MAGIX Fastcut Manual Manual

2

www.magix.com

Copyright

This documentation is protected by law. All rights, especially the right to duplicate,
circulate, and translate, are reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced in the form of copies, microfilms or
other processes, or transmitted into a language used for machines, especially data
processing machines, without the express written consent of the publisher.

All copyrights reserved.

All other product names are trademarks of the corresponding manufacturers. Errors in
and changes to the contents as well as program modifications reserved.

MAGIX is a registered trademark of MAGIX AG.

Other mentioned product names may be registered trademarks of their respective
owners. MAGIX licensing conditions are made clear in the installation process and
can also be found at www.magix.com, under "EULA". This product uses MAGIX
patent technology.

Copyright © MAGIX Software GmbH, 2014. All rights reserved.

Preface 3

Preface

Welcome to MAGIX Fastcut

MAGIX Fastcut is the perfect tool for all action cam owners. It requires very little time
to learn how to use and gets straight to the point. Just like the motto says: "Straight to
the action!"

The start wizard helps you create perfectly edited videos (even directly from the
camera) and offers fitting templates for all uses - with cuts and music for every taste.
MAGIX Fastcut's premade effects settings save you tons of time and work.

Of course, you can always create your videos manually without the wizard. Thanks to
tons of transition templates and detailed effects settings you can also easily create
videos with customized editing and dubbing.

There are also many export options available, ranging from saving files locally on your
PC to uploading to internet platforms.

We don't want to take up any more of your time, so we'll let you get started using the
program. And get "straight to the action".

Enjoy!

Your MAGIX Team

4

www.magix.com

Table of Contents

Copyright 2
Preface 3
Support 6
Serial number 8
Key features 9
Tips for Program Help 10
Personal tips from Tilman Herberger 11

GoPro action cam settings 11
Connecting your GoPro to your PC 13
From GoPro to PC 13
Effects 16
Publish 17

Program start 18

Select video clips 19
Select template 20

Program interface 22

Video monitor 24

Template mode 26

Edit Video 26
Insert Title 28
Sound and music 29

Manual editing mode 30

Manual cut 30
Insert Transitions 31
Sound and music 32

Finish movie 34

Save on computer 34
Upload to Internet 35
Export to a mobile device 36

Dialog and Interface Reference 37

Edit objects 37

Table of Contents 5

Display duration... 41
Clean-up Wizard 42
Object properties 42
Project settings 43
Program settings 43

Menu Reference 45

File Menu 45
Edit Menu 48
Effects Menu 50
Share Menu 52
Help Menu 52

MAGIX Online World 54

MAGIX Online Album 54
MAGIX Website Maker 54
Catooh – the Online Content Library 54
MAGIX News Center 54

Glossary 55
Index 70

6

www.magix.com

Support

Dear MAGIX customer,

Our aim is to provide fast, convenient, solution-focused support at all times. To this
end, we offer a wide range of services:

• Unlimited web support:

As a registered MAGIX customer, you have unlimited access to web support
offered via the convenient MAGIX service portal on http://support.magix.net,
including an intelligent help assistant, high-quality FAQs, patches and user
reports that are constantly updated.
The only requirement for use is product registration at www.magix.com

• The online community, on-the-spot support and a platform for exchange:

MAGIX customers have free and unlimited access to the online community at
www.magix.info, which includes approx. 150,000 members and offers the
opportunity to ask members questions concerning MAGIX products as well as
use the search function to search for specific topics or answers. In addition to
questions & answers, the knowledge pool includes a glossary, video tutorials and
a discussion forum. The multiple experts, found round-the-clock at
www.magix.info guarantee quick answers, which sometimes come within
minutes of a question being posted.

• Email support for MAGIX products:

For each new MAGIX product you will automatically receive 12 months free
customer support by email.

• Premium Email Support:

For priority support, or if you want the support team to help with non-MAGIX
related hardware problems you can purchase a premium email support ticket.
Proceed as follows:

1. Go to the MAGIX customer support page at http://support.magix.net

http://support.magix.net.

2. Si

gn in using your login details.

3. Click on "Purchase access code" in the navigation bar.

Each ticket corresponds to a specific problem, it will remain valid until the
problem has been solved. A ticket is not limited to a single email.

