THE FIRST CUT. STILL YOUR CALL.

Less scrubbing.
More creating.

Turn one messy recording into a reviewed Final Cut Pro timeline. RoughCut handles the first pass. You have the final say.

Get RoughCut for Mac Explore the workflow

5 complete rough cuts free. Every Pro feature included.

APPLE SILICON · macOS 26.5+ · NO ACCOUNT

02 / REVIEWYou stay the editor

From all the takes. To your take.

Workflow illustration

ONE CONTINUOUS RECORDING

AFTER YOUR REVIEW

Your decisions shape the final timeline.

Made for the way you edit Native on Mac Built for Final Cut Pro Local by default English + Arabic

WATCH · 4 MIN

From install to your first cut,
in four minutes.

API keys, your first rough cut and the export to Final Cut Pro, narrated with captions. Every step is also written out in the guide.

RoughCut Getting Started | API Keys and Your First Edit (English)

Set up RoughCut and create your first reviewed timeline for Final Cut Pro. This English walkthrough covers OpenAI and Gemini keys, provider billing, importing a recording, reviewing cuts, and exporting.

Loads YouTube's privacy-enhanced player only after you press play. Nothing is requested from YouTube before that; YouTube's own terms and privacy policy apply once it plays.

0:00 Welcome

0:30 OpenAI: open the dashboard

1:10 Gemini: open AI Studio

1:50 Check the model and estimate

2:00 Start your first cut

3:10 Export for Final Cut Pro

Watch on YouTube

Read the written getting-started guide

01 / THE WORKFLOW

From first take
to first cut.

A shorter path through the repetitive part. More room for the work that makes it yours.

RoughCut studio with a file drop zone and recording settings

01 / 03

One recording. Your starting point.

Drop in your talking-head recording or an audio-only file, or send it from Final Cut Pro. On-device transcription turns it into a starting point for the edit.

Real review interface with reversible Keep and Remove decisions

02 / 03

The proposal is AI. The judgment is yours.

Review proposed silences, false starts, retakes and tangents. Keep what belongs, remove what does not, and rebuild without another transcription or AI call.

An annotated RoughCut timeline in Final Cut Pro with color-coded decisions

03 / 03

Your timeline. Ready for the finishing touches.

Export frame-accurate FCPXML linked to your original media. With Pro, export the annotated review timeline alongside it in one step and inspect every proposed cut inside Final Cut.

02 / BUILT AROUND YOUR JUDGMENT

Every cut has a reason.
You have the last word.

01 · ROUGHCUT PRO

Review by colour inside Final Cut

With RoughCut Pro, a job can also export an annotated review timeline in which nothing is deleted. Each retake, false start, tangent, filler and noise span stays on the Final Cut Pro timeline as a colour-coded clip named after the decision, so you audition every cut where you already work, and remove a whole category in one move from the Timeline Index.

Delete every coloured clip and you have the regular cut, frame for frame. Silences are already removed unless you ask for them as clips.

RoughCut review timeline imported into Final Cut Pro: retakes, false starts, tangents and noise shown as colour-coded clips, with the Timeline Index listing each decision and its reason.

02 · INCLUDED FREE

Transcription, free forever

Use the same hallucination-resistant on-device transcription pipeline without making a rough cut. It needs no AI key, consumes no trial run, and exports SRT captions or plain text.

English and Arabic are tuned and tested, with automatic language detection.

RoughCut Transcribe Only screen with local transcription and SRT export controls

03 · PRIVATE BY DEFAULT

Your workflow is local unless you choose otherwise

On-device transcription is the private, free default. The optional editing pass sends transcript text directly to OpenAI or Gemini under your own key—never through RoughCut servers.

If you explicitly choose Pro Cloud Transcription, that job's audio goes directly to OpenAI using your key. The choice is shown before processing.

RoughCut settings showing local models and API keys protected by the macOS Keychain

FRAMEFrame-accurate FCPXML

Cuts align to the source footage's real frame boundaries.

CONTROLYou stay the editor

Listen, flip a decision, and rebuild without repeating the expensive work.

BYO KEYYour provider, your costs

OpenAI is the default and Gemini is supported; silence-only cutting needs no key.

Built for

Voice-driven footage with a messy first take

Best fit

YouTube videos, tutorials, courses, vlogs, podcasts, screen demos and presentations.

Not the target

Music-led edits, multicamera storytelling, or a finished video editor that replaces Final Cut Pro.

Pricing

Try it properly.
Then own the core.

The core is a one-time purchase, not another editing subscription. RoughCut Pro is an optional layer of smart conveniences.

Core path lifetime

015 complete rough cuts free

No account, no card, no time limit, and every Pro feature is included in those five. Transcribe Only stays free and does not consume a cut.

02One-time core unlock

Local transcription, AI edit proposals, review, recompute and frame-accurate export for life.

Download free on the Mac App Store

The optional AI editing pass uses your own OpenAI or Gemini key and is billed directly by that provider. Prices shown in the App Store are localized for your region.

FAQ

A few things
worth knowing.

Not answered here? The documentation covers every screen and setting, and troubleshooting is organised by what you can see.

Can RoughCut remove silence from my videos automatically?

Yes. RoughCut detects and removes silences with recording-environment presets. RoughCut Pro adds Smart Silence, which measures the recording's noise floor and chooses the threshold. With an OpenAI or Gemini key, the editing pass can also propose cuts for false starts, retakes and tangents.

Does RoughCut work with Final Cut Pro?

RoughCut is built for Final Cut Pro. It exports a frame-accurate FCPXML timeline linked to the original media, so nothing is re-rendered. The FCPXML also imports into DaVinci Resolve. Premiere Pro requires conversion to a supported XML format. With RoughCut Pro, a second annotated review timeline keeps every decision on the Final Cut timeline as a colour-coded clip, so you can review the cuts inside Final Cut instead of RoughCut.

Is my footage uploaded anywhere?

On-device transcription is the private, free default. If you explicitly choose Pro Cloud Transcription for a job, its audio is sent directly to OpenAI using your own key. The optional editing pass sends transcript text to the OpenAI or Gemini account you configure. Nothing is sent to RoughCut servers. See the privacy policy.

What does RoughCut cost?

The download and first 5 complete rough cuts are free, with no time limit, and they include every Pro feature. A one-time Mac App Store purchase unlocks the core app for life. RoughCut Pro is an optional monthly or yearly subscription for smart conveniences such as Smart Silence, Cloud Transcription, Second Look and the annotated review timeline. The optional AI editing pass uses your own provider key and is billed by that provider.

Which languages are supported?

English and Arabic are tuned and tested, with automatic language detection.

What videos work best?

RoughCut is designed for voice-driven talking-head recordings such as YouTube videos, tutorials, courses, vlogs, podcasts, screen demos and presentations. It is not designed for music-led or multicamera editing.

Can I start from an audio-only recording?

Yes. Drop a WAV, MP3 or M4A into New Rough Cut, or choose Browse Audio, and RoughCut builds an audio timeline for Final Cut Pro with the same cutting controls and the optional review timeline. If you also add a video, the audio is used for analysis and the timeline references the video.

What are the system requirements?

A Mac with Apple Silicon (M1 or later), macOS 26.5 or later, and about 2 GB of free disk space for the optional local speech model.

Where do I get help?

The RoughCut documentation covers every step in detail, in English and Arabic: setup, cutting, review, export, transcription, privacy, purchases and troubleshooting. The support page is the shorter gateway, and the app's Help and FAQ window covers each feature in place.

Your first cut is free

Your next great video
starts with a rough cut.

Five complete rough cuts. No account. No time limit.

Get RoughCut on the Mac App Store