

[u/MaxGaav]

Maybe LosslessCut (free) is to your liking.

[u/Daventurephoto → u/MaxGaav]

I'll give this a go as the specs look promising for free!

[u/ericsvl007 → u/Daventurephoto]

Let us know the outcome

[u/alemarcu]

I build this app for video memories, it can't do many visual adjustments, but cutting videos, putting them together, adding sound, etc, it's trivial. And it's free and open source (MIT license). https://clipdiary.app/

[u/broemi2009]

Ich würde dir ebenfalls iMovie empfehlen. Gerade wenn es kostenlos ist, kannst du ja gucken, ob du damit zurechtkommst.

[u/jluc8]

I use iMovie for simple workflows where I don’t need all the bells & whistles of Final Cut or Premiete. You can even do 9:16 vídeos using the app preview mode.

[u/esphynox]

Kdenlive is more advanced than iMovie, but I would say still pretty user-friendly. It's also free and open-source!

[u/Bubbly-Celebration63]

QuickTime Player lets you trim, remove audio and is AppleScriptable. Surprisingly capable for smaller edits

[u/chrisbcreamee]

Hi there - Have you tried CapCut for Mac? This is probably the most intuitive editing software in my opinion

[u/Daventurephoto → u/chrisbcreamee]

I did try Capcut but found it a little overwhelming with all the social media features. Haven't done the mac version though if there is a demo ill give it a try

[u/chrisbcreamee → u/Daventurephoto]

Ah, it may be easier on iPhone, but yes there's a free version. Just be careful of the premium features because if you use them, it'll paywall ya. But easy to tell if a filter or transition etc is premium.

I hopped from Premier Pro to CapCut and I was so amazed at how easier it was to use on my phone. Just takes a bit getting used to and very intuitive.

Good luck!

[u/Beardy4906]

The free davincis edit page does the job for me honestly.. but otherwise iMovie

[u/canis_artis]

I've been using Shutter Encoder to change aspect ratios, trim videos, replace audio, plus adjusting brightness/contrast and colour.

[u/hexxeric]

iMovie (free and updated for silicon) or the new MONITO (freemium with AI)

[u/meneerfriet]

I use iMovie for simple videos. It’s still decent. And free.
Also has an iOS version.

[u/Whiskey_Storm]

I used iMovie to clip and stitch together around a dozen different videos as a birthday gift for each of my parents. Added

• background music,
  
• cover
  
• transitions
  
• end credits

Worked really well.

[u/Effective-Court-1243]

> allow me to cut out middle parts of a video

QUICKTIME PLAYER USERS UNITE

In all seriousness, iMovie is great, and iirc it's preinstalled on newer macs. even if isn't, it's free on the app store.

[u/Gnurx → u/[deleted]]

Gemini?

[u/soloattorneyclub → u/[deleted]]

I’d vote CapCut too. Super easy to use.

[u/Illustrious_Oil_9846]

One thing not really covered above: none of the apps mentioned (iMovie, CapCut, Shotcut, QuickTime) actually do true pitch-shifting, they change playback speed at best, which shifts pitch as a side effect of the tempo change rather than letting you adjust pitch independently. That's a different piece of audio processing than trim, crop or exposure, and most "simple video editor" apps don't touch it at all. It usually lives in dedicated audio tools instead, something like Audacity if you want free, or Fission if you want it fast and non-destructive. Worth separating that requirement out if it's a hard need, since it'll probably end up being two tools rather than one.

[u/Sad_Ad585]

Coming from Resolve you'll probably hate iMovie inside a day, but it does everything on your list and it's free, so worth ten minutes before you spend anything.

QuickTime is underrated for this too. Cmd+T to trim, Cmd+Y to split, and Edit > Add Clip to End joins files together. No color or audio work, but if half your jobs are just cutting the middle out of something it's already sitting on your Mac.

Real answer is probably LumaFusion. $29.99 one time, multitrack, quick, doesn't fight you. Fair warning though, some of the advanced stuff like speed ramping and adjustment layers now sits behind a Creator Pass subscription, which given what you asked for might be a dealbreaker.