Please note: To be able to use the Premium email support and free product email
support via the Internet, you have to register your MAGIX product using the serial
number provided. The serial number can be found on the sleeve of the installation
disc or on an insert card included in the package.

• Additional telephone service:

Besides the large number of free customer service offers, we also offer a fee­based telephone customer service.

Support 7

Here you can find a summary of our technical support telephone numbers:

http://support.magix.net/

Mail (Europe): MAGIX Development Support, P.O. Box 20 09 14, 01194 Dresden,
Germany

Mail (North America): MAGIX Customer Service, 1105 Terminal Way #302, Reno,
NV 89502, USA

Please make sure you have the following information at hand:

• Program version

• Configuration details (operating system, processor, memory, hard drive, etc.),

sound card configuration (type, driver)

• Information regarding other audio software installed

MAGIX Sales Department

You can reach the MAGIX Sales Department workdays for help with the following
questions and problems:

• Orders

• Product consulting (pre-purchase)

• Upgrade requests

• Returns

Europe

Monday - Friday, 09:00-16:00 GMT

U.K.: 0203 3189218

Denmark: 45 699 18763

Sweden: 46 852 500713

Finland: 35 89 42419023

Norway: 47 210 35843

North America

9 am to 4 pm EST Mon-Fri

Phone: [phone]

8

www.magix.com

Serial number

A serial number is included with each product. This serial number is required for
software activation. Please store this number in a safe place.

What does a serial number do?

With a serial number your program license is clearly assigned to you and only you.
This allows you take advantage of the free email customer service.

Serial numbers also help to protect against software piracy. This makes it possible for
us to offer our customers the best value for their money.

Where can the serial number be found?

The serial number can be found on the reverse side of your CD/DVD case. If your
product is packed in a DVD box, you'll find the serial number on the inside.

If you have purchased the download version, you will receive a confirmation email
with the serial number that you can use to activate the program. This will be sent
immediately after purchase to the email address used for the order process.

When will you need the serial number?

The serial number is required when you start the program the first time and for
program registration.

Using the serial number on another computer

If you want to use the serial number on another computer or after reinstalling your
operating system, you must deactivate (view page 53) the program on your current
PC.

This "rel

eases" the serial number from the current computer so that it can be used on

another.

Note: You can also deactivate the program in the MAGIX Service Center, but it is
much more convenient to do this with the integrated feature in MAGIX Fastcut.

Key features 9

Key features

Supports all standard action cams

MAGIX Fastcut lets you import and edit (view page 19) videos from all standard
action cams models.

Movie Wizard for automatic video editing

Let MAGIX Fastcut do the work. Just provide the clips you want to use in your
finished video. The template mode (view page 25) contains action templates for tons
of differe

nt applications, such as bike trips and surf videos.

Transitions and effects

In MAGIX Fastcut's manual mode, you can apply exciting transitions (view page 31)
to make your movie stand out. There are also tons of effects templates available.

Music and audio editing

In the templates you will find fitting music tracks which perfectly match the cut of the
video. Of course, you can also accentuate your video's original sound and mix it with
the music. In the manual editing mode you can load your own music tracks and adjust
them to fit your video clips (view page 32).

You can opt

imize your video's original sound with audio filters and even remove wind

noise (view page 29).

Proxy video editing optimized for GoPro

HD and 4K recordings in particular put high performance demands on your computer.
For this reason, MAGIX Fastcut can create LVR files (view page 19) during import.
These fil

es have a significantly lower resolution and are used in place of the original
videos during editing. Of course, the high resolution original videos are used during
export to unsure high-quality results.

Automatic enhancements

MAGIX Fastcut offers many useful Wizards to make things easier. Image stabilization
automatically corrects shaky footage and removes distortions caused by your GoPro's
wide-angle lens. The automatic color and brightness setting wizard helps you find the
perfect settings.

Unlimited further uses

Your finished videos can be exported for all typical uses (view page 33) thanks to the
useful output wizard. This allows you to present your videos on your TV or
smartphone as well as upload them to social platforms such as YouTube and showfy.

10

www.magix.com

Tips for Program Help

When the program is open, you can access the Help feature by pressing F1 on your
keyboard. The program Help contains tips on how to use the program and lots of
additional information. Many important terms are indicated in the text in italics.
Simply click on these terms for a more detailed explanation of what they mean.

Context Help: Press the "F1" key on your keyboard at any point in the open program
and Help will open with the matching help topic.

Search function: This feature can be used to look for specific words in the Help
section. Enter either the individual word or use logical operators (e. g. OR, AND,
NEAR) to refine your search if you have several search words.

• OR (between two words): all topics which contain both words or one of the

words will be listed.

• AND (between two words): only those topics will be listed which contain both

words.

• NEAR (between two words): only those topics will be listed which contain both

words. A maximum of 6 additional words are allowed between two search
words.

• NOT (before a word): topics which contain this word will not be listed.

Print: The print function can be used to print out specific Help topics or entire topic
sections. The print button is located at the very top of the toolbar in the Help window.

Personal tips from Tilman Herberger 11

Personal tips from Tilman Herberger

Hi, I´m Tilman Herberger, chief developer at MAGIX Software GmbH.

For many years i´ve been using GoPro action cams for my hobbies such as skiing,
biking and aerial photography using my quadrocopter. That's why I´m very proud to
introduce MAGIX Fastcut for super high speed editing and improving GoPro clips.

I´d like to give you – especially the action cam beginner – some tips based on
my experience in this area. This will help you to achieve good results in a very short
time using the right GoPro settings and the best tools in MAGIX Fastcut.

GoPro action cam settings

Video format

State-of-the-art action cams support many different video formats. If you have lots of
time, try them all and find out which meet your needs best.

My tip: Use the full HD format. That means 1080 lines. For really fast movement in
your videos, use 50 or 60 frames, but in most cases also 25 or 30 frames per
second are enough.
Advantage over higher resolutions: These settings keep editing slick and fluid and
the resulting file sizes are moderate. A typical HD TV shows the same format –
1080 lines.

12

www.magix.com

Angle settings

When using a 1080 video format the GoPro 3 and 4 support three different view
angles: Wide (W), Medium (M) and Narrow (N).

In my experience, the medium angle (M) works best for most situations:

• All objects in front of the camera are in the picture.

• The wide angle distortion is moderate and can be easily compensated in

MAGIX Fastcut.

When using the W setting you have to deal with massive distortions and some
objects appear really small. When using N, some important objects might not be in
the picture.

PAL or NTSC?

Hidden in the GoPro settings, you can find the switch between the American video
system (NTSC) and the European setting (PAL).

If you live in Europe, I recommend that you switch to PAL. Only in PAL mode can you
use common European frame rates like 25 or 50 frames per second.

Using NTSC you get 30 or 60 fps, which is OK for Internet media, but not perfect for
European televisions.

Here you can see the GoPro settings I use for most recordings - with 1080, 50 fps and
a medium angle setting:

Personal tips from Tilman Herberger 13

Connecting your GoPro to your PC

You can connect your GoPro to your PC using a USB cable, then switch it on and
access the clips.

But my tip is: If your PC or notebook has an SD- or micro-SD card slot: Take the small
micro SD card out of your GoPro and attach it to this slot.

Advantage: Much faster data access compared to a USB cable.

This lets you edit your clips more fluidly! This way you can create small editing
projects with MAGIX Fastcut directly from your SD card without the need of copying
large files to your PC, which can easily take 15 minutes or more. A unique MAGIX
Fastcut advantage!

From GoPro to PC

Should I use Direct Import or Copy to hard drive?

MAGIX Fastcut offers two ways to access your GoPro clips:

• Import: The large clips stay on your SD card, they are accessed directly via USB,

or better, via an SD card reader.
Advantage: No time is lost to time consuming copy processes, and editing can

start immediately. This way you can show template-based results in less than
three minutes, while users of other tools still have to wait to finish the Import
procedure.

• Copy: Using the Copy mode all video data is copied from your GoPro to the PCs

hard drive. This takes time and space.

14

www.magix.com

But the advantage is: Normally the hard drive is faster than the SD card. This
makes later editing more fluid. Besides that, you get a backup copy of your clips.

My personal tip is:
Use copy mode if, for example, you are going to start a big editing session of an
unrecoverable recording.
For all other projects – where speed matters – I use the direct import mode,
for example if it's only the ski clip of the day.

Should I use templates or manual editing?

MAGIX Fastcut offers the fascinating option to automatically apply professionally
created project templates to your clips. The program makes dozens of perfectly
aligned cuts – you will be surprised how impressive this looks with your own video
material!