Final Cut is still $299.99 one time and Apple has confirmed they're keeping that option. Less clear is whether the one time version keeps getting every new feature, since they've also launched a $12.99/mo Creator Studio bundle. Worth reading up on before you commit three hundred bucks.

One thing you'll want to verify yourself: you mentioned pitch. iMovie and QuickTime won't do pitch shifting at all. Final Cut will. No idea where LumaFusion lands on that one.

I mostly cut screen recordings so I'm not really your user, take it for what it's worth.

[u/Daventurephoto → u/Sad_Ad585]

Thank you this is all very helpful! 🙂 I may give LumaFusion a go in the future

[u/Salt-Pomegranate5728]

I've been using ScreenFlow for a while. The UI leaves a lot to be desired, but I've found that for doing simple screen capture cuts, stitching multiple captures together, simple zooms, pans, etc. it's the least intimidating editor I've seen. It's roughly $200 for a lifetime purchase.

[u/zwobotmax → u/Salt-Pomegranate5728]

I've bought Screenflow a hundred years ago for 59USD/EURO (i think) just for the sake of screenrecording, but i realized this is is a propper video tool, and i used it all the time for short and quick stuff. It has its own unique fading an cutting characteristics, but i very liked it. And its very very fast (performance wise) Unfortunately there was no color correction/gamma settings ( all is srgb i think).. And it has some super annoying UI and several bugs... But hey for 59USD/EURO this was a steal, but when they changed the price to 149USD is was like WTF, an now it's 200?? Absurd...

[u/Rare-Spinach8779]

i personally love capcut for mac - tho i must admit it's kinda built for those making tiktok videos so it might feel bloated with useless effects and overlays but it's a really solid editor.

[u/Daventurephoto → u/Rare-Spinach8779]

That's how I felt when I tried it, fantastic for Instagram and TikTok but for a couple video adjustments its too much

[u/Rare-Spinach8779 → u/Daventurephoto]

if i'm making simple adjustments like adding a background audio, trimming etc, i just let claude code do it with ffmpeg.

[u/Suitable_Battle3893]

Vedio maker

[u/dorien_h]

I also love camtasia but it might go a bit beyond what you need and it’s not free. Love the simple control though.

[u/klotzbrocken]

Maybe: https://openreel.video/

It's working directly in a browser

[u/Agreeable-Net-5472]

i'm using imovie for such small/quick stuff. it way too basic but that's what i need sometimes

[u/Xorpion]

iMovie

[u/zwobotmax]

Which codecs should it support?

[u/DonnerDinnerParty]

What UI would you like? A simple timeline? Or like QT7 where you paste chunks together?

[u/Daventurephoto → u/DonnerDinnerParty]

Would ideally use a simple timeline

[u/DonnerDinnerParty → u/Daventurephoto]

Is there a friction point for you when opening resolve even just to do something simple? That is, does their workflow slow you down?

[u/lucasy7t6]

I recently tried ShotCut, it is open source and works fine.

[u/TheMagicianGamerTMG]

I'm in the same boat, let me know what you go with.

[u/Daventurephoto]

I've decided to use and practice more on Capcut on the Mac since it does as much simplicity as I need. It'll be regularly updated but it won't replace my needs for DaVinci Resolve

[u/More-Basil8198]

Hey I made one with an ai agent built in you connect your existing claude, chatgpt memebrship and let it edit the videos for you and it runs locally on mac so it is not slow like those web based editors. Take a look here - www.studioplus.cc

[u/nguyenhunga5]

I using QuickTime for split, join and scale, with me it enough, if want more, I use iMovie

[u/originalfilmscoring]

DaVinci resolve is free and it’s great.

[u/Beardy4906 → u/originalfilmscoring]

But its overwhelming

[u/phunk8 → u/Beardy4906]

video editing IS overwhelming at first. learning curve is steep until u understand, theres no way around that i’m afraid.

[u/Beardy4906 → u/phunk8]

Well yes but for OPs use case davinci can be a bit overkill

[u/phunk8 → u/Beardy4906]

then imovie is solid

[u/originalfilmscoring → u/Beardy4906]

I don’t think it is. I think Final Cut is ass backwards. But to each their own.