If one of the clips doesn´t fit right, you can easily trim it afterwards using the trim
tools below the video monitor.

My tip: Give some of the templates a chance before starting with time-consuming
manual editing! Often you will get near-perfect results using a template and need to
make only a few small manual corrections - and all this can be done in a fraction of
the time of a complete manual edit.

Help! My video doesn´t play smoothly!

No need to panic – sometimes it is possible that the video preview in MAGIX Fastcut
jumps if your PC is overloaded. But this is only the preview! Your final video will be
exported fluidly – you can count on this!

Personal tips from Tilman Herberger 15

Here some tips for a slick preview:

• Activate the LRV option in the import dialog.

GoPro cameras create Low Resolution Videos (LRV) together with most high
resolution videos. MAGIX Fastcut can use these LRVs for a quicker preview.

Even if the video quality is quite poor, the final export quality will be in the finest
HD, of course!

• Use a fast SD card reader instead of accessing the clips via USB cable. Or copy

the clips to your hard drive using the "Copy" import option.

• Use only the video quality you really need, for example 1080 or 720 lines. This

reduces the load on your PC compared to 2.7K or 4K videos.

16

www.magix.com

Effects

MAGIX Fastcut offers a wide range of video effects.

For action clips the following effects are very useful:

"Optimize" (1) effects page

• Lens Correction (2): With this tool it

is easy to correct a bent horizon or
other crooked lines in your clips. Just
select the right GoPro setting
("Narrow", "Medium" or "Wide")
and use the slider to fine tune.

• Image stabilization (3): Often action

clips are a little bit shaky, e.g. after a
rough ski ride. Shaky clips can
usually be stabilized, making them
look smoother and softer.

"Color" (4) effects page

• Auto Brightness (5): Sometimes the colors in GoPro clips look a bit soft and dull.

In this case it helps to activate the Auto Brightness option to generate brilliant
colors!

• Back light correction (6): This effect is very helpful for creating nicer colors in

shadows and dark areas in your clips. It is perfect for optimizing a sunset
atmosphere.

"Speed" effects page

• Slow motion/Fast motion: Sometimes your action clip does not look as fast as it

felt while filming it. It may help to increase the video speed by a certain factor.
Try out 1.2 to 1.3 to create the look of rapid action rides. But don't overdo it!

Personal tips from Tilman Herberger 17

Publish

Of course, you'll want to share the videos you've made with MAGIX Fastcut.

MAGIX Fastcut has built-in export modules for MP4 files, as well as YouTube and
Facebook upload.

But sometimes you don't want to show your clips to everybody, e. g. if people who
you do not know personally or do not wish to be filmed appear in them. MAGIX
developed showfy for precisely those cases when you only want to share your photos
and videos with a few friends and family.

For example, I use a showfy stream for my quadrocopter clips. Only some friends with
the same hobby are invited to watch them.

However, I upload clips from my latest bike tour to the "biking friends" stream, and
only the participants of the trip can access these videos.

And best of all: My invited stream guests can also upload their own videos into the
stream, so it grows and shows the best of all participants.

So far that's all for now – I'm happy to receive your personal feedback on MAGIX
Fastcut. You can be sure that we will improve the program consistently – and I will
make sure of this out of personal interest!

Tilman Herberger

18

www.magix.com

Program start

• Start MAGIX Fastcut by double-clicking the program icon on the desktop or by

accessing MAGIX Fastcut via the Windows Start menu.

The first time the program is started, you will have to enter the serial number. More
information about this can be found in the chapter "Serial number" (view page 7).

New video project:This is where you create a new project. MAGIX Fastcut
automatically creates a subfolder for the newly created video project bearing the
same name as the project itself. In the dialog that follows, you can load the video clips
you want to work with.

Load video project: Previously saved video projects can be loaded again and further
edited (view page 26).

View introduc

tion video: This video describes the basics in MAGIX Fastcut. It's

especially interesting for beginners who have little or no experience with digital video
editing.

Load recently opened projects: Here you can open projects that you have recently
worked on.

Program start 19

Select video clips

1. Remove the storage card from your action cam and insert it into the

corresponding card reader slot.
or

1. connect your camera to your computer and turn it on.

2. Switch your camera to playback mode. The computer will normally recognize

the camera automatically.

Tip: Check the battery level and if necessary plug the camera into the wall socket.

2. If your camera or storage card are not automatically recognized, click on the

Update list (3) button in MAGIX Fastcut.
If automatic recognition opens the wrong path, you can

- select the connected device or drive letter from the list (2).

- You can enter a completely different storage location in the "Select own

folder" entry.

3. Now select the clips you want to use for the movie from the clip list (1). This

procedure is identical to using Windows® Explorer™.
You can play back the last selected clip in the preview monitor (4).
Additional selection aids:

- In the clip list (1) you can select all clips with "All" or deselect with "None".

- Each clip has a check box next to it which can be used to individually select

and deselect clips.

4. Specify if you want the clips to be directly "imported" or "copied" first (7).

5. Many action cams also generate a so-called LVR stream (Low Video Resolution)

in the video file. If the clips contain an LVR stream, activate the "Improve
performance for editing (LVR)" (6) option.

20

www.magix.com

proves

.

6.

If the vide

o clips do not contain an LVR stream, MAGIX Fastcut will generate this
file when the option is activated. This can be very time-consuming, but it im
editing speed in MAGIX Fastcut considerably

Click on the "

Continue" (5) button.

The selection page for movie templates (view page 20) will appear.

Select template

On this page you can select the movie template you want to use for your video clips.

To do this, proceed as follows:

MAGIX Fastcut will immed

iately play back a preview of the selected template in

mplate, press the "

Apply template to n

1. Select one of the templates (1).

the preview monitor (4).

2. Once you have found the right te

clip(s)" (2) button.

Note: n = The number of video clips selected on the previous page

MAGIX Fastcut generates a new movie out of the previously selected video clips

3. e transport controls in the preview monitor( 4) to play back the generated

4. s, press the "Use template" (5) button.

).

IX Fastcut then "shuff

les" the video clips again.

using th

e template selected here.

Use th
movie.
If you are satisfied with the result

MAGIX Fastcut then makes the ge

nerated film available for further editing (view

page 25

5. If you want to make changes, you have the following options:

- Press the "Apply template to n clip (s) again"(2) button.

MAG

Program start 21

-

plate to n clip(s)" (2)

provided length.

"Use template" (5) button and ad

just the movie as you want.

-

the

-

To add more video clips, press the "Back" 7 button.
This opens the previous video clip selection dialog.
Manually set the Length (3) and press the "Apply tem

butt

on.

MAGIX Fastcut will generate a new movie with the

- Repeat the previous steps with another template (1).

- Press the

Press the "Do not use template" (6) button to start editing the mov

ie

without a template.
MAGIX Fastcut loads the selected video clips into the movie and enters

manual editing mode (view page 29).

22

www.magix.com

Program interface

Menu bar: (view page 45) This contains most of the important MAGIX Fastcut
functions.

Video monitor: (view page 23) Disp

lays a preview of the movie when playback is
started. When you select an object (9), it is displayed here along with any set
effects (3).

Double-clicking on the preview monitor switches to full screen view.

Editing area for objects: There are various effects areas available for optimizing
slideshow objects, displaying text, editing sound, etc.

Finish: (view page 33) Whe

n you are finished arranging and editing your movie,
you can save it locally to your computer, export it to a mobile device or make it
available online.

Add media: (view page 26) A

dd videos and background music to your movies to

make them more varied.

Manual editing (view page 29): Allows you to make manual cuts and cha

nge the

background music. Activating manual editing cannot be undone.

Time display (view page 23): The current ti

me position of the playback marker is

displayed here.

Contents bar (view page 23): When an obj

ect is selected, the time section of the

video clip in the object is moved with this bar.

Program interface 23

Cut buttons: These buttons allow you to quickly split and remove object parts.

Note: These buttons are only available if "Manual editing" (5) (view page 29) is

activated.

Selected object: When an object is selected, it is highlighted, and additional
information is displayed on top of it. The playback marker will be moved to the
start of the object and the preview can be seen in the video monitor (2).

Settings in the editing area (3) always effect the selected object.

Background music: When background music is added manually or as part of a
template, it appears here as a bar. In manual editing mode (5) (view page 29)
you can adjust

the length and start time of the background music by using the

handles.

Transport console (view page 23): Use the transport butt

ons to start and stop
playback, move forward and backward within the project and jump back to the
very beginning.

Arranger with 2 tracks: Images and objects are displayer in the 1. track. The
background music (10) appears in the second track.